Joe Bonamassa's "Dust Bowl" Breaks Top 40, Highest Billboard Chart Debut; Is #1 on the Billboard Blues Chart for Seventh Consecutive Time

LOS ANGELES, March 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- "Dust Bowl" (J&R Adventures), the new album from blues-rock guitar hero, singer-songwriter and Billboard's #1 Blues Artist Joe Bonamassa sold 14,420 units in its first week to debut at #37 on Billboard's Top 200 Chart, making it his highest-selling and chart-ranking US debut to date. Other chart success includes a #1 debut on the Billboard Blues Chart – his seventh consecutive album to debut at #1 – and #5 on the Indie Chart. Bonamassa currently has three titles in the Blues Chart's Top 10. Accompanying "Dust Bowl" is his 2009 live album "Joe Bonamassa: Live From The Royal Albert Hall" at #5 and 2010's studio album "Black Rock" at #8.  

Bonamassa's twelfth full-length solo album, produced by Kevin "Caveman" Shirley, has quickly received an abundance of glowing critical acclaim. Premier Guitar called it "A blues-rock achievement… his best record to date," and gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars. The Dallas Morning News described it as "thematic and expansive… a blues-rocking tour-de-force from an artist who knows no other way of making music." USA Today said, "What sets this album apart is the superior songwriting and the ability to seamlessly inject sounds from other genres into the mix." And The Orange County Register said Joe is "unquestionably among our greatest living guitarists, destined to be counted among the greatest of all-time."

It combines the gritty, blues-based tones of Bonamassa's first albums with the fluid, genre-defying sounds he's mastered in the years since and adds a dash of country from Joe's collaborations with the best of Nashville including legends Vince Gill and John Hiatt. Premier Guitar's Oscar Jordan describes the album as a "widescreen John Ford-style panorama" with "ominous cinematic imagery of trains, cotton fields, heartache, alienation, evil women, and death."

Bonamassa has been wowing crowds across the US for the last month during the first leg of his North American tour. Ben Wener from The Orange County Register said, "I haven't seen anything so dazzling since Steve Ray Vaughan at the Wiltern in '86." The Columbus Dispatch hailed the show as "a night of wailing, energy-drenched solos that never ceased to impress" while the Reading Eagle called it a "tour de force performance steeped in blues." The Grand Rapids Press said Joe is "in a league of his own as the best blues man of his era."

Bonamassa heads next to Europe, Asia and Australia, makes a quick stop back in the US for a summer tour with his hard-rock band Black Country Communion, and then heads back out for more dates in Europe. Fall European, UK and US tour dates will be announced soon.

Classic Rock Magazine recently hailed Bonamassa as the "Savior of the Blues" and Guitar World named him "The New Blues Titan."

In honor of "Dust Bowl's" success, fans can get a free download of the first single "Dust Bowl" at www.jbonamassa.com/DustBowl.

Come see what everyone is talking about: www.jbonamassa.com

SOURCE J&R Adventures