The Soho Sessions is continuing to unite guitar greats, with Slash, Joe Bonamassa, and a host of special guests teaming up for some superlative blues cuts in New York.
The intimate live sessions, typically hosted in London but now held in the Big Apple, have previously featured Keith Richards and Warren Haynes locking fretboards for charity.
This show was in aid of non-profit organisation Keeping the Blues Alive, which aims to preserve music education for the next generation, and the two guitarists steeped in blues history showed their class every step of the way.
Such an occasion meant only classics were on the menu, with Joe Bonamassa on the mic, and Slash on lead duty for a take on Bobby Bland's Further up the Road – previously covered by the likes of Eric Clapton and Johnny Winter – and guitar solos were oozing out of the pair's Gibson Les Pauls throughout.
They also took the opportunity to shine a light on the next generation of guitar maestros, with Grace Bowers invited on stage to wring breathtaking leads out of her preferred Gibson SG, playing with passion and fire. Commenting on a clip posted on the Soho Sessions Instagram, Sammy Hagar was quick to praise her talents.
“OK confirmation,” he says. “Does this young lady get it or what!”
Their other big – well, small, actually - guest was a boy JoBo has described as being “a little old for showbiz, he just turned 11” – Bay Melnick Virgolino. The shred-happy young star wowed America's Got Talent last year, and proved that no occasion is too big for him. His playing is as smooth as Egyptian cotton, and the smile twisting Bonamassa's face as he lights up his PRS says it all.
For Slash, it continues his roots-returning form, having dropped a blues album, Orgy of the Damned, alongside a host of guest stars in summer ’24. Then, so impressed was he at how “alive and fresh” the contemporary blues scene is, he took a slew of guitarists out on tour with him.
He’s also made some interesting blues-related comments in light of the record, including revealing the key lesson he got from B.B. King, and why he deems Eddie Van Halen a bluesman above all else.
