Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa have released a video to accompany their cover of Ike & Tina Turner’s Black Coffee. It’s the title track from the duo’s third studio album, which will be released on January 26, and is the follow-up to 2013’s Seesaw. The pair also released Live In Amsterdam in 2014.
“It’s really predicated on the vocals,” says Bonamassa. “We can’t cut these tunes without Beth singing and once she starts singing, it’s the glue that inspires us to get the extra 10% out of the playing. If we just cut them and sang later, the magic wouldn’t be there.”
“That’s something the two of us stopped doing many years ago,” addsHart. “There was all this layering, and then it’s time for you to sing. It’s like you’re not even making music any more. There’s nothing like being able to sit there live and see Joe, seeing the drums, seeing the bass, being able to see Kevin. I can feel the vibrations, it changes the whole thing.”
Black Coffee was produced in Las Vegas with Bonamassa’s go-to producer Kevin ‘The Caveman’ Shirley, who has also worked with the likes of Led Zeppelin, Black Crowes, Aerosmith, Iron Maiden and Rush).
The album also features of covers of songs by Edgar Winter, Etta, James, Ella Fitzgerald, Lil’ Green, LaVern Baker, Howlin’ Wolf and Lucinda Williams.
“We’re trying not to dig into a playbook that’s been done many times, which is the old soul classics,” says Shirley. “We try and find a different spin on it; originally, it was about trying to find some songs that people didn’t know at all and bring them back to people’s attention.”
Black Coffee will be released on LP, limited edition double LP (including a bonus track), CD and limited CD format including a bonus track, two vinyl record rubber cup mats and an exclusive postcard. It’s available to pre-order now.
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Black Coffee Track Listing
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