STREET TEAM MEMBER OF THE MONTH:

Joe Bonamassa & Steve Costello in London

For Steve Costello, winner of The Ballad of John Henry affiliate contest, the ‘discovery’ of Joe Bonamassa was a happy accident—he was cruising some online radio stations one night when a blistering guitar solo caught his ear. Thirteen at the time, he had recently started playing the instrument himself, and had already begun to emulate players like Jimi Hendrix, SRV and Jimmy Page, artists he’d been listening to with his aging hippy father since his first ride in the family car. Even then his dad could see the music catching the boy’s attention, his tiny right foot keeping time in its snug little shoe.

In retrospect, Joe Bonamassa entering the mix of Steve’s influences seemed almost preordained, as Joe’s sound encompassed all that was great about British blues/rock and took it even further, expanding it into a rich arena that belonged exclusively to this man. The tune that night was “Current Situation”, and with a few deft strokes Joe had won two new devotees, a father and son team whose lives have been continuously enriched by the experience.

By the end of that night—a night of shameless piracy—Steve’s dad had downloaded every tune by Joe Bonamassa he could find (in his defense, he has since purchased copies of every one of Joe’s CDs and DVDs). Steve started taking some of his favorites to his guitar teacher, and before long he was adding Joe’s songs to his repertoire, converting the metalheads in his band into JB fans in spite of themselves. Within a couple of years, classics like “A New Day Yesterday” and “Blues Deluxe” were being faithfully reproduced for audiences in Steve’s home town of Sudbury, a mining community in the north of Ontario, Canada. And people were loving it.

Steve’s next goal was to see Joe live, but regular visits to the JB website promised no visits to Canada. So he waited…

And finally, on October  28, 2008, he and his dad caught their first JB concert in Brampton, Ontario, the first of 3 consecutive shows they planned to attend. That night, the true depth of Joe’s genius was made clear, the man’s prowess as a live performer almost beyond estimation—speed, tone, accuracy, soul, and a raw, bluesy voice that fit the material like a tailored suit. The Costello boys were blown away, and couldn’t wait to get to the show in Oakville the following night.

Concert number two was, of course, equally stellar, and Steve was quickly coming to appreciate the many elements involved in creating a show that thrilled its audiences night after night. Joe clearly had his hand in every aspect of the production, and the set varied only minimally from night to night. It was professionalism in its purest form, an exhaustively rehearsed spectacle that still managed to seem fresh and spontaneous. There was an artist chat afterward, and Joe spent a few minutes giving Steve advice about life as a performer that will surely serve him well in his own blossoming career.

On the third night Steve managed to score Joe’s set list, which Joe signed for him at that evening’s artist chat...and when it was over, he headed home with a mile-wide smile and a heart full of inspiration. That one man can touch an admiring teenager so deeply with just a few freely given minutes is a gift in its own right. In those three amazing nights, Joe had risen to the status of hero in the eyes of yet another young fan.

Steve saw Joe in concert again in February, 2009, first in Buffalo, then in Syracuse…but by now he had a new goal: to win the trip to the Royal Albert Hall in May.

Which—after hounding everyone he knew, everyone his parents knew, even strangers in the street—he did, creating 375 new Northern Ontario fans. His dad, who had to work that week, missed out on the historic event. But Steve was there, cheering Joe on and meeting slews of fellow fans, including the lovely Patty Patrick, Live from Nowhere in Particular affiliate grand prize JB Les Paul winner and long-time JB fan. Steve shared a touching moment with Joe in the hotel lounge, screwing up his courage and approaching him with a small birthday gift he’d hauled in his luggage all the way from home. With his usual grace, Joe accepted the gift and showed Steve his gratitude, chatting a while with him and letting his mom snap a few pictures.