Watch Joe Bonamassa, Tommy Emmanuel (on electric guitar) and Josh Smith shred the blues on a boat

In a recent interview with Guitar World, Joe Bonamassa opined, "It’s easy to play marginally good blues. It’s very difficult to play great blues."

With that in mind, we present this clip of some very, very great blues playing, courtesy of JoBo, one of today's top-rated players Josh Smith and, in a rare electric guitar performance, the Certified Guitar Player himself, Tommy Emmanuel.

The three got together during Bonamassa’s recent Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea cruise for a performance of Breaking Up Someone’s Home, complete with plenty of head-cutting six-string playing. 

The results were, needless to say, electric.

Bonamassa has already announced dates and details for the 2021 iteration of the cruise, which will feature George Thorogood & the Destroyers and Eric Gales, among many others. 

For more JoBo info, head to Blues Alive at Sea.

Richard Bienstock

Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.