Jason Bonham's band settles on new name, Black Country Communion

Black Country Communion: from left, guitarist Joe Bonamassa, lead singer and bassist Glenn Hughes, drummer Jason Bonham, keyboardist Derek Sherinian

Just a few hours in advance of a morning radio appearance by Jason Bonham, the name of his band also featuring Joe Bonamassa, Glenn Hughes and Derek Sherinian has been revealed. An official web site has been launched for the group now called Black Country Communion.

The band has uploaded footage of its March 17 onstage run-through of a new track called "One Last Soul."

The previous name of Black Country, first reported by the press in January, was eventually rejected. Bonamassa, the group's guitarist, recently told Classic Rock magazine that "somebody else had a prior claim" on the name Black Country, and that the group had selected a new name but was not ready to announce it.

Black Country Communion is now on the Web:

• Official Web site, www.BCCommunion.com (domain registered April 30)
• YouTube channel (launched May 21, first video uploaded May 26)
• MySpace page (established May 21)
• Twitter feed (first tweet May 26)
• Facebook page

Black Country Communion has recorded an album, and its release is expected this September with a tour to follow in 2011. The band's official Web site has a mailing list sign-up for future updates.

At 8:20 a.m. Eastern today, Bonham and Robert Plant are scheduled to join South Florida radio's "The Paul and Young Ron Show." The reason for their joint appearance was not publicly disclosed in advance of their interview.

Bonham is soon expected to announce details of a separate project, Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience, which he says would tour North America later this year and play 30 dates in honor of his father, John Bonham, who passed away 30 years ago this September.

Plant will be on a tour of his own this July, in support of an album also to be released this year, tentatively titled It's Rude to Say No.


From the Black Country Communion MySpace page:

Black Country Communion is a devastating head-on collision between American and British rock influences—a true supergroup that delivers a titanic rock experience greater than the sum of its supremely talented parts. The seed for Black Country Communion was planted when legendary frontman and bass guitarist Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Trapeze) and master blues-rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa combined forces on stage in Los Angeles in November 2009 for an explosive performance at Guitar Center’s King of the Blues event. The brainchild of producer Kevin Shirley (Black Crowes, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin), the band added to its rock lineage with powerhouse drummer Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin, Foreigner) and keyboardist Derek Sherinian (Dream Theatre, Billy Idol, Alice Cooper). Named after the industrial area in Britain where both Hughes and Bonham were born and raised, Black Country Communion began rehearsing and recording tracks written by both Bonamassa and Hughes at Shangri-La Studios in early 2010. Their new Album, which has yet to be named, will debut in September 2010. The band is planning a tour of select venues in 2011.


Black Country Communion band members:


Glenn Hughes: ‘The Voice Of Rock’ is a true original. No other rock musician has carved such a distinctive style blending the finest elements of hard rock, soul and funk. That astonishing voice is Hughes' calling card. He's known as a singer's singer, with 80+ gold and platinum albums and collective sales of over 100 million units to his name. Glenn has been at the forefront of the music scene since first achieving success in 1970 with his band Trapeze, before going on to worldwide recognition in 1973 when he joined one of the most popular bands in the world, Deep Purple. Hughes’ R&B-infused bass lines and explosive vocal range blazed throughout the band’s hugely successful world tours and albums, including their classic 1974 release, Burn. Following Deep Purple’s split in 1976, Hughes made countless guest appearances as a vocalist, bass guitarist and songwriter on other artists’ albums, including Black Sabbath’s Seventh Star. Since 1992, Hughes has toured extensively in Europe, Asia and South America in support of solo albums, including the acclaimed Soul Mover and his most recent release, First Underground Nuclear Kitchen, both featuring Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith.


Joe Bonamassa: Part prodigy, part virtuoso, (the rest being mercilessly honed guitar skills and tireless work ethic) Joe Bonamassa has been building his reputation as one of the world’s greatest guitar players since his career started, at age 12, performing with B.B. King. Heavily influenced by British and Irish rock legends like Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Rory Gallagher, Bonamassa went on to tour and perform with artists including Buddy Guy, Foreigner, Bad Company, Joe Cocker and Gregg Allman before beginning his recording career in the early ‘90s with Bloodline, a hard-charging rock-blues band with the sons of Robby Kreiger (The Doors), Miles Davis and Berry Oakley (The Allman Brothers Band). Going solo as a singer/songwriter, Bonamassa recorded his critically acclaimed debut album, A New Day Yesterday, with legendary producer Tom Dowd. Barley into his 30s with twenty years of experience in the music business and recorded a total of ten albums on his own independent label J&R Adventures (six of which debuted at 1 on the Billboard’s Blues Chart), Bonamassa sold out London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall in less than a week in 2009 for a stunning performance filmed for the DVD Joe Bonamassa: Live From Royal Albert Hall, featuring a guest appearance by Eric Clapton. “Always on the road,” Bonamassa performs his transformational live act at more than 200 concerts around the world each year including touring during 2010 in support of his most recent release, the Billboard blues 1(and 39 on the Top 200 Chart) album Black Rock, and plans to reunite with Eric Clapton for the Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago.


Jason Bonham: The legacy of Led Zeppelin lives on in Jason Bonham, British drummer and son of Zep’s legendary John Bonham. Inheriting the best of his father’s skills while mastering his own distinctive and dynamic technique, Bonham blasted onto the world stage at age 17 with the band Air Race, opening for huge draws like Queen, Meat Loaf and AC/DC. In 1988, Bonham took his father’s spot in the televised, first-ever Led Zeppelin reunion at the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary Concert. Later that year, Bonham toured with Jimmy Page and recorded his album, Outrider. Earning a gold record on the track “Wait for You” from his solo album The Disregard of Timekeeping, Bonham went on to team up with Paul Rodgers, Slash, David Gilmore and Jeff Beck to record the Grammy-nominated album, Tribute to Muddy Waters. Bonham has made a career of stunning audiences around the world, touring with The Healing Sixes and Foreigner and rejoining his late father’s band members for the most anticipated concert of all time, 2007’s Led Zeppelin reunion at London’s O2 Arena. In 2006, Bonham recorded the year’s top billboard blues album, You and Me with Joe Bonamassa.


Derek Sherinian: A versatile keyboardist who mixes technical proficiency with distinctively raw power, Derek Sherinian has toured and recorded with some of the biggest names in rock. Sherinian got his big break in 1989, touring with legendary shock-rocker Alice Cooper in support of the multi-platinum albums Trash and Hey Stoopid. In 1991, Sherinian caught the attention of Gene Simmons, joining Kiss for their Revenge tour and recording Alive III. Moving into progressive rock, Sherinian joined Dream Theater in 1994, recording three albums and performing on two world tours. Going solo in 1999, Sherinian has recorded six albums, teaming up with legends including Billy Idol, Slash, Al DiMeola, Steve Lukather (Toto) and Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne) to create a catalogue of music that fuses hard rock intensity with dynamic, jazz-infused flair.