Black Country Communion have announced that they will release their appropriately titled sophomore album, 2, in the U.S. on June 14. The release follows the supergroup’s self-titled debut, which came out last year.

The band – which includes blues-rock virtuoso Joe Bonamassa on guitar, Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath) on bass and vocals, Jason Bonham on drums and Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater) on keyboards – also have planned a summer tour. Their U.S. trek begins June 9 in San Diego before hitting Salt Lake City, St. Louis and Washington, D.C.

The tour will be the first chance for American fans to see Black Country Communion, who to date have only performed two full gigs together.

June 9 – San Diego, CA – Civic Theatre
June 10 – Anaheim, CA – Grove of Anaheim
June 11 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Depot
June 13 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
June 15 – Indianapolis, IN – The Murat Theatre
June 17 – Hampton Beach, NH – Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
June 18 – Sayreville, NJ – Starland Ballroom
June 19 – Washington, D.C. – 9:30 Club

This one's a no-brainer - I really like the first one, so I'm in. Didn't even know this was in the works.

Alan

Black Country Communion, the super group featuring Joe Bonamassa, Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple), Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin), and Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater), has announced the track-listing for their sophomore album.
Produced by Kevin Shirley, the album, which is simply entitled "2", will be released in the U.K. on June 13th via Mascot Records, and June 14th in the U.S. on the J&R Adventures label.

Black Country Communion have also announced that theywill embark on a UK tour this July that will take in concerts at Llandudno Cymru Arena (23rd July), London's High Voltage Festival (24th July), Leeds O2 Academy (26th July), Newcastle O2 Academy (27th July), Glasgow 02 Academy (29th July), and the Manchester Academy (30th July).

The album track listing is as follows:

1. The Outsider
2. Man In The Middle
3. I Can See Your Spirit
4. The Battle For Hadrian's Wall
5. Save Me
6. Cold
7. Smokestack Woman
8. Faithless
9. An Ordinary Son
10. Little Secret
11. Crossfire
12. Crawl

Hughes’ deal with Bonham over Led Zep riff
Drummer Jason gave Glenn abandoned song on condition the resulting track would make him cry, reveals Black Country Communion frontman

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Search for truth: Hughes with bandmates Bonham and Bonamassa
Black Country Communion frontman Glenn Hughes says he demanded Jason Bonham give him a riff that was to be used in the abandoned Led Zeppelin reunion – and the drummer agreed on condition that Hughes turned it into a song which would make him cry.

Bonham last month told how he’d begun working with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones on a recording project in 2008 after the band’s one-off show the previous year. But they failed to find a satisfactory replacement for Robert Plant, who refused to be involved, and their plans were shelved.

Now Hughes explains what happened to the embryonic song: he insisted Bonham hand it over to him for use on the new BCC album – and it became a track called Save Me.

The singer and bassist tells Music Radar: “Jason played me the demo from when he was working with Jimmy and John and the various singers who might have been part of something.

“He played me this riff and I said, ‘Give it to me.’ He said, ‘Give it to you?’ and I said very emphatically: ‘Yes, give it to me.’

“He said, ‘Okay – then go and write something that’ll make me cry.’ And that’s what I proceeded to do.”

Hughes describes his lyrics on the album as “very dark” and says it’s the most important recording work he’s ever done.

“It’s all about my death and what happens before it,” the former Deep Purple and Black Sabbath man says. “It’s super heavy. When Jason said ‘make me cry’ he was saying ‘Write something that matters.’

“I knew I had to be fearless. I’m not singing about puppy love any more – I’m getting to the core. I’m not writing lyrics to try to convince people I’m cool. I’m writing to tell them what the hell’s going on. Let’s embrace it; let’s tell the truth.”

He maintains BCC, which includes guitarist Joe Bonamassa and keyboardist Derek Sherinian alongside Bonham and himself, is the best band he’s ever been in. And he believes truth and honesty are essential to him as he looks back on a career he admits to having lost control over in the 1980s.

“I don’t want to have secrets from anybody any more,” he says. “The weight’s too much. I need emotional freedom.

“This isn’t just any old album to me – it’s more like life and death. I got to a point where I said, ‘That’s it, I have to share my secrets. No more hiding. I’m going to write songs that matter deeply.

“There’s energy and passion in every track, but there’s also something more important: a real band. We felt like a band when we made the first album; but this time out there was no question we belonged together.”

Hughes says his current attitude is best summed up by Cold, the last track on BCC2: “It’s about pain and dealing with grief in public. I’ve lost a lot of friend and had to handle the whole thing with people looking on – it’s a very weird feeling.

“When Jason heard the song he freaked out and started sobbing. I think it really unhinged him about his dad; it took him back.

“I don’t like making anybody cry or feel sad, but I know I’ve done my job as a writer when I’ve got my bandmates, who’ve pretty much seen and done everything, sobbing and losing it.”

BCC2 is released on June 14.

I never got the first one. Alan, I know you said it was very good and with this new one on the way I should get both. Such great musicians, why would I not? Alan-or anyone who bought the debut, can you describe the first album musically?

Black Country Communion have premiered their new video for their new song "Man In The Middle".

The song is taken from their forthcoming album "2", released in the UK on Monday June 13th.

Black Country Communion is the Anglo/American rock band featuring Glenn Hughes (vocals, bass), Joe Bonamassa (guitar, vocals), Jason Bonham (drums) and Derek Sherinian (keyboards). The forthcoming album is currently #2 on both the Amazon UK and Play.com album pre-order charts.

I wanted to give it another spin before I responded...

It's a little difficult for me to nail this down - my shortcoming, not because of the album. It is really good - I like it a lot. As you said, great musicians - but it doesn't necessarily sound like their styles. I mean, you can hear some Deep Purple and some solo Bonamassa, but it doesn't really sound like DP, and it doesn't sound like Bonamassa shoehorned into a band situation. Bonamassa here is more like Satriani in Chickenfoot - it's a slightly different role, but it suits him.

Definitely a hard rocker, more towards the bluesy side than the prog, but not really blues rock. It's hard to believe Hughes is as old as he is when you listen to this - his voice sounds great. I've gotten somewhat lousy with titles, and I've tended to listen to the first part of the album a bit more because of various circumstances, but standout tracks to me are "One Last Soul", "Sweet Sista Jane", "Black Country" and "Beggarman".

This album is a bit of a puzzler to me - I can't figure out why it didn't break bigger. It's got a lot of classic-sounding material without being derivative, so it seems like it should have bigger than it was. I heard "One Last Soul" a few times on XM, and I think my wife caught it on terrestrial radio once or twice.

I already asked one store if they were getting BCC2, and they are, so that's a good sign. The guy did say that they're still selling the first one new (they deal mostly in used).

Alan

Picked up a copy of this yesterday and only got to listen to about half of it, but what I heard sounds a little harder than the debut. I like what I've heard so far. Gonna give it a full listen tom'w.

One of the first thoughts that came to mind was, "Glenn Hughes is HOW old?"

Alan

I LOVE the first album. Excellent hard rock. Hard for me to describe in musical terms.

I found the more that I listened to it the more I liked it. Glenn Hughes sounds great but my favorite songs are the ones with Bonamassa singing (or both of them trading off vocals). The guitar work is top notch. The songs are rock, not "blues rock". Kind of Trapeze meets Deep Purple meets Glenn Hughes solo meets Joe Bonamassa rock songs without the blues, if that makes any sense.

Haven't picked up the new one yet, just trying now to figure out where the best place to get it price-wise is or if it is released somewhere with exclusives I will kick myself over missing if I buy it in the wrong place...

Can anyone clear up the mystery of the some-places-it's-listed/some-places-it's-not track twelve, "Crawl"? Is it a hidden bonus track on all pressings, or only on the Euro Limited Edition etc.?

I don't know this for 100% certainty but I *believe* that that song is NOT on any of the CDs and it is a mistake that Amazon US lists it as being on the limited edition import.

I can say for 100% that it is not a hidden bonus track on the regular CD edition that I bought.


*UPDATE - According to the Glenn Hughes' forum this was a track that had been planned as part of that release but was dropped*

Wow, got the "2" album today and really dig it (no surprise there since I love the 1st album and am a big fan of Hughes & Bonamassa).

Not to say that I dislike this track, but I think that the weakest song on the album is "Man in the Middle" - which ironically I think is also the "single" (if there even is such a thing?). That track most fits in more with the first album IMO than this one. The other songs (to my tastes) are much more memorable and melodic than MITM. Overall after just 2 spins I like this record more than the first one, but am going to give the 1st one another airing tomorrow, been awhile since I listened to it.