Royal Tea is the fourteenth solo studio album by American blues rock musician Joe Bonamassa. It was released on October 23, 2020, via J&R Adventures. It was recorded in January 2020 at Abbey Road Studios in London and produced by Kevin Shirley.
At the 64th Annual Grammy Awards held in 2022, the album has been nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album, but lost to Christone "Kingfish" Ingram's 662.
The album was followed by a twelve-track live release, Now Serving: Royal Tea Live from the Ryman, which includes all songs from Royal Tea except "Savannah".
Critical reception
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 75/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| American Songwriter | |
| Classic Rock | |
Royal Tea was met with generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 75, based on four reviews.
AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine praised the album, stating: "Bonamassa has plenty of opportunity to show his facility with synthesizing different classic guitarists -- there's a bit of Rory Gallagher and Peter Green to offset his Claptonisms -- but the best moment on Royal Tea is "A Conversation with Alice", a chiming bit of soul-pop where he channels the best moments of Steve Marriott". Hal Horowitz of American Songwriter wrote: "nothing quite tops those two selections but there is enough strong Bonamassa playing and diverse material (like the lovely, Allman Brothers Band "Midnight Rider" lope of "Savannah" featuring Bonamassa's rarely heard mandolin work), to make this album a highlight of his bulging, and ever expanding, catalog". Hugh Fielder of Classic Rock determined: "the best thing about Royal Tea is that every track could easily drop into Bonamassa's live show – which is more than you can say for Redemption. Back on track in every sense".
Accolades
| Publication | Accolade | Rank | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Louder | The 50 best albums of 2020 | 4
|
Track listing
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "When One Door Opens" | 7:34 | |
| 2. | "Royal Tea" |
| 4:28 |
| 3. | "Why Does It Take So Long to Say Goodbye" |
| 6:44 |
| 4. | "Lookout Man" |
| 5:31 |
| 5. | "High Class Girl" |
| 4:53 |
| 6. | "A Conversation With Alice" |
| 4:19 |
| 7. | "I Didn’t Think She Would Do It" |
| 4:11 |
| 8. | "Beyond the Silence" | Bonamassa | 6:45 |
| 9. | "Lonely Boy" |
| 4:06 |
| 10. | "Savannah" |
| 4:38 |
| Total length: | 53:09 | ||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11. | "Don't You Do Me No Favours" |
| 5:38 |
| 12. | "Don't Hand Me Your Hangups" |
| 4:13 |
| Total length: | 63:00 | ||
Personnel
- Joe Bonamassa – vocals & guitar, mandolin (track 10)
- Jade MacRae – backing vocals (tracks: 1–6)
- Juanita Tippins – backing vocals (tracks: 1–5)
- Mahalia Barnes – backing vocals (track 6)
- Bernie Marsden – backing vocals (track 10)
- Doug Henthorn – backing vocals (track 11)
- Kevin "Caveman" Shirley – acoustic guitar (tracks: 3, 4), percussion (track 4), producer, mixing
- Rob McNelley – rhythm guitar (tracks: 6, 7, 11)
- Reese Wynans – organ, Wurlitzer piano (tracks: 6, 10), piano (tracks: 8, 12)
- Julian Miles "Jools" Holland – piano (track 9)
- Michael Rhodes – bass
- Anton Fig – drums (tracks: 1–10, 12), percussion (tracks: 4, 8, 11)
- Jeff Bova – orchestration (track 1), percussion (track 2)
- Greg Morrow – drums (tracks: 4, 11), percussion (track 4)
- Paulie Cerra – saxophone (tracks: 9, 12)
- Ron Dziubla – baritone saxophone (tracks: 9, 12)
- Lee Thornburg – trumpet and horn arrangement (tracks: 9, 12)
- Errol Litton – harmonica (track 4)
- The Bovaland Symphonic Orchestra – orchestra (track 1)
- Christopher James Parker – engineering
- Marta Maria Di Nozzi – engineering assistant
- Bob Ludwig – mastering
- Jonathan Hicks – overdubbing
- Austin Atwood – overdubbing
- Ben Rodgers – overdubbing
- Roy Weisman – executive producer
- Kate Moss – design
- Christie Goodwin – photography
- Rick Gould – additional photography
- David Lamont – additional photography
Charts
| Chart (2020) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) | 3 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) | 9 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) | 33 |
| Canadian Albums (Billboard) | 75 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) | 3 |
| Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista) | 20 |
| French Albums (SNEP) | 52 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) | 5 |
| Italian Albums (FIMI) | 41 |
| Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) | 39 |
| Scottish Albums (Official Charts) | 5 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) | 47 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) | 4 |
| UK Albums (Official Charts) | 7 |
| UK Album Downloads (Official Charts) | 6 |
| UK Independent Albums (Official Charts) | 2 |
| US Billboard 200 | 41 |
| US Top Album Sales (Billboard) | 6 |
| US Top Rock Albums (Billboard) | 7 |
| US Top Current Album Sales (Billboard) | 5 |
| US Independent Albums (Billboard) | 6 |
| US Top Blues Albums (Billboard) | 1 |
