Joe Bonamassa recently visited Norman’s Rare Guitars, but he didn’t just go to demo a vintage electric guitar or pick up a particularly rare instrument.
Instead, he took part in a jam that showcased the tones of his recently acquired 1976 Dumble Overdrive Special – and the guitar talents of 12-year-old Saxon Weiss.
Norman’s Rare Guitars has long championed the talents of Weiss, who first made his debut on the gear store’s YouTube channel as a 10-year old in December 2022 when he jammed with Grant Geissman.
Following a handful of other solo spotlights, Weiss has now engaged in his most notable jam session to date, sharing Norm’s store floor with Bonamassa for four minutes of improvised funk blues.
For those who have yet to hear Weiss play, it will quickly become clear why Norm has so passionately championed the bluesman. Those who are familiar with the youngster's chops, meanwhile, will probably find themselves once again in awe of his deceptively mature six-string skills.
With Bonamassa holding down rhythm, Weiss flexes his fretboard proficiency with a reel of workhorse pentatonic blues licks that highlight the youngster’s impressive dynamic control.
However, unlike so many other guitar talents who easily get bogged down in the blues box rut and end up playing circles around themselves, Weiss demonstrates his effortless abilities to expand beyond the basics, calling upon some jazz-influenced chromatic runs and bebop-informed note choices that blow the fretboard of his Gibson ES-355 wide open.
Bonamassa, who is playing a Strat and his recently acquired Dumble indulges in some soloing too, and we imagine such first-hand experience with JoBo will no doubt work wonders in honing Weiss's already razor-sharp skills.
Clearly, Weiss is destined to become a blues great, and we’re not the only ones who think so.
“I predict very big things in the future,” Norm wrote about Weiss in an Instagram comment. “I wanted to introduce him to Joe Bonamassa because he so much reminds me of Joe when Joe was a young man.”
Visit Saxon Weiss’s Instagram channel to keep up to date with the young bluesman.
