Easing the wait for the September 23rd release of Joe Bonamassa’s new album, Different Shades of Blue, the blues-rock guitar titan has just shared the first of several behind-the-scenes webisodes detailing the making of the album.

Although webisode one finds Bonamassa and company in Las Vegas, he’s hard at work (not play), laying down tracks for Different Shades of Blue.  “This is album number 16…what to do differently than the 15 predecessors?” Bonamassa asks himself. His quick, concise response: “I really wanted to make this album original.” To be sure, this is the first album of Bonamassa’s career to feature exclusively original material. That fact made for an exciting challenge. Webisode one shows us Bonamassa in the studio on the very first day of recording. “The first day was tough…I’m pretty tired today,” he says. “But some records fight you and some records come in one take. This one may fight us a little bit.” Cut to Bonamassa wailing away on enough different Gibsons to make Jimmy Page jealous and it’s instantly clear that, whether or not this record fought him a little bit, we’re all in for a treat come September 23rd.

Until then, check out webisode one below, exclusively through Elmore (or find Bonamassa on the road):