"I don't worry too much about what other people are doing," comments McBride. "At the end of the day, everybody is going to compare me to someone else. I don't really care, to be honest. I just love creating music. Nowadays, there are a million guitar players doing what I'm doing."

But the Bonamassa comparisons are unlikely to stop any time soon. McBride's last album, Crossing The Line, takes the modern blues rule book, sticks it in the oven on high until burnt and then drop-kicks it out of the kitchen window. But that's not to say McBride doesn't pay dues to the greats who've influenced his own brand of guitar bluesmithery.

"I've got a lot of respect for Joe Bonamassa," he says. "He took blues rock and brought it back to the forefront. I'm not a massive fan. For me, he sounds too much like Eric Johnson, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. But I have to hand it to him � he's a great player."