When asked what separates Joanne Shaw Taylor from other blues artists and why he signed to her to his label Journeyman Records, Joe Bonamassa said, “Songs! She’s a great songwriter and she’s a great singer and a great guitar player, but the top line is songs. The thing that this genre sometimes suffers from is lack of songs. Everybody can play and everybody can sing, kind of, but the greatness is in the song. She’s the total package. She has the ability to connect with an audience that nobody does anymore…the people’s champion.” Shaw Taylor relishes the role of songwriter and storyteller. “How lucky am I to be able to do it? We all go through things in life, whether that’s love, loss, grieving, loss of a parent. But I get to sit down and process it through songwriting and hopefully at the end of it have a three or four-minute song that I can share with other people. It’s such a creative way of expressing yourself. So that’s where it comes from, really. On the music side, it’s the funnest puzzle in the world,” she explained.
Her just-released album, Heavy Soul, is a particularly strong collection of original songs, plus a cover of Van Morrison’s classic “Someone Like You”. “The challenge for me that I really wanted to set on this record was I’ve always said when I look back hopefully when I’m 370 years old, I want every album to sound different because I’m a different woman when I recorded them. 22-year-old Joanne is very different to cantankerous 39-year-old Joanne, but how do I make them sound cohesive and like the same artist,” Shaw Taylor said. Her previous album, Nobody’s Fool, was more of a pop album and the two before that were Billboard blues chart-topping traditional blues albums. Heavy Soul is the synthesis of all of that and achieves the goal of tying together musical themes from her whole career. Her splendid guitar playing cuts right through. The songs cover a wide range: joy, heartbreak, loneliness, rebelliousness, strength, love, regret, and living away from home. The British-born artist has lived in America for most of her adult life, primarily in Detroit and Nashville. The soul and roots music of those cities creep into her music, along with blues and other styles. The quality of musicianship, singing, and arrangements of Heavy Soul evoke other top artists such as Tedeschi Trucks Band, Bonnie Raitt, Joss Stone, and Bonamassa; but make no mistake, Joanne Shaw Taylor is her own artist and her own person and she’s here to stay.
Joanne Shaw Taylor will play at the legendary Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, NY on July 21 and at the Morristown Jazz and Blues Festival on September 14.
Joanne Shaw Taylor – “Heavy Soul” video:
Joanne Shaw Taylor – “Devil In Me” video:
Joanne Shaw Taylor – “Change of Heart” video:
Joanne Shaw Taylor – “Keep On Lovin’ Me” live:
