Interview: Joanne Shaw Taylor British Blues Rocker

By Martine Ehrenclou

Critically acclaimed British guitarist, singer, songwriter Joanne Shaw Taylor has become one of the most sought after guitarists in the world of contemporary blues/rock. Discovered by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics at the age of 16, he invited Taylor on the road with his supergroup D.U.P and from there her music career took off with high praise from fans including Jimmy Cliff, Joe Bonamassa, Stevie Wonder and Annie Lennox.

With seven studio albums to her name, Joanne Shaw Taylor, still in her 30s, is regarded as a formidable guitar player, a powerful and sultry vocalist, prolific songwriter and all around exceptional talent. Now based in Michigan, Taylor’s albums include Diamonds In The Dirt, Almost Always Never, The Dirty Truth, Wild (produced by Kevin Shirley) and Reckless Heart.

Joanne Shaw Taylor just released her lauded new album, The Blues Album, produced by Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith, out on KTBA Records. The record features Joanne’s personalized covers of 11 rare blues classics originally recorded by Albert King, Peter Green, Little Richard, Magic Sam, Aretha Franklin, Little Milton and more.

Martine Ehrenclou: Congratulations on your new release, The Blues Album. Great album. Your voice and guitar are both outstanding.

Joanne Shaw Taylor: Thank you very much, Love. That’s nice to hear. I’ve always loved singing, but I’ve found it more of a challenge and therefore, more rewarding to try and push myself more on that, which we certainly did. (Laughter) And Joe (Bonamassa) certainly tried to push me.

Martine: (Laughter) Tell me about that.

Joanne: It was funny actually because from the get-go Joe would send me these text messages going, “Just so you know, I know we’re good friends, but I’m going to really push you and you’re not going to like me.” And I think him sort of threatening was actually worse than what he was like. (Laughter) He was fine. In all seriousness, the main thing was just picking more singer’s songs than guitar player songs. I think it worked out well.

Martine: Did Joe and Josh (Smith) pick all the songs or did you all choose?

Joanne: I had about half of the album picked out. Joe I are friends. We both had a lot of time off the road because of COVID so we were talking a bit more than usual, and I said, “I think I’m going to do this blues covers album. I’ve always wanted to do it. I’ve got the time off, so why not?” By the time he came on board and I asked him to produce, I’d already picked about five or six numbers. Then Joe and Josh picked the rest of them.

Martine: Why a blues album and why covers?

Joanne: Interestingly, I don’t think it ended up sounding like a typical blues album. I think it’s more of a roots album. I probably have quite a liberal take on the word blues. It sounds really cheesy, but it’s more of a feeling and approach. I’ve always been considered a blues guitarist, though I didn’t really consider myself a blues artist. Maybe the guitar playing was there, but I was more of a soul singer and the songwriting is a mixture of all of it. It’s something I always wanted to do because blues is my first love. It’s why I play guitar, but I’ve never considered myself a great blues writer. I find writing blue songs very difficult.

Martine: Tell me about that.

Joanne: Traditional blues artists I was listening to like Freddy King and Albert Collins and further back Muddy Waters, for me there was a tradition of picking a hook for a song and I’ve always been terrible at that. It’s not something I gravitated to naturally. I was always worried that I wouldn’t be able to pick covers. I’d never done that many covers. Because I think that in itself is an art form to take a song that’s already out there and rearrange it so that it sounds like you’ve written it yourself.

Martine: Since you find it easier to write your own material as opposed to reworking covers to make them your own, how did you do it for this album?

Joanne: I do find it easier. For me, writing a song that no one’s heard before, they’ve got no frame of reference in their mind as to what it should sound like. You’ve got more freedom as opposed to if you’re going to cover Rihanna, for example. Most people would have a very firm opinion of what that should sound like already. People on the internet are very vocal with their opinions. It’s sort of a danger field. (Laughter) The main point of this album was that I just want to have fun doing it. When you approach it like that, I was just so relaxed and just sang the songs the way I wanted to sing them instead of overthinking it. It made it a lot easier to do a good performance and let the song speak for itself.

Martine: What was the best part of recording The Blues Album?

Joanne: To be honest, it was just nice to get back to playing. That was the first time in a year I’d played with a band (because of the pandemic.) I was quite nervous going into it. It was like, can I remember how to do this? Is it like riding a bike? Is it not like riding a bike? Is it going to be a disaster? (Laughter)

Martine: (Laughter) Did you play at all with your band during the pandemic or did you take a break from everything?

Joanne: No. I’m in the states and I have some band members in the states and some band members and crew in Europe. Particularly with all the borders closing down, it’s been a little more difficult to get going. I did nothing. I didn’t really see that many people to be honest. The social aspect of suddenly recording with a band and hanging out with Joe and staying at his house, was kind of exhausting in itself, really. (Laughter) It was the most interaction I’d had in 12 months. It was delightful getting to work with Joe and Josh, such wonderful guys. And also, it’s the first time working with producers that are nearer to my age as well. So that was fun. All of it was just a wonderful experience to be honest.

Martine: Was there anything about making The Blues Album that was an unexpected surprise?

Joanne: That’s an interesting question, actually. Sort of the big surprise was, can I take a year off and come back into this and not be nervous and perform well? It went the right way.

Martine: You are good friends with Joe Bonamassa. What was it like working with a good friend who’s so talented and who’s kind of in charge? I read that you trust him implicitly. Was it a grand experience from beginning to end?

Joanne: It really was. But I will say I was kind of nervous going into it.  You mentioned the trust thing. I think that’s really important with a producer. You’ve got to hand yourself over to a producer and say, “Okay, you are making the Joanne Shaw Taylor album that Joe Bonamassa wants to make. There’s no point in me fighting you on everything or else we’re just both going to end up with an album neither of us likes.”

Martine: Does that mean giving into the producer and their vision, or is it collaboration?

Joanne: I think it’s collaboration. It’s not so much giving in as just handing yourself over to them and going, “This is how I sing, this is how I play guitar. How do you want this to sound?” I said to Joe going in, “I’m really flexible and I will give you that on the basis that if I put my foot down and say, ‘I don’t like something’ you know I mean it. But I’ll only pull that card maybe once.”

Martine: And did you?

Joanne: I think I did. I was actually really worried about it. I wound myself up before I phoned him and I was like, “Oh, it’s going to end our friendship, he’s going to hate me.” And he said, “What don’t you want?” I said, “The backing vocals on the song.” He was like, “Okay.”

I also get nervous performing in front of people I know. I always find that a very strange experience. Like my dad comes to a lot of my gigs and I love him being there, but also there is a slight thing of, I wouldn’t go to my dad’s job and stare at him while he works at a desk for 10 hours. It would be really weird. (Laughter)

Martine: (Laughter) Did you feel added pressure?

Joanne: I guess so. You don’t usually blend those lines. To have my best friend producing an album, and as you mentioned, he’s incredibly talented and at the top of his game and certainly at the top of this genre. It’s a little intimidating. I was worried about that. I think it made us better friends because after two weeks of being in the studio, he’d seen me play the good notes and all the bad notes. Once you’ve seen someone in their yoga pants, watching The Crown and eating popcorn, if you can still respect them as an artist, you’re onto a winner, really. (Laughter)

Martine: (Laughter) Did you do that with Joe during the pandemic?

Joanne: We did. That was my deal. As I said, I just wanted this to be fun. Obviously, I wanted to create a good piece of art, but I wanted to enjoy it. We went for dinner with Josh every night and then me and Joe would retreat to his place. I got him into watching The Crown. I was hoping if I got him into The Crown, he might watch Downtown Abby with me, but we didn’t get through The Crown. (Laughter)

Martine: (Laughter) Before the pandemic, you were on the road for 13 years, nonstop. What was it like for you to take a break from performing?

Joanne: To be honest, Love, for me it was needed. There’d been a conversation with me and my tour manager and my then record company, Sony, that I was pretty burned out. Touring isn’t hard work, it’s not going down a coal mine every day of your life for 60 years. It’s wonderful work, but it’s a hell of an endurance test. It’s not necessarily a very healthy way to live. Not saying it’s all drugs and rock and roll, it’s just not healthy to go 13 years spending that amount of time not being able to properly see family and invest in your friendships and all the things that you need to live a healthy, balanced life. We had an agreement that we would get through 2020 and then I would take six months off. Five days later the entire world shut down. I couldn’t tour. The first 10 weeks I didn’t touch a guitar. I tried to completely disassociate myself from ‘Joanne Shaw Taylor’ and that career and just be Joanne Taylor that likes watching Downtown Abby and talking to friends. Kind of hit reset, you know?

Martine: I do. I’m curious about what life on the road is like. It seems strenuous.

Joanne: Travel is tiring. I always joke that if they could hurry up and make the teleporter, that’d be great. (Laughter) Because it seems just a colossal waste of time to travel 18 hours to play for 90 minutes, you know? If I had a teleporter, I could be there for sound check, come home for dinner and a shower, go back to the gig, do the gig, come home and I’ll see you tomorrow. (Laughter) As opposed to in between, you’ve got to spend 12 hours on a tour bus or in an airport. The main reason people move to tour buses is it’s an easier way of traveling. Because if you’re in vans, you go to your hotel at two o’clock in the morning and you’ve got to get up at six/seven to do the six hour drive. Whereas with the tour bus, you get to do the drive while you’re sleeping. You go to bed, you wake up, and you’re at the venue.

In Europe we’ve got the double decker. I actually have a bedroom at the back and then there’s another door to six bunks. I try to include as many females in my touring party as I can. It’s 50/50, or at least 60/40. That balance is important. We call that section, ‘The Babe Cave.’ That’s where all the girls are. I’ve got a little fridge in there too, so we have a little wine and cheese party.

Martine: Fun. Do you love playing live?

Joanne: I really do. And I think actually having this time off has enabled me to see that more and lift the fog that had come over me for a bit. It’s really rewarding. I think more than anything to know that you’ve created something that people enjoy. They work hard all week and they want to spend their hard earned money on coming to your show. I’m not curing cancer or anything, but it’s nice to know you’re doing something positive, you know?

Martine: Absolutely. Who were your guitar heroes or influences when you were learning to play?

Joanne: The big one was Steve Ray Vaughan, that’s who introduced me to the world of blues, his brother, Jimmie Vaughan, a lot of the Texas guys, Freddy King, Albert Collins, Billy Gibbons. Paul Kossoff from the band Free is probably my favorite. A lot of blues and some classic rock blues, but predominantly American blues.

Martine: How about vocalists?

Joanne: That’s where it got a bit more interesting actually. Being female, that opened up my love of music, really. Because I was listening to all male guitar players but realized I couldn’t sing like them. I had to go find other influences. Tina Turner was a big one. Aretha Franklin. Absolutely love Ella Fitzgerald, but I’m very aware that I’m nothing like Ella Fitzgerald. Mavis Staples. A lot of the soul, Motown.

Martine: Tell me about your guitars. You used your 1966 Esquire Junior on the album.

Joanne: That’s my main guitar. I got Junior when I was 15. I’d been working in a guitar shop on Saturdays and Sundays. It was sort of my first job while I was at school and had some gig money saved up. My Nan and my parents said, “Look, whatever you earn we’ll match.” I managed to get together like a thousand pounds and went down to London to where the vintage guitar shops were and Junior was there. They priced him cheap because the previous owner had attacked him with a knife. Which was great for me because that was the amount of money I had. I was lucky to be able to buy a vintage instrument for that much. I’ve had him ever since. I have some Standard Les Pauls, I have a beautiful Telecaster Dave Stewart gifted me. To be honest, unlike Joe (Bonamassa) and some other guitarists, I’m not a big fan of switching guitars a lot, particularly live. I just feel like it’s one more thing I have to worry about during the show. You know, kind of like an outfit change. (Laughter) I stick to Junior. I did use him on pretty much every song on the album.

Martine: It looks like you’re going on tour in the UK soon, right?

Joanne: No, because of the pandemic. I’m a U.S. resident, but I’m not a citizen. Up until recently I could leave, but I couldn’t come back home. And unfortunately, it was getting close to the tour and we had to cancel it because I wouldn’t be able to come back to America. It just sort of got messed up in the COVID stuff. It’s going to be interesting to get back out there. I’m well rested and I’m super excited to go and travel again eat different foods and experience different cultures–all the good stuff that comes with that.

Martine: Along with your upcoming U.S. tour, you also have the Allman Family Reunion.

Joanne: Yeah. In about two weeks. I’m really looking forward to it. I know Devon and all the boys, but I also know a lot of the guest artists. I’m going to have to pace myself. I’m going to be very excited to see everybody, like Christmas.

For more information on Joanne Shaw Taylor see her website here 

Listen to “Stop Messin’ Round”