Gig Review: Joanne Shaw Taylor, Cadogan Hall, London

Gig Review: Joanne Shaw Taylor, Cadogan Hall, London

By Simon Green

It’s just over ten years since I first saw Jo’ Shaw Taylor live and became aware of her music. Since then, I’ve watched her perform quite a few times. She’s always good value but this night has to go down as one of the most enjoyable, even discounting the fact that the latest concert is always freshest in the mind. The venue, the Cadogan Hall is primarily used for classical concerts, and its resident band is the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, so the acoustics are excellent. It can be a bit dry for rock type events but the sound was superb on the night, allowing each instrument to be clearly heard. Sound engineers frequently seem to struggle to balance keyboards into the mix but Ty Bailie’s excellent Hammond and electric keyboard playing was given a prominent space in the sound balance. However, the main beneficiary of the superb sonic quality was the leader of the band, who put in a commanding performance, the power and quality of her vocals matching the fiery fretwork of her guitar playing throughout the evening.

Jo’s set included selected tracks from a number of different albums, kicking off with the upbeat roll of Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Stop Messin’ Round’ from The Blues Album and its distinctively waspish opening guitar licks. The band immediately locked into a groove and the guitarist let rip with a powerfully fluid solo, her long blonde hair flying around as she dug into the notes. The choice of tracks mainly focused on up-tempo numbers from her ever-increasing catalogue, and the riff heavy ‘Hell Of A Good Time’ followed. This featured some rasping slide from second guitarist Shane Sanders, who’s support allowed his fellow guitarist to stop playing on a number of different occasions and give everything to the vocals, notably, later in the evening, when she delivered her soulful arrangement of the classic song ‘Summertime’. She had introduced this number with a story about her producer, Kevin Shirley, calling late at night to ask her to learn the song for the next day, while she was recording her ‘Wild’ album. It was a classy rendition and each note hung in the air with a meaningful resonance. She captured the same feeling with her rendition of another song from the same album, the multiple covered ‘Wild Is The Wind’, which was an excellent version. The more memorable of her own numbers included ‘Grayer Shade Of Blue’, which she co-wrote with Philip Whitfield. This was a standout track on her most recent release, the Black & Gold album, and has a gorgeous chorus melody and heartfelt lyrics which translated superbly into the live environment. ‘Dying To Know’, also from her Wild album is close to being a modern classic in the blues rock field and rocked along nicely. All of her material is strong, but, reflecting back on the evening, it was the cover songs that really stood out.

Special mention has to be given to Katelynn Corll on drums. She not only contributed to the excellent sound quality through the lightness of her touch on her kit, but also provided high backing harmonies at the same time, which really helped to fill out the sound. The rhythm section of her and Chris Alexander on bass kept it tight without overpowering any of the other instruments. The whole band were excellent, probably the best of many I’ve seen her with. The evening ended with two songs from either end of the artist’s catalogue, the normal set finishing with the chunky riffing of ‘Watch ‘Em Burn’ from her debut album White Sugar back in 2009, followed by an encore of ‘Change Of Heart’ (“one of my only cheerful songs!”) from last year’s Heavy Soul album, a suitably chirpy number to send the almost sell out crowd away with smiles on their faces.

Joanne Shaw Taylor website