Joanne Shaw Taylor is from Birmingham, that’s the Midlands not Alabama, and only 28 and but plays the guitar like she’s’ been doing it for fifty years. Frankly, she is amazing. With the benefit of small hands and long fingers her speed over the fret board is intense. Its blues in the absolute classic sense. She has the cleanness of Robert Cray and the energy of Stevie Ray.
She also possesses one of those husky smoky female voices like Janis Joplin or Sass Jordan. It’s a tight three piece backing band with a Hammond organ complementing her piercing guitar perfectly.
Tonight’s an album launch night but they play for an hour and three quarters that flies by. Tracks of the new album sound good and she has definitely matured her sound. The quality of songs throughout are good and she just about got the balance right between just building a tune around an extended solo and the song itself.
As Chuck Prophet often describes his wife Stephanie; Joanne Shaw Taylor is easy on the ear and easy of the eye but most of all she has got the chops to be regarded as one of the finest guitarists in the country. Her star is definitely rising as she is headlining the Empire later in the year.
Check her out before she gets too big coz damn the girls got the blues.