Joanne Shaw Taylor @ The Robin, 17th May 2011
“I look at The Robin as my spiritual home” Joanne Shaw Taylor, Wednesbury born and now Detroit resident kicked off her UK tour at the Robin 2 to a packed venue and nothing was going to upset the remarkable singer and guitarist tonight.
The 2010 British Blues female singer of the year brought her unique vocal and guitar style back home to promote ‘Diamonds In the Dirt’ the current offering from the Black Country girl. A voice with raunchy undertones of Janis Joplin and a loose, passionate guitar style which is always spot on. Although showing obvious blues leanings Shaw Taylor cites Jimi Hendrix and Angus Young as Guitar ‘heroes’ and an on fire version of Hendrix’s Manic Depression showed just how well she could wring a solo out of the old fender esquire.
Songs from Diamonds and the previous White sugar album worked well together and the beautiful ‘Shiver and sigh” gave a chance for the softer side of Shaw Taylor to shine through before ramping the set up again and ending the night exchanging riffs with the young and highly talented Virgil Mcmahon of Virgil & The Accelerators
And for the record she is no relation to ‘Keep em peeled’ tv presenter Shaw Taylor and if she is “My mother has got some explaining to do”
Lets just hope a live album is on the horizon because this is one amazing talent on stage.
I caught up with Joanne after the gig
AW; How did you think the first night went for you?
JST; Good I think, we have some big shows coming up on this tour, we have two shows with Glenn hughes which is great but as a first night I couldn’t have asked for more. The Robin is my hometown gig and incidentely the old Robin was my first gig. My dad used to take me to the original Robin every Friday and Saturday night to watch bands when I was twelve and thirteen so its my spiritual home and I love to come and play here.
AW; So you were born locally?
JST; Yeah, just down the road in Wednesbury then we moved to Solihull, so I think I got away without the accent. My mom and dad came out to watch tonight, they’re still in the Black Country, so there are so many reasons why it’s nice to play here. When I supported here many years ago it was like the biggest gig I could have dreamed of playing but headlining and watching the crowd grow is really good.
AW; How is the new album(Diamonds In The Dirt) being received?
JST; Really well, we’ve being getting more cross over with this one,its a bit rockier then the first, it wasn’t an intentional thing to be honest but its working and yeah its going really well.
AW; Describe your style of guitar playing, it’s a difficult one to put your finger on?
JST; It’s very aggressive blues rock, I describe it as little dog syndrome because I’m female I have to bark louder to be heard. I came from a rock background growing up. My dad was into Slade and WIzzard so thats what I listened to and then Sabbath so it was a rock upbringing. As I got a bit older I got into the likes of Texas and the rockier blues stuff so I think I’m still probably still influenced by rock. Sort of sod it, just go for it. I’m a big Angus Young fan aswell.
AW; I could hear a Janice Joplin growl tonight and also on parts of the Diamonds album
JST; Yeah I’m a big Joplin fan, to be honest I never wanted to be a singer and there wasn’t that many female vocalists I liked. When I was fifteen I liked Chaka Khan, Etta james and Joplin and I thought I’m never going to have that voice
AW; Do you listen to the album?
JST; No not really, I listened to it that much when we were recording it. When I put the tracks down I listen to it over and over, then when the band come in and record it I go through it all again so you get to the point that you don’t want to listen to it anymore.
The tour continues till the end of May before heading back to America.
Review & Photos – Andy Whitehouse