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Joanne
Shaw Taylor
Shaw is preparing for a brief tour of the states, which includes a show @ White’s Bar on Wednesday June 10th.
Review: When did you first pick up the guitar?
Joanne: I began taking classical lessons at my school when I was about 8 years old. My father and brother both played so there were always guitars around the house to strum. I was probably about 4 when I first picked one up but it wasn’t till a little later that I really started to play. I started playing electric when I was 13 after getting in to the Blues via Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert Collins.
Review: Do you feel that growing up in The Midlands – the industrial blight of the Black Country – with its racial and ethnic conflict - provide the necessary conditions for creativity in music and the arts?
Joanne: To be honest, I don’t think I was ever really that aware of it growing up. I think Birmingham and the Black Country’s rich musical history had more of an Influence on me than anything, Bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, ELO and Slade. I like to think of it as the Rock City of England.
Review: Your home seems to have a similar spirit as Detroit, Chicago and Memphis where blacks and whites joined together to create incendiary forms of music. Do you share a sense of that experience? Joanne: Yes I think so. This will be my first visit to Detroit needless to say it’s somewhere I’ve been eager to visit for sometime. There’s certainly a similar spirit to the cities you’ve mentioned. The music scene here is less routed in the Blues obviously than Chicago or Memphis.
Review: How was it that you were “discovered” at the tender age of 16 by rock icon Dave Stewart (Eurythmics)? What was it like for you to pass the audition, so to speak?
Joanne: I did a charity show in aid of Breast cancer awareness in Birmingham organized by the band UB40. One of Dave’s close friends was there and he passed along a demo to Dave who phoned me the next day and invited me to London. I remember sitting in Dave’s Kitchen and playing him a slow blues song while he filmed it because he wanted to show it to Quincy Jones. Luckily being only 16 at the time I don’t think I realized the gravity of the situation and was just glad to be out of school.
Review: The quote from Stewart … “Last year I heard something I thought I would never hear…a British White Girl playing blues guitar so deep and passionately it made the hairs on the back of my head stand on end”…is that hard to live up to?
Joanne: (Laughing) I never thought of it like that until you mentioned it! I don’t think that comment was ever a “burden” obviously it’s been quoted heavily in any press I’ve had but I always just took it as a wonderful compliment. Obviously I was very young when Dave made that comment (16) so I knew I had a lot of growing still to do as a guitarist and musician in general but was just pleased that I had such a talented and established musician offering me encouragement.
Review: It must have been a daunting task to perform with seasoned pros like Mud Bone, Stewart, Candy Dulpher (Prince) and Jimmy Cliff in D.U.P. How long were you with them?
Joanne: I toured with D.U.P on and off for about a year. That was an incredible experience to have at any stage of your career but to be 17 and touring Europe with that many diverse and talented artists was a huge blessing. I learned so much and they were a great bunch of personalities to work with. I think the main thing at that period in time was that I was being encouraged and receiving advice from as you say seasoned pros. Working with Dave, the thing he installed in me the most was the importance of working on becoming a songwriter and singer as well as a guitar player - that those two crafts were equally important in Blues as the big guitar solo.
Review: What was it like to record your CD White Sugar with Jim Gaines, a legendary producer who had worked with one of your idols Stevie Ray Vaughn
Joanne: That was fantastic. He’s someone I’ve wanted to work with for years, as you mentioned he produced some of the first Blues artists I heard, Albert Collins, SRV and Luther Allison and was always my first choice of producer to work with. I think we worked together really well. He had some great ideas regarding some of the song arrangements and about different guitar tones. He was really helpful with the guitar tones.
Review: I love your sensual smoky singing. Were you inspired by any singer in particular?
Joanne: Well firstly… thank you very much. Early on I was a huge Janis Joplin fan, then Dusty Springfield, Etta James. I would love to be able to sound like Mavis Staples but most of my singing practice is just trial by error. 10 years of singing in smoky Blues clubs has given me a little bit of rasp.
Review: This is a tough market to crack especially for blues artists (typically our blues cats do better overseas than in the United States). Do you have a strategy to awaken this sleepy giant from its musical torpor? Joanne: I’ve heard the states is a tough scene to break into. Obviously given its history with the Blues it’s a big desire of mine to be able to tour here consistently. No strategy as such, Right now I’m just focusing on putting on a good show that said I would love to break into the festival scene over here. You’ve got some of the best Blues Festivals in the world.
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At
23 years of age