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Blues rocker Joanne Shaw Taylor can’t wait to get back on tour after lockdown helped her recover from burnout-Andrew Williams-Entertainment – Metro
‘It was like being on a treadmill.’
Joanne Shaw Taylor went from Solihull to playing music in Tennessee (Picture: C Brandon/Redferns)
Nashville-based British blues sensation Joanne Shaw Taylor, 36, is more than excited about the prospect of leaving her new home in Tennessee to return to the UK for her first major tour since the pandemic.
‘[Lockdown] was the longest time I’ve had without doing a gig,’ says Joanne. ‘It was bizarre but it was good for me. I was burnt out after touring non-stop for 13 years.
‘When my mum passed away in 2013. I had two weeks off to arrange the funeral and that was it. The cumulation of not being able to grieve and having a ridiculous schedule meant I needed some time off. I just didn’t realise it would be two years off.
‘It was like being on a treadmill. You get used to a pace and then people turn the speed up. I was utterly burnt out. The break has taught me I need a balance between touring and a home life. It’s also made me very thankful I’m able to do gigs, make music and share it with people.’
Joanne, who released her debut album, White Sugar, in 2009, has been playing the guitar since she was eight and began performing at 14. She started off playing classical guitar and was a member of the Birmingham Youth Ensemble.
Then she saw a documentary about blues legend Stevie Ray Vaughan. ‘He’d taught himself to play, and there were no rules. The more I dug into it, he sounded completely different to Albert Collins who sounded completely different to BB King. It was guitar playing that came down to your personality and putting your own stamp on it.
‘I came from a very disciplined classical school and Albert Collins wasn’t doing that, he had a very weird technique, and I realised I could play however I wanted.’
Joanne has been playing the guitar since she was eight-years-old (Picture: Christie Goodwin)
Joanne recorded her own demo CD at 14 before making her debut at The Robin music venue in Bilston, Wolverhampton.
‘It was an old pub with a room at the back, which was like a juke joint,’ she says. ‘Your feet stuck to the floor and lots of American touring artists would play there.’
Joanne went on to perform at other venues and music festivals, and was eventually spotted playing at a charity event by Dave Stewart from Eurythmics.
‘We went to London and I played the guitar for him. I played Rude Mood by Stevie Ray Vaughan,’ she says. In 2002, Dave asked her to go on tour with his D.U.P. supergroup, and helped to put her on the path to becoming a singer-songwriter.
Joanne has worked with Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox of the Eurythmics (Picture: Getty Images)
‘He was a big mentor. He got me touring, I supported BB King in Europe, and he’d do things like send me song titles and get me to write lyrics to them and then grade them. Now I view myself as a singer and songwriter who plays guitar rather than just a guitar player.’
The pair have collaborated on her new album Nobody’s Fool, with Dave playing on Joanne’s cover of Eurythmics hit Missionary Man. ‘It’s been 20 years since I met him so it was a nice full circle moment.’
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Joanne has also worked with the other Eurythmic, Annie Lennox, most notably at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee concert in 2012 where she played the guitar kitted out in a big pair of angel wings.
Joanne, who grew up in Solihull, and the other performers got to meet some of the royal family afterwards. ‘The Queen walked past and we curtsied,’ says Joanne.
‘Prince Charles asked me if I’d enjoyed the night. I said I had, and he asked what part of Australia I was from. I panicked and said Adelaide. Can you correct a monarch? I’ve been asked the same thing in America and I’ve said Sydney. It’s just not me to correct people.’
Joanne’s tour coincides with the release of Nobody’s Fool – recorded in a week in Los Angeles, in the same studio Prince recorded Purple Rain.
‘This is my eighth studio album and I’ve realised albums are a snapshot of where you are at that time in your life. It was a fun album to write and record and was really of the moment.’
Yet, despite all she has achieved, Joanne remains modest about her rise to being one of British blues-rock’s best exports.
‘All I wanted to do was earn a living playing music and live in the States and I’ve done that,’ she says. ‘I’ve never released an album I haven’t wanted to make, and that’s the best you can hope for when you look back.
‘If I can continue to keep a roof over my head and make music I don’t have to compromise about then that’s all I really want.’
Joanne plays Tramshed, Cardiff, on November 22 and is touring until December 11
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