Joanne Shaw Taylor - Songs From The Road (Live) '2013

Tracks list

One night. One shot. No safety net. If there was pressure afoot as Joanne Shaw
Taylor walked onstage at The Borderline on May 12th, 2013, then the bandleader
used it as rocket-fuel, channeling the vibe into the set of her life. Now, six
months later, that explosive performance is captured on Songs From The Road: a
live album with the soul power to jostle the greats off the podium.

“I’m really pleased with it,” says Joanne. “It’s
everything I wanted it to be.”

As the latest release in Ruf Records’ legendary Songs From The Road
series, this album set is the live album you’ve been screaming for.
“The timing is good,” agrees Joanne. “My fans, and especially
the blues fans, have been asking me for a live album for a while now. I’m
glad that we waited, and didn’t do it two years ago, because hopefully
I’ve improved. We’ve done three studio albums now, so I think the
live album ties all the albums together.”

A seasoned road-warrior since 2009’s debut album White Sugar, Joanne has
nothing to fear from the stage, but the demands of her diary meant Songs From
The Road presented a logistical challenge. “We only had one chance to do
it because of my schedule,” she reflects. “If I’d have played
terribly – which fortunately I don’t think I did – it would
have been unusable. It worked out really well, and I think a big part of that is
because the fans were so good.

“We wanted to do it in London,” Joanne continues, “and the
reason for picking The Borderline was because I wanted something small and
intimate. I grew up being inspired by those small Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert
Collins club gigs, and I wanted to have that same
‘everyone-packed-in-like-sardines’ vibe – as opposed to a
big production and losing some of that intimacy.”

If the crowd brought the atmosphere, then Joanne brought the songs. While some
bands merely sleepwalk through the hits live, Songs From The Road finds the
bandleader pulling her back catalogue around by the hair, ensuring that from
early favourites like Going Home to current roof-raisers like Soul Station,
these songs are very different beasts to the studio originals.

“I think there’s a very different energy live: that’s
probably the main thing,” she notes. “I’m a live guitar
player. There’s definitely more guitar in my live show than on any of the
albums. I tend to lose all sense of control once I get onstage and everything is
twenty beats faster than it’s meant to be! And there were no overdubs, so
what you hear is what you get.”

Sold out venues. Screaming crowds. Her name in lights. Joanne Shaw Taylor never
anticipated any of that at the start. Back then, she was just an ordinary black
country schoolgirl, bored with the disposable pop she heard on late nineties
radio, rifling her father’s record collection for sunken treasure, and
falling for albums by SRV, Albert Collins and Jimi Hendrix.

“Guitars were lying around the house,”recalls Joanne. At 13,
she’d picked up her first electric and practiced every minute. At 14, she
defied her teachers to play The Marquee and Ronnie Scott’s, and began to
overcome insecurity about her voice. “I never set out to be a
singer,” she modestly told Classic Rock. “I’ve always had a
deep voice. I think it came from my influences as a kid. When I was singing to
records, I was listening to Albert Collins and Freddie King. When I was a
teenager, I became a big rock fan: Glenn Hughes, Skin, Doug Pinnick. I
wouldn’t get far on The X Factor.”

Joanne left school at 16 and ran straight into her big break, as a twist of fate
directed her demo into the hands of Eurythmics icon Dave Stewart after a charity
gig.

Reflecting on his first impressions, Stewart recalls that “she made the
hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.” His call the following day
proved the start of a lasting friendship, with Joanne seeking his advice on the
industry and even accompanying his DUP supergroup across Europe in 2002.

Stewart gave Joanne her first deal, but when the label ran into financial
trouble, it gave her a chance to regroup and work on her songwriting. Until
then, original material had perhaps been a neglected side of her talent.

“I never really wrote songs until I was 21.” Suddenly the dam broke.
In 2008, Ruf won the rush for Joanne’s signature, and soon she was
working with veteran producer Jim Gaines (Carlos Santana, Johnny Lang, SRV),
bassist Dave Smith and drummer Steve Potts on the songs that became debut album
White Sugar.

“We recorded it in this little backwater town in Tennessee,” she
recalls, “and if we needed a break, we’d walk to the shop and buy
root beer.” When White Sugar dropped the following year, taking in gems
like Bones and Kiss The Ground Goodbye, it turned out the press had a sweet
tooth, with Classic Rock crowning it Blues Album Of The Month and Guitarist
noting “she plays with more attitude and flair than most – massive
potential here”.

Soon enough, the buzz was building, with Joanne both raising her profile
supporting Black Country Communion, and honing her craft on 2010’s
Diamonds In The Dirt. This second album was another step up, from the explosive
lead breaks on Can’t Keep Living Like This to the heavier influence of
her adopted Detroit hometown on the crunching country-blues of Dead And Gone.
Not bad, considering she had written the material in just two days and recorded
it in less than a fortnight: “It’s the dreaded second album curse.
You have ten years to do the first one, and ten days to do the second!”

By then, she was unstoppable, with Diamonds In The Dirt proving not only a
classic record, but also a skeleton key to every door in the industry. Having
received a nomination for ‘Best New Artist Debut’ at the auspicious
British Blues Awards for White Sugar, Joanne scooped consecutive wins in the
‘Best British Female Vocalist’ bracket at both the 2010/2011
events: a haul that cements her position, as Blues Matters put it, as “the
new face of the blues”.

Since then, it’s gone stratospheric, with Joanne breaking into the
notoriously hard-to-crack US market, beating the stereotypes of her age and
gender, and being watched by 17 million viewers as she played an angel-winged
solo during Annie Lennox’s set at the 2012 Diamond Jubilee Concert. That
same summer gave us Almost Always Never: a bar-raising third album that found
Joanne dodging expectations, writing the songs her muse dictated, and diving in
at the deep end with just her talent to keep her afloat.

Recorded in Austin, Texas, these twelve cuts moved from the savage Les Paul
solos of Soul Station and the strutting hooks of Standing To Fall, to the failed
relationship achingly depicted on You Should Stay, I Should Go and the title
track’s refrain of “You crash, you burn/you live, you learn”.
She’d never sounded more open and honest. “I’ve loved every
album I’ve made for many different reasons,” reflects Joanne.
“But I’m so proud of these songs. It’s the perfect and
truest example of who I am as an artist to date.”

Maybe so, but if you only know Joanne Shaw Taylor as the songwriter and studio
magician, then it’s time you heard Songs From The Road. Released November
2013 on Ruf Records, it’s a candid snapshot from the road that makes your
front room feel like the front row. “That night was just really good
fun,” she reflects. “And I think that translates on the
album.”

“She’s blonde, she’s beautiful and she plays blistering
blues-rock guitar. She’s a rock and roll revelation.” (Sunday
Mercury)

Tracklist:
01. Joanne Shaw Taylor - Soul Station (5:57)
02. Joanne Shaw Taylor - Tied and Bound (6:43)
03. Joanne Shaw Taylor - Beautifully Broken (7:32)
04. Joanne Shaw Taylor - Watch Em Burn (10:08)
05. Joanne Shaw Taylor - Diamonds In The Dirt (6:07)
06. Joanne Shaw Taylor - Manic Depression (7:38)
07. Joanne Shaw Taylor - Jealousy (7:10)
08. Joanne Shaw Taylor - Kiss The Ground Goodbye (7:27)
09. Joanne Shaw Taylor - Just Another Word (4:24)
10. Joanne Shaw Taylor - Band Introductions (0:30)
11. Joanne Shaw Taylor - Jump That Train (6:37)
12. Joanne Shaw Taylor - Going Home (5:38)

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