Joanne Shaw Taylor has a voice that inspires love in all who hear it. It’s a smoky, soulful voice that imbues each song with depth and emotion and it places her squarely alongside the equally wonderful Beth Hart as inheritor of the mantle left by the tragically departed Janis Joplin. It’s not just the voice, either, as Joanne is a mean guitarist, a player who is most certainly technically competent but whom, far more importantly for the blues, plays with feeling and instinct, the solos a living, breathing extension of the lyrics and mood created by the song. At the tender age of twenty-eight, Joanne has already released three critically-acclaimed albums and a live disc and now, her fourth album, ‘the dirty truth’, further cements her reputation as a blues player of note.
An album to sink into, ‘the dirty truth’ will have you hooked from the outset. The slinky guitar riff that kicks off opening track ‘mud, honey’ underpins Joanne’s beautiful vocal delivery which is so intimately recorded it feels like she’s standing in the room next to you. And then there’s the solo. The extended guitar work out that blisters, snarls and sparkles in equal measure as Joanne demonstrates her prowess on the guitar without ever once making it feel like she’s doing anything other than serving the song itself. Her playing is so organic, so beautifully phrased that you’re left in awe of her playing even as for the first few listens you’re too busy tapping your foot to fully take it in. The title track has a delicate groove to it, the sort of groove best suited to the open air and the summer sun and when Steve Potts kicks in with the drums the song really takes flight, pushing the listener further on down the road with its comfortable beat and sizzling solos. ‘Wicked soul’ sees Joanne allowing a touch of grit to enter her voice on a song that benefits greatly from Rick Steff’s swirling synth and Dave Smith’s tight bass work, and it’s the sort of memorable and melodic workout that would have sleepwalked into the charts back into the eighties when pop music had a meaning that wasn’t synonymous with auto-tune erotica. ‘Fool in love’ is similarly laid back, operating in the same ball park as Dire Straits if they’d been fronted by a young Tina Turner. Turning the temperature up several notches, ‘Wrecking ball’ (no, not that one!) has the sort of guitar riff that demands movement, whist Joanne’s dusty voice speaks of a whiskey too many on the road and a passion that remains undimmed.
Opening up the second half of the record, ‘tried, tested and true’ is a wonderfully understated song with quiet, clean guitar and laid back percussion driving it, but the highlight of the side must surely be the gutsy, gritty ‘outlaw angel’ which is a wonderfully distorted blues stomp complete with extended solo breaks. ‘Shiver and sigh’ opens with bass and drums pitched somewhere between latter day Pink Floyd and Chris Rea and the song is firmly rooted, as the earlier ‘wicked soul’, in a different age when music such as this used to be regularly lauded by the public at large rather than consigned to a niche following. What makes this, as every song, special is the personal delivery of Joanne who not only sings but inhabits each and every song, making each one feel personal and deeply intimate. It’s a gift few artists have and one that Joanne seems to hone to a sharper point with each and every release. One of the album’s hardest rockers, ‘Struck down’ has a powerful riff that runs through it like a rod of iron and offers up some tasty solos to boot. The album concludes with ‘Feels like home’, a song filled with uncertain longing and powered by a springy riff that leads to a bluesy, chorus that emphasizes the uncertainty of the motif – “feels like home, and I’m not alone, I think he’s sold”.
‘The dirty truth’ is yet further evidence that Joanne Shaw Taylor is one of the UK’s finest blues talents. Alongside artists like the equally talented Danny Bryant, Joanne is keeping the blues flame alight and demonstrating the vital importance of both skill and passion in this increasingly digital and alienated world. Her songs are personal, vivid and perfectly constructed and the recording is wonderfully intimate, often giving you the feeling the band are in the room with you as they jam out their songs. However, the star of the show is indisputably Joanne and her stunning guitar work is a thing to behold, particularly when she takes the opportunity to cut loose as she does on songs like ‘mud, honey’ and ‘struck down’. ‘The dirty truth’ is a wonderful record and highly recommended to anyone who digs understated yet passionately delivered blues.
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