“I could never play a Strat – with Stevie Ray Vaughan being my first influence, every time I play one it’s like I’m 13 again, hacking through Pride And Joy”: Joanne Shaw Taylor on how the blues helped her find her voice, and why she'll always choose Teles
Having embarked on a journey from classical guitar to Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert Collins, Taylor is determined to keep the blues alive... until she can open that dog shelter
Renowned for her stinging, Albert Collins-inspired lead lines and powerful vocal style, Joanne Shaw Taylor flew into town in September for a few live dates in the UK and Europe.
Now living in Nashville, Tennessee, but formerly from The Black Country, Joanne recently released her 10th studio album, Black & Gold, to great critical acclaim. She joined us in the Guitarist studios, bringing her touring rig along for an exclusive shoot and video walkthrough.
Ordinarily, Joanne’s miniature Dachshund, Hank, would come along for the ride, too. In fact, he’s no stranger to the limelight himself, with an online presence that rivals her own; he even has his own Instagram account, where he’s been known to troll Joanne’s close friend and sparring partner, Joe Bonamassa.
Sadly, her four-footed friend had to stay home this time, and while Joanne reveals later that a career in canine care is the only thing that could pull her away from the life of blues-rock stardom, we’re keen to hear how this journey began…
So you originally came from a classical background?
Sort of, yes. I had classical guitar lessons at school, and then when I was 10 I was put up for an audition for the Birmingham Youth Ensemble and passed. That was my intro into guitar.
I wouldn’t say I was particularly good at it – and I’m not sure a career would have been viable in classical music – but it certainly gave me the confidence to know that I liked playing guitar. I also think, to be honest, it’s the reason I probably fell in love with blues because it was such a juxtaposition.
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[Classical guitar] was such a disciplined world to come from. Players like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimmie Vaughan are a great example of two guitar players who were raised in the same household at the same time and yet they couldn’t sound any more different – because it’s really just about injecting your personality.
I think that really propelled me to blues, the fact that you could actually inject so much of your personality into it, and there weren’t really any rules, as long as it sounded good or sounded like you. So I think the classical thing was an important part of the journey.
Was there a specific fork in the road for you with blues when you thought, ‘Oh, this sounds interesting…’?
I have a lung condition called bronchiectasis, which is from a really bad reaction to the whooping cough vaccine when I was baby, and it scarred my lungs. So, unfortunately, about once a year I get a really bad chest infection. When I was 13, I was off school for about three months and had to keep going back to the hospital.
I remember lying on the sofa with my dad – I was feeling particularly ill and I’d fallen asleep, or he thought I’d fallen asleep – so he turned off whatever I was watching and put on a Stevie Ray Vaughan DVD. I woke up and saw it and that was the, ‘Oh, you could play guitar like that?’ moment.
My older brother was playing guitar and he was very much into Steve Vai, Yngwie, and Dave Mustaine, so I knew there were other guitar genres out there, but I hadn’t found anything that I connected with
My older brother was playing guitar and he was very much into Steve Vai, Yngwie, and Dave Mustaine, so I knew there were other guitar genres out there, but I hadn’t found anything that I connected with. That was pretty immediate.
How old were you when you started gigging?
About 14. There was a blues band at my dad’s work and he asked them if they could be my backing band. We started getting some pubs and clubs, then I gave a demo CD to Mike Hamblett at the Robin Club and he gave me all the support [slots] for all the touring blues artists that came through from the States – the first big break.
The second big break would have been through The Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart. How did that come about?
Dave Stewart came about because, unfortunately, my mom had breast cancer when I was 15 and she was part of a support group, and the wife of one of the chaps from UB40 was in it and they wanted to do a fundraiser, so they asked me if I wanted to play.
A friend of Dave’s was there, so we did the gig and he got hold of our demo CD and passed it on. Dave phoned the house, spoke to my parents, and we were off to London the next day to talk about a record deal. I had no idea who he was. I’d heard of Annie Lennox, but I had no idea who Dave was, which his wife found very funny.
He got me out with BB King doing some shows, but the most important thing was that he was really the first guy to tell me he didn’t think I was just a guitar player; he thought I was going to be a songwriter and singer that played guitar.
You’re over in the UK for a tour at present. What gear have you brought with you, apart from ‘Junior’, your faithful old Fender Esquire?
This [Junior] was a guitar I bought when I was 15 years old. I’d been playing guitar for about a year or so, and I was gigging. I had a Mexican Strat and I wanted something a bit more pro.
My grandmother, bless her, said, ‘Whatever you save up, I’ll match.’ I think I’d got about £700 together and so I went down to Denmark Street on the train with £1,400 and [bought] this 1966 Fender Esquire.
I managed to get it quite cheap because somebody butchered it with a knife at the neck pickup. So I had the humbucker put in. It’s got a five-way pickup selector now, but he’s been with me ever since. It’s been on every gig, every album. It’s pretty much the number one, the baby.
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You have a smaller, cut-down pedalboard. What are the essentials you’ve brought with you?
A Boss chromatic tuner, a JHS compression pedal [JHS Pedals Pulp ’N’ Peel compressor] that we’ve recently added this week, just to warm up my tone a little bit – I’m absolutely loving it, so far. An Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer that I stole off my older brother when I was 15. That’s been a staple on my board for 25 years; it’s my main overdrive pedal.
TS808 Tube Screamer, the second one here, which usually I just run as a bit of a clean boost. A JHS Oil Can delay, which I leave on for pretty much most of the gig, just very low in the mix to boost up the mids for me.
Then [an Electro-Harmonix] Holy Grail reverb pedal because I play vintage Bassmans – I don’t have the matching reverb tanks and I’m a sucker for a nice bit of reverb, both on vocals and guitar. It’s pretty basic, to be honest.”
You’re using two Fender Bassman amps, obviously hired for the tour. But do you have your own Bassmans back in the States?
Yep, two 1962 ‘piggyback’ Fender Bassmans, nicknamed Sirius and Severus for the Harry Potter fans. I think it was always a bit of a dream amp of mine.
There’s something about a tweed amp for me anyway, whether that’s a Vibro-King or a ’62 Bassman, it’s a bit of a guilty pleasure
We had a Fender Bassman reissue at home that I grew up playing and that was my first gigging amp back in the Birmingham Black Country pub and club days. So I was always a bit of a Bassman aficionado.
There’s something about a tweed amp for me anyway, whether that’s a Vibro-King or a ’62 Bassman, it’s a bit of a guilty pleasure. And I think it’s also ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, you know?
What is the other Tele you have with you?
It’s an Albert Collins signature model that was gifted to me by Joe Bonamassa about 15 years ago.
I flew to New York to see Joe for a few days. He was rehearsing for the first time with Black Country Communion. I went to, I think it was, Manny’s [Music, previously on West 48th St NYC] and in there they had an Albert Collins signature model that was signed by Albert. Other than Steve Ray Vaughan, he’s my number one influence.
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I think it was for sale for about $5,000, so I went back to Joe, and I said, ‘I found this Albert Collins signature model. It’s my dream guitar and it’s signed by Albert, but I don’t have $5,000.’
He’s like, ‘Okay, well, what do you have?’ I said I could probably get together about four. He’s like, ‘All right, well, come back with me. They’ll probably want a photo of me, but I could probably get it for you for four.’ So we go back to the guitar shop, he plays the guitar, and he’s like, ‘How much?’ And the guy goes, ‘Okay, four grand and a picture of you buying it.’ So we did the deal… and then he kept the guitar for himself! [Laughs]
About a year or so later, I talked to his dad and mentioned this, and Len [Bonamassa] was furious. So Len must have phoned him and read him the riot act because I got a text the next day saying, ‘Remind me of your address,’ and then this was delivered in the post.
With its likeness to Junior, can we assume that Telecasters are your comfort zone?
Yeah. Which is funny, actually. I could never play a Strat because I think [with] SRV being my first dominant influence, every time I revert to playing a Strat it’s like I’m 13 years old again, trying to hack my way through Pride And Joy. Whereas Teles always seem to suit me.
Your album Black & Gold was released earlier this year and you’re touring it over here at present. How are audiences receiving it?
It’s gone really well. It’s been really well received by fans, it seems, which is why I do it, you know? It was a bit of a different album for me. It was the 10th studio album and I was also turning 40, so I was going into a fresh decade of life as well as a fresh decade of a recording career.
So it felt like, ‘Well, what haven’t I written that I wanted to write that maybe didn’t fit on other albums?’ Because I’ve always tried to straddle different genres, in that I think I’m a blues guitarist that’s a soul singer that likes writing pop-rock songs.
I’ve always said I think I would have been a very different artist if I’d have been born a man – because I learned to play guitar, which was a gender-neutral instrument, so I could borrow bits from Albert Collins and Stevie.
But when I wanted to teach myself to sing, I was never going to sound like Albert Collins or Freddie King or Luther Allison or Howlin’ Wolf. So I had to find female vocalists to try to emulate and they tended to be outside of the blues world. You know, Tina [Turner], Mavis [Staples] into Bonnie Raitt, the pop, rock, soul world.
And the plan is to keep recording and touring?
For the rest of my life, hopefully… unless I earn enough money to get the land I want and get the dog sanctuary off the ground.
I just want to be that person that the local dog shelter phones and goes, ‘We’ve had this 15-year-old geriatric Basset Hound come in that’s blind and no-one’s going to take him.’ And I’ll be like, ‘I’ll bring the van around in the morning. He can come here.’
- Black & Gold is out now via Journeyman
- This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.
With over 30 years’ experience writing for guitar magazines, including at one time occupying the role of editor for Guitarist and Guitar Techniques, David is also the best-selling author of a number of guitar books for Sanctuary Publishing, Music Sales, Mel Bay and Hal Leonard. As a player he has performed with blues sax legend Dick Heckstall-Smith, played rock ’n’ roll in Marty Wilde’s band, duetted with Martin Taylor and taken part in charity gigs backing Gary Moore, Bernie Marsden and Robbie McIntosh, among others. An avid composer of acoustic guitar instrumentals, he has released two acclaimed albums, Nocturnal and Arboretum.
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