Setting out on the Black Country blues circuit of the late 90s, the teenage Joanne Shaw Taylor caught the ear of ex-Eurythmics man Dave Stewart, who mentored her through the industry’s shark-infested waters to 2009’s acclaimed debut album White Sugar.
Nine albums later this dry-witted road warrior has the mileage and the scars, but she still remembers the formative influences that saved her from the nine-to-five.
The first music I remember hearing
When I was four years old, my dad used to play Big Bill Broonzy’s Hey, Hey on guitar to my brother and I when we were going to bed. I can’t remember a time when there wasn’t a guitar in the house. I think that had a large part in me playing too, because I just assumed that’s what we did as a family.
The first song I performed live
We got a gig at The Robin, which was the big blues club in the Black Country and at the time was like my Carnegie Hall. I remember the setlist, and the first song was Don’t Lose Your Cool by Albert Collins. I was a fourteen-year-old girl, so people were very complimentary, but I’m not sure it was a masterpiece.
The greatest album of all time
I saw an Ozzy Osbourne quote recently about how discovering The Beatles was like going to sleep in a black-and-white world and waking up to one that’s in colour. Hearing Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Texas Flood was like opening a door to another world, and it changed the course of my life. Without Stevie I wouldn’t be sitting here in Nashville. I’d probably be in some nine-to-five job that I hate.
The guitar hero
Jeff Beck just transcended the instrument. Y’know, it could sound like a violin, it could sound like anything. I love Harry Potter, and I almost believe that Jeff got the letter inviting him to Hogwarts, but they taught him guitar. I did three shows with him on his Emotion & Commotion tour, and that was another very important album for me.
The singer
The two most important for me are probably Tina Turner and Rod Stewart. I like a bit of sass. I’m sure everyone will expect me to reference some obscure Ike And Tina song, but my favourite is The Best. The way she sings that line ‘I hang on every word you say’ is so desperate and honest. It’s heartbreaking.
The songwriter
There’s so many great songwriters, from Randy Newman to Tom Waits, John Hiatt, Beth Nielsen Chapman. But if this was Desert Island Discs, then I’d take Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Tumbleweed Connection and Honky Château are my personal favourites, but even some of the later stuff like I Want Love. I don’t think he’s ever tailed off.
The cover version
I’ll divide a lot of people on this – and by ‘divide’ I mean annoy – but Stevie Ray Vaughan’s versions of Hendrix songs made them his own. It was difficult to get into blues in the nineties when you’ve only ever heard very polished, over-produced music on the radio. Trying to start with Charley Patton or Robert Johnson, they’re old recordings, scratchy, hard to listen to. But Stevie was so smooth and palatable. His version of [Hendrix’s] Little Wing is one of the greatest instrumentals in electric guitar.
My favourite track to air-guitar to
Bohemian Rhapsody. It’s my only chance of being able to play that guitar solo.
My guilty pleasure
They’re just pleasures, I don’t feel any guilt. I am a massive Swiftie. Aside from her being an incredible businesswoman, I love her lyrics and she’s probably the most influential guitar player of my generation. I really got into the 1989 album. Did I go to the Eras tour? No. I was really annoyed, because last summer she was here in Nashville for three days, which as you can imagine was carnage. [Producer] Kevin Shirley got a free ticket, and he’s not that big a fan – but he went without me!
My Saturday night party song
Let’s Go Crazy by Prince is a good starting point. He’s a massive influence. When I was eleven I cycled into Birmingham and bought two cassettes. One was Mark Morrison’s Return Of The Mack, and the other was Prince’s The Most Beautiful Girl In The World.
The song that makes me cry
Anything can set me off. But to be really depressing, I was listening to Leonard Cohen’s Bird On The Wire a lot when my mum was passing away. It’s those lines: ‘If I have been unkind, I hope that you can just let it go by/If I have been untrue, I hope you know it was never to you.’
The song I want played at my funeral
Jeff Beck’s Somewhere Over The Rainbow. When he played that live, it made me think about my mum passing away and how beautiful life is. I made the mistake a few years ago of telling my five-year-old nephew Oscar that I wanted a Viking funeral. Then my brother told me Oscar had signed up for archery lessons because he was worried that at my Viking funeral there wouldn’t be a bowman there to set me on fire!
Joanne Shaw Taylor's US Heavy Soul tour begins next month. For dates and tickets, visit the Joanne Shaw Taylor website.
