Joanne Shaw Taylor at The Citadel in St. Helens, July 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
There have been many spectacular women who have dominated the music arena to the point where their sheer persona and drive is enough to set a million hearts racing and the acknowledgement that they are truly the very finest in their field. From the likes of Judy Garland, Nina Simone, Janis Joplin, Nancy Wilson, Tori Amos and Kate Bush, the world has been graced with the sublime and the outstanding, historic in their approach and what their music has meant to millions of fans world-wide; they are lauded for a reason, they are to be seen as perfection personified.
Into this must surely come the form of Joanne Shaw Taylor, the Black Country lass who turned heads with her voice and unbelievable talent when she performed at the Bilston Robin, no mean feat to win over the discerning patrons of that fair venue. For not only as she approaches the point in life where the audience revels in her very presence and her very humility keeps her grounded to the point where the guitar sounds as though it coming from a place of un-impeachable source, she has become the queen of British Blues and arguably one of the top ten guitarists to come out of Britain in the last 50 years.
For the crowd who packed themselves in tight to the St. Helens Citadel, the audience who took full advantage of Joanne Shaw Taylor’s first visit to the town in a few years, the allusion to the titles bestowed upon her, not with faint whisper but with full regal flavour, were honest and heartfelt. This was quite simply a set delivered by a woman who could do no wrong and who is a true icon; one who possibly still doesn’t quite get how revered she is but who should be seen as an example on how to conduct yourself with dignity and fortitude, a true heroine of the age.
The steam that started peeling off the walls, that found itself seeping into the veins and the heart muscles, the electric drive of a woman who could not stop smiling at each gloriously delivered note, was enough to fulfil every possible request that the crowd secretly hoped for as they made their way to the venue and in tracks such as Watch Em’ Burn, the utterly cool Jealousy, Jump That Train, Diamonds In The Dirt and Tried, Tested and True, the steam breathed deeply and with cool abundance.
For Joanne Shaw Taylor, she has truly joined the ranks of women who stand upon the shoulders of giants and who aren’t afraid to give them directions and what they should be looking out for, a display of true music appreciation and genius.
Joanne Shaw Taylor performs at the Epstein Theatre, Liverpool on October 1st 2015.
Ian D. Hall