Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
The Heavy Soul that continually finds a way to unburden itself is one to acknowledge the respect that is due.
Those to whom creating the urgency of dedicated calm assurance and refusing to bend a will that would see the soul wither under the strain of surrender, these are the magicians of their craft that give others a reason to feel pleasure, a deep and abiding acknowledgement that deference is due, but at the same time you can relish the opportunity to be front row and centre in the presence of brilliance as that soul releases mayhem and takes your mind out for a ride so elegant that it sees eternity.
Joanne Shaw Taylor, arguably Britain’s first woman of Blues in the 21st Century has reunited with producer Kevin Shirley in an album of absolute class, the enormous and momentum filled Heavy Soul.
It is to the emotion of the experience that the listener will take much heart and pleasure in, the stateswoman like explanation of a guitar played with such drama, such intensity that in many ways it is a reminder of a way of life that has slowly been pushed aside in favour of the gruesomely repetitive and disjointed attack on the senses from every quarter, every angle possible.
To have once more the ideas, the ferocity, the sense of absolute that Joanne Shaw Taylor possesses in her arsenal of guitar riffs and sentimental lyrics that beat on the heart with fury, is to have respect for yourself, an admission that the woman from the Midlands is a genius of her genre, and that when combined with Kevin Shirley the listener will regard the album as arguably up there with her true intentions and musical faith.
With tracks such as All The Way From America, the exceptional Drowning In A Sea Of Love and Black Magic, Someone Like You, A Good Goodbye, and the album’s title track Heavy Soul all leaving their impressive footprints for all to see within the depth of the record, Heavy Soul is an album to feel a sense of the sacred and divine take shape, to be lauded for its passion and unison of spirits behind the scenes.
Joanne Shaw Taylor returns, the first lady of British Blues is once more squeezing every drop of life from the unburdened soul to form a record of sincere majesty.
Joanne Shaw Taylor releases Heavy Soul on June 7th on Journeyman Records.
Ian D. Hall