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Joanne Shaw Taylor Poster
Joanne Shaw Taylor Setlist
Tour Dates
3/1 City Winery Boston
3/2 City Winery NYC 3/3 World Café Live Philadelphia 3/5 Callahan’s Auburn Hills, MI 3/6 City Winery Chicago, IL 3/8 Vieux Carre St Paul, MN 3/9 Orpheum Theat Sioux Falls, SD 3/10 Reverb Lounge Omaha, NE 3/12 Soiled Dove Denver, CO 3/13 Mesa Theater Grand Junction, CO 3/14 Urban Lounge Salt Lake City, UT 3/16 Domino Room Bend, OR 3/18 Tractor Tavern Seattle, WA 3/19 Aladin Theatre Portland, OR 3/20 Yoshi’s Oakland,CA 3/22 Hotel Café Los Angeles, CA 3/23 Backstage Bar & Billiards Las Vegas, NV 3/24 MIM Phoenix, AZ Read More
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One of the UK’s best musical imports is actually their re-tooling of an original American art form—
Especially since the 1960’s, the UK’s finest acts (Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, etc.) have taken traditional American blues music, re-interpreted things in their own way, and given it back to America, with great success. Blues rock guitarist Joanne Shaw Taylor is one of the more recent of that grand tradition, playing to a capacity crowd at Vieux Carre in downtown St. Paul.
The venue itself is a quaint below-ground supper club in the century-old Hamm Building with a New Orleans theme, formerly known as The Artists’ Quarter until acquired in 2015 by crosstown legendary Dakota Jazz Club. With a capacity of about 150 and good sightlines throughout its single level, it’s a rare chance to experience a pretty intimate show. The one drawback might be being too close to the central bar, as you’ll occasionally hear cocktails shaken, drink orders shouted, and plates clinking intermittently.
Taylor has become a formidable name on the blues rock scene, getting a big break in her teens from Dave (Eurhythmics) Stewart and has six solo albums under her belt, including late 2016’s Wild (on Axehouse Music) recorded in Nashville and produced by acclaimed rock producer, Kevin “Caveman” Shirley.
In concert for ninety-minutes, Taylor was cool and relaxed, playing with creatively-named bassist Luigi Casanova and drummer Oliver Perry, though missing a keyboardist who they usually tour with in Europe, and started out by reacquainting herself with the audience with a trio of tunes from 2014- ‘Mud, Honey’, ‘Outlaw Angel’, and ‘Wrecking Ball’.
‘Tried, Tested & True’ was written about a breakup, though she cautioned herself aloud about revealing too much about the story, with the advent of YouTube and other social media, her slightly raspy voice and riffs accentuating the tone of the song. Taylor, while tuning up, also gave shout-outs to local heroes Jonny Lang and Shannon Curfman for inspiring her before lighting into a rolling ‘Jump That Train’.
Going back to her first album, Taylor covered UK 90’s Blues band The Hoax’ on ‘Bones’ mentioning it was of the few bands in the genre she heard, growing up in the Black Country of the West Midlands, whilst absolutely shredding the mid-song solo.
“Thanks for not going to the sports game tonight, by the way” Taylor said between songs (referring to the wildly popular high school state hockey tournament held nearby), “I don’t know what it was… but there was every man and his dog out in some jersey”, not wanting to reveal which hockey team she supports, but noting she’s lived in Detroit for the last decade.
Her former bass player (and FOH soundman) jumped on stage to add a welcomed second guitar to new tracks ‘Dyin’ to Know’ and the single-worthy mid-tempo ‘No Reason to Stay’ and the main set ended with 2012’s ‘Tied & Bound’ and a howling solo from Taylor, but the now-standing applauding crowd demanded one more.
For the encore, things got a bit swampy and funky with the opening riff from the appropriate ‘Going Home’, getting everyone clapping along and the song picking up momentum as it went along, with Taylor effortlessly showing how much sound she could manage from her Fender six-string as she sang “I’m going home to rest my soul”.
With a modern blues rock guitar sound akin to Jonny Lang, Eric Gales, and Robert Cray, Joanne Shaw Taylor shows that the blues still lives and breathes, with one foot in the past of the Delta and American south, and other foot in the UK Midlands to be adapted and reborn, as vibrant as ever.
(click on any photo below to enlarge and see full image)
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