Joanne Shaw Taylor

British blues-rock artist Joanne Shaw Taylor performs as guitarist, vocalist, and composer. She has worked professionally since turning 14, drawing on classic soul alongside the electric blues approach of Jimi Hendrix, Albert Collins, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. That exceptional facility earned her the lead-guitar chair in Dave Stewart’s D.U.P. at 16. Her first solo outing, the 2009 album White Sugar, and the 2010 follow-up Diamonds in the Dirt both reached the Top Ten of the American blues charts, spreading her name worldwide. In 2012 she served as lead guitarist beside Annie Lennox at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee concert. Taylor issued 2014’s Dirty Truth and 2016’s Wild on her own Axe House Music imprint. The 2019 set Reckless Heart was tracked in her adopted city of Detroit with producer Al Sutton for the Silvertone label. Two years later she joined Joe Bonamassa’s KTBA Records roster; Bonamassa and guitarist Josh Smith produced the resulting covers collection at Ocean Way Studios in Nashville. Released as The Blues Album, the project placed Taylor at the front of an all-star ensemble. She issued the concert recording Blues from the Heart Live in 2022.

Taylor entered the world in the West Midlands in 1986. Both her father and her brother played guitar, while her mother, a dancer, favored Northern Soul. Taylor sang and played from an early age, then discovered the blues as a young teenager after encountering recordings by Stevie Ray Vaughan, Albert Collins, and Jimi Hendrix; those sounds determined the direction she would take. By 11 she was performing in bands, and by 13 she fronted her own. At 14 she toured Britain, headlining venues including Ronnie Scott’s and the Marquee. Two years later, while appearing at a festival, she was spotted by Stewart, a longtime blues enthusiast who had produced the film Deep Blues. Impressed by her command of the instrument, he invited her to join D.U.P. for its European tour, where she played lead guitar alongside Jimmy Cliff, Mud Bone Cooper, and Candy Dulfer. Stewart offered her a recording contract, yet the label soon collapsed.

In May 2009 the 23-year-old Taylor signed with Germany’s Ruf Records and delivered her debut, White Sugar, produced by Jim Gaines. Memphis veterans Steve Potts on drums and Dave Smith on bass backed her. The album received immediate praise, climbed the blues charts, and reached number eight in the United States. She also received the British Blues Award for Best Female Vocalist. For her first major American tour she recruited longtime associate Paul Lamb and the Detroit Breakdown as her rhythm section, then relocated to Detroit once the dates ended. She reunited with Gaines for 2010’s Diamonds in the Dirt, again using the same core band plus keyboardist Rick Steff. That release also landed inside the U.S. Top Ten and earned her another Best Female Vocalist trophy plus Songwriter of the Year for “Same as It Never Was.” Subsequent international dates featured sold-out festival appearances.

In 2012 Taylor shared the stage with Annie Lennox at Buckingham Palace for Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee. She next released her third album, Almost Always Never, produced by Mike McCarthy of Spoon. The record mixed eleven original songs that balanced modern blues, R&B, and hard rock with a cover of Frankie Miller’s “Jealousy,” finishing just outside the American Top Ten. The live set Songs from the Road appeared in 2013, closing her Ruf tenure. She launched Axehouse Music to issue The Dirty Truth the following year. After nearly eight months on the road she returned to the studio for 2016’s Wild, cut in Nashville with producer Kevin Shirley and an expanded lineup that added a second guitarist and backing vocalists; the album became her first to enter the U.K. Top 20.

She signed with Sony’s revived Silvertone imprint in 2018 and recorded 2019’s Reckless Heart in Detroit at Rust Belt Studios with producer Al Sutton, a veteran Motor City rhythm section, string quartet, and backing singers. Sutton encouraged her to track the album live on the studio floor to preserve her stage energy. The release reached number four on the Blues Albums chart and number 20 on the mainstream U.K. Albums chart. Once touring concluded, COVID-19 restrictions sent her back to Detroit, where she recorded and issued the digital Reckless Blues EP from her home studio in 2020. Its lead track, the soulful “Human,” received airplay on rock, Americana, and blues stations.

Taylor then joined Joe Bonamassa’s Keeping the Blues Alive label. Bonamassa helped her fulfill a long-standing goal of making a covers album. Together with guitarist Josh Smith he assembled a notable cast at Nashville’s Ocean Way Studio that included keyboardist Reese Wynans, drummer Greg Morrow, bassist Steve Mackey, and a horn section. Smith and Bonamassa contributed guitar, the latter also duetting on “Don’t Go Away Mad.” Issued in September 2021 as The Blues Album, the eleven-song set drew material linked to Albert King, Aretha Franklin, Peter Green, Little Richard, Magic Sam, and others. Its first charting single was a version of Maurice Dollison’s “Let Me Down Easy,” originally associated with Little Milton.

In January Taylor and her road band performed, filmed, and recorded a show at The Franklin Theatre near Nashville, with guest appearances by Bonamassa, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and Mike Farris. The resulting audio, titled Blues from the Heart Live, was packaged with a video disc and released in October 2022.