Joanne Shaw Taylor to stop by WNPAC on tour

Joanne Shaw Taylor will be performing March 29, 2023, at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center. (Courtesy Photo)

Growing up in the U.K. during the 90s, most of Joanne Shaw Taylor’s classmates were listening to the Spice Girls.

However, Taylor was one of the few students listening to Texas blues music and dreaming of performing in the United States.

Over 20 years later, she’s living that dream.

Still only in her 30s, Taylor has become one of the most sought-after guitarists in the world of rock and next week, she’ll make her way to the Permian Basin.

Taylor will be making at stop on her current tour in Midland with a concert starting at 8 p.m. March 29 at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center.

“I’m super excited to be coming to West Texas,” Taylor said in a phone interview. “I actually lived in Houston for a while. It’s been a long time since I’ve been back to Texas. I think I did Dallas and Austin with Devin Allman at the end of 2021 but it’s going to be the first time that I’ve been back in that state so I’m really looking forward to coming back.”

Taylor lived in Houston (off and on) for about four years, specifically in the suburb Spring.

However, that was about a decade ago as she now resides in Nashville, Tenn. But she’s always had a deep love for the Lone Star State.

“I grew up listening to Texas blues so it’s always had a special place in my heart,” Taylor said.

Taylor launched her tour March 19 at Bilheimer Capitol Theatre in Clearwater, Fla.

Her tour will take her throughout the southeast and then Texas, California, the Pacific Northwest, Idaho and Colorado before wrapping up in Missouri.

“I’m really looking forward to this tour,” Taylor said. “We had a great tour last year in the states and in the UK. We’re kind of a new-ish band but we’re getting along great. The shows have been fantastic. We’ve been dying to get back out. I’m looking forward to getting back out there.”

Taylor was discovered by Dave Stewart of the Eurthymics at the age of 16, who having watched her play, immediately invited her on the road with his super group D.U.O. Before too long, a career in music was born.

In the preceding years, her guitar playing saw her build an army of plaudits including Jimmy Cliff, Joe Bonamassa, Stevie Wonder and Annie Lennox.

Taylor grew up in West Midlands County, England where she was inspired to play the blues after hearing Stevie Ray Vaughan, Albert Collins and Jimi Hendrix.

“I had been playing classical guitar but loved playing guitar, not so much classical guitar,” Taylor said of her early years. “My dad showed me Stevie Ray Vaughan Live in Austin at Austin City Limits and that was it. That’s what I wanted to do. Very early on, I listened to the Texas blues and Fred King as well as ZZ Top. That was it really for me.”

Taylor talked about the music scene in the U.K. where she grew up.

“The good thing is that where I grew up is that it has a really good music scene, not necessarily for blues but it’s like the Detroit of England,” Taylor said. “You had Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath and Judas Priest. It was kind of the industrial part of the UK. It was definitely a good music scene. It was a little weird because I was a girl growing up in the 90s and the Spice Girls were popular. It was nice though. There was musical heritage there even though not many kids at my school were listening to it.”

Taylor released her first full album on Ruf Records entitled “White Sugar” in 2009.

Over the next few years, she released critically acclaimed albums including her sophomore album “Diamonds in the Dirt” in 2010, “Almost Always Never” in 2012 which featured the U.K. radio hit “Soul Station,” plus her final album from Ruf Records “Songs from the Road” in 2013.

In 2014, she released her fourth studio album “The Dirty Truth” on Axelhouse records that featured the singles “Mud, Honey” and “Wicked Soul.”

In 2016, Taylor followed up with the release of her fifth album “Wild” which saw her perform songs “Dyin’ To Know” and “Summertime” on BBC Two Television’s popular music show “Later with Jools Holland.”

Taylor has proven herself as a prolific songwriter, releasing acclaimed albums under her belt with 2019’s “Reckless Heart” breaking into the U.K. Top 20 Album Chart and cementing herself as one of the top exports in British blues-rock.

“The Blues Album,” produced by Bonamassa and Josh Smith at Oceanway Recording Studios in Nashville, marked her seventh studio album and was her first released on Bonamassa’s independent label KTBA Records in 2021.

The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Blues Charts.

In 2022, Taylor received her second No. 1 Billboard Blues Album with “Blues From The Heart Live” which was also released on KTBA records.

Her most recent album “Nobody’s Fool” was released on Oct. 28 last year which featured Bonamassa, Stewart, Tina Guo and Carmen Vandenburg.

“This is one that I recorded in Los Angeles with Joe Bonamassa,” Taylor said of her recent album. “It’s 11 original tracks. It was a really fun album to make. … It was kind of a different album for me. It was nice to do one where I can do whatever I wanted really and explore and mess around with songwriting. It was a fun album to make. I’m really pleased with it.”

However, there were still some challenges in putting the album together.

“To be brutally honest, it was a time thing because Joe and I started working together in COVID when we both weren’t touring and when we started touring again, both our tours are busy so that made it a challenge to write it quick and getting in there and putting it together,” Taylor said. “Fortunately, the timing was on our side. Also, my friend Carmen Vandenburg and Dave Stewart were in L.A. at the time so they were able to guest star for us. Making albums is always a challenge when you tour as much as we do. But it was a great experience.”

Taylor talked about the songwriting process of “Nobody’s Fool.”

“For this one, I pretty much locked myself away and I enjoyed writing this album,” Taylor said. “I think that was because I hadn’t written an album since 2018 so it was really nice to get back to it. The reason why I did blues covers during COVID was because I didn’t have anything to write about. I hadn’t been doing anything accept sitting at home and watching Downtown Abbey so it was nice to get back to it. The process is that I sat down with an acoustic guitar and didn’t have a particular idea in my mind about the genre. It was fun to sit down and find the catchy melodies for each song. I had a great time with it. It was a nice experiment.”

She doesn’t get to go back to the U.K. as much as she did before COVID but Taylor still finds time each year to visit family.

“I went back more-so before COVID because that shut down international travel for awhile,” Taylor said. “Obviously, everyone’s just getting back to touring. I did get to go back twice last year and hopefully, I’ll get to go back twice this year. Usually, if we do a tour, we look at going in the summer and I’ll get to see my dad and family. I get to go back though not as some people who live abroad get to see their family.”

She’s also eager to be back on the road, performing.

“I think all tour musicians joke that when they’re at home, they want to be on the road and when they’re on the road, they want to be at home,” Taylor said while laughing. “I’m super glad to be back to touring after COVID.”

If you go

  • What: Joanne Shaw Taylor.
  • When: 8 p.m. March 29.
  • Where: Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center.
  • Where to purchase tickets: tinyurl.com/4xj65s4m