The acclaimed guitarist and singer, Joanne Shaw Taylor, returns to The Queen’s Hall with fan favourites and a nod to David Bowie’s Wild Is the Wind.
The British blues guitarist, now based in America, brings 25 years of blues and rock ’n’ roll to Edinburgh this week, performing her high-energy set at The Queen’s Hall. She was discovered as a teenager by Dave Stewart of Eurythmics, and has since earned plaudits from Stevie Wonder and the late Jimmy Cliff.
She has built a reputation as a guitarist of authority and a singer whose voice carries real weight and grain. Her vocal style recalls early Rod Stewart and Glasgow’s Frankie Miller, singers for whom grit was never an affectation. On her latest album, Taylor delivers a spine-tingling version of the Faces’ “Love Lives Here”, from 1971’s A Nod Is As Good As A Wink…to a Blind Horse.
“I like to think there’s some working-class grit in the voice, like Rod,” she says. “Along with Tina Turner, he’s probably my favourite singer. I love singers who come from what I’d call a blues background.” She recalls meeting Stewart backstage at a festival in 2019. “He was the headliner, but he was the first person to come out and say hello, asking if anyone wanted a picture. I ended up seeing his dressing room. It was head to toe in Celtic scarves and photos. He’s not faking it as a Celtic fan,” she laughs.
She also pays tribute to Scottish blues singer, Frankie Miller, whom Rod Stewart once described as “the only white singer to bring a tear to my eye.” Taylor’s version of the 1982 cut “Jealousy,” from her 2012 album Almost Always Never, is a song she is considering bringing back into her set. “A friend suggested I sing that track,” she says. “I’d like to bring it back into the set, but it’s a really big song to sing. Frankie Miller is not a name you hear often, but he’s one of the best singers we’ve had, alongside Steve Marriott, Paul Rodgers and Rod Stewart.”
In the current setlist, Taylor will perform “Wild Is the Wind” in Edinburgh, almost fifty years to the day since David Bowie released his version on Station to Station. Written in 1957 by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington for a film of the same name, the song passed through Johnny Mathis and Nina Simone before Bowie made it his own.
“When I was finishing my album Wild, the producer asked me to record it during a midnight session,” Taylor says. “I thought, ‘How the hell am I going to sing this?’ It’s kind of jazz, and I’m used to singing blues. I think we did a good version, but I grew into it. Now it’s my favourite song to sing. I loved Bowie, so it’s a little nod to him.”
Her tenth studio album, Black & Gold, released last summer, was met with a strong critical response. Built on blues rock but unwilling to sit comfortably inside it, the record delivered the heartfelt country-tinged ballad “Grayer Shade of Blue”, which has since become a fan favourite. The Edinburgh date marks the first chance for Scottish audiences to hear the new material live.
“We didn’t come to Scotland on the last run,” Taylor says. “We’ve freshened things up for the audience, and for ourselves. Scottish crowds are more rowdy from the get-go. There’s an attitude of, ‘Let’s do this.’ It’s an extra kind of vibe.” There is a personal pull too. Although originally from the Midlands, Taylor’s grandfather was Scottish. “I’m told it’s a Scottish tradition to take the mother’s maiden name as a middle name. My name is not double-barrelled; it comes from that. I’ll have a day off before the gig in Edinburgh, so I’ll get to wander around the city. My parents used to take me when I was twelve to The Fringe. It felt like going to a mythological city, especially as I grew up with Harry Potter.”
Taylor began playing classical guitar at school, passing an audition for the Birmingham Youth Ensemble before discovering electric blues and saving for her first proper instrument with some help from her grandmother. She began playing live at fourteen, eventually buying a Fender Esquire from Denmark Street in London.
“I still use that guitar,” she says. “Junior is my main guitar on every album. I talk about him like he’s a living thing.” A close friend and mentor is blues singer and guitarist Joe Bonamassa, who produced The Blues Album during the 2020 pandemic. It was also the first of four albums on his record label, Keeping The Blues Alive. Recorded while both were off the road, the project deepened a long-standing musical relationship. “We had to take the friendship out of it and just do the job,” Taylor says. “But when you trust someone that much, it becomes fun.”
Joanne Shaw Taylor’s sense of purpose when playing and singing is undeniable. Few working-class players today can answer the vocation with such authority, not because of talent but because the industry rarely gives them the space or support to do so. Her lyrics, playing, and experience now stretch over a quarter of a century of a life dedicated to music without gimmick or artifice.
Joanne Shaw Taylor will play The Queen’s Hall on 25 January for more information, visit thequeenshall.net
