Joanne Shaw Taylor was on tour when I reached her in Hobart, Indiana, already building anticipation for a new album due later this year. At the time of our conversation, she had just unveiled two advance singles, “Hell Or High Water” and “What Good Is My Love,” both of which had already been warmly received by fans.
“That’s always lovely to hear, that people are enjoying it,” Joanne told me. “That’s the reason I do it.”
Joanne is widely regarded as one of today’s premier contemporary blues-rock guitarists. Her single “What Good Is My Love” features a solo by Orianthi, another formidable player in her own right. What was it like for the two to work together?
“Disappointingly, we didn’t actually get to be in the same room for it,” Joanne said. “Ori’s in LA so she put it down out there. But I was just thrilled she agreed to do it. We’d been talking for a long time. We’ve been friends but we never go to work together.”
“What Good Is My Love” carries a pop-funk sensibility that fits naturally within Joanne’s songwriting and vocal strengths, yet the guitar solo pushes the song into another dimension. “You never want to put a solo on something just for the sake of it,” she said. “I felt it was a bit out of my wheelhouse being more of a traditional blues guitarist. So I thought of (Orianthi) because she is far more versatile than I am. And I love what she has done on the track. And it was exactly what I wanted.”
The subject of “What Good Is My Love” is unrequited love, “one of the worst kinds of love.” Despite the heavy subject matter, the song is an upbeat pop anthem of sorts. The kind that “everybody sort of screams,” Joanne hopes. “That way they get a bit of therapy from shouting ‘What good is my love?’ I hope anyway.”
Since we spoke, a third single – “The Trouble With Love” – has been released. Like its predecessors, the subject of the new single is love. The new album in fact explores all the different types of love. “How many hundreds of years have we been writing songs about this thing?” Joanne asked rhetorically. “It’s the foundation of life, I think, that makes life worth living, isn’t it? Whether love is a deep friendship, or a romantic love, or the love of something.
“And it is the one thing we can all relate to,” she added. “No matter where you come from or what generation you are, your political leanings, how you physically look, or what language you speak, it’s something we all deal with.”
In the course of our conversation, Joanne mentioned not only Orianthi but also Samantha Fish as accomplished female guitarists. There are many female great guitarists today from Bonnie Raitt to Susan Tedeschi to Ana Popovic. The list is a long one.
Such was not always the case. What changed? Or has it changed?
“I think it’s changed a bit,” Joanne said after pondering the question. “I always thought people look for themselves in their heroes. Something that makes you say, ‘I want to be like that guy!’ Which is kind of weird for a thirteen year old English girl to say of a 30 year old Texan man.” That 30-year-old Texan guy in Joanne’s case was Stevie Ray Vaughn. “I was always a bit of a tomboy,” she said laughingly.
“But by and large I think when people go and watch someone there has got to be a bit of that hero worship there. And men are more likely to worship someone like Joe Bonamassa. And I think it is always going to be a bit hard for men to hero-worship women because they can’t see themselves in that artist.”
If there has been a change it likely is the fact there are more women in the audience these days. Joanne says, “My audience is now 60/40 or 50/50 male to female where back in the day it was 100% male. And I think that it is lovely that women have more artists to look up to. There are more female guitarists to look up to.”
Despite accolades for her singing and accomplishments as a guitarist, Joanne is most thankful for her ability to write songs.
“I’ve always considered myself very lucky to be able to write songs,” she said. “For me, I’m not sure I could be just a guitar player or singer. I think having that vehicle to really express myself – in story if you want – is really the whole benefit for me. You know most people have to pay for therapists to discuss these things; I get to sit down and write something about it, and not only process it and it makes me feel better and understand it more. But I also have this little creative three or four minute thing I can go and share with other people.”
Joanne’s new album is as yet untitled and a release date has not been announced. In the meantime, she is finishing up her U.S. Spring Tour and will be off on a European Tour for the month of May. She will return for some festivals in the U.S. in June.
In the meantime, you can listen to “What Good Is My Love” right here.
