ALBUM REVIEW: Joanne Shaw Taylor, Heavy Soul

Journeyman Records

This follow up to Nobody’s Fool sees Joanne reunited with renowned producer Kevin Shirley for the first time since 2016’s Wild album. Surrounded by a formidable band of musicians including heavy hitting Anton Fig on drums and the cream of Nashville’s session players Allison Prestwood (bass), Rob McNelly (gtr), Jimmy Wallace (keys) and Doug Lancio (rhythm gtr) Joanne has managed to marry together the growing songwriting skills shown on Nobody’s Fool with her undoubted soulful blues guitar prowess. This is an album that will please and excite fans of both sides of her talents. The shimmering guitar intro of Sweet Lil Lies hints at the treasures to come. A song about the resignation of a lost love, a little bit of a theme throughout, but a bona-fide rocker that builds to a big finale. The track also gives us some wonderful piano from Wallace, a feature on more tracks skilfully planted across the album. Next up is the first of three covers, Joan Armatrading’s All The Way From America. Not an obvious choice but one that Joanne executes superbly, nailing the essence of the song vocally. Black Magic is up next and kicks into a Mississippi Hill Country vibe with Joanne clearly having fun. Some top-class backing vocals and quality piano throw in a late-night bar feel with a guitar outro the icing on the cake. Drowning In A Sea Of Love was originally recorded by Joe South and is an emotionally charged love song that isn’t for the faint hearted to cover, but again Joanne nails it, ably assisted by her band and backing singers and treating us to a crisp sharp guitar break. A Good Goodbye finds us in more soulful territory and highlights that facet of Joannes vocal and guitar abilities. Things crank up again on Heavy Soul, a song that shows defiance and standing strong in the face of adversity. It has a great beat and tempo plus a catchy chorus that leads us into a crescendo of an outro that I can imagine stretching out into a live favourite.

The first single from the album was Wild Love and it’s easy to see why, a shimmery guitar driven rocky blues that makes your foot tap and sing along through to the end. The third cover on the album is the wonderful ballad Somewhere Like You by Van Morrison. Jimmy Wallace excels on piano, and the band give the song the width and epic-ness it demands, and Joanne puts huge emotion into the heartfelt soul-searching lyrics. The perfect antidote to that soul searching is a bit of rock n roll and it’s dished up on Devil In Me. A straight-ahead guitar lead head shaker, another potential live favourite. We close with the slower Change Of Heart. It’s a superbly written love song that perfectly counter points opener Sweet Lil Lies and underlines the theme hidden within the album. Joanne captures the emotion of the lyric with aplomb and provides us with a lovely guitar break just to remind us she is very capable of both. There have been some great JST albums, and this one is among the best in my opinion, and it really does reward repeated listening as all the best albums do.

STEVE YOURGLIVCH