The talented blues guitarist Joanne Shaw Taylor is back on the road promoting her new album ‘Nobody’s Fool, and last Thursday visited the intimate Tyne Theatre & Opera House in Newcastle.

The new album was produced by her old friend and mentor Joe Bonamassa, so as you might expect it has great pedigree and delivers the goods.

From the start Taylor and her tight four-piece band were on fire, as she made her guitar sing on tracks like opening number a cover of Peter Green’s ‘Stop Messin’ Round’. You can tell how much the music means to Taylor from the joyous grin that was evident whenever her face emerged from behind her curtain of blonde hair.

Many songs in the first half of the set came from ‘The Blues Album’, her 2021 release of blues covers. She handles these with aplomb, not just with wild proficiency but with genuine passion for the music and her husky voice is ideally suited to the material. This was evident on songs like ‘If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody’ and ‘Let Me Down Easy’ and on Albert King’s ‘Can’t You See What You’re Doing to Me’.

Some of the new songs on ‘Nobody’s Fool’ have quite a rockier/poppier direction – perhaps a Joe Bonamassa influence – but Taylor is not averse to dipping into pop having previously covered David Bowie’s ‘Wild Is the Wind’ and the Eurythmics track ‘Missionary Man’ on the new album. Combine this direction with her established blues playing and soulful voice and you get quite a heady mix, certainly her most diverse album to date.

The country tinged ‘Bad Blood’ preceded ‘Dyin’ to Know’ which was a welcome visit to the ‘Wild’ album, although sadly it was the only number played from it and so one of my favourites, ‘No Reason to Stay’, didn’t make the evening’s setlist.

Taylor revisited her debut album ‘White Sugar’ giving us three tracks, a fiery ‘Watch ‘em Burn’, ‘Just Another Word’ and ‘Going Home’. A blistering encore included ‘Mud, Honey’ from ‘The Dirty Truth’ album which delivered a wall of glorious sound and brought a terrific evening of blues guitar music to a close.

Performing an opening set was Jon Allen, a talented singer/songwriter with a great whisky-soaked voice. Allen’s set included ‘Bad Penny’ and the title track from his ‘Dead Man’s Suit’ album, as well as ‘Lucky I Guess’ and ‘No One Gets Out of Here Alive from ‘Sweet Defeat’. If you’re going to see JST, be sure to get the early to catch his set.

If you enjoy blues music and have not yet had the chance to catch Taylor in concert, do yourself a favour and take the opportunity to rectify it. Consider it an early Christmas present to yourself. Her remaining dates visit Milton Keynes (5 Dec), Portsmouth (7 Dec), Stroud (9 Dec), Ipswich (10 Dec), High Wycombe (11 Dec).

Review & Photos by David Dunn