JOANNE SHAW TAYLOR INTERVIEW

Hello Joanne, how are you doing today?

Joanne Shaw: I’m good, how are you doing?

I’m doing pretty well. Thank you for taking the time and speaking with me today. I saw that you just started the North American tour. How’s that going so far?

Joanne Shaw: It’s good, we’ve just done one fly-out, we kind of start up on March 13 on the job on a Master Cruise but the first show was good and you know, just nice to get back out there.

That sounds super awesome.

Joanne Shaw: It is, it doesn’t suck.

So what are your next dates looking like?

Joanne Shaw: So we start on the job on a Master Cruise on March 13th on that for five days and then when we get back we start in Clearwater on the 19th of March and we finish in St. Louis on the 14th of April I think, there’s a lot of dates I forget.

Yeah, that’s awesome. I think I saw that you guys were playing in Phoenix at some point.

Joanne Shaw: Yeah, that’s correct. We’re playing there, I’d have to check but yes we are coming to Phoenix.

At the Celebrity Theater, correct?

Joanne Shaw: That’s right.

Actually, I’ve never been to that venue before

Joanne Shaw: No, I never have been so I’m looking forward to it. I haven’t played Phoenix for a long time, so looking forward to getting back over there.

Yeah, I hope I get to catch the show.

Joanne Shaw: Yeah, come on out, it would be good.

I would like to ask you a few questions about how you got started with playing music and guitar. So you got discovered by Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics?

Joanne Shaw: Yeah, I started gigging when I was about 14, and when I was 15 I was doing a charity show “The United Breast Cancer”, which my mom had at the time and one of Dave’s friends was there. I’ve done a little demo cd which he took and passed on to Dave, and then the next thing I knew I was meeting Dave and finding his record label. So exciting times.

Yeah, that’s pretty cool. He actually liked what you were doing and everything.

Joanne Shaw: Yeah, I mean especially at 15, you know. It was nice to have that kind of support.

So what started first for you, playing guitar or singing?

Joanne Shaw: It was the guitar. My dad played guitar, my older brother and it was just a lot of music in the house, a lot of blues rock, a lot of classic rock. Yeah, I was just obsessed with it from a young age, started playing classical when I was eight, and then I was 13 I got a Stevie Ray Vaughan video. I just became obsessed with blues and I begged my dad for an electric guitar and the rest is kind of history as they say. I just did it as much as I could.

So Joe Bonamassa played in one of the songs in your latest album, “Won’t Be Fooled Again”. How how did that come about?

Joanne Shaw: Well, Joe produced the album. So he was obviously in the studio and I’d written that song. you know it’s kind of an eighties pop vibe and was trying to do the solo on it and realized it would be really nice if you know someone like Joe, who is a very different player to me could add something to it. So I asked him if we could kind of do it like a duet, which fortunately he said yes and he played some great stuff on it. So I’m really glad he said yes.

Yeah. I actually heard the record a couple of days ago and I really like it, it was really good.

Joanne Shaw: Thank you very much.

I really like that Classic Rock/Blues style, I like that you mixed it into the whole record. Well, that’s your style. It’s really, really good. You wrote all the songs on this new album except for “Missionary Man”. Am I correct?

Joanne Shaw: Yeah. Apart from those two, “Missionary Man” and “New Love” and then I either wrote the rest or co-wrote them.

Okay, that’s really cool. And this is your ninth studio album?

Joanne Shaw: Number nine.

That’s really amazing.  If you were to choose someone to tour with, who would you choose?

Joanne Shaw: I got a few. I would love to tour with Bonnie Raitt. I’d like to tour with my good friend Sam Fish, who I think is amazing and we’re really good friends. So that would be awesome. Who else? I don’t know, I always used to say Prince, but obviously, I’m guessing that’s not gonna happen anymore. It might be a bit impossible. I love Pink, she is one of my favorite singers. I might not be the right opening band for her, but it would be a fun show to see every night.

Yeah, that would be nice if you could maybe do some type of collaboration with her in the future.

Joanne Shaw: I would love to.

I hear that she’s open to a lot of like music styles.

Joanne Shaw: Yeah, she does a lot of collaborations. I’m not sure if I’m on her list but I would certainly jump at the opportunity.