Joanne Shaw Taylor – Shepherds Bush Empire, London – 19th November 2014

Joanne Shaw Taylor

Bernie Marsden

Tonight’s support act was former Whitesnake guitarist, Bernie Marsden.  He plays a mainly acoustic set alongside one other musician, Jim Kirkpatrick (also on guitar).  He kicks off with “Linin’ track” and”Wedding day”, both from his new album, Shine, but it’s not long before he’s onto some Whitesnake material, which understandably goes down extremely well.  It’s great watching and listening to Bernie play acoustic guitar, but it’s not till “Ain’t gonna cry no more” that he switches to his twin neck electric guitar, and that was a real pleasure to see him play.  A Fleetwood Mac cover (Dragonfly) comes next – it’s a song that is on his new album and was originally planned to be recorded with peter Green.  Bernie switched back to the acoustic guitar for the final song of the set – another Whitesnake cover, “Here I go again”.  A great set.

Bernie Marsden setlist:

Linin’ track
Wedding day
Till the day I die
Who do we think we are
Ain’t no love in the heart of the city
Ain’t gonna cry no more
Dragonfly
Here I go again

Joanne Shaw Taylor kicked off her set with a song from her new album (The dirty truth) – “Mud honey” – the first of five songs from the new album.
With tonight being a seated gig, the atmosphere was suprisingly good – generally the atmosphere at seated gigs seems fairly flat, but she’s so good at what she does that the atmosphere was very good as fans were spellbound by her superb guitar playing.

Part way through her set Bernie Marsden joined her for two songs – the Whitesnake cover “walking in the shadow of the blues”, where they both played guitar and Bernie did vocals and “Let it burn”where Joanne took over on vocals.  Watching the two of them playing together you could see she was really enjoying herself – she normally looks happy as she plays but tonight took it to another level as she couldnt stop smiling.

Joanne’s set tonight gave fans a good selection of songs from the new album but didnt neglect her other albums, with songs tonight coming from all four of her albums, and that’s as well as the Whitesnake cover.

Joanne Shaw Taylor really is a superb blues guitarist, and is a pleasure to watch as you can see the passion she puts into her playing. Some guitarists pretty much stand and play and don’t look that excited, but Joanne really does put a lot into her playing and you can see how much she’s enjoying herself as she plays.  If you’re a fan of the blues then Joanne Shaw Taylor is a musician you should definitely go and see.

Joanne Shaw Taylor setlist:

Mud honey
Just another word
Watch ’em burn
Jealousy
Diamonds in the dirt
Wrecking ball
Tried, tested and true
Walking in the shadow of the blues
Let it burn
Tied and bound
Going home

Encore:
The dirty truth

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About Ant May

I spend half my life at gigs or festivals and the other half writing the reviews and editing photos, and somehow find time for a full time job too. Who needs sleep - I've got coffee.