Joanne Shaw Taylor: Heavy Soul

Since guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Joanne Shaw Taylor effectively recapitulated her roots on Blues From the Heart Live (Keeping The Blues Alive, 2022) she has earnestly endeavored to expand her style. In no short order later that same year, a more pop-oriented and highly-polished studio outing arrived in the form of Nobody's Fool (Keeping The Blues Alive, 2022), thereby setting the stage for the Brit's second outing with producer Kevin Shirley, who also oversaw Wild (Axehouse, 2016).

The high-fashion poses of these two album covers, with the guitar set off to the side, are emblematic of the music. It should thus come as little surprise Taylor is somewhat tentative in this genre exercise hearkening to r&b and soul: she. strains for authenticity at times, so much so it occurs that shortfall that might have been avoided by working at at Royal Studios in Memphis, Tennessee like her kindred spirit (once of Free and Bad Company) Paul Rodgers did with The Royal Sessions (429 Records, 2014). In the end, however, it is a wise decision to season her own slate of originals with outside material from composing stylists of the vaunted Philly sound Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff.

It is a brave move indeed for Taylor to cover "Drowning In A Sea Of Love," but she handles the 1971 hit with as much reverence as affection, right down to her understated guitar solo. In that sense, the arrangement is not all that far removed from her own tunes like "Sweet Li'l Lies" (not the Fleetwood Mac number), where Kim Fleming, Devonne Fowlkes, Jade MacRae, & Dannielle DeAndrea add backing vocals to accentuate a legitimate gospel undercurrent.

In an arrangement that features acoustic guitars and Jimmy Wallace's organ playing to offset the sharp electric guitar playing, their dulcet tones also grace the Joan Armatrading tune "All The Way From America." However, the group singing does become a bit forced on "Black Magic;" better to highlight the snappy guitars to thereby give the cut the distinctive imprimatur of Taylor herself.

Such is also the case with "The Devil In Me." The crunch coming from the fretboard is too often camouflaged on that selection where a more straightforward blues-rock approach would be preferable. The overly busy arrangement of "Change of Heart" might better have been streamlined more than a little, too; applied thus judiciously, the stripped-down approach would more vividly highlight what a contrast is Heavy Soul to earlier Joanne Taylor records like Reckless Heart (Silvertone/Sony, 2019).

Almost as varied as the underlying eclectic approach, the technical resources for this project almost outweigh the sometimes anonymous musicianship (the otherwise singular guitar talents of Doug Lancio included). Shirley mixed the bulk of the LP upon completion of recording at the famous RCA Studio A in Nashville, leaving four tracks to be handled by Bob Clearmountain (the equally illustrious Bob Ludwig mastered the entirety of this album at his Gateway Mastering in Portland, ME).

None of those stellar engineers applies too much gloss. Nonetheless, the lush production is a bit of overkill on the soporific likes of the Van Morrison ballad "Someone Like You." Otherwise, the nuances of Anton Fig's percussion touches and the sultry vocal phrasing of Taylor herself are readily apparent in cuts such as "A Good Goodbye."

Rather than cosmetically alter her innate talents, as happens a bit too often on this LP as well as its predecessor, the musician discovered by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics has a right to display confidence in them. She has already proven to have processed her fundamental influences and at this point should revel in their legitimacy..

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