If you think about it, Joanne Shaw Taylor really had no choice in her career path. She was born in the West Midlands region of the UK near Birmingham. Musically, that’s hallowed ground. It’s the same area of the country that gave us Ozzy, Stevie Winwood, Christine McVie, Joan Armatrading and Robert Plant. “I’m not quite on that level.” Joanne laughs while I make a mental note about her two previous chart-topping projects, then she adds, “But I’m definitely from a very historic musical place.” Taylor is not only fulfilling her own musical destiny, she’s upholding a national tradition and she’s doing it in record time. “I always make the comparison.” She says. “It’s like the Detroit of England, you know? It’s something about those industrial, working-class towns that really inspire good music.”

Her latest contribution entitled ‘Nobody’s Fool’ dropped late last year and it gives Taylor’s fans fresh perspective on her songwriting depth and the music she makes. I really like the new record. “Oh, thank you.” She says. “I always want to make the best album I can at the time that I’m making it and for me, it’s what feels natural. Whether that’s doing a traditional blues album or something different, I think if you do what feels right at the time, then you’re doing the right thing. I’ve always said that all my albums will be different but when you listen back to them as a catalogue they’ll always sound like they’re the same artist.”

I know that your father was a musician did you listen to and play music together as a family growing up? “Yeah, between my dad, my brother and me that’s three guitar players in the household… my poor mother.” (laughing) “Yeah, there was always music about. It was a very musical household; my mother was a dancer as well. There was always a record on, Ella Fitzgerald or a rock-a-billy band, certainly a love of music was encouraged.”

Did you always think that music would be your direction? “I think I always wanted it to be, I remember my dad bringing home a guitar for my brother and having guitars around the house from the age of six or seven and always feeling like it was something I wanted to do. I used to sneak into the room to play with them, so yeah I think I always kind of had an affinity for it.”

Taylor has mentioned in previous interviews the influences of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Albert Collins and Jimi Hendrix. So I was curious how a young person from West Midlands discovered artists from the other side of the globe? “It was my dad really, and his record collection. Yeah, the area he grew up in, the West Midlands particularly in the 60s there was a lot of classic rock, a lot of Hendrix, a lot of guitar players and the British blues explosion; just listening to all of that stuff. But it was really Stevie, who made me want to play guitar.”

You moved to Detroit in 2009, just as your debut album, ‘White Sugar’ was released. “Yeah, the summer of 2009.” What prompted that move and how do you handle the winters? “You go on tour!” (laughing) “You make sure you have a booking agent that knows to book a February tour in Florida. The main reason for moving here was I always wanted to live in the States. I mean, I wanted to be a blues guitarist and all my influences were American, pretty much at that time. So it made sense to be here and particularly just for touring. It’s such an easy place to tour because of the land mass, the population and how many cities there are as opposed to Europe, there are borders and it’s a little more difficult to tour through. So it just made sense and fortunately I was able to make it happen.”

Being the Motor City, do you think the Motown Sound influenced you in any way? “I think as a singer it has really helped me. I think I realized early on that all the influences I was listening to on guitar were male, so I could copy what they were doing on guitar and sound like them because it’s a gender-neutral instrument, but when I wanted to sing I was never going to be able to sound like Albert Collins or Freddie King so Motown and soul music gave me a lot of female influences that I was able to listen to… you know, Tina Turner and Mavis and Aretha.”

There seems to be a love of collaboration with other artists in your music, several tracks on the latest project highlight that, with Dave Stewart, Joe Bonamassa and especially Carmen Vandenberg. It seems that you and Carmen have a lot in common artistically. “Yeah, we do. And we’ve known each other for a long time; I actually met her through Dave Stewart. She was best friends with Dave’s youngest son, Django and I used to babysit them. I’ve known Carmen for years and we both ended up being guitar players… there’s so many male guitar players, but us girls kinda’ gotta’ stick together ’cause there’s not many of us out there.”

You and Joe Bonamassa collaborated as well. “We did, yeah I wrote a song ‘Won’t Be Fooled Again.’ It’s kind of an 80’s pop song and that’s how I wanted it to sound. I realized when I was doing the solo that Joe was playing some really lovely stuff that I wouldn’t have thought of playing; he has a different wheelhouse than me. It kind of organically became more of a duet than a solo. I just love what he plays on that and it turned out really, really well. And of course we had Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) on there, too.” For those not already aware, it was Dave Stewart that heard a teenaged Joanne play and recruited her into his group, D.U.P (Da Univerzal Playaz) A band that also included Jimmy Cliff, Candy Dulfer and Mudbone Cooper.

Let’s talk about songwriting, do you write with a guitar or do you have a process? “I do. I tend to write with a guitar, I tend to usually write with an acoustic and I have my routines. I sit with an acoustic and get the bulk of the music down and then start working on the chorus. I feel the chorus is the conclusion of the song, so it lets you know what you’re trying to say in your verses. That’s always been my technique.”

As you mature as a person, do you feel you’ve matured as a songwriter? “Definitely and for two reasons; what you just said. As you get older, you get more reflective and really I’m singing about the same subjects that I was singing about in my early 20s, but you’re singing with a different viewpoint of them now. Time softens the experience and also I think I felt a lot of pressure in my youth to write in a certain way. You’re doing 12 tracks so you have to have four up-tempo blues numbers and four mid-tempo whereas now, just write what’s best. Take the best songs and just record them.”

Before we get away from the collaboration aspect, is there anyone you haven’t worked with that you’d like to? “Yeah, actually there’s a few. Looking ahead to the next album, having written a lot of this album myself, I’m thinking more about working with some female artists that I really love. Because obviously we write from the same viewpoint it can be easier sometimes and simply because I’m a big supporter of female artists coming through. I’m looking at that right now and I have some dear friends, I’ve been writing with Carmen and a good friend of mine, Sonia Lee and it’s always exciting when they come from slightly different genres, too.”

I understand you’re spending some of your time in Nashville now, how’s that going? “It’s going good and that’s kind of building in with the collaboration with so many great writers down there. It’s so exciting to work with different people.”

Your albums hold up so well, they really stand the test of time, how do you do that? “I have no idea! Ask the producer, I just write the songs. The thing that I’ve always said about albums, people always ask what are you trying to do or what they’re trying to sound like? Well, I’m not trying to sound like anything, for me an album particularly when you look back; ‘White Sugar’ is a snapshot of like, two weeks when I was 22 years old. ‘Diamonds in the Dirt’ is a snapshot of ten days when I was 24. ‘Nobody’s Fool’ is two weeks in Los Angeles when I was 37 years old. It’s just documenting my life, really.”

“‘This is Your Life’ scrapbook on vinyl, I wrote notes in May of last year and if I’d written them in August it might have been a different album because I was a different person. So I just try not to over-think it and do what’s best at the time. But it’s nice to look back at ‘White Sugar’ and it sounds like 22-year old me and I remember recording it and how I felt at the time and that’s what it sounds like to me. They all sound like genuine albums to me.”

I get tired just looking at your tour schedule. What still motivates you? “If it doesn’t sound too cheesy…the fans; I really, really love performing for people. I love the idea that these people out there, taking off work and spending their hard-earned money to come spend two hours with me. To have me sing these songs that I’ve taken the time to write, that I really want to sing and that they hopefully enjoy them. It’s a really lovely connection.”

Joanne Shaw Taylor and her Detroit-based band make their way to the West Coast starting in San Diego on April 1, 2023 appearing downtown at the Balboa Theater. Show time is 8 PM. And Joanne says, “We’re bringing two hours of high energy blues guitar and ballads, lots of emotion and feeling and I’m really looking forward to it.”

I think I speak for all of Southern California when I say, so are we. Check out https://www.joanneshawtaylor.com/tour/ for show dates and times near you.

The post Joanne Shaw Taylor – Doing What Comes Natural appeared first on Traveling Archive.

To the Loyalists Among Us

Warning: Heavy political stuff. Move on to the jokes if this sickens you. I’ll try to be funny next time.

Can’t believe the price of gas in America. The average price is over $4 per gallon but in Los Angeles (where I live), it’s over $5.50. And I hear in San Francisco it’s over $7. The price has tripled since just a year ago. I’m worried that the regular minimum wage earner won’t be making enough to survive. When that happens, they will join the homeless. When that happens, crime will escalate even more. I believe this blunder is the straw that will break the camel’s back.

Who to blame? Have you noticed that so-called learned political debaters with all their social and moral theories have no defense against the stark disastrous realities of inflation, crime, terrorism, etc. that stare them in the face and hurt them in their wallet? It’s hard to admit one’s bad choices but honesty demands it. When we see gross incompetence (no matter what party), are we obliged to stay loyal to our politics? Why do we have to defend “those” people when their explanations make no sense? How dumb do they think we are?

I just saw the sentencing of disgraced actor Jesse Smolett (who planned his own mugging January 2019). Despite hard evidence and damning testimonies, he defiantly still claims his innocence. A poor actor and/or a classic narcissist … and there are many like him out there.

I hope you’re not one of them. Please don’t hate me if you are, because my war isn’t with you, friend. It’s against the well-paid fake news machinery. Shame on them for blinding intelligent, patriotic people like you. We all make mistakes and our goal shouldn’t be to shove those who have been misled down in disgrace but to help each other return to the truth. We should be fighting on the same side. I admire a few friends who had the guts to change loyalty when they figured out the deception.

The media and the late-night comedians are holding on to their precarious reputation. I’m surprised they still have an audience because the former don’t give out the real and important news while the latter haven’t been funny for a long time. They know the domino establishment their careers are built on has already started toppling down. The smart ones have already jumped ship. Who will be the last proud loyalist? Common sense has left the building and pride is their only friend.

Listen, if you disagree with all I’ve said. Write me. Let’s exchange ideas. I’d love to hear your side.

Let’s continue to pray for our family in Ukraine. So many senseless deaths because of one psychopath. I’m still praying for a miracle.

“For we aim at what is honorable not only in the Lord’s sight but also in the sight of man.”
— 2 Corinthians 8:21

But this is just me. TGIF people!

Raoul

Joke of the Week

Thanks to Peter Paul of S. Pasadena, CA.

Videos of the week

FUNNY: Thanks to Peter Paul of South Pasadena for this collection of very funny commercials

FUNNY: SNL video from Art of Sierra Madre, CA about seniors and Alexa.

ENJOYABLE MUSIC: Tom of Pasadena,CA sent this video of legendary movie soundtrack composer, John Williams.

Tom of Pasadena, CA used to be part of the Rose Parade organization. He said: “I hosted John Williams when he was Grand Marshall.” When asked what kind of a person John was, Tom said he was a “very regular nice guy, no put on or stand offish ways. He had members of his family with him and was interesting to talk to, responding well to questions and inquiries. Very cooperative in doing what was required and cheerful. He seemed to be enjoying the experience. I had other Grand Marshalls that were great but had personal body guards to ward off people but none I could see for John.”
— Tom of Pasadena

Parting Shots

Thanks to Tom of Pasadena, CA

Thanks to Mike of New York City

Thanks to Peter Paul of South Pasadena, CA
Can you read this?

The post The Offender appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Still Alive and Kicking

I was talking to Lois, a friend who wrote the book “Tom the Mouse” which I illustrated. She told me her plight about losing her identity. I joked that she should write about it. She did. And here it is below. Hope you like it.

*  *  *  *

This is Your Life – or Death – or Whatever

by Lois McKinney (a subscriber of Raoul’s TGIF Joe)

Let me start by saying that reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.  In April, 2018,  I received a letter from my medical insurance that announced my demise.  I took a picture of the letter and texted it to my two daughters with the note “Is there something you girls have been meaning to tell me?”  Their responses weren’t as flippant as my remark.  One said, “Uh oh. This is not good.”  The other daughter responded “We need to fix this ASAP,” and she put her money where her mouth was, spending many hours with me as I made numerous phone calls and accompanying me on my trips to the Social Security office. A SS rep said that this situation usually happens as a result of one of their employees making an error when typing a Social Security number.  One would think that a governmental agency this size would have fail-safe measures to avoid what happened to me.  It was amazing how fast the wheels were put into motion to ruin my life.  My medical insurance was cancelled, my bank account was seized, and it took many trips to the Social Security Office before the deceased status was removed from my records.  Through it all, I tried to maintain my sense of humor.   At one point I asked my daughter to accompany me to the Social Security office so that I could offer to breathe on a mirror.  As she and I sat in the SS office waiting, I turned to her and said, “Consider this a rehearsal.”

For the past ten months, there have been no more reports of my death, so I became complacent.  BIG MISTAKE.  This morning I received a call from American Express informing me that there is a hold on my account because a credit bureau stated that there is a deceased person connected with the account.  Here we go again . . .

* * * * *

Well, I certainly hope Lois can get this straightened out.  She’s much too frail. I’m glad she can still find humor in all this. She’s an example for us all struggling with the complexities of the 21st century.

BTW, If you are in the Los Angeles area and you want your caricature done, I will be doing volunteer work for the kids at the Hope Central Project, City of Watts, Friday, 6:30 to 9pm and on Saturday at Grocery Outlet, La Habra @ 1pm to 5pm. Please pray for safety and that my back doesn’t hurt like the last time.

TGIF people!

Joke of the Week

Thanks to Peter Paul of South Pasadena, CA for sending this joke.

Video of the Week

Have You Seen My Wife?
Sent by Mike of New York

Don’s Puns

From Don’s collection of puns

Parting Shot

Thanks to Naomi of West Hollywood, CA who shared this.

This notice can now be found in all French churches:

En entrant dans cette église,
il est possible que vous entendiez l’appel de Dieu.
Par contre, il n’est pas susceptible de vous contacter par téléphone.
Merci d’avoir éteint votre téléphone.
Si vous souhaitez parler à Dieu, entrez,
choisissez un endroit tranquille et parle lui.
Si vous souhaitez le voir, envoyez-lui un SMS en
conduisant.

Translation:

Sent also by Ernie of Fresno, CA

The post Saying Sorry appeared first on Traveling Archive.