Page 51 - BiTS_07_JULY_2024_Neat

Joanne Shaw Taylor —Heavy Soul—Journeyman Records
ASIN : B0CTD2Y5HC

It’s been two years since Joanne’s last album “Nobody’s Fool”
and most of the tracks on this new album have been ‘leaked’
by releasing them as singles but now we have them all on one
record. The album was recorded in Nashville and produced
by Kevin Shirley (Aerosmith, Iron Maiden and Joe Bonamassa)
with a band including Rob McNelly, Anton Fig, Doug Lancio,
Allison Presswood and Jimmy Wallace. We kick off with
‘Sweet ‘Lil Lies’ a powerful mid-tempo blues with Joanne’s
guitar plus piano, organ and backing vocals, then it’s a fairly
straightforward run through Joan Armatrading’s anthemic ‘All
the Way from America’. ‘Black Magic’ is a moody chugging blues that reminded me of Humble
Pie’s ‘Black Coffee’ and Joanne also does a great cover of the Gamble and Huff song ‘Drowning
in a Sea of Love’ (as first done by Joe Simon in the early 70s) complete with a great guitar solo.

‘A Good Goodbye’ is melodic and quite poppy, while the title track starts with some heavy
drumming before the equally heavy guitar and vocals join in, with the backing vocals reinforcing
the chorus. The third cover here is Van Morrison’s ‘Someone Like You’ but Joanne really makes
the song her own, it’s a soul ballad with strings, stinging lead guitar and melodic piano. Next
it’s a complete change with ‘Devil in Me’ - a heavy, blasting gospel-based rocker with call-and-
response vocals and more JST soaring lead guitar solos and the final song ‘Change of Heart’ was
co-written with Beth Nielsen Chapman, again it’s a song that is more melodic and poppy but
also includes some biting lead guitar. I thought that on ”Nobody’s Fool” Joanne tried to
incorporate more modern and pop influences and to dial back the blues content but on this new
album she manages to bring back the blues but also to merge it with catchy hooks and melodies
to make it both rootsy and accessible.

Graham Harrison

Little Feat—Sam’s Place—Megaforce ASIN : B0CTKRLNVN
On their first album in 1971 Little Feat (with the help of Ry
Cooder) covered two Howlin’ Wolf songs ‘Forty Four Blues’
and ‘How Many More Years’ but since then they’ve tended to
rely on writing their own material. However, this new record
contains just one of their own songs (‘Milkman’) and the rest
are covers of classic blues by Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters etc.
and it was recorded in Memphis at Sam Phillips’ Studio. This
latest version of Little Feat consists of long-time Feats Bill
Payne (keyboards), Kenny Gradney (bass), Sam Clayton
(percussion) and Fred Tackett (guitar), with the addition of
Scott Sharrard (guitar) and Tony Leone (drums) - and has Sam
taking the vocals for a touch of blues authenticity. The band are going to tour the States on the
back of the album from June through November in the company of great acts including the
Tedeschi Trucks Band, Los Lobos and Duane Betts.

It's the original ‘Milkman’ that starts us off, a lazy, loping mid-tempo blues with brass and Scott
Sharrard guitar solos, then it’s a rip-roaring version of Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘You’ll Be Mine’ (as
suggested to the band by Bonnie Raitt) with Scott’s biting slide guitar, brass and Bill’s boogie
piano. Bonnie also shares the vocals with Sam on a semi-acoustic reading of Muddy Waters’
‘Long Distance Call’ which also has harmonica from Michael LoBue, as does the following Muddy
song ‘Don’t Go No Further’ and the band also do Muddy’s ‘Can’t Be Satisfied’ built on Bill’s rolling