Re: New Joanne Shaw Taylor cd!
Joey - please don't be swayed by Greenose's somewhat negative view of "Diamonds" - I urge you to grab the CD and make up your own mind about this. I don't know how many plays of the album Greenose has got through, but I'm finding it a real grower. The more I play it the more I want to play it. Sure, "White Sugar" was a stunning debut and had some stand-out tracks, not least "Blackest Day", that made an immediate impact, but for me "Diamonds" is a better overall album. It's not all riff-driven blues rock - there's lots of real nice picking and a couple of really sweet soulfull tracks on there too.
I believe the songs on the debut album were written over a few years (I'm sure I remember Joanne saying she wrote "Blackest Day" when she was about fourteen) and lean heavily on her early influences such as Ablert Collins, SRV, and The Hoax. I feel "Diamonds" is more about where Joanne is now - developing her own sound - sure those influences are still there in her playing, but they no longer dominate.
A contributor to another forum I frequent has retracted his description of her as "a female SRV clone" since hearing the new album - that has to be a move forwards.
I'll be objective too.................... Great Stuff!
Ian