Joanne Shaw Taylor: Nobody’s Fool Review

Nobody’s Fool is Joanne Shaw Taylor’s 10^th album since 2009’s White Sugar. The album was produced by the team of Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith and is released digitally on October 28^th on Keeping the Blues Alive Records. It will also be released in CD form in the UK in November and released worldwide on vinyl in December. Prior to the album’s debut, two singles from it were released. The first was “Fade Away” and the second was the title song “Nobody’s Fool.”

Taylor is originally from the UK where she was discovered by Dave Stewart of the “Eurythmics” when she was just 16. Joanne wrote or co-wrote all the songs on the album except for “Missionary Man, a “Eurythmics” song written by Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart.  Nobody’s Fool is her most personal album to date and features the combination of her skillful emotionally driven songwriting delivered by her sultry vocals and amazing guitar playing.

The first cut is the title song “Nobody’s Fool” which opens the album with a joyous happy romp that rocks out to Taylor’s soulful vocals and some great guitar. “Bad Blood” opens with a deep sounding Duane Eddy guitar supplanted by Joanne’s soaring voice alternating with great guitar embellishments. “Won’t Be Fooled Again” features Joe Bonamassa and combines a pop sound with a soaring blues rocking guitar. “Just No Getting Over You (Dream Cruise)” is a catchy tune with more screaming guitar and singing about a broken relationship.

“Fade Away” as already mentioned was the first pre-album released single that was co-written with Sharon Corbitt and features Tina Guo on cello. It’s a sad song and Taylor explained that it was written about her mother that died in 2013 and not being able to talk to her. Joanne co-wrote the T-Rex sounding rhythmic “Then There’s You” with James House combining her sassy vocals with more guitar. “Runaway” is a bright acoustic sounding cut that soars both vocally and musically. As already mentioned, “Missionary Man” is a cover of the “Eurythmics” song singing.

“Well I was born an original sinner

I was borne from original sin.”

“Figure It Out” is a rocker that was co-written by Taylor and guitarist Carmen Vandenberg who is also featured on the cut. “The Leaving Kind” is a group project that was co-written by Taylor, Joe Bonamassa, Leslie Satcher and Beth Nielsen-Chapman. The song is a mellow semi acoustic plaintiff sounding excursion that concludes with some searing guitar work. The final song on Nobody’s Fool  is “New Love” which Joanne co-wrote with rhythm guitarist Josh Smith and bass guitarist Calvin Turner. It’s a pull out all the stops number that features a horn section and background singers and culminates with a frantic soaring guitar.

Nobody’s Fool is a body of work that stretches Joanne Shaw Taylor in every direction as she demonstrates her ability to proficiently cross genres from guitar driven blues rock to smooth pop oriented tunes. Her latest body of original work captures the performance of eleven songs through her polished vocals and exquisite guitar work.

The Review: 9/10

Can’t Miss Tracks

– Nobody’s Fool
– Bad Blood
– Just No Getting Over You
– Fade Away
– The Leaving Kind

The Big Hit

– Just No Getting Over You

Buy the album: Amazon