Local girl made good, Joanne Shaw Taylor, returned home to Wolverhampton, bringing a fantastic evening featuring something old, something new, some borrowed and lots of blues. Joining her at the Wulfrun Hall was Connor Selby
Joanne Shaw Taylor – Connor Selby
Wulfrun Hall Wolverhampton – 23 February 2024
Words And Photography: Andy Shaw
Joanne Shaw Taylor is one of the best exponents of blues around at the moment. This is the closest to a hometown show that Joanne would ever do, and the crowd cheered loudly as she came onto stage.
Kicking off with In The Mood, then into a cover of the Otis Rush song Keep On Lovin’ Me, Joanne and her band were in full flow. A couple more covers followed All My Love, James Ray’s If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody, followed by Albert King’s Can’t You See What You’re Doing to Me.
Her band were more than happy to let Joanne take centre stage throughout the night. Shaw Taylor is a true virtuoso blues guitarist as well as an amazing songwriter.
Next was Dyin’ to Know, followed by Wild Love, a new song from her Heavy Soul album to be released on Friday, 7 June. Heavy Soul is set to be a fusion of contemporary soul-pop with traditional blues roots, and tonight, Wild Love had a great reception.
What is wonderful to hear are some of her older songs, such as Watch ’em Burn from her first album, White Sugar, and how she gives it a really refreshing feel.
Joanne also regaled us with tales about making music videos and how she has yet to manage to get Kevin Costner or Harvey Keitel to star in them with her.
Diamonds In The Dirt followed, the title track from her second album, and then we were more up to date with Fade Away and Runaway from her latest release, Nobody’s Fool.
As the set was built, the Wulfun Hall crowd were intoxicated by Joanne and her band’s performance. Sweet’ Lil Lies, from Heavy Soul, has become a regular in her sets over the last five months. This was closely followed by closer Bad Love, and Joanne and band left the stage to a massive cheer.
Returning for an encore of Going Home, as the final chords played out, the crowd were on their feet to acclaim a stunning performance from a real exponent of the finest in blues music.
Connor Selby
First up was up-and-coming British Blues artist Connor Selby, who gave us the perfect start to the evening. It was a very understated set. Just Connor on a chair with his guitar.
He worked his way quickly through the set. Having signed with Mascot Records, a deluxe version of his self-titled debut has been released. Tonight, Falling In Love Again and That’s Alright were brilliant.
Providing us with some soulful lyrics and a stunning voice, Selby quickly had the crowd captivated by his performance. His set ended with Hear My Prayer, followed by the beautiful Emily.
“Hopefully, we’ll get working on it this year,” Connor told MetalTalk about this new album. “I’ll be quite disappointed with myself if, by the end of the year, at least, the process hasn’t been started,”
On the evidence of tonight, we will be hearing much, much more of Connor Selby on the blues circuit.
