Joanne Shaw Taylor
Blues guitarist/singer Joanne Shaw Taylor was born in 1986, in Wednesbury in the Black Country. In her early teens, she was inspired by Stevie Ray Vaughan, Albert Collins and Jimi Hendrix. Dave Stewart heard Taylor play and was impressed. In 2002 he invited her to join his group, D.U.P., on tour in Europe.In 2009 she released her debut album "White Sugar". She followed that up the next year with "Diamonds in the Dirt". She won Best Female Vocalist at the British Blues Awards two years in a row from 2010 to 2011. In 2011 she also won Songwriter of the Year award for "Same As It Never Was" from Diamonds in the Dirt.
She performed as part of Annie Lennox's band for the Queens Diamond Jubilee in 2012. Unfortunately, her fuzz pedal malfunctioned giving her a clean guitar tone. Stevie Wonder, however, stated he loved her "clean, bluesy, understated tone" during the performance.
In 2013 she released "Songs from the Road" and in 2014 she released her fourth album "The Dirty Truth".