English blues-rock guitarist and singer/songwriter
Joanne Shaw Taylor
reached another level of acceptance with the covers set
The Blues Album
for
Joe Bonamassa
's
KTBA
label in 2020, and followed with the scorching
Blues from the Heart Live
in 2021. She returned to
and the canny production team of
Bonamassa
and guitarist
Josh Smith
on
Nobody's Fool
, a studio set that finds her back in the songwriter's chair. She wrote or co-wrote 10 of these 11 songs and recorded them at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles. The music ranges across modern blues, hooky rock, soul, and old-school R&B.
The title-cut opener offers a slide lick reminiscent of
George Harrison
's on "My Sweet Lord," but a piano progression suggesting
Warren Zevon
's "Werewolves of London" establishes a bar-rocking groove and sweet soul hook above a soaring guitar break, with poignant lyrics about claiming responsibility for one's fate. "Bad Blood" melds acoustic and surf guitars in a nocturnal minor-key groove framed by chimes, Rhodes piano, Hammond B-3, and a rock beat. "Won't Be Fooled Again" is as close to an uplifting and empowering AOR single as
Taylor
gets as she sings about refusing to wear blinders in relationships.
plays rhythm guitar as
and her backing singers (
Gaby Moreno
,
Danielle De Andrea
, and
Jeff Young
) reflect poignantly on lessons learned after a romance, balancing pain and resolve. Swinging horns and a funky clavinet introduce "Just No Getting Over You (Dream Cruise)."
lives in Detroit, and the Motor City's gritty soul influence saturates the track. (One also wonders if the title's parenthetical phrase is a reference to Motown's annual Motor City Dream Cruise). The interplay between singers, bumping horns, the filthy keyboard, and her searing guitar break is worth the price of the album. "Then There's You" is a B-3-drenched blues-rocker written in prime boogie parlance.
's voice slithers, growls, and rasps the lyric with swaggering conviction. "Runaway" is another pop/rocker with slippery interlocking guitar grooves, an infectious melody, and an almost uncomfortably vulnerable, intimate vocal. A cover of
Eurythmics
' "Missionary Man" features
Dave Stewart
as a guest. Its rockist strut makes room for driving R&B punctuated by killer slide guitar solos. "Figure It Out" is a fist-pumping, hooky rocker with glammed-up, overdriven guitars. The backing singers add heft and dimension to
's smoky vocal in an exceptionally strong chorus. Drummer
Lemar Carter
offers creative fills and canny accents atop a slamming backbeat. Guest guitarist
Carmen Vandenberg
also adds distortion and dissonance to
's runs, adding tasty cacophony. Closer "New Love" was co-written with
Beth Nielsen Chapman
Leslie Satcher
Bonamossa
. It's an uptempo, neo-Northern Soul tune buoyed by an army of horns, clattering snare and hi-hat, girl group vocals, and mean guitar breaks. It's a rave-up ending to what is arguably
's finest outing. The tight songwriting here reaches beyond anything she's done before, while the playing, singing, and production are immensely inspired and should enlarge her fan base. ~ Thom Jurek