Friday 13th June

I may well have written about this remarkable woman before.  If so I apologise, but good things are worth repeating.  This woman is almost unique amongst black female artists, though I may well be contradicted.  As well as owning a beautiful deep voice she plays incredible guitar.  She also writes all her own material and sometimes even plays all the instruments on her albums as well as producing them.  And she has been going for nearly fifty years.  But the most remarkable thing about her is that she is totally un-manipulated.  She is absolutely her own woman.  She has never followed the trends or changed her style or amended her songs to suit what the record industry might be asking for.

From her very first record “Whatever’s for us” we knew we were in the presence of greatness.  She was singing as she always does from the heart, and yet with an intimacy that is almost shocking.  Rumour has it that she is a lesbian, but her songs are never gender specific so you can superimpose anyone you like into them.   And she writes of the complications of love.  One song “The Weakness In Me” is about the temptations of a new love and the betrayed loyalty to the old one . “Why do you come here, when you know I have troubles enough.”  Brilliant – and to my knowledge hardly anyone else is writing like that.  Maybe Laura Marling.    The other thing about Joan is that she is black, and yet falls into none of the stereotypes that black singers usually do.  She is refreshingly unique, and unlike a lot of artists her age her records are still good, (though I still love the old ones best).