Gig review: Joanne Shaw Taylor at City Varieties Music Hall, Leeds

“You might not see it, Leeds, but this stage slants downwards,” Joanne Shaw Taylor observes from her perch beneath the proscenium arch of the City Varieties Music Hall. She peers down at those nearest in the stalls and chuckles. “You guys in the front row are lucky. I’ll eventually fall on top of you.”

It feels dizzying to comprehend the West Midlands singer-guitarist has been on the scene for 20 years now. A teenage prodigy when discovered by ex-Eurythmics multi-instrumentalist Dave Stewart, fruitful collaborations on-and-off stage with Annie Lennox and Joe Bonamassa since have only enhanced a reputation as arguably Britain’s pre-eminent blues export of the 21st century.

Six years have passed since she last ventured to these parts, playing the comparatively intimate Wardrobe venue off the city’s St Peter’s Square complex. At the onetime home of vintage BBC light entertainment programme The Good Old Days, there are shades of symbiotic nostalgia; a venue and genre a step out of time with contemporary trends, but still affectionately beloved by a crowd of devotees.

Not that Taylor’s approach is frugally conservative by any margin. In a field where spontaneity is often lauded, she has long mastered the art of making immaculate interludes feel disarmingly off the cuff, as if simply plucked out of thin air. There’s no hesitation; from strike-the-match opener In the Mood through a lively take on staple If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody – once a hit for Freddie and the Dreamers – there’s enough terrific wizardry to satisfy old-school purists and new-blood connoisseurs.

There’s little stardust between songs – despite relocating to America years ago, Taylor’s patter remains resolutely Black Country – but what she has is self-effacing charm in spades. Forced to pause due to a medical emergency, she riffs on a story about a guitar Bonamassa stole from under her nose, before his father forced him to make amends, to delighted hoots and hollers.

A set that spans from debut White Sugar through upcoming record Heavy Soul covers a strong catalogue, from Eighties-inflected pop – the delightful Won’t Be Fooled Again – to stone-cold virtuosic workouts – a magnificently brazen shuffle through Watch ’Em Burn.

Local hero Chantel McGregor pops up for a scintillating stomp through Fleetwood Mac’s Stop Messing Around, and Taylor cannot tamp down her enthusiasm. “Yes, I am fabulous,” she quips with a grin. Her audience seems in hearty agreement.