I was asked a couple of months ago to be involved in this and I’m made up to be included in the commissions for part of tonight’s Light Night Liverpool.
In writing a song for ‘In Situ‘ I wrote ‘Faith on Hope st.‘ to go with the suitcases installation (A Case History) and surrounding area on Hope st./Mount st.
I’ve had some good / bad / drunk / sober / hilarious and inspirational times in the area…so there was plenty of inspiration to draw from, such a mixed bag and important area of the City.
All of the tracks for the project are downloadable for people now ready to go on an audio tour around Liverpool this evening. People will be meeting at 9pm, Anglican Cathedral tonight and experiencing the expressions of local musicians to evoke the chosen places around the city.
A couple of months ago I was invited by Roger Hill from ‘The Popular Music Show’ at Radio Merseyside to contribute a song to the Empty Spaces project. I love a good excuse to write a song and flex those muscles so was very happy to serve up my creative offering.
The project was to write music to invoke / express spaces in Liverpool that are run down and not in use, or in use but how do they feel when they are empty…
For me, I immediately thought of the Atrium in LIPA, a place where I spent much time as a student, a place that many many others have also experience. It has such a potent atmosphere that I couldn’t resist. My song is called ‘Always feel like home’. The show was aired last night.
A couple of weeks ago I was invited to go to Radio Merseyside and record an hour-long interview with Liverpool harp legend and all round good ‘un Stan Ambrose for his show Folkscene. I always have a great and interesting chat with Stan on creativity and songwriting.
Here’s the link to playback for the next 3 weeks. After that I will add it to my Soundcloud account..
I have also managed to be picked as one of the 20 songwriters invited to go to group songwriting workshops with visiting Nashville songwriters and music industry execs on their visit to Bluecoat, Liverpool for The Bluebird Cafe event on 29th August.
This month has been creative and busy. Keep moving keep warm 🙂
A few weeks ago I mentioned I had been asked to provide vocals for the fab band Bowker. These guys have written a concept album called Sail to the Deep and needed someone to be their ‘Valentina’. I was really honoured to be asked, it was also a pretty big challenge but very exciting! I have never just provided vocals before and for this one it was also vocals with no words…so…listen I did…over and over to the amazing atmospheric chunky guitar/bass/drum track they sent me. After I felt I’d suitably absorbed the music I started to get a feel for the character and it was a lot of fun singing my heart out for this.
The launch was a few weeks ago at Lomax, Liverpool and I went along to perform. Cracking night. Here are a couple of pics.
me as ‘Valentina’
The song was included on the Roots and Fusion radio show last week so for a listen head over to the mixcloud 🙂
Another guest appearance for me came in the form of Tiki Black. Tiki is a fantastic songwriter and though we have crossed paths at gigs and she has also been very supportive of my music, we had not yet worked together. Tiki asked me a couple of months ago if I would play some guitar on her track ‘Free Like Smoke’. It’s a beautiful song and when I had a closer listen I could really hear some vocal harmonies in there too. So, I jumped in and had a play. Luckily for me that was appreciated…. The track sounds great and I will update when and where this will be available once I know. This was also featured on Roots & Fusion and can be heard here.
SUMMER STUFF– Over the summer I had lots of fun playing at various festivals. One of which was on my doorstep at the Sefton Park Food & Drink Festival. I had the opportunity to combine my two favourite things of coffee and music and played at the Liverpool Live TV/Quills Coffee stage. LLTV were ace enough to wield their video skills and recorded my song Woollen Hearts…
and finally…..
This weekend I discovered that my song Sun shines under water (from Chasing Tales EP) was included on Tom Robinson’s MIXTAPE (BBC6 Music Introducing.. Fresh on the Net): I have been lucky enough over the last year to have 2 other songs (Chopping Wood & This Garden) from the EP also featured on the show. It’s a top resource for independent musicians and I’m very proud.
That’s it for now! You’ll find me walking around in the Autumn air finding inspiration for new songs.
Festival season is upon us and I have some dates around the country newly added!
If you can make it to any of these they will be great fun. I will be playing songs from Chasing Tales EP, some old ones and some very, very new ones too. Fingers crossed for the sun. I hope to see you along the way!
Gigs are constantly being added so you can get my up to date info at the Gigs page.
On updated news I send out a big thanks to the Pure Musical Sensations team at BBC Radio Merseyside who invited me along to perform some live tracks for their show last week. I will be putting the recordings on my Soundcloud account over the next week or so!
Not really knowing where to start but I’m so happy with how Chasing Tales EP is going down and my songwriting generally is ticking the right boxes. Makes the hard work feel soooo worth it.
Last week I went along to BBC Radio Merseyside to record a session with Dave Monks for BBC Introducing. I’ve been wanting to get on the show for a while and we finally managed to sort out a date. Brilliant! The show was aired on Saturday and can be listened to again for the next few days so if you get chance, I recommend. I played Chopping Wood and This Garden and did a bit of an interview. My bit is at 30.39s but if you want to chill for a bit long I’d say have a listen to the whole show. Thanks BBC Introducing!
Reviews – wise. I’ve just managed to pick up a copy of R2 magazine that I was told had a short review of Chasing Tales in. Here it is!
R2 review – Chasing Tales 2014
BBC 6 Music! I has some awesome news this month too in the form of BBC 6 Music MIXTAPE. My song This Garden was picked by Tom Robinson for inclusion on his show a couple of weeks ago.
Jo Bywater 