Gigs/Festivals

RocknRoll Marathon Liverpool 2021 Gig

Last Sunday,

an early start. 9am performance for RocknRoll Marathon in Liverpool.

40mins of upbeat covers with my acoustic guitar ready to serenade the dedicated runners as they headed back into the City Centre from the prom.

Great gig, loved every minute of it from preparing the set list, playing on a Stage Bus and singing along with the sound crew and runners. It made getting up in the dark for a gig kind of ok…

There’s nothing quite like live music and there’s nothing quite like watching tired people perk up and start singing when they recognise a tune.

Well done runners and team!

Beat the January Blues gig

Amazing gig last Friday night with Liverpool Acoustic at 81 Renshaw.

Beat the January Blues.

I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Raphael Callaghan and Al ‘bluesman’ Peters. Cracking night of Blues, slide, songwriting, Very happy. Lovely sound, great crowd….

The first time I’ve done a gig on Peppermint Tea and then got up at 7am the next morning to do Princes parkrun. A different kind of Rock n Roll altogether 😉

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Gig time! 5th Jan. Beat the January Blues.

I’m excited to announce I will be performing a set of songs for Liverpool Acoustics ‘Beat The January Blues’ on 5th Jan.

Their new venue is 81 Renshaw st. It would be great to see some familiar faces there to bring in 2018.

Click here for the event info.

I will be sharing the evening with…

Raphael Callaghan

and

Al ‘Bluesman’ Peters

See you there!

Jo x

Making of ‘Sharks’ video & upcoming performance 25th November, Liverpool.

Earlier this week I headed out to meet with Luke Moore (my collaborator for Sharks with Operation Lightfoot) and Jazamin Sinclair (multi – artist and in this case, videographer and photographer..) to get filming our video for said song. We wrote the song a while ago now and after piecing bits together are a step closer to releasing it! For this I am excited, I love this song. After brainstorming ideas a couple of months ago and then Luke fine-tuning them, we’re off…………

The morning looked like this… a coffee, chat, catch up and superfood salad… plans and directions decided, satiated and ready to go film….

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photo by Luke Moore

photo by Jazamin Sinclair

Pic by Jazamin Sinclair

We ventured various places over the course of the day. The trees, the beach, face down in the sand, avoiding statues, dogs and boats. We squelched down dingy railway alleys and bin alleys in the dark, ran through doors and ended up in the cellar. We had a giggle, drank lots of coffee and after 10 hours had enough footage to allow ourselves sleep. I had an amazing experience working with these two folks. It was easy and fun, and we got stuff done. I’m excited to see the finished edit and to premier at View Two Gallery, Liverpool on 25th November 2016… cant wait to share.

And this is what I looked like at the end of the day…..

photo by Jazamin Sinclair

Creeping from the darkest corners of the cellar I present to you ‘Sharks…Operation Lightfoot featuring Jo Bywater’….the Teaser/Trailer/Taster of what’s to come your way this November….

Here are a few words from Mr Operation Lightfoot himself, Luke Moore..

“It’s been great to work with Jo again after finishing the track earlier in the year. In the video pre-production meeting we talked about a few things that we wanted to try out and put together the framework of how this might look and the footage that we got is even better than I’d expected.

We’re aiming to have the video ready to accompany us at the next Operation Lightfoot performance on Friday 25th November at the View Two Gallery in Liverpool.

The song and video, like the other Operation Lightfoot material, is a great example of how collaboration and working outside the usual comfort zone can be both a creatively enlightening experience as well as produce really strong results.

Jo has been a really strong co-writer, flawless performer and working with her from behind the camera was an absolute joy and I think we were both pleasantly surprised by what we achieved. I’d like to say a big thank you to Jazamin Sinclair, too, who has really done a great job so far and I’m very keen to work with as soon as possible”.

See you there!

Jo x

Gig tomorrow @ Everyman Bistro, Liverpool

Last minute reminder!

I will be performing tomorrow evening at 10-10.35pm as part of Acoustic Underground in the Everyman Bistro, Liverpool.

Also on the line-up is fellow Liverpool songwriter Mark Poutney.

The event starts at 8pm with open mic slots and is free entry.

I’m excited to be going along and airing some new tunes and I look forward to seeing some friendly faces!

Jo x

Liverpool Acoustic Festival – 19/03/16

Hey all,..

Lots of squirreling little plans going on here that I’m excited about for 2016.

Creative, collaborative, proactive..

The most immediate is my involvement in Liverpool Acoustic Festival. This is a weekend packed full of acoustic artists held in Unity Theatre and Philharmonic Music Rooms. I’m made up to be on a line – up with lots other fantastic artists including Marcus Bonfanti and Dave O’Grady. The festival runs all weekend but my performance is on Sat 19^th March in The Music Room – Philharmonic, I’ll be on at 7.15pm and will be road testing some new tunes.. Get your tickets.

I’m also very honoured to be invited as part of a panel discussion with Liverpool Acoustic at Unity Theatre at 5pm – 6pm on the subject ‘Female Is Not A Genre’..This, I believe has sprung from a very well written piece by songwriter Roxanne De Bastion last year. I’m in good company for this sitting alongside Roxanne De Bastion, Kaya Herstadt Carney and Eleanor Nelly.

I hope to see some of you there!

Other news on the collaborative front is my co-written track ‘Sharks’ with Operation Lightfoot (Luke Moore)… the track is now recorded and finished and sent for mastering. I’m excited, really excited about this track from beginning to end. It was great to be asked, to work with Luke and Jon (Crosstown Studios), to perform with other Lightfooters and now just to hear the finished product puts a big smile on my face. I loved working with strings on this one! I will be making some noise when it’s release time….

I’ll also be making some noise soon…. All will be revealed in due course!

Until then, stay creative and with your heart

news! Gigs & Collaborations & Chrimbo songs

Just a quick update before Christmas REALLY kicks in!

1) I have an incredible gig coming up for my first of 2015. It is a real honour for me to be invited by Blues Matters Magazine to perform on their JAKS stage at The Great British Rock & Blues Festival in Skegness on 25th Jan. I will be performing a 1 hour set at 1.15pm on the Sunday 🙂

Here is the poster for the event., if you can make it please come along!

2) I’ve done two ace collaborations recently, both very, very different!

I performed and recorded backing vocals and guitar on a beautiful track by Songwriter Tiki Black called Free Like Smoke..

This will be available to buy on 15th Decemer.

Also as of 24th November the excellent concept album Sail to the Deep by Bowker was available to purchase. I composed/sang vocals for this on The Dream (Valentina pt 2)

Aaaaand 3)…. last but not least!

I have my very own Christmas song coming out called Christmas Come Home as part of Searching For Dandelions Christmas vol. 3. It is written, ready, the artwork is done and I will be back with a confirmed release date..

What a year 🙂 x

Revamp, Songwriting, Radio & gigs 2015

This weekend whilst I was soaking up the vibe of Halloween, Day of the Dead and trying to write a Christmas song I also took it upon myself to update my website. It’s still a gradual work-in-progress but is now much snazzier and more organised 🙂 ACHIEVED!

To celebrate this, I bring news..

Last month was the return of Liverpool Acoustic Songwriting Challenge. I had intended to enter this for a couple of years now but 2014 was the year I actually put it into action. The challenge was to go to View Two Gallery in town (Liverpool) and pick a piece of artwork to write about. This was a really interesting undertaking for me as I haven’t written many songs in this way before. I enjoyed it a lot and here is my offering below. I have been selected as one of the 10 finalists and will be performing at the finals on 21st November at View Two Gallery, Liverpool. There are some really strong contenders among the other finalists and it will be a great night. So…if you fancy, come along and see what’s going on!

In gig news…. I have been confirmed as a performer at January’s Great British Rock & Blues Festival in Skegness. This is very exciting for me! I will be doing an hour long show on Sunday 25th Jan on Blues Matters stage @ 1.15 – 2.15 pm. Hope to see you there!

Finally…Last week marked the return of the one and only Bob’s Folk Show. Bob was one of the first to hear/play my debut album Cycle Grace Pulse Break in 2010 and has been an encouragement ever since. His show is always a great listen of folk and roots artists and the first one (including my track Chopping Wood), can be heard here..The show is every Tuesday at 9pm., go and check him out.

That’s all for now…stay warm and creative!

Jo x

Stay busy create keep warm!

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.

Bowker album sleeve

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 🙂

The album is released in November.

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.