January MixTape on Seba Rashii Culture Zine. 

MixTape// January 2014: Resolutions and Revolutions

Jim Pearson

1st track from Chasing Tales EP released Sept. 2013 with Searching For Dandelions.
feat.  Andy Jones on Electric  Guitar and Backing Vocals.
© 2013.  Jo Bywater.

Video by Andrew Ab - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQGKGsnakEE

Chasing Tales is Acoustic Blues slide guitar meets finger-picking brain food. Raw and finely-crafted beauty with a dark twist, soothed with harmonies, melodies and textures. A worthy follow-up to 2010 album Cycle Grace Pulse Break in creative growth. The EP features guest performances from Andy Jones (Just by Chance) and Blythe Cooper and was mastered by Russell Cottier (Parr St. Studios). It is released in collaboration with Searching For Dandelions Label/Collective. Cover Artwork by Jo Bywater.

Available to buy on-

Bandcamp: http://www.jobywater.bandcamp.com/
CDBaby: www.cdbaby.com/cd/jobywater3
Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/Chasing-Tales-Jo…er/dp/B00EP3YT0K
iTunes: itunes.apple.com/gb/album/chasing…s-ep/id691069252

Reviews:

'delicious, laid-back piece of blues inspired, folk-tinged Americana that slides effortlessly from soft expectation to hard-edged understanding. There’s a great deal to Jo and her music. This EP, although really only a taster, serves to showcase an exceptional talent. This lady can craft a tune, no doubt about it. ' - Folkwords

'Unorthodox, uncompromising, simply brilliant..purely on the evidence of this latest EP, Jo is an absolutely extraordinary talent - as singer, a darned accomplished stylist with an unusual voice, and as a guitarist pretty phenomenal too' - FATEA

‘..an excellent musician and most engaging performer...this EP showcases Jo’s emergence as a fine finger-picker and slide player who is capable of building a great deal of drama and soulful expression into her arrangements. It is a fine recording which most certainly leaves you wanting more’ - Liverpool Acoustic

'an ear for the rhythmic and an ability to place words in such a way that the guitar is more than an instrument to her, it is more like a confidant, a co-conspirator in her music and Chasing Tales once exemplifies this confident and genuinely very cool woman’s ability.' - Liverpool Sound & Vision

'Jo Bywater seems to flit very comfortably between Nick Drake-esque pastoral, Polly Harvey’s gritty blues and the odd shade of Nirvana Unplugged – Americana UK

Keep upto date with gigs near you on www.jobywater.com

credits
released 27 September 2013 
All songs written, performed and mixed by J. Bywater.

Electric Guitar and Bvox on Chopping Wood by Andy Jones. 
Flute on This Garden by Blythe Cooper. 
Cajon on Sun Shines Under Water and Woollen Hearts by Blythe Cooper.

Mastered by Russell Cottier. 
Woollen Hearts mixed by Lauren Tierney.

JO BYWATER - Chopping Wood (Chasing Tales EP 2013)

Traffic Jams

This is a song I wrote for the Still Dreaming project celebrating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech. Hope you like it!
Sophia Ben-Yousef  Piano & Vocals. Produced by KOF.

Rise

My new gtr... came packaged with this tune... first play...

Jim Dandy

From the album "Self assembly"
©Jim Pearson 2011

Listen to the album... http://jimpearson.bandcamp.com/album/self-assembly

What Happened To You?

©Jim Pearson 2015
More existential angst and a little hope.

Listen to the album on Spotify or listen/download from here... https://jimpearson.bandcamp.com/album/it-might-never-happen

Thank you to everyone who helped me complete the recording of this song, it has made it a bit special for me. 

Paul Marsden (trumpets), Russell Cottier (melodeon), and on vocals... Ian Heath, Jeff Roberts, Scott Cryer, Jo Bywater, Tom and Helene Lockett (The Kirk Owls, Caroline England, Henry Priestman, Phil Chisnall, Bob Glass and Elizabeth Fitzsimons (Coast), Fred Arnell and members of The Wallasey Folk and Acoustic Club. 

Right now is the moment that you are alive
So put down your burdens and give yourself a high five
You can’t run away ‘cos there’s nowhere to hide
Right now is the moment that you are alive

If you’re stuck in the past you will never be free
Thinking life was better the way it used to be
When you're lost in the mist of your own memory
Look under your nose and I hope you can see

If you look too far ahead you are going to miss out
Consumed by anxiety, riddled with doubt
But when you’re on your deathbed you’ll you figure it out
You came in with nothing and you’re leaving with nowt

The state of the world’s driven you to the brink
You get out of your mind so you don’t have to think
And it’s all flashing by faster than you can blink
So wake up before it all goes down the sink

Wake up, smell the coffee make the most of the day
Or wear a stiff upper lip in the civilized way
Or get down on your knees, beg for mercy and pray
But the voices inside you just won’t go away

Too many opinions, you can’t hear for the din
You long for the day when you’re silent within
But don’t let the bastards get under your skin
Just take a deep breath and get ready to sing

Right now is the moment that we are alive
So put down your burdens and give yourself a high five
You can’t run away ‘cos there’s nowhere to hide
Right now is the moment that we are alive

©Jim Pearson 2014

Right Now Is The Moment That We Are Alive

Winner of 2024 Liverpool Songwriting Competition with "The Boy With the Red Hat", taken from "Death to Mortality".

People have said that Jim plays guitar like a drummer. He is. In the mid eighties, he toured the Far East, Europe and Tyneside with near-legendary Geordie club band Foxy, before putting down his sticks, opting for a life of obscurity as graphic designer, husband and dad.

In his late thirties with a mid-life-crises looming, he started writing and recording his songs, self-releasing “Some Songs by Jim Pearson” in his fortieth year.

Suddenly, nothing happened, so he continued, and gradually accumulated a niche following of several well-intentioned virtual people, each possessing an uncanny appreciation of music and lyrics, as well as managing to get a handful of plays on BBC 6 music.

Jim is also singer, guitarist, songwriter with niche NW-UK band Scaredycats, who's debut album "Dumb Animals" was pronounced album of the year by Liverpool Sound and Vision in 2017.

Last year, he was a key collaborator and producer with international lockdown supergroup "Nothing On TV".

According to Jim... "You might not agree, but I think I’m getting better at this. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I will never get the global recognition I so clearly deserve, and honestly, I am all the happier for it."

BBC 6 Music's Tom Robinson says... “This is the astonishingly prolific Merseyside songwriter Jim Pearson… you never can be sure what kind of project Jim will come up with next, but you can always be sure it’s gonna be pretty darn good...” (The Tom Robinson Show, January 25th 2020)

Songwriter from Northern England
https://jimpearson.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5R96vnb0ABdaZRMLG4XUNf

Scaredycats
https://scaredycatsuk.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/02W2iVwO5b3EIjzspgmS1N

Nothing On TV
https://nothingontv.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/07ADDEerdBir7xBgvdYyeo?si=k65U2tPkQuqbd1WFuPQOyA