Jo Harman and Company – Live at Hideaway – 10th Year Anniversary Edition
10th Anniversary re-issue of Jo Harman’s ‘Live at Hideaway’ on Vinyl and Double CD
Release date: August 1, 2021
The backstory to “Live At Hideaway” is largely one of happy accident. Unlike most artists who have to work the ‘toilet tours’ and pubs before establishing themselves on the circuit, Jo had the good fortune to play the first-ever gig under her own name at London’s prestigious 606 Club.
The owner of that venue happened to recommend Jo to the owner of newly opened Hideaway Jazz Club in Streatham. Consequently, Jo found herself fast-tracked onto the London scene and being offered regular shows at one of London’s more prestigious venues.
Despite the fact that Jo Harman and Company had, by that time, only played a handful of shows in total, with an interchangeable line-up and without any attempt at the concept of rehearsal, a record was released (albeit in a low-key way) if only, as Jo remembers it, “as a showcase to get us more gigs and to have something to sell at the merch stand.”
Because of the ad hoc nature of the performance, and (50%) cover material, Jo all but subsequently disowned “Live At Hideaway” being, as it was, something of a bridge between her role as lead singer with Soul Reality Collective and her forging a career as an original artist. As she explains: “I always had a very firm vision of who I wanted to be as an original artist, but I didn’t have too many songs of my own at that time – I was literally just starting out – and so I covered a lot of ‘classic material’, not least because we were required to do two hour sets at the various club dates that booked me. People have been very kind about it but the reality is that Hideaway is actually nothing but a jam and you can hear me, inexperienced as I was, calling off the cues throughout the songs.”
Despite Jo’s personal reservations, it’s considered by many good judges to be one of the most exciting live blues-rock albums ever made in the UK. So much so that, on two separate occasions, two noted labels offered licensing deals for “Live At Hideaway” and twice, Jo turned them down (albeit she did licence ‘Better Woman’ to Warners, France but that’s another story).
Jo further explains ‘when I started to write for my debut album, which became ‘Dirt On My Tongue’, I decided not to manufacture ‘Live At Hideaway’ once the original few thousand copies had been sold, simply because I wanted to launch myself with a self written studio album. As a result ‘HIdeaway’ has, over the years, become something of a collectors item, sometimes attracting extraordinary prices on the internet. However, 10 years on, it seems only right to make it available again, this time with a bonus CD of other live performances from around that time, as well as offering the original version on vinyl for the very first time’.
Website: Jo Harman
Tracks:
CD1
Through The Night
Summer Breeze
Heartstring
Bless Ma Soul
Sideways
Move Over
Sweet Man Moses
Better Woman
CD2
Them Changes
Seasick Lover
Song
I Can’t Stand The Rain
A Little Help From My Friends
Underneath The River
Feelin’ Alright