Jo McCafferty

Artist Profile

by Armchair Anarchist

Hailing from Aberdeen originally, Jo McCafferty is a solo singer-songwriter in the classic tradition, with a long history of performing that goes right back to her schooldays. She recorded her first solo album when she was still a teenager. She then fronted a band called Arnica, who got a lot of industry attention from the international music convention ‘In The City’, but split before they could take up any offers. After a long hiatus due to studying for a degree, her next album ‘Radiaxial’ came out in 2001. But she was gigging all through her university days, in the company of another guitarist. This combination of dedication and hard work has led to her supporting (among many others) such notables as Midge Ure, Glenn Tilbrook and Marillion. There have been more albums since then, and more to come, all released independently over the internet on her own label, Neosome Recordings. Despite her lengthy history of high-profile gigs and releases she has never been signed to another label. Jo’s music hinges around simple acoustic guitar lines, her own voice and heartfelt lyrics, although she is working on an album with a full band backing her up. She plays as many solo gigs as she can get; she loves to go to new places, meet new people, and sing her heart out to them. Drawing on influences as diverse and seemingly contradictory as Billie Holiday and Nine Inch Nails, she describes her work as ‘fairly autobiographical, with a twist of fantasy’. Her songs are ‘windows of a life story...memories in boxes, compartmentalised into three minute snippets for all to see’. Samples of her work can be found at www.jomccafferty.com, where you can also buy her albums or book her for shows. She is currently gigging around the Portsmouth area, with forthcoming shows at The Edge of The Wedge and the Wedgewood Rooms.