First thing very impressive is Jo Williamson's warmfull and rich textured voice, a wide vocal range and crystalline which reminds me Mandyleigh Storm's lovely voice. Born in Fort Leavenwort, Kansas, Jo Williamson spent her childhood moving all over the United States and Europe (Germany and Belgium) living on different military bases with her family.
"While dad worked and barked at his troops in the field, mom bossed and bustled her brood, carting my brothers and me to and from school to our extra-circulars. I first courted performance on the playgrounds and in the backyards of neighbors in serious games of tag, hide and seek and playing house. I learned just how good singing could feel by standing on the back corner of the reading rug in kindergarten trying to shriek out the loudest as we sung along to children's records. Noting my enthusiasm, my teacher gave me my first big break—Narrator Number 1 in our kindergarten class production of the musical Peter Rabbit. I was so nervous my knotted fists ripped holes in my sailor dress pockets—but I had fallen in love." She says.
When she was eleven, she landed her dream-acting role starring as little orphan Annie in Annie at the Mons Community Theater in Belgium, It was the first time she tasted the bitter reality of show business and "It was really tough sharing the leading role" she says. Around this time, Jo sang zealously to God in her spirited children's church choir, Joyful Noise. All the while, her oldest brother was shaking up the house with classic rebellion like rocking out on the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Santana, Paul Simon, the Doors, Guns and Roses, Black Sabbath, Phish, and the Grateful Dead on his new guitar he'd ordered out of the JC Penny catalogue. In a flash, he off and upped to college and the family moved back to the States.
Jo's middle brother now regulated the family's musical tastes. They listened to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beck, Smashing Pumpkins, REM, David Bowie, Stevie Wonder and the Police. When he flew the nest, Jo spent hours by herself in her basement bedroom tuned into the oldies radio station listening to the Supremes, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Beegees, Duran Duran, Fleetwood Mac and Billy Joel. At the time shes was fourteen, and had no serious aspirations to be a singer, rather she wanted to be a supermodel and potentially a competitive runner.
When she came to New York to study theatre at NYU, she learned a lot in the first two years of school about experimenting, dance, voice, art, but not really acting… She learned how to be critical of everything and how miserable she was. That's when she started writing songs. She'd made up her mind–to make singing her profession.
Her five-track EP "Wake on the Hudson" was conceived and written on her friends' 66 foot Canadian fishing boat docked on the Jersey side of the Hudson over the course of two years. During this time, Jo Williamson formed a fusion (jazz, classical, folk) group with trumpet player Charlie Porter called Joellen and the Dogbiters and learned much from working/collaborating with the musicians : Faye Ellen Silverman, Tony Geballe, Brent Arnold, Jim Campilongo, Shari Anderson and Ann Ellsworth.
The EP opens with the lightly backed track "Sailor Boy". this song is based on the first man she thought she was going to marry. She was 20 and he was a caterer. She was in love, but It didn't work out.
"Scramblin" is about the loss of love and moving out to New Jersey. There she wrote also "Ready" and "Dream on Dreamer" a catchy and upbeat tune with a rich guitar-laced arrangement. The EP concludes with the evocative and quiet ballad "O Belinda" written in school when she was 20. She wrote it for a tall lean comic actress whose character name was Belinda.
Currently, Jo Williamson is back living in Bushwick, Brooklyn, she is looking for a record label and working on writing new music. Jo Williamson is a rapidly emerging folk singer songwriter, an artist to watch in the coming months. Listen to this collection of Jo's songs stream at her MySpace page. Alternatively, purchase her CD at CDBaby. She performs in and around New York City. Check her dates and catch a live show.
