Jo Harman and Matt Schofield Come to Brooklyn Bowl London as Part of This Year’s Prudential BluesFest

The annual Prudential BluesFest, celebrating the best in blues music, returns to London next week, 6-8 November. And Brooklyn Bowl London is in on the action, hosting a pair of shows. Influenced by blues, roots, rock, gospel, and soul, Jo Harman (below, covering “Happy”) has blazed her own trail as a singer-songwriter and bandleader. Her acclaimed debut LP, Dirt on My Tongue (stream it below), came out in 2013. According to Get Ready to Rock, it’s “a brave album, as it eschews stylistic considerations and ignores the common wisdom of carefully sequencing tracks to facilitate a flow…. She soars, swoops, and digs deep for introspective moments. She’s just as happy singing stripped-down arrangements as she is being an integral part of a full-blown gospel chorus.” And Harman is even better live. See her play Brooklyn Bowl London on 7 November. Inspired by towering blues talents like Stevie Ray Vaughan, B.B. King, and Albert Collins, Matt Schofield (below, performing “Don’t Know What I’d Do”), straight out of Manchester, took up the blues guitar at an early age. And whether he’s fronting his own trio or going it alone, the singer-songwriter seamlessly blends blues, funk, and jazz in his own music, most recently featured on last year’s excellent Far as I Can See (stream it below), about which, Premier Guitar says, “Schofield is worthy of standing shoulder to shoulder with the best of the genre.” Don’t miss him on 8 November at Brooklyn Bowl London.