Further info at Chris Familton Publicity - chrisfamiltonpublicity@gmail.com
Jo Meares is currently working on an album with Anth Dymke(Ponyface).
The videos for the first 2 releases are above, downloads available at Bandcamp and streaming on Spotify .
"‘The Dirty Art of Game’ is epic, cinematic musical prose that has a satisfying air of a life steeped in indulgence, pain and joy. Utterly cathartic. An album is in the cards, which I, for one, cannot wait to hear."
On 'Reasons' - "Meares has a voice that evokes a life lived to the fullest – tired, weary and battling the endless vicissitudes of life with a stoicism and resolve. And he expresses this in a milieu of impossible beauty and clarity of thought that sends shivers down your spine. Subtle rolling melodies amidst an environment of shifting sounds, noises and aural shadows form a veritable architecture of sound that moves around Meares’s deep, sonorous vocals."
"This is the very epitome of the description cinematic – visual poetry that evinces the mood and stunning nature of the song itself and a mesmerising tableaux that induces awe and wonder. This collaboration between Meares and Dymke is creating some extraordinary." - Backseat Mafia (Arun Kendall)
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Jo Meares released a double A-side EP in August 2019.
Available here https://jomeares.bandcamp.com/
'The Fields of Yesterday' has a video via the Youtube link below.
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Jo Meares released his last full album 'BACK TO THE WORLD' in June 2018.
Recorded over 2 years in Sydney and Melbourne it involves an extraordinary range of musicians.
Jo released the vinyl version and toured the album in Australia sept-dec 2018.
'Back to the World' is available on Bandcamp(link below) and the vinyl will be available from October 2018.
https://jomeares.bandcamp.com/album/back-to-the-world-2
'...this an album that does something for you and something to you. In a live setting at one point I would probably shed a tear. Magnificent just doesn't seem to cover it and if I would give a higher mark I would. Outstanding...' 10/10 - Ernest Platt, Wildspiritz Rising, November 2018
'Back To The World' is another of Meares’ mini-masterpieces. The 10-minute closer, An Old Dog And A Shotgun, would be worth your time alone, would be the album standout, the reason to come here to hear this – but there’s not a single dud track. Once again he’s taken time to create something ‘whole’, a piece, an album that could, in another setting, stand up as film or book, a graphic novel, a macabre ballet. - Simon Sweetman, Off The Tracks, October 2018
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The Jo Meares Band is based in Melbourne the members are:-
JO MEARES - guitars, vocals, DAVID MILNE - drums, MARK McCARTNEY - guitars, ANTH DYMKE - bass
Additional members:- SINJ CLARK - piano, MICHAEL BRIDGES - violin, saw
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'KING OF THE CRYSTAL MOUNTAIN' was released in June 2014
Produced by Charles Jenkins it features the guitar work of virtuoso Jeff Lang and the sublime harmonica work of Reuben Alexander
and Kari Pihl's beautiful piano work.
The haunting backing vocals were recorded by an all girl choir in an old church in Helsinki, Finland.
From Simon Sweetman at Off The Tracks....
'...the whole album hit me in a way that some albums do; something by Richmond Fontaine, say. Or Springsteen's 'Ghost of Tom Joad'. A complete thing, a completed album that plays out like a movie or a book or a stage-play. It’s there. It unfolds for you. You’re listening to it but you can see it in front of you – you can imagine, the mind wanders due to the beauty and intensity and integrity of the music and the lyrics. Big bold stories. Real'.
From Chris Familton's 4 star review at The Music....
Mood and atmosphere are key factors in the creation of immersive and transportive music and Jo Meares' new album is richly imbued with both. Eerie, forlorn harmonica; delicate and heart-wrenching piano; slow, shuffling drums; and exquisite guitar courtesy of Jeff Lang are the backdrop to Meares' tales of love, pain and emotional turbulence, rendered in the talk/sung style of Leonard Cohen yet invested with the gothic country ambience of Howe Gelb (Giant Sand) and Wovenhand. King Of The Crystal Mountain is a richly detailed and beautiful set of recordings from start to finish.