Bywater Call is a band I’ve had my eye on for a long time. They seem to be eternally touring, but have never made it to the Denver area. That all changes next week, when this powerhouse roots, rock, blues and soul band from Toronto takes the stage at the Soiled Dove Underground. The show is scheduled for Saturday, August 5, at 8:00 pm.
(They’re also playing shows on August 3 at Cactus Jack’s in Evergreen, and on August 4 in Montrose.)
I’m telling you right now… this band is the real deal. Formed in 2017 by lead vocalist Meghan Parnell and guitarist Dave Barnes, they released their first album, appropriately self-titled, in 2019. That album put them on the map, garnering significant critical acclaim. Their sophomore release, last year’s Remain, was a more than worthy follow up, positioning the band for bigger things to come.
I had an opportunity to talk to Meghan Parnell by phone earlier this week, ahead of their trifecta of shows in Colorado. The band was back home, getting ready to head out to play the Burg Herzberg Festival in Breitenbach Am Herzberg, Germany. This will be a quick turnaround for them, because they are back in the U.S. for several shows next week, before departing for Joe Bonamassa’s Keeping The Blues Alive at Sea Mediterranean cruise in mid-August.
Rick: Thank you so much for spending some time with me today. I’ve been checking your tour schedule, and I’m wondering, when does this person get a chance to take a break? Where are you calling in from today?
Meghan: I am at home today for a few more hours. We’re jumping on a plane tonight to go to Germany.
Rick: So let me get this straight. You’re hopping on a plane tonight to go to Germany for a festival. Then you’re coming back here to do a handful of shows in the U.S. for a couple of weeks. And then you’re heading to Greece to join Bonamassa’s Mediterranean cruise. So I guess the question is, do you guys ever take a break?
Meghan: I have to say this is our first year touring like this, which has been amazing. But I am learning what it’s like to only have a couple of days at home here and there. And really it doesn’t let up much until the late fall. But so far, I’m having a great time. We’re puttering around the states and this little short bus we bought a few months ago. So we’ve got some space, but it’s a little bumpy. And everybody gets along. So yeah, so far, so good.
Rick: So today’s an exciting day. “Sweet Maria” (the band’s new single) just dropped.
Meghan: Yeah. Our first single since the album came out last year. My phone’s buzzing. We’re excited to have it out there.
Rick: It’s a great tune. I’ve listened to it a couple times this morning. I love the New Orleans vibe to it. I’m assuming the folks in Colorado are gonna get to hear it performed live next week. Is there anything about the song that we should know? Or is it just wait and see?
Meghan: Ah, I mean, well, we’ve been playing it pretty regularly for the last couple of months. You know, we build in a little moment for the audience to play along with us in that one because it is so fun. And so kind of joyous feeling. So, yeah, expect to hear it. And we hope people will clap and sing along.
Rick: I do a lot of research preparing for interviews like this, and I see a lot of the same themes over and over again. And one thing keeps coming up is that in 2017, you and Dave started this band. But I want to go a little bit further back. I want to know how and when you and Dave first got acquainted with each other and what was the inspiration for you guys to put this project together?
Meghan: So Dave and I have been playing together for I don’t know, probably about 15 years. Same with Mike, our bass player. So the three of us had been working in a cover, private function band for years and years. I met Dave because he was looking for a singer for the band. And I had done a few gigs with one of his very good friends, and wasn’t in a band at the time. He asked if he could introduce me to Dave, and I did a little rehearsal session with him and the other people in the band. And that was it. We played together in that band since, let’s say 2008 maybe.
Dave and I are partners in music and in life, and we share very similar views on music and have very similar influences. We had been doing this cover band thing for a long time and kind of got tired of it. And we got to the point where we were like, if we don’t start writing our own music soon, we’re afraid we’re going to lose the joy in music.
We were listening to all kinds of bands back then… old school stuff like the Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, so many others. And then Tedeschi Trucks comes on the scene. And they blew our minds. And Marcus King, and the Wood Brothers and all that kind of stuff. And we’re like, there’s space in modern music for, you know, feel good music, with real instruments, and with some creativity behind it. We were just very inspired by all those bands and we’re like, okay, we’re ready to give it a go on our own. And we just leaped into original music, you know, for the first time back then.
Rick: I know the story of where the name Bywater Call comes from… that you were so inspired by the Bywater neighborhood in New Orleans that you opted to incorporate that into the name. But was the band Bywater Call from the very beginning – did your visits to New Orleans come before you put the band together?
Meghan: Dave and I have visited the city a bunch of times. And from the first time we went there, as I imagine happens to most people who go to New Orleans, we just fell in love. Frenchmen Street is just this strip of small music clubs with local talent, and playing their own stuff. And you’ll go to one bar, and listen to an awesome band. And then you go to the next bar. And by the end of the set at the next bar, the piano player from the gig you just saw is coming over to sit in. It was just very inspiring as budding musicians. I think the idea at that point was in our head to start writing, but we hadn’t named the band yet. Then when we were trying to come up with a name we wanted something interesting sounding. And I was like, well, what about Bywater? But there’s already a band called Bywater. So Dave came up with the Call part, which I think fits perfectly. It’s not just the call to go back there. The Call is also to create that feeling within what we’re doing.
Rick: I read in an interview that you did somewhere along the way that one of your earliest singing influences was the Wizard of Oz, and that you learned to “belt it out” singing Les Mis. Obviously, your early influences go well beyond conventional rock and blues singers. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
Meghan: I honestly can’t remember a time where I didn’t identify myself as a singer. It’s just kind of always how I felt even when I wasn’t singing perfect, and even when I was a bit older and not singing professionally. Singing is just such a massive part of who I am. With Wizard of Oz, I can remember I used to spend hours on swings in our backyard singing “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”. And my mom was always singing a lot. She always had a guitar and she would sing Grace Slick and Janis Joplin and stuff like that.
In my younger days I was a much cleaner singer, not as raunchy and really my first love was musical theater, hence the Les Mis thing. I had a short dream of being on Broadway. Part of the reason I decided to go to University in Toronto was because that was, you know, the Canadian version of all that. I wanted to go to school, but I wanted to be in a city that I could audition for stuff in. I did a few major auditions, but that stuff’s nerve racking, let me tell you. But as soon as I joined a band, I was like, “Oh, I get to sing all the songs, I get to be the star all night, instead of memorizing lines and sharing the songs with other people.” As soon as I started singing in a band, I absolutely loved that.
Rick: Let’s talk about your albums. You’ve released two albums… the debut in 2019, and last year’s Remain. Both exceptional albums, congratulations on them. I would like your perspective on how you think those two compare to each other. And what, if anything, you did differently when you went into the studio to record Remain, compared to when you recorded your self-titled debut in 2019?
Meghan: Well, the big thing in between the two is the pandemic, which is a big part of the reason why it was almost three years before our second release. A couple of tunes (from the new album) were written before the pandemic. We brought them on the road with us to Europe. We wrote “Remain” at the very end of 2019. We had a couple of tunes we knew might be good for a new record and a little bit of momentum in terms of songwriting. And then we got home from this Europe tour and didn’t gig again for a really, really long time. At the time, Dave and I were very much the primary driving force in terms of writing the songs for the band. And we just weren’t in the headspace for it.
We were living in a world where we didn’t know when this was all going to come back again, which in retrospect, it was a perfect time to sit down and write because we weren’t working. But just mentally it was not a good space to be creative.
When we came to terms with the fact that this could be going on for a while, Dave and I would just sit out in our backyard, and he would have his guitar, and we would bounce ideas around. And then once we had ideas going, we were set up in two different rooms in the house, passing recordings back and forth to each other. And then once we could be in the same space again with the other band members, we started workshopping the tunes together.
But because of all that, one major difference between the two albums was that by the time the first album came out, we had been gigging for a couple years and those tunes were road tested before we went into the studio. Whereas with Remain we didn’t really get to play those tunes much at all before we went into the studio. I prefer the first way.
But we’re pretty happy with both albums. I think they have a slightly different vibe, I think we skewed a bit more roots on the first one, I think we ended up going a little bit more rock on the second one. But both have those elements mixed together just in slightly different percentages, proportions.
Rick: The last question I’m going to ask you is kind of an open ended one, it’s just basically an opportunity for you to do a commercial and make a pitch. There’s going to be some people reading this post who maybe aren’t that familiar with you. What do you want to tell them about what they’re going to see if they come out, and motivate them to show up?
Meghan: Well, I’d just like to call out to people to take a chance on a new band and on new music. We’re visiting a lot of these cities in the States for the very first time. And so this is an opportunity for you to kind of discover us. And I promise you, we will take you on a journey with this music, we will make you feel something. And hopefully it will put a smile on your face.
Rick: You mentioned that you’re visiting cities for the first time. Have you guys played Denver before?
Meghan: No, we’ve never been. This will be our first time to Colorado.
Did you hear (read) that, Colorado? This will be Bywater Call’s first trip to our great state, and I think we need to make sure it’s a memorable one for them. You need to c’mon out to see them when they’re here. It will afford you the opportunity to say, “I saw them back when”, after they blow up in the near future.
If you’re in the metro area, you have two opportunities… August 3 at Cactus Jack’s in Evergreen, and/or you can join me on August 5 at The Soiled Dove in Denver. If you’re on the Western Slope, come out and represent at their show in Montrose on August 4. I promise you’ll have a great time, listening to some outstanding music from a band you’re going to be hearing from for a long time to come.
Story by Rick Witt www.rickwittphotography.com
Photos courtesy of Erin Enricos
