Easingwold singer and workshop leader Jessa Liversidge, left, with her poet sister Andrea Brown
EASINGWOLD singer, songwriter and community singing workshop champion Jessa Liversidge will perform A Tapestry Of Life today (16/5/2025) as part of Rural Arts’ Mental Health Awareness Week at The Courthouse, Thirsk, at 6.30pm.
Jessa’s 60-minute, one-woman musical performance, inspired by Carole King’s album Tapestry, features such much-loved songs as You’ve Got A Friend, Will You Love Me Tomorrow?, It’s Too Late, So Far Away, I Feel The Earth Move and Natural Woman, interspersed with original songs, rooted in the powerful poetry of Jessa’s sister, Andrea Brown, from her Life, Love, Loss collection.
“With titles such as Unrequited Love, The Girl Who Wasn’t Enough, If Only, Crazy, Sorry and Beautiful Day, these new pieces reflect on life’s big themes of love and friendship and loss, situations and journeys, that every human can identify with and all go through, just as Carole King’s timeless songs on Tapestry do,” says Jessa.
In addition to her debut Courthouse concert, she will be running a Friday Feelgood Singing Session earlier in the day, with a discount available if booking for both the workshop and performance at ruralarts.org. Tickets are on sale at ruralarts.org/whats-on/performances/jessa-liversidge/.
Further performances of A Tapestry Of Life will follow in Dundee-born Jessa’s Scottish homeland, at Leslie Town Hall, Fife, on May 31 at 7.30pm; Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, on June 15 at 6pm (tickets, tickets.41monkgate.co.uk), and her Husthwaite Village Hall debut on July 18 at 7.30pm (tickets, 07836 721775 or at sheila_mowatt@btinternet.com). She
Jessa and Andrea in 1970s’ childhood days in Dundee
In 1971 Carole King released her award-winning album, Tapestry, whose themes of love and friendship are still so relevant more than 50 years later. Thousands of miles away, two sisters were born in Dundee that year.
Jessa moved to Yorkshire at 18, Andrea stayed in Dundee, and although they followed very different pathways, their bond grew stronger as they followed their dreams and went through difficult times, such as losing their parents.
In 2022, Andrea published a first book of poetry, Life, Love, Loss, inspired by her experiences. “I wrote this show during 2024, sparked by my sister’s poetry book,” says Jessa. “As a family, we hadn’t realised she wrote poems until she said she wanted to read at our mother’s funeral, and and then at our father’s too.
“Andrea works as a medical practice manager and wrote the poem Three Sides To Every Story during Covid, written from the doctor’s side, the patient’s side and Reception’s side. She then came up with the idea of a self-challenge to write a poem a day, and a lot of them were quite personal and emotional.”
Jessa “thought it would be lovely to set them to music”. “Andrea wrote about struggles that people go through, and I, as a sister, felt bad that I hadn’t realised it. Her revelations drew us closer,” she says.
The cover artwork for Jessa’s album recording of A Tapestry Of Life
“I’d never really written my own music, so I started writing songs using my looping skills, layering up harmonies, and it felt very therapeutic to work on them.”
A photograph that Jessa found of Andrea and herself in their childhood days reminded her of the cover to Carole King’s Tapestry, and the seed for A Tapestry Of Life was sown. “I’d sung Carole King’s songs through the years but had never focused on the album,” says Jessa. “Almost any of them could have featured in the show, but I picked out nine in the end to go with nine of my compositions.
“Hopefully I’ve created a journey through the show that’s not seamless but certainly is a journey, and I talk a little between songs about the stories behind them. Like Ripples In The Water, which reflects on four of us going our different ways but having strong roots that hold us together, and not realising how lucky we were as children but appreciating how close we are as adults, having gone through so much separately.”
Jessa first pieced together A Tapestry Of Life for a performance at the Durham Fringe last year. “It was a chance to try out material, as well as play Carole King songs, and I got good feedback from that, so it was a really positive experience and a very emotional one too, because people remembered when they first heard Carole’s songs; the feelings that the songs triggered in them.
“It was the same with Andrea’s poems set to music, with people identifying with those experiences. The way I perform it, just me and the piano, and the style I perform the show in, a heartfelt style where I just tell the story with my voice, and just a little piano assistance underneath, means the audience can really feel the emotions.”
“People have said the music has helped them connect with Andrea’s poetry,” says Jessa Liversidge
Creating the song settings of Andrea’s poetry came naturally to Jessa. “I struggle to call some of them songs as it’s me singing the poems, but some have more layers of harmonies; on others, it’s me playing one or two chords, almost improvising as I go along.
“Hopefully the music complements the poems and it’s more than just me reciting them. People have said the music has helped them connect with the poetry.”
The choice of intimate performance spaces has a further benefit. “Performing in a small space makes people think more about the possible meaning behind Carole King’s lyrics too,” says Jessa.
She has made an album version of A Tapestry Of Life, recorded live over a day at Beck View Studios in Scarborough, where she was joined by Malcolm Maddock, who played the piano parts on Carole King’s songs. The album is available at Jessa’s concerts, as well as on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music.
As well as performing, Jessa spends her week leading choirs, singing groups and workshops, as well as one-to-one singing teaching. Her regular groups include York Military Wives Choir, Easingwold Community Singers, children’s choir Wigginton Singstars and her dementia-friendly group Singing For All.
Jessa Liversidge’s poster artwork for A Tapestry Of Life, her show combining Carole King songs from Tapestry with Jessa’s musical settings of her sister Andrea’s poetry
As a certified vocal health first aider, Jessa knows how to bring the best out of voices safely and will happily share plenty of healthy voice tips through her singing sessions.
Today’s workshop participants will take part in useful vocal warm-ups, then work with Jessa on songs linked to the A Tapestry Of Life show, both King and Liversidge compositions.
There is no need to be able to read music; all parts will be taught by ear and the songs will be tailored to whoever takes part. Jessa is known for her encouraging and positive leading style and is experienced at bringing diverse groups of people together to sing, so the workshop will be suitable for all abilities and levels of experience. Younger singers will be welcomed if accompanied by an adult, who would be responsible for them at all times.
Workshop singers will be able to take a break at teatime, then return in the evening to enjoy the show, with an opportunity for those who wish to perform the songs they have learned in the afternoon as part of the performance.
More information on Jessa and her singing leadership can be found at jessaliversidge.com or JessaLiversidgeSinger on Facebook.