FOR Jo Harman, 2017 could be seen as a breakthrough year. Her album, People We Become received glowing reviews across the board bringing her to the attention of a whole new audience.

Next week Jo will return to East Lancashire - her set was one of the highlights of the Great British Rhythm and Blues Festival in Colne in August - to perform a special ‘stripped down’ show at the Barnoldswick Music and Arts Centre.

“It’ll just be me and a pianist,” she said. “I tell a lot of a stories and it’s quite a relaxed atmosphere. I do find that the songs do stack up in that environment.

“Stripping everything away brings it down to the bare bones which can be quite powerful. I always find I’m a bit emotional at these shows.”

It also demonstrates the quality of Jo’s songwriting.

“For me the song is everything,” she said. “You can dress it up as much as you want with production but the most important thing is that it’s a great song. So in that sense most of my stuff works as a heartfelt, stripped down form.”

Jo is an engaging and refreshingly open interviewee and she’s quick to dismiss the idea that she’s a blues artist.

“People do love labels and I do seem to have got a blues tag, but I ain’t the blues.

“Sure I’m influenced by the blues at some level but in the same way I’m influenced by all American music. I’ve got a soul voice really, I’m a soul singer who enjoys writing classic songs along the lines of Carole King or Joni Mitchell, not that I’m ever, ever saying I’m in their league.

“I’m influenced by soul, gospel, rock, country and the blues but I’m certainly not a blues artist.”

For Jo, hearing Aretha Franklin when she was 13 was a moment which she admits “changed her life”.

“Before then I’d listened to Ella Fitzgerald and I’d listened to my dad’s record collection which had the Beatles, the Stones, Cat Stevens in it.

“But when I heard Aretha that changed everything. Then there was Dusty Springfield who was white and blonde - she was someone I could relate to.

“But I’m not trying to fit into any mould, I’m just making honest music; music that means something to me.

“If people like that, well that’s brilliant but I’m not going to go into making a record thinking ‘I have to have a track like this and another like that’. I hate anything contrived.

“I have an aversion to doing something that’s contrived even to the point of finding social media very difficult. It’s all very fake to me.

“I just think that integrity is everything; as an artist you have to protect your credibility.”

Last year as well as People We Become, Jo also released a live album and the good news for her growing legion of fans is that there may well be more music to come in 2018.

“Primarily it’s going to be a year of live work - I might do a string quartet and piano tour,” she said.

“But I also recorded all of the tracks on People we Become acoustically so we may put them out plus some other stuff as well.

“It wouldn’t count as my third studio album, I don’t like to think of it as that, more just a bonus release.

“When I make the third studio album I want it to be its own entity and grow from its own roots as it were.

“I’m not entirely sure how I want it to be yet but I am thinking of doing something different.”

As well as her own live shows, Jo will also be performing with Motown legend Lamont Dozier when he comes to the UK later this year - she also guests on his new album along with Gergory Porter - and she will also be supporting Jay and Merrill Osmond, two of the famous Osmond brothers on their UK dates.

“I think I’m collecting music icons,” she laughed. “I’ll have to behave myself. I can’t be too sweary!”

Jo Harman, Barnoldswick Music and Arts Centre, Thursday, January 25. Details from 01282 813 374 or www.barnoldswickmusicandartscentre.com