Bywater Call

Broken Souvenirs

Bywater Call Records

Often transcending genres, Bywater Call is known for their dynamic, emotional live shows, featuring powerful vocals and exciting interplay between band members. In 2025, Bywater Call was UK Blues Award nominated for International Blues Artist of the Year, after having toured extensively in Europe. This year, the band has been short-listed into the top 20 for the same award. Their fellow nominees include Larkin Poe, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Beth Hart, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Samantha Fish, Walter Trout, Bobby Rush, and other notables. The band is also a perennial Maple Blues Award nominee in categories that include Entertainer, Electric Act, and Best Female Vocalist.

Bywater Call is a powerhouse seven-piece Southern soul and roots rock outfit from Toronto, comprising vocalist Meghan Parnell; guitarist Dave Barnes; keyboardists Andrew Moljgun or John Kervin; trumpet and trombone player Stephen Dyte; tenor saxophonist Julian Nalli; bassist Mike Meusel; and drummer/percussionist Bruce McCarthy. Their influences include the Band, the Wood Brothers, the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Otis Redding, Little Feat, Sly and the Family Stone, and others. The album was recorded and engineered at Toronto’s Palace Sound by Patric McGroarty. All of the songs were written by Dave Barnes and Meghan Parnell.

The album opens with “Hold Me Down,” as Meghan sings, “Oh baby, when it’s dark outside, you’re fast asleep, when your tired little hide and seek. Oh honey, won’t you see me for awhile, just a little while. Oh, baby, always stuck outside in the pouring rain, love I cling to you, I ain’t got no shame. Reach out in the night, and I call your name. Oh, I never know when I’m gonna see you again. Oh you say you’re over me, then you want back in, just enough ain’t enough. Are you gonna hold me down, hold me now. If it ain’t love you gotta give it up, are you gonna hold me now, hold me down again.”

On “Is This Thing On?” Meghan chimes, “Used to be so simple then, we had so much less to lose, you’d knock me down and up I’d get, no relection and no excuse. You’d say you just can’t force tomorrow and baby all good things in time, I’ve walked holes in my shoes trying to follow the clues, trying to cut my place in line. But the days go by so quickly, and my easy don’t come fast, I used to worry how we’d get there, now I wonder how long we’ll last. Is this thing on? Can anybody hear a word I say? I’m searching for light in the darkness, just to watch you get further away? Is this thing on? Can you hear me loud and clear? If we can’t hold together, will we ever get out of here?”

“No One Else” features Meghan as she chants, “Please don’t come back again, no we ain’t friends, oh I don’t need no good time delivered, your heat makes me shiver, just one more child who likes to pretend. Oh you must have known all the ways you left me hangng out there on my own, a little broken but through the smoke I see there’s nothing left to you. Why should I put my heart aside, to get twisted, caught up in your game. Oh how can I keep on standing by, when I know by now it always ends the same, got no one else to blame.”

On “Only,” Meghan cries out, “Baby, I can’t fight the feeling, like I’m losing you today, oh won’t you ease my mind, help me find a way. I can’t last forever, no you never, never, never, come around, ease my mind, don’t you let me down. Got to keep this fragile heart of mine, so I tell myself a thousand times. I need your body next to mine. It’s only your love that’s slipping away, it’s only my whole world I’m losing today. Please don’t leave, all alone I can’t stand to see you go, I just wanna hear you tell me you’ll stay, but it’s only your love.”

“Way to Go,” with some great piano from Moljgun and guitar from Barnes, features Meghan as she moans, “I don’t need your supervision, I won’t paint inside your lines, I will make my own decisions, before we met I was doing just fine. Well I hope your understanding my intention is mostly good, but lately you been so demanding, I’m tired being so misunderstood. I’m in it for the long haul, though I might not win the game. I gave it my all, man can you say the same. Ain’t it hard when you know, that you’re out there on your own. Maybe nothing left to show, I’ll find my own way to go.”

On “So Far,” with the great horn section, Meghan groans, “Oh, you can’t find me now, I’m not the one from before, turn away I’m walking out, nothing to talk about, left my heart at the door. If I said I’d wait here forever, would it ease the pain in your mind, you know that I can’t hold on to nothing baby, got to leave it, got to leave you behind. I’m so far from you, so far. I’m so far from you, so far.”

“Clutter,” with some banjo, features Meghan as she belts, “She’s got to clear out a space, put all the pieces back into place. You know some are forever, some that you have to let go. She’s got to fix up a room, opens the shutters and picks up a broom, ain’t no need for what’s settled, should have been gone long ago. How I wish I could be, the one that you hold to, the one that you need. How I wish, I could stay, after the clutter gets carried away.”

On “Sally,” Meghan bursts, “Oh tell me where did that smile go, got a heart full of heavy and eyes full of sorrow. Oh and tell me darling, you remember this road, we’ve been down here before. Everybody feels it, everyone knows, been trying so hard now with nothing to show, but don’t worry baby, I can help with the load, you know you’re never alone. Sally, won’t you look outside your window. Sally, won’t you answer the door when I ring the bell, Sally won’t you call me when you’re feeling lonely. I can’t take not knowing whether or not you will. Sally don’t you don’t you wish away tomorrow. Sally don’t you, don’t you worry, don’t you hide. You’ve got a lifetime of loving. Sally, I’m on your side.”

“How Long” features Meghan as she wails, “She turned her back toward me, her eyes pulled tight to hide her from the rain. I search my mind for something I could give her, to take her back. But the criminal who stands so high and mighty, he is surely gone, gone and left us now. And in the silence I can’t help her put the pieces back together. To put it back somehow. I wonder how much more a heart can take, I wonder how much bend before the break, I wonder will she hold on another day. Will I become the things I say? How long until I push you away.”

On the rocker “Ain’t No Friend of Mine,” Meghan howls, “Well, I heard you’ve been untrue, and I expected it from him, but not from you. You know I prayed it was a lie, but when I asked you couldn’t look me in the eye. Fifteen years of truth or dare, secret hand shakes and pinky swears, I had your back, but you left mine bare, slept in my bed while I was gone and unaware. It’s all so clear in the rearview, I’m all unglued. Oh you crossed the line, Oh, you ain’t no friend, ain’t no friend of mine.”

On the closer, “Yardsale,” Meghan croons, “Closet’s full, can’t close the door, ain’t nothing in there, brings her any joy anymore. Could take her weeks to sort it through, but it’s a good way to take her mind off a you. Put on a fashion show for one. Thought it might be fun to reminisce, but everthing feels so small, did she ever fit at all…bouncing round her head, sending her to bed in the afternoon…Oh you know can’t help but feel it. Ghosts chilling on my popcorn ceiling. Think I’m fine and then you send me reeling out. Glass of wine to help me see you clearer, slow dancing in my bedroom mirror. Eyes closed, oh you seem so near right now.”

Broken Souvenirs grows on you with every listen, as Meghan Parnell confirms her status as one of the most impressive vocalists in the modern blues and soul scene. The band demonstrates just how tight their interplay has become. Bywater Call delivers the strongest album of their career.

Richard Ludmerer