Inside the Song

An Interactive Concert Experience Featuring Lisa Richards & Jo Evans with Guest Women Songwriters

Every song begins as a spark. Created by veteran songwriter Lisa Richards, Inside the Song is an interactive concert experience that pairs her three decades of international songwriting practice with established and emerging voices—co-organized with Canberra songwriter Jo Evans.

Serving as a foundational touring format alongside Richards’ upcoming album Small Revolutions—featuring the focus single "Sail the Big Wide World"—this show bridges the gap between stage and audience. It pulls back the curtain on the songwriter's craft while centering and elevating the voices of women songwriters.

"An interactive concert experience bridging the gap between stage and audience, deconstructing the craft while elevating the voices of women songwriters."

The Concert Experience

Inside the Song is a facilitated, collaborative dialogue where audiences and artists come together to explore how songs are made and why they matter.

  • Four Distinct Voices: Core writers Lisa Richards and Jo Evans are joined by two guest women songwriters—curated locally for each tour stop, or featured festival acts for mainstage programming.
  • Deconstructing the Craft: Artists perform original work and open up about the ideas, writing choices, and personal stories behind each track.
  • Live Stage Collaboration: The writers share the stage throughout the performance, lending live harmonies and acoustic instrumentation to each other’s tracks to build one-night-only arrangements.
  • The Unveiling: Each artist is invited to share one brand-new, completely untested song with the room.
  • Audience Dialogue: Inside the Song is a conversation where we pause after each song or round, making listening a two-way street that invites the audience's experience to shape the room alongside the music.
The Core Artists
Lisa Richards

A veteran of the New York City and Austin music scenes, Lisa brings a commanding street-singer grit to the stage—a history stretching from busking in Kings Cross to iconic venues like CBGB's and The Bitter End in NYC, and the SXSW stage in Austin. Across a 30-year career and eight independent albums, she has built her reputation on narrative-led performances centered on storytelling, restraint, and musical nuance. Her voice moves between powerful and delicate within a single line, drawing comparisons to Björk, Billie Holiday, and Iris DeMent.

"A simple yet powerful songwriter who has beautifully encapsulated the intricacies of the human condition." — The Australian

Her international festival credits include Telluride Bluegrass Festival, MerleFest, Kerrville Folk Festival, and Rocky Mountain Folks Festival. Alongside her recording career, Lisa has spent over 20 years facilitating vocal workshops, teaching songwriting, and mentoring artists—the foundational roots of Inside the Song.

Jo Evans

Jo Evans is the compelling songwriter and creative force behind the Canberra indie-folk project Daisy Chain, as well as co-organizer of Inside the Song. Following Daisy Chain's live-in-studio debut album release in late 2025 and their 2026 EP Now is the Time, Evans translates an expansive intellectual background in climate policy, Buddhist philosophy, and deep ecology into intimate, personal songcraft. Following praised regional festival appearances at It Takes a Village (Cobargo), Quinty, and the Merry Muse Morning (Majors Creek), she moves effortlessly between fragile acoustic ballads and driving folk-rock.

Show Specifications
Presenter & Venue Details
  • Standard Length: 2-hour immersive theater/venue experience (includes intermission).
  • Festival Format: Scalable for standard 60- to 90-minute set times and multi-artist stages.
  • Lineup Curation: Features two guest women songwriters selected for each town or city stop.
  • Technical Setup: Standard 4-vocal mic / 4-DI acoustic setup (keyboard DI available depending on venue).
  • Assets Available: Stage plots, and tech riders available upon request.
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