April 28th, 2012

The Eternal Children

My weekly grind lands me in the world of wonder known commonly as childhood. I am a day to day Mary Poppins.
Building forts out of blankets, singing songs about the seasons, making dances up for all the animals, all the sounds, and all the feelings.
I have organized my life so that I may be at play with it, joyful and curious even in the dark corners of the randomness encountered. In doing so I am continually inspired by the small wonders, the vibrant realness.
My day job, for lack of a better word makes for a special and valuable counterpart to a songwriter who’s main impulse is to create a place of dreamy wakefulness.  Hence my endeavour to dream vast and without doubt in a world that manufactures doubt even in it’s most privileged places and burdens all with its weight.

The documentary “The Eternal Children” by David Kleijwegt from The Netherlands, continues to be one of the most inspiring looks at artistry that I’ve seen in a long time.
I’ve watched it and revelled in the familiarity of the sentiments and desires displayed within. Each time I have viewed all or some of the film I have been reminded that these boisterous, curious, shameless ways of exploring life are possible in every moment and that I am of extreme fortune to live in a community that interacts and creates with such abandon at it’s best.

I am ever thankful to the dreamers and the belief makers! Thank you for painting your world into this one and by doing so changing the face of the day, for singing your saddest or sweetest songs under so many kinds of circumstance, for dancing the delight into the darkness with lights tied to your toes, for writing the words that remind us we have stories untold and precious in every breath.

Love!

: The above photo is of an art piece in the window of a gallery on College street in Toronto in June 2011. I never got the artists name. If you know it please message me so I may credit the work.

April 17th, 2012

a few nice words…

upon googling myself in the name of vanity the following turned up:

Jess Hill
Vancouver treasure singing dream-folk that captures you, takes you in rapture and flits away.

and this one

“the quirky story-teller”

Self-proclaimed “quirky” Jess Hill is an attention grabbing songstress, as she explained the back-story to “Give Me Your Ghost” she mentioned other known “quirky” songwriters, and she just so happened to name my top favourite female musicians, I mean she mentioned Bjork, thats my girl. Jess Hill’s soft voice has the unique power to silence a room and have everyone waiting patiently, and feeling better about it than ever. You could almost feel the ghost that she claimed wrote the song through her, in a word, Breathtaking.

I am charmed, and blushing.

Merci.

April 16th, 2012

Re-cap: CMW, Toronto and Train Tracks!

At the end of March I left the lower rain lands and headed eastward to Toronto for CMW. CMW is a music industry event geared toward helping indie bands make the connections necessary to make it BIG! The entire concept of such a thing kind of makes me gag but alas I have really dear friends in Toronto, I love performing, I had just enough air miles for a flight and so I decided to go. Besides which, an industry event is only as industrious as you allow it to be and if socializing with otherwise lovely human beings in an environment that feels as though its sole purpose is to perpetuate the remnants of a money guzzling industry that seems less and less relevant seems uninteresting, then lucky me that I have lovely and amazing friends in Toronto! Truth be told aside from performing my showcase and checking in at the festivals reception I all but forgot CMW was happening and set to gallivanting around Toronto with some old bandmates and dear dearies. It was a spectacular blur of whiskey sours, good eats, performance art fundraisers, chronological dance parties, dub after hours scenes, late night diners, brunch and inspiring words between warm hugs below blue skies. I had a wonderful time!

The video at the onset of this blog comes from an event I performed at during CMW. “Live Near Bellwoods” was organized by the folks at Humble Empire and Young Lions Music Club. Their event “Live in Bellwoods” was the highlight of my NXNE experience and actually landed me the gig at good ol’ CMW so I was supremely pleased to be invited to perform in their afternoon series once again. “Live Near Bellwoods” took place across from Trinity Bellwoods Park in the charming Toronto Institute For The Enjoyment Of Music. The fellas at Humble Empire are just splendid and tirelessly captured and edited highlights from all the performances in the series. Check out their YOUTUBE.

Here are two more videos from my performance at the Toronto Institute For The Enjoyment Of Music:

After returning to Vancouver I finished loading all of my worldly possessions into boxes and moved a little further west. I have moved three times in the last year or so. I hope to not do it again for some time. Moving is such an incredibly emotional experience…I will share more on that topic at a later date…I really will, I’ve been reading all of Amanda Palmer’s blogs and I am suddenly remembering how unbelievably empowering it is to be spilling open and honest in a public forum. Here’sto sharing stories mundane or glorious!

Of more timely importance is this lovely little contest the CBC and Green Couch Sessions is having. Together they are creating a project called Tracks On Tracks. A modern day Festival Express (if we may be so bold as to put ourselves in the good company of some epic history) so to speak. A train full of musicians travelling across the country doing what musicians on a train are likely to do. Make music! If you follow this link CBC MUSIC TRACKS ON TRACKS you can have your say in what musicians fill the remaining three slots on the line-up. Just scroll down the list and choose your three favourites, spread the word and cross your fingers!

I already put my vote in. It’s a heck of an impressive list. I’m touched to be in the running along such a vast array of talent.

See you soon lovelies! Perhaps at The Railway Club on May 9th. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
xo
jess

April 1st, 2012

Straight Music reviews Orchard!

Exactly a year to the release date ORCHARD gets some hometown love.

“as warm and achingly intimate as the best work of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.”
John Lucas, The Georgia Straight

Jess Hill is clearly in no rush. She released her second album, Orchard, five years after her debut, Road. Her songs are equally unhurried affairs. They unfold slowly, deliberately, with Hill’s strong but vulnerable voice crystal-clear. On a couple of tracks—“Stagger” and “Orchard”—Hill kicks things up to mid-tempo, but she tends to favour slow, sad songs.

And sad they are: Hill often uses natural imagery (of birds and flowers, mostly) as metaphors for human relationships. That may be an obvious device, but she does it well, crafting lyrics that are evocative, if not exactly uplifting. “Clouds full of secrets dropping hints through the air/Loosening the sky’s tight grip on despair,” she sings on “Precariously”.

With the Hive’s Jesse Gander * in the producer’s chair, and boasting an all-star supporting cast (including former Black Rice drummer Juli Steemson and cellist Cris Derksen), the album’s sound matches its subject matter. Based largely around acoustic instruments, including Hill’s own guitar, the songs feel back-porch rustic and natural. A few numbers, such as the string-accompanied “In the Evening”, stretch out into orchestral-folk territory, but the sparer cuts are as warm and achingly intimate as the best work of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.

*edited by me to chime in and remind the world that the record was masterminded and arranged by the incomparable Aaron Joyce who wore the badge of Producer for every song on the record. Jesse Gander engineered, mixed, and co-produced.
Post Toronto stories to come…soon. But first I gotta move!

March 22nd, 2012

Toronto, pronto!

Eaves dropping on the conversations of my fellow air travelers at the gate. The power is out and each of their faces is in silhouette. There are grumbles between them over the lack of coffee available at the Starbucks kiosk due to the power outage. A rare few of them huffing and puffing at the staff in green aprons. Caffeine is all powerful.

I will touch down in Tdot in time for dinner! I hear it’s warm and sunny there and I do take pleasure leaving Vancouver, where they’re calling for snow knowing I’ll have few days of massive musicality and vitamin D.
That being said I will miss my sweet East Vanistan and every crow and cherry blossom budding there. I’ll see if I can bring home some heat in my pockets.

Tomorrow I’ll be singing at The Toronto Institute For The Enjoyment Of Music at 3pm and The Free Times Cafe at 9pm.

Hope to see you there!

Jess Hill is a unique singer-songwriter risen from the talented denizens of East Vancouver. She is a storyteller whose delicately constructed lyrical worlds captivate, standing firmly with her blues-draped compositions. Her music will smash your heart, pinch you in your sweetest nerves, give pause to the present and sing you to sleep all in one gently fierce moment. Jess invites the audience into her realm, engaging them with a voice like the sound of a well-rosined bow across your heartstrings, telling tales over her skillfully crafted guitar playing. She can pull a room of strangers into her palm, crushing them with stinging emotions and releasing them reborn into the night.

Since releasing her debut album Road in 2006, Jess Hill has been featured on CBC radio, performed at The Vancouver Folk Festival, Vancouver International Jazz Festival, Artswells, and numerous other festivals in BC, as well as becoming a much loved staple in the arenas of the western Canadian music scene. She was a top 20 finalist in the Peak Performance Project in 2010, Vancouver’s indie music showcase and contest put on by The Peak 100.5FM. Her second full length album Orchard, recorded and produced by the multi-talented Aaron Joyce, pushes away from the dock of her folk roots, and onto the frontiers of new creative fires, delivering arrangements sometimes slightly more electric in nature. The new album showcases Hill’s signature sound but also shows her artistic growth by casting a more ethereal and fantasy-tuned mood over the entirety of the recording.

PRESS:

“This young lady had an impressive set of pipes. She could growl like June Carter (of Johnny Cash fame), and I mean that in the best possible way. It was friendly, fun, and great way to open the festival.” 
- PanicManual (review of NxNE showcase)

“The only important thing you to need to know is that Jess Hill is the real thing and “Poppy, Poppy and a Black Crow Calling” is a song you want to hear. Right now this would be in my Top Five of the First Listen, First Thoughts standings.”
- Amphetazine

“For starters, she comes across as an old soul thriving in an increasingly modern world, and somehow she makes it look easy. Recombining traditional folk and blues elements to fit her unique artistic vision seems to be her forte, and there’s something terribly romantic about her music that constantly tugs at the heartstrings.”
- BestNewBands.com

– Melodic.net

“Imagine, if you will, a sunny Sunday morning. The type of morning that you greet rather late, having stayed in bed just breathing in the sunlight, and enjoying the feeling of not having to do anything particularly important for the rest of the day. The type of morning where it’s warm in the sun, and cool and crisp in the shade. You there? Can you dig? What are you missing? Perhaps a soundtrack to this beautiful day? Well, luckily for you Jess Hill has the answer: her new album entitled “Orchard”. The songs are simply beautiful poetry and stories strung along by elegant melodies…this album never ceased to impress me. There’s just something about her vocals that have the ability to make you stop, smile and relax.”
– The Take Media

“Song stuck in my head: “Stagger” by Jess Hill. Vancouver-based folk noir singer-songwriter Jess Hill has a haunting quality to her voice that perfectly compliments her storytelling lyrics. Her newest CD, Orchard, is filled with stinging emotions and raw energy that skillfully moves from blues-draped guitar to folk to alt-country and back again.”
– Monday Magazine

“Combining a flawless lyrical voice with innovative finger-picking guitar, Jess Hill sets a tender but solid foundation for the progressive but tastefully luxurious orchestrations by arranger-producer Aaron Joyce on her new album Orchard. Dipping into the shadows of progressive folk and evolving greatly in complexity from her debut Road (2006), Orchard creates a strong statement of the potential for the organic use of studio engineering, the fusion of orchestration and noise, and the future of song-writing in Canada.”
– CJ Leon (BC poet, performer & zombie lover)

“The show was the CD release of Orchard, the new album from Vancouver’s Jess Hill. Her powerful voice blended excellently with the great string arrangements. Highlights were the song that first hooked me on Jess Hill, “Orchard“, the building intensity of “Stagger” and the eerily haunting (pun fully intended) “Give Me Your Ghost”, with included a saw for added atmosphere. She ended the set with a pair of songs I have seen a few times ["Don't Cry" and "Grow"], the first just her singing, and getting the crowd to scream at a couple points, then launching into a fast paced closer. Jess also had great charisma on stage, with some charmingly-nervous banter and story telling, giving the night a real intimate feel. None of the venues I’ve seen Jess in have been all that big, but I have a feeling she would be able to make a room of any size feel as intimate as a coffee house.”
– 3am Revelations

“Immediately personable, she softly spoke into the mike as if she were whispering to her closest friend and she sang as if she were playing to an open field of dying flowers at twilight. Jess Hill’s voice was spot on, barely trembling in all the right places.”
– Beyond Robson

“A staple of the indie music scene in Vancouver.”
– BC Almanac, CBC

“I have been following her career on and off for the last three or four years and I must say this CD named Orchard is her best work. She hasn’t lost the folk touch but it seems her music has evolved into a more professional myriad of sounds. Her voice is taunting, mysterious and a dark, it is Noir Folk with touches of blues. In her world there is nature in forms of trees and birds (crows specially) and the moon, there are ghosts stories, deserted landscapes, black and white afternoons, night shadows and love stories. Its sad but beautiful at the same time…I can recommend it to you widely, it will be one of the best singer songwriters album of the year.”
– VanMusic.ca

No shows booked at the moment.