Jill Jack and her band will present Sunflower Girl, her new CD, on Saturday, May 12, 2012, at the Royal Oak Music Theater. The much anticipated, nationally released album will first be heard at the show, the first stop on what promises to be a long string of national live dates.
“I feel I am in a really good place in my life, says Jill, the winner of numerous Detroit Music Awards. “I feel extremely grounded, which is why I chose to produce the record myself. I guess with experience comes confidence and I am extremely comfortable in my own skin and my music right now.”
Although the word “organic” is oft-overused in contemporary music currently, what the term really boils down to is this: Songs well written and well played on real instruments by real people with a true degree of mastery, and lyrics sung with passion, vitality and honesty. Given that definition, Sunflower Girl transcends into the realm of those very rare records where artist, songs, band, emotional spirit and recording process coalesce to give us a masterpiece. As a personal statement played and sung at that prescribed peak, this is Jill Jack’s masterpiece. You want to know Jill Jack the woman and artist, listen to Sunflower Girl—it’s all there, laid bare with artistic honesty and a true respect for her fellow musicians.
“That’s one of the reasons I went back to Tempermill (prominent Detroit recording studio where Jill recorded her first album) to record this record,” Jill recalls. “I wanted to go back to where it all began; it brought back so many memories but yet also showed me how far I have come in my career and my musical journey. And I wanted to record this record in a short frame of time. I wanted to record everyone at once so it felt as real to me and the boys in the band as it would a live show.”
As she calls them, “the boys in the band” have always been some of the finest players in Detroit. The Band has evolved over the past couple of years with the addition of 3 new members, Chris “Junche” Degnore on guitar and vocals, accordion player and vocalist Mark Iannace, piano and organist Bernie Palo, along with her longtime band mates drummer Ron Pangborn and bassist Nolan Mendenhall.
“My band feels so good”, Jill says. “We recorded the first seven tracks with a full band in one day! The last 4 songs took a bit longer but still it all was relatively painless. 80% of this record was written on the road over the last two years – either in the car--you know the old drive with one knee and write while driving-- or in a hotel room along the way,” she laughs.
2011 included traveling out of Michigan, and to new parts of America, including the South and the Upper Midwest. The Sunflower Girl National Tour, as it’s already being dubbed, will include dates throughout 2012 and 2013.
One of the major highlights in 2011 for Jill and the band was to be the opening artist on the Bob Seger tour. Jill was also the face and voice of the highly successful pro-Detroit campaign known as “I’m A Believer Campaign” which just recently won the Best of Show at the Mercury Awards in NYC.
2012 plans to be a big year for Jill as she has signed on with Ashton Consulting and Management, a West Coast artist development group. Veteran Jack Ashton, originally from Detroit, will be representing Jill. With 35+ years experience in the music industry, Ashton plans to move Jill to the next level of her career, working on touring, marketing, and branding to increase her popularity on a national scale.
Read more...