I posted a video of Jill performing at Westfest a few months ago, and then more recently, I had the honour and pleasure of doing the artwork for her first CD, As We Quietly Drive By (some of which you can hear here). Saskatoon-native Jill wanted the artwork to be welcoming, warm and cozy, like her music; she had her cousin (who still lives in the prairies) take the cover photo of one of her favourite roads:

The imagery and pallette continue inside, along with a photo of her guitar that was broken when she traveled on United Air (duet with Dave Carroll, anyone?):

This has been a labour of love for Jill, who only started writing and playing music in her early 20’s. She’s a public servant by day, and then works on music whenever else she can. It’s paying off… She’s already been nominated by Ottawa Xpress for Favourite New Musical Artist/Group (voting just ended, results will be up on the 19th). And album reviews have been positive, such as this one from Culture.ca.

At her CD release show this Sunday, she’ll be accompanied by Dave Draves (who recorded the CD), Christine Mathenge and Jerusha Lewis from Voices of Praise gospel choir, Safwan Javed (who you might remember as the drummer of Wide Mouth Mason), among others.

If you do get the chance to go, you’ll be charmed by her humble wit, you’ll be treated to her thoughtful words and tunes, and something tells me you’ll definitely feel welcomed, warm and cozy.

(Sadly, I can’t make the show, as I’ll be vending my wears at a craft show all weekend… but if you go, please feel free to comment here and let me know your thoughts!)

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Listen to Jill here.

Join her facebook fan page.

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And as a post-script fun fact, according to my website stats,  Jill’s name has been near or on the top of my blog’s most-searched keyphrases for the last few months. This partial screenshot is just for November so far:

I don’t think I’ll be too surprise if this trend continues.

Good luck, Jill, and have a terrific kick-off show! Sending goodness…

good peeps, horn tootin', music As we quietly drive by, Black Sheep Inn, Christine Mathenge, Dave Draves, Jerusha Lewis, Jill Zmud, Safwan Javed, Voices of Praise