Student musician puts music love into practice
November 4, 2009
By Valeree Dunn
A&E Reporter
Photo by Valeree Dunn |
Jessica Jolly’s smooth voice brings to mind an image of coffee and late night lullabies.
Her music takes on an indie-acoustic persona with some folk influences, but she is hesitant to name any specific influences.
Jolly says that music, like all art, is subjective, and whenever you name your inspirations people automatically want to tie your personality as an artist to that influence. “Everybody wants to know what kind of music you listen to,” she said.
“I don’t listen to radio at all,” Jolly said. Instead she listens to music introduced to her by friends, the internet, or live shows where the opening acts for the bands she already likes spiral into obsessions with new influences. In one instance, the band Tilly and the Wall became an inspiration to Jolly after opening a live show.
Jolly makes use of her wide array of influences and has covered many other artist’s songs, making them her own. She said that sometimes people won’t recognize the song until the chorus comes, but they often like the songs more for it.
Jolly’s acoustic version of Cindy Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” is almost unrecognizable in her distinctive style, but the effect is simply more indie and calm rather than the original‘s fast-paced pop.
“I think the most simplistic and basic things are what I like,” Jolly said. She says she creates traditional, acoustic music; it’s “folk with a twist.”
Although Jolly says she has taken on an indie-rock persona, one heavy influence could be the bluegrass roots of her father.
She learned to play the guitar three years ago under the influence of her family. She began working on her music when she moved back to her home in Decatur.
Jolly attended Richland Community College in Decatur before transferring to UIS as a Junior.
At 27 years old, Jolly appears young and gives of the optimism and enthusiasm of someone much younger. “It helps me get away with the college lifestyle looking so young,” she said.
She jokes that her acoustic shows are “three hours of Jessica Jolly,” although she now performs with her boyfriend, Nate Blesse.
Jolly says they are working on becoming more of an act together, instead of headlining as a soloist. The two are having a hard time coming up with a name for their act, though. She says she needs the name to mean something and that’s why they’ve had a hard time coming up with something permanent. They are currently performing under the name Jessica Jolly and the Main Squeeze. “I like it because it’s pretty literal,” Jolly said.
Despite not having a permanent name, Jolly and her boyfriend have a solid act performing in a number of various venues.
Jolly plays in Chicago clubs once or twice every month. She also plays shows in Decatur; her next show is this Friday at 8p.m. at the Lock Stock & Barrel near the Millikin campus. She also plays the acoustic lunch every Thursday from noon to 1p.m. in downtown Springfield at Trout Lily Cafe.
Jolly lives in the downtown Springfield area with her two cats; she said her cats were the only thing keeping her from moving onto the UIS campus.
Jolly is a legal studies major at UIS. She is also an intern at WUIS in promotions and developments, helping her keep up with her interests in music.
