Jill Zimmerman — a widely talented musician and songwriter from Becker — will be hosted a concert at Pebble Creek Feb. 10 from 7 - 10:30 p.m.
The event is called, “Jill and Friends” and will also feature music from Joey Perry and his sister Anna (Perry) Kidd, Tony Peterson and Dedric Clark from The Social Animals and more guests yet to be announced!
Zimmerman, 29, has a plethora of her own music to perform but also plans to do some cover songs from the likes of Bob Dylan, Marshall Tucker Band, The Head and the Heart, Charlie Parr, Bruce Springsteen, or Gillian Welch, among others. Zimmerman’s style is folk/pop and she is adept at playing the acoustic guitar, keyboard and has been dabbling with the electric guitar and experimenting with other effects.
“I personally enjoy attending shows with a good mix of performers throughout the night, so I invited some other talented people to play some of their own songs and some duets with me,” she said.
“I have shared stages with (Joey and Anna) at the open mic night at the Third Rail Bar and Grill in Big Lake, which is a great weekly event that brings in a variety of talent from the area,” she said. “I met (Peterson and Clark) when they inquired about the two rooms for rent in my apartment in Minneapolis a little over a year ago.”
Zimmerman currently resides in NE Minneapolis.
“Having some professional musicians as roommates was a great motivator to start playing music again,” she continued.
Prior to hooking up with these two new collaborators, Zimmerman had privately decided to take an indefinite hiatus from performing and hadn't written any full songs or touched a guitar in months.
“But they (Peterson and Clark) encouraged me to get back at it,” she said. “Tony and I have written and recorded several songs together now and have performed together across Minnesota and Wisconsin as the creatively-titled duo ‘Jill and Tony.’ We are planning an album release sometime this year.”
At next month’s concert, Jill will have CDs from her first three albums (Earthbound, Souls to Fuse and Pirsig Studios Sessions) available for purchase. Her duo project with Peterson will have an official debut later this year, but she says anybody at the concert who wants a sneak preview of the music can ask her for a link.
Zimmerman first started performing original songs at Becker High School’s end-of-year talent show when she was 17.
“I was relatively shy and reserved in high school and music was the main way I could express myself,” she said. “The support of my classmates and teachers was a huge factor in building my confidence.”
After high school, Jill studied popular music and a variety of other things at the University of St. Thomas while recording an album with student musicians and producers at the studios of McNally Smith College of Music.
“I then transferred to St. Cloud State University and completed a degree in mass communications with an emphasis in TV production and film studies,” she said. “While in St. Cloud I taught lessons at what is now St. Cloud Music Academy and played in the rock band This Mad Future.”
Zimmerman says she doesn’t remember a time in her life when she wasn't singing.
“As a kid, my family would often point out when I was absentmindedly humming a tune without even realizing it,” she said.
“I've also been told I sing in my sleep.”
Jill says she feels she never was a very good student in music lessons and still struggles at times reading sheet music, but she always loves to play by ear and make up her own songs.
“There is a picture of me as a toddler, arms outstretched over my grandma's piano, excitement and anticipation on my face, and I think that image sums up my earliest feelings towards music quite well,”
She also appreciates the time when she was around 12 years old she and her mom sat down and listened through an album by the artist Natalie Merchant called Ophelia, which she noted is full of rich imagery and metaphor.
“My mom talked to me in great detail about what the individual songs meant to her,” Jill said. “From this experience I learned a lot about interpreting lyrics and crafting powerful stories that people can relate to.”
Her dad also inspired her to love the art of music.
“My dad made a point to take me to a variety of live concerts as I was growing up and to this day we regularly send each other new songs we've heard,” she says. “He pays special attention to lyrics and often picks songs with a positive or ultimately uplifting message about striving to do your best or appreciating the good in life.”
Jill’s favorite part about the songwriting process is finishing a song and feeling like she got something off her chest, that she expressed something she wouldn't have been able to convey in any other way.
“I also really enjoy collaborating and singing with other people,” she said. “I've found that working with people with different writing styles or different musical instincts than me can lead to some great results.”
Zimmerman is often compared to the likes of Joni Mitchell, Regina Spektor and Fiona Apple. She admits she still gets pretty nervous and anxious before shows, but that usually fades once the music starts and the lights come on.
“The best thing about being a musician is hearing from someone that a song I wrote meant something special to them,” she said. “The beautiful thing about songs and poems (I write) is that the listener adds their own meaning.”
Jill’s concert next month is one of several gigs Pebble Creek plans to promote over the next year. Last weekend, Karmacide Unplugged debuted their music at the golf course and Zimmerman hopes the community of Becker comes out and shows their support for such acts.
“I'm thrilled that the community is rallying around local live music and I'm honored to have been offered a spot in the lineup,” she says. “Becker people are friendly and supportive and I've always been grateful for that. Come on out and see and hear live music featuring piano, guitars, banjo and several voices in various arrangements.”
