Introduction From The Webmaster

As a student at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, I had approached the band and asked their permission to be my "subjects" for a number of school projects. The rest, as they say, is history! I've had the pleasure of working with the band ever since. In May of 2000, Jill agreed to let me tape a phone interview with her. The following text was transcribed from that tape. ENJOY!

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Jill West is the Lead Vocalist for
Jill West and Blues Attack.

The interview began with Jill commenting on her
busy work schedule as an operating room nurse...

Jill:

There are often times I can't get to a telephone...working at the hospital...I'm not just sitting around with nothing to do, but...make a few phone calls. That's one of the reasons why the band is not really my band, which is really kind of funny because I don't have the wherewithal to run a band, I mean to do all the work that has to be done to run a band. I just happen to be the singer out in front, which is really kind of weird.

Deena:

Well, whose band is it then?

Jill:

It's really Don Hollowood's band. Yeah, it's really Don and Hank's band. Hank does all of the managerial work, well 98% of the managerial work. I probably do 2% of the managerial work. I book a few gigs here and there. Some of the bigger deal things that we do, oftentimes are run through me, but about 98% of the managerial work is done by Hank Raffetto. Yeah, and it's weird. I mean it really is, you know, because I don't do all that decision-making. My decision-making is basically the music and the show...what we do on the bandstand, which actually makes it very easy, because I don't have all the other worries. I can just run the show and do the show, and other members of the band have those particular kinds of worries.

And then when they need a strong arm, then they send me in....because every once in a while I actually do have to be big mamma, so they send me in to strong arm the club owners and muscle them down when they're trying to give us shit. But I've only had to do it a couple of times, and it's worked out very well. Yeah, well, you know, you gotta do something, I mean I gotta do something to earn my money.

Deena:

It seems to me like each member makes his...or her own unique contribution.

Jill:

Exactly. That is absolutely the situation, particularly in this band. It's Donny Hollowood's band. We rehearse in his store. You know, Mark Cholewski is our rehearsal master in that Mark is the one who takes the song apart, listens to it, and then puts it back together; and then helps everybody else put it together. I have probably...although I have a very minimal technical musical education, I do have a good sense for where a song goes or where it needs to go and I'm actually a very quick musical study, which actually makes it seem like I know more than I do. I feed off of whatever knowledge the rest of the crew has, I kind of feed off of that and I'm able to move. You know, it's really weird because it really is done with mirrors because I don't know as much about music as it seems that I do. I try to tell that to people all the time and they don't believe me.

Deena:

I'm not believing you right now!

Jill:

Well, you know, it's true. I'm quite a phony actually.

Deena:

Well, maybe it's because you have such an amazing voice.

Jill:

The other thing is I actually think I'm a better actress than I am a singer.

Deena:

Oh, I don't know about that! Although, I've never seen you act...but...boy can you sing!

Jill:

You've seen me on the bandstand...you've seen me acting. I act like I'm a really good singer and I think people believe it because I'm not a really good singer. I really am not. If you were just to take my voice apart off of the stage setting, which is why sometimes people have told me that they find the live performance of the band much better than the CD. That's because of the visual impression I'm able to deliver from the bandstand. I'm actually a better actress than I am a singer, and you need to come and see my band to really appreciate my band because just hearing my band it's like, well you know, okay, she's no great singer. But I'm willing to admit that. I'm a better actress than I am a singer. I just act like I'm really good, and if people are watching me, then they fall for it. They believe it.

Deena:

I don't think you give yourself enough credit. I really don't. But you know, people like modesty, so it's all good! You know, that works too.

Jill:

I've got myself right on, my dear.

Deena:

I sort of feel like people's voices are almost like flavors of ice cream, and it's really hard to say one is good or one is bad, or one person can sing and one person can't. Because I almost think it's more like just having a personal flavor that you like more than the other flavors. And I think that the fans of your band like the flavor of Jill West.

Jill:

Absolutely.

Deena:

It's just having an affinity towards certain people's voices, and I love the sound of your voice!

Jill:

Well, thank you.

Deena:

You're welcome. And obviously a lot of other people do as well.

Jill:

That's a bonus!

Deena:

You know, a lot of people say Lou Reed and Bob Dylan can't sing, but I like those flavors, too.

Jill:

Well, exactly. It's not a pure singing, but it is singing nonetheless. Absolutely.

Deena:

And there's just an artistry and a poetry in their music that I also really enjoy.

Jill:

He is a singer/songwriter. If you have to pigeonhole that particular group, that style of delivery, that's singer/songwriter kind of thing.

About The History Of The Band:

Jill:

All of us have been with so many other bands. I've been through dozens, and that's not an exaggeration, dozens of different sorts of bands from the first band I ever played with, which was nothing but an attic band.

Before this band was Jill West and Blues Attack, this band with most of the same members was a band called The Hell Hounds. I was invited to join the Hell Hounds a few months after I was invited to help The Hell Hounds.

I was with a band called American Music/Bob Beach Blues Band. It was the same members doing two different formats and styles of music, obviously in two different styles of bars...because we had bars that really liked the classic tracks rock and roll, and we had bars that were starting to take a chance on blues bands.

I joined The Hell Hounds about 8 ½ years ago (1991), I would imagine. And that's longevity for a local band, but once again we've gone through a lot of band members in that time...including the fact that Don Hollowood is actually more of a rotating player, than he is a full-fledged band member, even though it is his band...his and Hank Raffetto's band.

Don's responsibilities at the store and different changes going on his life created a situation where he still wants to play, but he can't commit every weekend of every week of every month through the year. The only members who are willing to do that are myself, Hank, Gary and Mark Cholewski.

But all of that didn't happen like that right away. So, 8 ½ years ago, I joined the band called The Hell Hounds, and that consisted of... I don't think you need all of these other people's names. There were just different members in that band than there are in the current Blues Attack band.

We've gone through about four series of drummers. In an effort to try to maintain some kind of a regular rotating band... we've actually been through a couple of keyboard players, (and) a couple of other guitar players.

It's very difficult in a local setting to, number one, be able to afford to entice your musicians to work with you every time you want to work. That's probably one of the hardest things about the local setting. You don't make a lot of money. None of us do this for the money. We all do it for the love of the music, but you know you certainly like to be compensated somewhat for your talent or whatever you're able to provide for an audience on any given night. So, you certainly don't want to give your shit away for free.

Although I certainly would like to pay everyone on the bandstand a bit more than we get paid on an average basis, everybody's pretty happy working at the level where we are now. And we're probably one of the better paid bands, certainly not the best paid band in the city, but we're one of the better paid bands in the city.

So you can't really entice financially band members to stick with you all the time, because there are other things that come up. One of the things that I actually encourage my boys to do is to take your night off when you need to take your night off. That's why we're always able to enjoy ourselves on the bandstand because nobody's really burnt out, as busy we are.

We're probably one of the busiest local bands in the city, and that's thanks to Hank Raffetto because, Hank's the one who hustles the clubs and makes the new contacts. Although, we are pretty much at a great advantage right now. We don't have to look too much to play because the club owners call us because they've either heard of our reputation, or they've heard the band.

A lot of club owners come to some of the places where we play regularly, and then they'll approach me and they'll say, " I have a club in Clairton," or "I have a club in Latrobe and we'd really like to have your band come out there and play." It's a very great compliment to the band, considering that we are a word of mouth band.

We don't do a lot of promoting. Actually, we don't do any extra promoting than anybody else who hires us. Mark Cholewski does put the information to The City Paper and The In Pittsburgh. We try to consistently have our information in there. We have finally gotten back together a mailing list, which we are trying to get organized and together and sent out to everyone...so that a lot of people who don't get a chance to come out and see us all the time can still find out where we are relatively easily by receiving this information in the mail. And the web page that Jeff Davis had created for the female...

Deena:

Pittsburgh Women Of Blues?

Jill:

I hate to say blues because once again it tends to pigeonhole, because it's not strictly a group of blues women, but we still are grateful to be pigeonholed together in that category, although I certainly consider myself a straight ahead blues and rhythm and blues woman.

Some of the other women within the circle are not so much blues, as they are some of the other styles of music. Andrea Pearl is more of a rock-head, and she even does a little rockabilly/country music. Sherry Richards' new project has gone away from a traditional blues format to a more...she's more of the contemporary...I don't even want to say soft-rock, but kind of the contemporary blues/rock category. And Helene Milan has gone into a jazz format, which I understand is working very well for her.

But anyway, those are kind of the ways now that people are starting to find out a little more about Jill West and Blues Attack. Also, (the band has been) given opportunity to perform at such places as The Pittsburgh Blues Festival...and to do some openers for some bands at Moondogs in Blaunox.

Deena:

That must be great exposure.

Jill:

Oh, it's great exposure. We also have picked up some interest from a guy in New Castle who runs the blues society up in New Castle (PA). He owns a pretty cool bar called Chameleon Junction.

Growing Up In Pittsburgh...

Jill:

I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, and I live right next door to the house that I was raised in. I never went too far away. I lived in Crafton for a while. I lived in Ingram for a while. I lived down in the valley in between Elliot and Sheridan for a while. And then things happened within the family, and I was given this house next door to the house I was raised in, so I'm right back up on the street where I was raised in, which is actually very cool.

I dig it because I love where I grew up and where I'm continuing to grow up, I guess, just because I have to. I have to grow old, I don't have to grow up, which is why people have a hard time believing that I'm 48 years old, but I truly am. Some mornings I wake up feeling all of it. Some mornings I wake up feeling more of it. But actually, most mornings I wake up feeling pretty good about life in general. The music plays a very important part in that, I believe. I don't know why it is with me, except I had someone suggest quite a few years ago that perhaps I'm just a late bloomer, and that must be true because my life has gotten better.

More Band History:

Jill West and Blues Attack were formerly The Hell Hounds. I came from American Music/Bob Beach Blues Band, which was two versions of the same band. One doing classic tracks rock and roll, that was American Music; and obviously the Bob Beach Blues band as a blues band.

Before that I had a nice vocal trio. We did contemporary, easy-listening music...called Jazzmin. There was a keyboard player and three vocalists. Before Jazzmin, it was kind of a whirlwind of temporary arrangements with a few bands around town...most notably the jazz violin player, Rod McCoy, when Rod McCoy was with the Silk band. That was quite a few years ago. Once again, I hesitate to give dates because I'm such a poor historian. But I did a few special featured shows with his band, also did a lot of his jam sessions.

Before that, circa as early as 1975, I was doing some special occasion situations with Harold Betters band, who's a well known jazz trombonist around town. Before that, it started in kind of a wedding band called Shylock. I've just been through the gambit of musical styles.

Pretty much before that, it was mostly solo things; weddings and christenings... Sometimes I even did a couple of jobs with my sister who is 10 years younger than I am and doesn't sing because she claims that she's not as big a show off as I am. It is too bad because she actually has a wonderful voice, but she doesn't sing.....that 's not her thing. Her thing is cooking in the kitchen, so if we ever became famous and went on the bus, we'd take her along as our cook. She wouldn't sing, but she would cook for us. She's quite an excellent cook.

That's kind of the genealogy of my band work. Going back to where I was actually working and making money in a band.

Deena:

Did you sing in high school plays and musicals?

Jill:

I sang in high school plays and musicals. Actually my high school music teacher was probably the greatest musical influence on me of anyone now or then...in kind of molding a bit of a musical personality out of me.

Deena:

Wow, that's great. Tell me about your teacher because that is one of the questions from my list:  Who in the past and present have been the major musical influences on your life...locally and nationally?

Jill:

She is certainly the strongest of individuals. Although from my understanding...from stories from my family...since before I actually have strong memories...they tell me I was always the show off in the family, and I was always the entertainer in the family.

Including times at a very early age, I used to entertain off of the stair landing in our living room...it made for a great stage with a big curtain over the front of it, and apparently I used to entertain my family quite often using this as a stage.

And I can remember...in some early years, literally sitting on the corner singing three and four part harmonies with a couple of other girls who I was in choirs with...through late elementary school and high school.

Deena:

What was your teacher's name?

Jill:

Marilyn Dimatteis. She was the choir teacher at Langley High School in Sheridan, which is where I went to High School. I was involved with her as her student in musical revue and Christmas pageantry type of things. She was a young teacher and her energy and desire to do a good job created that same energy and desire within her students.

She had one of the best choirs in the city at the time. We did very difficult pieces of music and we were still able to do them well because she was able to instill in us a desire to do a good job. She was quite a motivator and this was well before being a motivator was something to strive for.

We became friends after I got out of high school and went to nursing school. She became a mentor and she became the individual that I probably talked to on a daily basis when I hated nursing school, which I did on a daily basis.

Deena:

Where did you go to nursing school?

Jill:

I started out at Ohio Valley in McKees Rocks. After an argument with an instructor the day before grades came out, and I got thrown out of school, I finished school at Community College on the North Side. I did my training at Ohio Valley General Hospital from that school of nursing, which actually, it's kind of interesting because I think I certainly would have benefited from the education I would have gotten from them.

But everything kind of happens for a reason, and my going to school at Community College, and doing my nurse's training at Allegheny General...then moving on to my job in Presby's operating room... I truly believe in fate and that everything happens for a reason and that that's God's plan for us.

He gives us situations in which we are duty-bound to make a decision. And once you make your decision, you need to move with your decision and deal with the consequences of that decision.

I think that's kind of the way I have always been able to direct my life. And to feel that wherever I go, it was my choice to go there, and to make the best of the choice. And so consequently, when I was thrown out of Ohio Valley, I kind of took three days to feel completely sorry for myself, and then realized that I needed to get up off my ass and do something about it. I pursued some other schools around town and Community College looked like the best situation for me.

I went there to school. I had a grand time in school. I loved very much the freedom of being in the Junior College atmosphere. Things worked out very well for me. I went in a terrific direction with my medical career and I was still able to involve myself in music to a lighter degree. As I said, I did weddings. I used to play barely enough acoustic guitar to even talk about. I certainly can't play any of it anymore.

Deena:

So you don't presently play any musical instruments?

Jill:

I play handheld percussion and yes, my voice is my instrument. But I do play handheld percussion. I used to play a little bit of kit, a little bit of drum kit. And I played a little guitar...not enough of either of those to actually be even worth mentioning. But I have a very strong sense of meter and that was instilled in me by Marilyn Dimatteis, my choir teacher. I have a very percussive nature, which just comes from some natural rhythm that occurs within me. I kind of go with what I'm best able to do.

Marilyn was my mentor as I was finishing nursing school. I also had a lot of free time once I went to Community College. I was able to actually spend some of that time with Marilyn in the classroom setting and I worked with her on her musicals and at Christmastime. I was able to devote some time working with her students in a teaching atmosphere.

And so when people ask me if I had any formal musical training, I tell them I had 25 vicarious years of some of the best musical training a person could ask for just by associating myself with Marilyn Dimatteis, and working with her.

I did some community theater with her. I did high school productions with her. She went to a couple of other high schools in the city of Pittsburgh and I went with her to do shows there.

Deena:

Where is she now?

Jill:

She went into the elementary setting. I went with her to do shows there. With music, it sometimes becomes very difficult for people to keep track of each other if you're not immediately involved with the style of music that I'm involved in. I've actually kind of lost her a bit along the way. She has remarried. The last I tracked her, she was vice principal at one of the area middle schools.

Deena:

That's impressive.

Jill:

Yes. It's very impressive.

Deena:

Which one? Do you remember?

Jill:

I believe it was Martin Luther King, but you can't quote me on that. I believe it was Martin Luther King over on the North Side.

Deena:

That's a rough school. I have a girlfriend who was a sub there.

Jill:

Marilyn had that ability. She actually, I think thrived with the more difficult kids. She was very uniquely equipped to get kids to discipline themselves around her. She gave you limits and she gave you expectations. And I think a lot of children don't even realize that they want those things.

But Marilyn made you understand that there were limits to what you were going to be able to do around her. But there were also expectations of what she expected out of you. She let you know that early in the year, and she began developing a plan of attack in that direction and it was unbelievable.

I used to watch her as I grew older and more maturely aware of those kinds of things. I used to watch in her, her ability to be very soft spoken with the children. She would show disappointment, and that would affect her students more than any kind of discipline could do. She was very uniquely talented. She was a teacher always, from beginning to end. I feel if I had not gone into nursing, I probably would have gone into teaching behind her influence.

But see, I observed in her at an early age what a well educated, self assured, financially secure woman could do for herself and be for herself.

Deena:

So, she was a role model?

Jill:

Absolutely. She was all of those things. At a later period, circa 1983-1984, her love and desire to perform music, not just to teach music, was reborn. And we involved ourselves together and formed this little duo to perform at some private functions for teacher friends of hers, and some private functions for doctor friends of mine.

She was a piano player and she sang. She didn't sing a lot because her voice was not a very strong voice, but the girl could play piano, honey. The girl could play some mean piano! We did a couple of these shows as just the two of us, including a special boat ride for an international liver transplant symposium because of my contact s through doctors.

We ran into a young man who was a year or two behind me in high school. We ran into him. I don't even remember what the exact situation was, but we ran into him. He showed an interest in perhaps wanting to sing, and Jazzmin became a vocal trio. A very fine vocal trio.

Marilyn was able to build with the voices and then compliment with the piano, and so everything was very full sounding, very rich sounding. She wrote a lot of the vocal arrangements. I picked a lot of the material and she wrote a lot of the arrangements. And so it was very well together in that fashion.

And Kevin was just the beefcake in the trio. I mean, he was good-looking, very handsome; put those leather pants on and the women went crazy.

Deena:

What was Kevin's last name?

Jill:

Kevin Brown was his name and Kevin was also a student of Marilyn's many years before. I graduated from high school in 1970. Kevin probably graduated in about '73, I would say. He was a couple years behind me, so now this is 10 or 11 years later, you know, where Kevin and I are 30, and 35 sort of ageish, and then working together and performing.

Kevin sang in church. Kevin sang in choir in high school. He had tried working with a couple of bands, but things just weren't happening in those bands. It just wasn't the right mix. A lot of times, that's a very difficult thing to come upon. If you do come upon it, you're very lucky, which is where I feel I am with the Blues Attack band. I think I have an excellent mix of permanent musicians and rotating musicians.

But, anyway, we needed to put Kevin in front of a test audience and there was a little bar in the neighborhood here in Elliot that had a back room that we used to dance in many years ago, and it kind of sat empty. I asked the owner if he'd let me borrow the room one night to invite about 25 of my good friends, and Marilyn's good friends, and some of Kevin's friends to come. We were going to set up the trio in this back room, and put Kevin in front of a test audience.

We did that and about 40 people showed up because...this was my neighborhood...the neighborhood I grew up in. Some of my neighbors were in the bar and they were stopping people on the street and telling them to come in to see Jill's band.

So suddenly the room is full of people. Suddenly everybody wants to have a beer or a glass of wine. The owner called his daughter and said if you come down here and wait on the back room, you could probably make a handful of change tonight. She did. She made a ton of money that night. We put Kevin in front of this very friendly audience, and some of the mistakes that were made...we laughed and joked about it.

That ability to talk with my audience and bring my audience in on what we're trying to do is one of the keys to my successes and that's another reason why it's better for you to see my band live than it is for you to hear my band on the radio or on a record.

I learned how to communicate with an audience from years of my amateur theater background from working with Marilyn. A lot of people can't look their audience in the face.

Deena:

You're a very enthusiastic, energetic person, and I think that when you talk to the audience, it's the real YOU coming out.

Jill:

I don't know where that came from. I don't know if that came from the teaching aspect of what I did with Marilyn and her kids, and what I did within the medical setting, because I work at a teaching hospital. And in a teaching hospital, everyone teaches practically from your first day. What you learn on your first day, you share with the next person who comes in behind you on their first day.

I always enjoyed teaching to the point where I used to lecture. I used to give the introductory to thoracic trauma lecture for the trauma course that was given by the operating room.

I did talks with pre-heart and heart/lung transplant candidates. I used to do them once a month. One of the girls at the hospital had put together this fabulous program. Somebody from the financial department would talk to them. Somebody from admissions would talk to them. I would talk to them about what to expect before and after your OR (operating room) experience, and I gave them a little bit of what we did while they were in the operating room because they never know that. A nurse from intensive care would talk to them. The social worker talked to them.

The girl who was the transplant coordinator had put this program together and once every other month we used to give this program. So I used to do that and that was a teaching aspect.

Also, working at the adult hospital I did cardiac surgery on a daily basis, and I was one of the individuals who trained new cardiac nurses and also worked very closely with the medical students and the residents. The attending surgeons put an awful lot of trust and faith in their regular cardiac nurses to help in training all the new guys when they came along. So that was always quite enjoyable.

Deena:

Which hospital are you presently working at?

Jill:

I'm now at Children's Hospital, but I was at Presby for 25 years.

Deena:

How long have you been at Children's now?

Jill:

Since September of 1997. I'm finally to the point now where I feel comfortable enough with some of the things I do in pediatric surgery that I'm now able to teach a little bit about that...because the new people who come in, you know everyone has questions, and that's one of the things I pride myself on is that I still am enthusiastic enough about my job to not only want to learn what I can, but also to teach what I've learned.

I really do think that the music helps me do that because you could certainly get bogged down in a career choice if the career is what takes up most part of your daily living. And the career does not take up the most part of my daily living. My music takes up more of my daily living than anything else does. And so the career is a lot easier for me to deal with because it's not that important within the whole scheme of my life.

Back to Music...

Deena:

Who do you admire both locally and nationally in the music world?

Jill:

I'd have to say my overall musical persona was pretty much a creation of Marilyn Dimatteis and that stands true all the way across all of my musical endeavors. But if I had to say, when I discovered the blues about 15 or 16 years ago, I discovered a musical form that was so absolutely perfect for me...allowing me to utilize what talents I do have...into a pleasing presentation, I think.

And my local musical influences, not just blues because all of my musical endeavors before the blues are pretty much what helped me establish at least some kind of a basis to build my blues character on. Etta Cox was a great influence on me. Etta and I had some conversations many nights after the end of her gigs. They were jamming, and I would go to their jam sessions, and Etta had given me some good advice about some things. And Etta is actually the individual who told me that perhaps I was a late bloomer, because it had taken me so long to settle into a musical style...a form that really did work for me...instead of working against my natural musical personality and trying to do other styles of music.

Deena:

Let's say you came home from work, and you wanted to relax. What CD would you put in your stereo?

Jill:

That's too narrow a question for me because all styles of music relax me. I might be in a reggae mood one day when I get home. I might be in a classical music mood. If I worked with one of my cardiac surgeons a lot through the day, he listens to classical music a lot. Sometimes I come home and I want to continue in that vein. Sometimes I come home and what would relax me would be some wild blues guitar playing from the likes of Debbie Davies or Albert Collins or Albert King or something like that.

Some days I come home and I'd rather just have the quiet or the drone of the TV. My musical tastes are so broad and right now I'm really digging a jazz piano player named Diana Crawl, who is so subdued and so laid back, and so different from what I give off on the bandstand.

I generally give a high-energy performance almost anywhere I go. I would like to think that whether there are 5 people in the audience or 500 people in the audience that I should be giving the same show to those 5 people that I would give to 500 people. And I take pride in the fact that more often than not, I'm generally able to generate the energy necessary to do that. And sometimes that's very difficult to do. And sometimes 500 people ignoring the band is harder to perform for, than 5 people really digging what you're doing.

So, it's always different, and that's actually good because then we're not bored. We're kicking the same performance day in and day out, and you can get bored with that. Your audiences get bored with that. The band gets bored with that. Well, that's universal.

Everyone's band history should include that, and if you're really lucky, 8 years later you're still doing it with the same musicians and you're still enjoying yourself on the bandstand.

Once again, I think that's what keeps Blues Attack working as much as we work. I've heard horror stories from other people in other bands about musicians not showing up for gigs, and musicians...arguing on the bandstand in front of an audience. I heard a story of two musicians literally rolling around on the floor in the kitchen at one of the clubs one night in a big fight.

We don't experience that. We don't go through that. I don't allow that on my bandstand. If we make a mistake, if we do something wrong, we're going to save this for later on. This is not something that we get into on the bandstand. It's nobody's business, but the band's. And if we can't settle it within the next rehearsal or the next show, then we've got a problem because everybody needs to approach my bandstand with what I consider... is the appropriate and proper attitude to perform for an audience. And if you've got things going on underneath, that's going to show in your performance.

By intent, I try to keep things light and easy on the bandstand. We're a local band. It's not like we're a national band selling records and performing in all these big venues all across the country. We're a local band. We have a certain amount of responsibility as a local band to give a good performance everywhere we go, and if we're not doing that then something has to change.

Deena:

Where do you see the band going, and what would your hopes for the future of the band be?

Jill:

Well, I'll tell you. I still maintain the same desire from when I started working with publicly performing bands at a local setting on a regular basis. People would say to me, "Do you want to go on the road and make records and be a rock star?" And I told them no, I did not want to do that.

I would like a little notoriety in my hometown. When you say Jill West's name almost anywhere, somebody's going to say I've heard of her or, yes I've seen her band, and they're really good. They play her on WYEP, which is the local radio station that is really behind the local bands.

That's what I hoped for, and to a certain degree I am in the midst of achieving that. I have not quite achieved that.

It's very interesting because as a running joke, some of my friends...we had these series of events occur. We were traveling together. We were going to New York and Chicago and places to do some theater, and to do some night clubbing and just enjoy ourselves. We did a series of these trips together and every place we went, the waitresses and the people who worked in the garages or the valets were recognizing me.

We'd go someplace to a restaurant, and a waitress would come over to me and say, "Are you Jill West?" And they would all laugh. We went someplace and got out of the car, and the valet at the airport parking lot said, "Hey, don't you sing in a band?" And that became kind of a running joke with my friends that I was beginning to achieve what I desired because waitresses and garage attendants all over town were recognizing me. That was kind of a running joke that we had for a while.

But it's very interesting...more and more so do these things occur...to the point where last year when Ked Mo was in town, I went to the Ked Mo show, and as I was moving through the audience I could hear this ripple of voices behind me saying, "That's Jill West!" People nowadays will bring my name up in odd points in conversation, and like a lot of times it's with the people I work with and they'll say, "Oh, I work with her."

A friend of mine that I work with now, I also worked with years ago. I sang at her wedding 8 or 9 years ago. She was playing the video for her family and the kids made some comment about the woman that was singing and she said, "I work with her." And the kids were like, "Get out! You don't work with her!"

My name will come up in conversation, and it's not only that people have seen the band and people know the band, but people will say, "Oh, Jill West. I work with her." They'll say, "What do you mean you work with her?" Because there are still a lot of people in town who don't have the connection between what I do at night and what I do in the day.

But, it's a very cool thing. I'm in the midst of achieving my goal. I have a very comfortable life style, basically from my daytime career. I do truly interpret what I do during the day as a career. It's not my job. It's my career. I went to school and it is indeed my career and that is what I intend to do with a good portion still of what's left of my life.

My avocation is that of the music, and being able to indulge my avocation as much as I do, I think, is a great advantage to me.

My two jobs...in certain aspects they are very important to each other, although they are totally unrelated to each other. The aspect of my daytime career keeping me very rooted, and very down to the ground because it's very easy to get caught up in the mystique and the magic of music because you can think yourself a superstar singing in clubs around town. There are a lot of people who carry a particular attitude about what they do and you know once again folks, this is Pittsburgh, and we are local bands singing in Pittsburgh.

We don't compete with the other local bands singing in Pittsburgh. If you want to compete, then you get your ass out there, and you compete on a large scale. You don't compete with the local bands in Pittsburgh.

One of the things that is so wonderful about the blues family in Pittsburgh is that there is not a lot of competition among blues men and blues women around town. That's one of the reasons why you see all different sorts of people come to Jill West gigs. Chismo Charles stops in when he can. Mr. B stops in when he can. Bo Diddly, Jr., Sherry Richards stops in at my gigs, Andrea Pearl comes to my gigs. All different types of people. The keyboard player from 8th Street Rocks was at one of my gigs a couple weeks ago, and paid me a very, very nice compliment. But all different musicians come to my gigs.

If I had more time and more wherewithal, days when I have a night off or like in the middle of the week if I didn't have to get up and go to work the next day, there are nights that I would like to go out to see some of the other people that are playing around the town on Monday nights, and Tuesday nights, and Thursday nights and all those kind of things. I don't have the energy and wherewithal to do that anymore.

I don't have the kind of job that I can stay out Tuesday night and get home at 2:00 in the morning and skate through my job on Wednesday. I don't have that kind of job. It's an oftentimes difficult vocation, but you know, it should be kind of difficult. It's a different kind of hard work. There are certain types of physical labor that I just can't accomplish anymore, but the hard work that I do at work certainly makes up for a lot of things like that. And it's not the kind of job...I can't go in there and say to myself I'm going to just hide in a corner somewhere, I'm just going to sit here at my desk and snooze...that opportunity just doesn't present itself.

But with the blues family around town... when I need another player, I can call some of the other blues bands. I'm able to draw sometimes a fellow named Jeff Bell, who works with the Jeff Bell Blues Band. I call Jeff every once in a while as an extra player when I've just exhausted all of my other regular guys.

And Jeff and I do some duo work together. We're doing a picnic for the general surgery fellow, who is finishing her fellowship in June (2000). When she graduates, they're having a picnic for her, and Jeff and I are going to do the music for her picnic.

And I am available to do other things. I have been the afternoon guest with the Jeff Bell Blues Band at the Blues Cafe. I have been the Sunday guest with the Mystic Nights of the Sea. The Mystic Nights of the Sea are doing a thing every Sunday at Ligoneer Beach called the Celebrity Blues Bash, and they have a different guest player from the city out there every Sunday.

Deena:

Now, why do they call it Ligoneer Beach? Is it on a lake?

Jill:

There's a huge pool. And on August the 13th, (2000) they're having a pool party and barbecue, and they're calling it the Celebrity All-Stars Blues Bash, and it will be myself, a wonderful harmonica player from around town called Jimmy King, and this little 13 year old wonder around town, named Zack Weisinger, who is just an amazing young man. He's 13 years old, and he plays with such soul!

Deena:

Guitar?

Jill:

Oh, yes. He's wonderful.

Deena:

Is he going to be the next Johnny Lang, do you think?

Jill:

Absolutely. I think he will surpass Johnny Lang. He has such feeling. This young man has spent a good deal of time literally on my bandstand, learning from my guitar players. His mother and father bring him out. They take him all around town.

But, they bring him quite often to my gigs, and I told them every time he comes make sure he brings his guitar, and be ready to play. I said there may come a night that I won't be able to invite him to the bandstand, but please come ready to play. And he comes and he plays, and we have a little discussion...we have a little class after he's done in the set, and we talk about some things that he could do differently, and some things that he needs to do, who he needs to pay attention to on the bandstand.

The thing is, we go back to who influenced me in a local setting, and once again: Etta Cox, Chismo Charles, Bird Foster, Bob Beach...these are the people who influenced me and taught me the language of the blues and some phraseology, and an approach to repertoire, and things like that. And so, it then becomes my responsibility to pass this on to the young players who are coming up.

I've spoken with young female vocalists about being a female musician. There are some real things that you have to watch out for just being a female musician, even in a local setting.

Young players and young musicians who are coming along... I tell them, "Go see everybody." You can go and you can watch a really bad band perform, and you can learn as much from a bad performance as you can from a good performance. A bad performance will show you what NOT to do on stage! If you stand out there, and you see something that they're doing and you think, "I would never do that on stage," BAM... there's your lesson.

If you go see the good performers, you go see the people that everybody else goes to see...you say, aha! I like the way he or she does that. I like the way he or she does this.

A lot of people make commentary on...(Big Jim Hollowood--Don Hollowood's father--used to call it my patter)...the conversation that I run. One of the things that I don't like about a presentation is dead time on the bandstand. You'll notice you go see a band perform and they play, play, play. They look around the bandstand, they talk amongst each other, and they do things and it's down time on the bandstand. I don't like that, which is why I run my mouth so much. If we don't run a string of songs together, or if I don't just run them together with a simple introduction, I tend to start to chatter on the bandstand.

Deena:

But it keeps things interesting that way. People don't get bored and they don't lose interest.

Jill:

That again, is my contact with the audience. Because if you don't talk to your audience, they're not going to come back to see your band. Because sometimes a band is background music. People come for the conversation, for the ambiance, or the meat market, or the pick-up bar, or whatever. And sometimes the band is just incidental.

I don't let my band be incidental in anybody's club. I'm going to make you pay attention to my band if I have to scream at you from the bandstand. That's part of what that is. If I can talk you into sticking around, you'll stick around. If I'm not talking to you, and there's nothing going on, people are going to turn away and they're going to walk out the door.

That's one of the reasons that even if we play someplace that people don't know my band, once you hear my band and once I talk to you a little bit, I got you and you're going to stay. And that is our reputation at a lot of clubs. It's not so much the amount of people that we bring in, it's the amount of people that we keep in.

But every audience is a little different, and every audience responds to a little different approach. And, so that's part of what I have to do from the bandstand, figure out what my audience wants me to do...what kind of music does my audience want me to play on any given night.

When I go to the Blues Cafe, anything we do at the Blues Cafe, these people love... because they come to the Blues Cafe for one reason and one reason only...to watch the band because that's one of the few clubs in town that you can see the band from wherever you are in the room.

A couple of places are beginning to work on the design of the Blues Cafe. There's a place we play in Clairton, that the guy has built a balcony so that the band can play up on the balcony. There's a place we play in Jeanette where the guy is sorry he didn't put a balcony in because the sight line is so miserable. Because if you're not 3 or 4 people deep from the stand, you can't see anything. Now it's become a problem, because when we play in places like that, people want to see the band. They want to watch the interplay of what goes on.