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Fiddle player Jillian Rae steps into the foreground
By John Benson
It’s fitting that fiddle player Jillian Rae would connect with a piece of misunderstood art.
For years the Minneapolis musician found herself playing fiddle in various Twin City bluegrass bands but secretly she yearned to break free of her side-woman image. That moment came late last year with the release of her solo debut, “Heartbeat,” which features interesting album art that seems to depict a heart in turmoil.
“That was a random piece of art found on a silent auction table at a charity gig I was playing,” said Rae, calling from Minneapolis. “At the time, I was working with an artist. I wanted the album cover to be heart related but I couldn’t give much direction other than it doesn’t have to be super literal. Everything coming back was cartoon-y but it didn’t seem like it fit the record.”
What she found was the artwork “Bleeding Rose,” which was created by a local artist who drew mostly on skateboards.
“It’s funny, he said people told him it looked like a heart but it was actually a rose,” Rae said. “So it’s quite opposite, nobody sees it as a rose, and everybody sees it as a heart which is cool. That’s what I wanted.”
What she wanted was for a solo album to truly show off her musical colors, which Rae said she overwhelmingly accomplished on “Heartbeat”.
The fiddle player stressed growing up in the heartland of America, and folk music, provided her a valuable foundation to experience the music industry. When she wasn’t touring with different bands, she was in high demand for studio work.
However, such opportunity begot pigeonholing, which is what Rae is hoping to eschew on “Heartbeat.” The new CD is a genre-hopping affair with ties to her various influences, ranging from classic rock (Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix) to traditional country.
Overall, when pressed to elaborate on the album, Rae admits there’s an overarching theme of love with most of it involving heartbreak. However, the majority of tunes are uplifting.
“I would say that ‘Heartbeat’ is a good all-encompassing song because it has an indie rock kind of sound to it but then there’s the gypsy style and other styles of violin that I roll into it,” Rae said. “It speaks for the record in that you never know what you’re going to hear and there’s a lot of different styles woven throughout.
“The other standout song is ‘Helpless,’ which is funny because live I do play violin on it but on the record I don’t think I tracked violin. To me, it’s just a straight up rock ’n’ roll song, which is different from the Americana and country stuff you hear on the record. And it’s the last track on the record. I thought it was a good way to end things.”
Overall, the album’s uniqueness stems from its approach, with Rae admitting it almost sounds as though she’s playing lead guitar lines on the violin. Such an approach has also opened the doors for her to explore unique covers in concert.
“I always like to slip in at least one cover and do things that you wouldn’t necessarily think a person would play on the violin,” said Rae, who makes her Youngstown debut Aug. 21 at Cedars.
So does that mean she’ll be playing something by Led Zeppelin or, um, Beyonce?
“For the most part, I like to keep it pretty random and pick from different time frames and genres,” Rae said. “So far no Beyonce, but now you’ve planted the seed.”