Reviewed by Trevor Kirk

Jill Paquette’s life changed forever on her way to a basketball practice during her freshman year at the Prairie Bible College in Alberta. An unplanned stop at a local coffee house led to Jill being persuaded by her friends, who were aware of her talents as a singer, songwriter and guitarist, to borrow a guitar and get up on stage. As a result of that one impromptu gig, she joined a band that had been put together by her classmate Matt Brouwer, and the rest (as they say) is history. On the evidence of this debut album, this 24 year old part French Canadian, part Cree native American from Houston, British Columbia, has a bright music future ahead of her. She’s written or co-written all of the 12 tracks here (11 on the official track list, with a hidden one at the very end), and they range from the bright pop sound of “Lift My Eyes” (already getting much airplay on UCB Europe), to gentler acoustic tracks such as “Broken” (featuring her excellent guitar technique) and “Free (Take My Life)”, a gorgeous piano and string quartet ballad, featuring electric guitar by Phil Madeira and percussion by Steve Hindalong of The Choir. Jill’s vocal technique is clean and clear, production is first class, and whilst there are quite a few lady troubadours out there in this style (Carolyn Arends, Jennifer Knapp and Nichole Nordeman are three that immediately spring to mind), with a debut of this quality, there’s always room for one more. Recommended.

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