Jess steps up to take part in a charity concert

10:06am Thursday 28th August 2008

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WHEN vocal and guitar duo Jake and Rob pulled out of Sing Out! 3 at Aymestrey Village Hall on Saturday, September 6, Jess Childs, Hereford Times reporter and (in her other life) a talented singer/songwriter and guitarist, agreed to take their place.

“I’m delighted,” says Tony Walton, whose Tigerfish Productions is putting on the evening in aid of Tibet Relief Fund, its fourth charity concert in five months.

“I’m thrilled she’s available. In normal circumstances, I’d book her to top the bill, but we’ve already got Benji Kirkpatrick, so it’s going to be a really strong line-up.”

Jess wrote her first song, Alright, at the age of 13 and has been penning her own material ever since.

“I had a fantastic music teacher, who set us the challenge of writing something, and mine was about recognising that I was in control of what I was going to be, and that I was going to be alright,” says Jess, explaining the genesis of that first song.

“I’d found a way to express myself,” she adds.

It’s been a busy year for Jess, a year which began with her playing with the late Eva Cassidy’s brother Dan at the CARAD Arts Centre in Rhayader: “That was kind of a biggie, especially as I cover her songs Songbird and Over the Rainbow in my set.”

She also made her first radio appearance on Radio Wales, singing live and interviewed as a featured artist together with guitarist Julian Lewis, and last weekend performed at the Brecon Jazz Fringe Festival.

The range of venues demonstrates the breadth of Jess’s style: “It’s country, it’s jazz. Some of it’s ballady and some of it’s upbeat,” she says, attempting to define her music, before adding emphatically: “But always acoustic.”

At Sing Out! 3, Yatton poet Tony, whose collection On Yatton Hill is now in bookshops, will be reading some of his poems about the situation in Tibet and China.

The evening’s raffle includes as a prize an original seascape by Tony’s wife Brontë Woodruff, who follows exhibitions this month in Presteigne, Ludlow and Lingen with her fifth open studio for h.Art in September.

Hear Jess Childs at myspace.com/bessjess Admission to Sing Out! 3 is £8 (concessions £6) and seats can be reserved on 01568 770177.