She Trusts This Island.
This story begins in 1999 in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains near Potsdamn, New York, close to the Canadian border where Jillian Todd was born. Jillian Todd started taking piano lessons at six from a really cool Hippie lady who lived across the street.
Her father Ben played guitar in an 80’s rock/country cover band all her life along with a day job. Her mother, Alisah played piano. Music is how her parents met in college. Mom has the perfect Janis Joplin voice her sister Shannon says moms voice is like a picture of a rose with a scratch through it. Jillian, Shannon and younger sister Cathryn loved singing harmony and it was ethereal magic. They would make up harmonies to songs they covered until Jillian went off to college. Jillian attended SUNY (State University of New York) Geneseo outside of Rochester studying an interdisciplinary tract, starting as bio-physics major and shifted to creative writing.
During the 2020 COVID shutdown the family lived under one roof again. They rekindled a family music experience. On St. Patrick’s Day (Shutdown Day) her dad had a gig that was cancelled. They decided to do a family Facebook Live stream and use the Helping Hands feature to allow listeners to donate to a local fund. They had an incredible five-part harmony. Listeners from all over the country viewed the stream. It was a successful fundraiser that continued every Friday during lockdown. They were lovingly referred as the Von Todd family (parody of the Von Trapp’s, Sound of Music), they raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for various charities of their community. This experience helped Jillian understand the power and effect of music.
She returned to college graduating in 2021. After graduation Jillian had two opportunities. First was a Fulbright Grant to Scotland. The second was music theater in Key West. The Fulbright Grant did not happen so she submitted an audition video to the Waterfront Theater. She was offered a season at the Waterfront starting with the Rocky Horror Show in 2021.
Her first friend in Key West was fellow actor/vocalist Belle Jampol. After a Rocky Horror performance she took Jillian to General Horseplay were Belle jumped on stage and tore the rook off the place with her vocals.
Jillian was inspired, bought a guitar, practiced songs and started busking on Duval Street, then tried Mallory Square on her days off. After a couple of months, she connected with Gary Hempsey through the Salty Frog. He invited her to meet him at a gig at Schooner Wharf Bar to sit in and audition – she thought, “Wow! Raven Cooper performs there!” She got on stage plugged in her guitar to the amp for the first time ever and it didn’t work. She borrowed Gary’s Martin guitar and sang three songs. Gary liked what he heard and scheduled her for the Salty Frog.
Afterwards she got a gig at Dante’s with Daryl Brooks, who set her up with guitar lessons and a new guitar at his shop, the Grateful Guitar. She learned new guitar techniques amazingly quick and adapted them to her music. Jillian met Skipper Kripitz through the Waterfront Theater shows and along the way rediscovered her love of jazz. They started gigging together on Saturdays at Viva’s.
Jillian was coming out of her shell and Gary Hempsey invited her to perform with That Hippie Band, in April 2023. It’s an amazing group of older musicians that have been performing 60’s music together for decades. With less than a year professional performing in Key West, she nailed it! Jillian sang Joanie Mitchel’s “Big Yellow Taxi”, and Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz” and “Bobby Magee”. The audience loved it!
One recent gig with Gary Hempsey at Schooner Wharf Bar included Jesse Wagner. Jesse called for Bob Dylan song from the “Blood On the Tracks” album, “Tangled Up In Blue”. It’s a folksy song that takes the listener on a long journey of two lovers. Jillian always loved the song and crept into the vocals a bit, Jesse gave her a look, they both felt something at the same moment, their voices harmonized beautifully, it was very special.
They played a gig together and felt that they have tapped into something that both of them felt with the same passion and heart. Their voices, their instruments, blend in harmony and they approach their music like one musician. It’s becoming a primary focus of both artists.
To recap, after graduating from college Jillian came to Key West signed to perform five musical shows at the Waterfront Theater, bought a guitar, started busking and playing in Mallory Square in between shows, then took a few guitar lessons, hooked up with several of the best Key West musicians in town. After a year and half Jillian is finding a very cool groove. Bill Blue use to refer to this as “serendipity”.
To Jillian we are 100 miles off the mainland with a cosmopolitan feeling and yet a strange sense of egalitarianism, peace. The relaxed nature of this island is its strength. Jillian loves the history of Key West that has been inhabited by people of all walks of life for the past 200 years. There is an acute sense of energy in Key West.
Jillian knows there is magic here. Everyone talks about Key West like it is an animate being. Jillian just seems to “get” Key West in a very soulful way.
She trusts this island.