Jill Block returns to her roots Jill Block returns to her roots (June 04, 2003)

By Marjorie Mader
Almanac Staff Writer

When Jill Rochlitz was growing up in Portola Valley, she had dreams of singing on stage.

Next week, Jill Rochlitz Block, a rising star in the growing alternative country/Americana music scene, returns to her old stomping grounds. She will sing some of her own songs and wield her bright red Danelectro guitar at the Pioneer Saloon in Woodside on Thursday, June 12. She's bringing along friends from Nashville, Tom Mason and Pru Clearwater, to open the show at 8 p.m.

She is married to Billy Block, a drummer and promoter of alternative country music. They describe this brand of music as having its foundation in American roots music from blues to bluegrass and rock to rock-a-billy. Some of the names in this field include Lucinda Willams, Steve Earle, Johnny Cash, Hal Ketchum, The Mavericks and Willie Nelson.

The Blocks live in Nashville with their two sons, Rocky, 6, and Grady, 3, and work together promoting alternative country music in their business Western Beat Entertainment. Nashville is known as the home of country music, and, they say, it's fast becoming the hub of alternative county music.

Now on tour, Jill is promoting her new CD "Tang the Hump," a term credited to the legendary soul-singer James Brown and used to instruct the drummer "to ride the bell of the cymbal." This term refers to the drummer riding the beat by hitting the bell of the cymbal to make a high-pitched tang sound.

"It's all about the groove of life," says Jill, "staying in the groove of songwriting, performing and growing as a person and artist. Sometimes you're just shuffling. Sometimes you've got to rock. Every once in awhile you have to get quiet and slow things down. Then, of course, you have to swing."

Writes Americana music reviewer Scott Homewood about Jill: "The honey-voiced singer plays wonderful country songs featuring all the twangy guitar noise and great rowdy rootsy rock you'd ever want from a country filly."

Jill cites Grace Slick and Neil Young as having a huge impact on her as "they were in my own backyard" as she was growing up and very accessible. "I could feel their inspiration and influence as I grew as an artist," she says.

She credits her parents, Jim and Jean Rochlitz, and many friends who have supported her on a career path that has seen its share of twists and turns.

"I first sang at the Pioneer with the California Cowboys [they're still playing in the Bay Area]," says Jill, after graduating from Chico State University in 1985.

Much earlier, in 1968, she started learning the violin in second grade at Ormondale School, then played the cello and clarinet, and was the first female conductor of the Portola Valley School orchestra in eighth-grade. She performed in musicals for six years with the Portola Valley Children's Theater.

During high school, she dropped her music, focusing on soccer and other sports instead. Realizing how much she missed music, she picked up the guitar in college in the 1980s and sang in coffeehouses, clubs and at fraternity parties while earning degrees in finance and psychology.

"As much as I loved singing and music," says Jill, "I decided I wanted to lead a normal life." She used her finance background to develop a career in software sales and real estate development on the Peninsula in the late 1980s, but she missed her passion, music.

"At 28, I packed up the condo that I bought, sold my car, quit my job and moved into a mobile home with my grandparents in Los Angeles," she says. "I knew I had to figure out how to combine my passion with work and make a living."

Jill started doing a bunch of odd jobs in the music field, went into property management and eventually bartending and waiting on table to provide funds and a flexible schedule. She sang in Monday night jam sessions on the Sunset strip, and found her way to the Palomino Club in the San Fernando Valley where she met friends and musicians who encouraged her. She met house drummer Billy Block, whom she married in 1993.

"It became evident that if we wanted to make a success with our music, we had to move to Nashville, a music hub," says Jill, where companies support and promote musicians through recordings and radio.

They moved to Nashville in 1995 and started their Western Beat business from an office in their home. Her husband now has a nationally syndicated weekly radio show, and Jill performs every Tuesday night at "Billy Block's Western Beat Roots Revival" concert series and radio show. She has appeared on stage at the Ryman Auditorium and Fan Fair in Nashville, toured the Southeast with her band and as solo acoustic artist, and has released two CDs.

To those interested in pursing a career in music, Jill offers some advice: learn an instrument really well. That's especially true for girls so that they can be taken seriously, she says. "Follow your heart, understand the business of music and go where the music industry is -- Los Angeles, Nashville and New York."

E-mail Marjorie Mader at mmader@AlmanacNews.com.