Defining love is an arduous, painfully private task for some, but vocalist / songwriter / keyboardist / guitarist Jill Carole wears the definition on the sleeve of her CD, and in the chorus of its seventh track: "You're everything I wished upon: the Easter Bunny, sex and Santa Claus." Indeed, the San Francisco Bay Area artist is an attention-getting songwriter and a master at blending the tongue-in-cheek with the confessional in her collection of powerful and personal alternative pop songs.

A self-confessed romantic, Jill writes about all aspects of love: from loss of virginity ("It Was Paris"), to a love triangle ("The Heart Of Oaxaca"), to revenge fantasies ("Walk The Plank").

Her musical style ranges from memorable and catchy pop tunes to haunting and textural melodies; her background in poetry and fiction writing shines through in her songs with a sense of place and story, each one a literary landscape.

Jill's music has been called dark and edgy, romantic and cinematic, quirky, "a Tori Amos/Kate Bush fusion with pop sensibilities." Her latest tracks have inspired one reviewer to call Jill Carole "Beck on estrogen."

Jill Carole was born in Birmingham, Alabama - in the Alabama Theater, under the exit sign next to the powder room - during a revival showing of Gone With The Wind. In fact, she was born just five minutes before little Bonnie Butler. From the age of three, Carole could sing the score to this Southern epic in every key of her three-octave range.

Young Jill's musical influences broadened when her mother, a local opera singer and Beatles fan, turned her on to vibrato-laden Vivaldi and contralto renditions of "Love Me Do" and other Beatles favorites. Carole left the South to study at Amherst College and then at The Berklee College of Music, where she twice received the top singer-songwriter award. She migrated to California, trading her acoustic guitar for an electric, and rekindling her affair with the piano.

In 1998, Jill Carole was signed to England's Mystic Records and promoted her CD by touring the U.K. as a support act for fellow Mystic Artist Colin Blunstone, former lead singer for the legendary Zombies. Jill made a great splash again in England while touring with Al Stewart in the fall of 1999. She has also opened shows for such artists as Love and Rockets' David J., Byrds founder Roger McGuinn, and Suzzy Roche of the Roches. In the studio, her songs have featured Bob Weir (the Grateful Dead), drummer Steve Perkins (Jane's Addiction), guitarist Paul Robinson (Dan Hicks, Al Stewart), and keyboardist Jim Pugh (Chris Isaak, Robert Cray). Currently, Scott Mathews (Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, John Hiatt) produced her second CD, a "Technicolor Life", slated for release in 2005.

Jill Carole continually performs at venues throughout the San Francisco area. With her lush vocal delivery and dexterity on guitar and keyboards, Jill is equally adept at playing in an acoustic solo (or duo) situation, or with her electric band The Contrarians.