Jill Hennessy happiest onstage with a guitar
Actress known for Law & Order and Crossing Jordan in Toronto to promote her new album
Jill Hennessy got her start as a performer busking on the streets of Toronto.
Despite a successful career in television — including a recurring role on Law & Order (1993 to ’96) and starring in her own series, Crossing Jordan (2001 to ’07) — she’s never lost her love of music, both writing and singing.
“Music is closest to my heart. If I could be known for anything, I would definitely choose to be known for my music,” Hennessy said in a telephone interview.
“I’ve always felt that the music is sort of a direct conduit from the artist’s soul to the audience’s. That’s where I’m happiest, onstage with a guitar connecting with an audience directly.”
Hennessy is returning to Toronto to promote her second self-produced album, I Do. She’ll perform at Yonge-Dundas Square on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. and at an 8 p.m. concert Friday at Adelaide Hall.
“Working in television or film, I love using other people’s words in conveying my feelings through those words. But in the end, you’re sort of a very tiny cog in a very large machine and you never know what’s going to come out at the end, what sort of final product will result,” Hennessy observed.
“With music, I like to think of myself as a storyteller. At least that’s what I have the most fun doing. With my music, I get to tell my own stories, I get direct contact with my audience. It’s just a very personal, cathartic, joyous endeavour for me.”
Hennessy’s first album, Ghost in My Head( 2009), was well received enough to land her a guest performance with the Indigo Girls and a spot in Lilith Fair.
“In the first album, most of the music — the songs, the lyrics — were stories about my childhood. So that was a pretty deep experience. The second album kind of continues on almost chronologically from the first in that it deals more with adulthood,” Hennessy said.
Both albums were recorded in Austin, Texas, a city that hosts the annual South by Southwest Music Festival and is famed for its indie music scene.
Collaborators on I Do include respected musicians such as guitarists Robbie Gjersoe and Will Sexton, and drummer Dony Wynn. The album was mastered by Greg Calbi of Sterling Sound, who worked on Bruce Springsteen’s iconic Born to Run album. “I’m very lucky to have worked with so many great musicians. Austin’s very conducive to that. People just get together, man, they hear you’re recording and one person calls another. I just put out what I wanted for each song and they’d say, ‘Yep, we can get that.’ And they did,” Hennessy said.
Hennessy described her music as “storytelling tucked under a rock ’n’ roll song.”
“A theme I’ve sort of discovered in looking at these songs myself is holding on to something that’s invisible and having faith in that — whatever one’s faith is — but that there really is something that’s kind of indestructible that is so tangible and it’s always present.”
Hennessy, who recently completed a story arc on The Good Wife, has joined the cast of Madam Secretary as intelligence analyst Jane Fellows.
“I’m having a great time with Madam Secretary. I get to work with Tea Leoni, though I work mainly with Tim Daly, who’s a joy, a sweetheart and very humble and hilarious,” Hennessy said.
“I get to shoot here in New York, which is also a huge plus. I want to see my kids every day; I want to be able to raise my children. I don’t want to see them once every six months. So a lot of that goes into the decision-making.
“I love acting as well. To be honest, I never categorize the two in different boxes, it’s all performing, it’s all storytelling. As a performer, you’re lucky enough to get work period because the industry, both music and acting, television and film, is incredibly difficult and very competitive.”