This is a text-only version of an article first published on Friday, 14 March 2014. Information shown on this page may no longer be current.
Folk singer/songwriter and Christian Aid worker Jess Hall tells Jo Duckles how she came to Oxford from Devon via Swansea and Kenya.
Jess is becoming famous for cream teas on the Oxford music scene.
Nightshift, the local music magazine and the Oxford Times have made reference to the famous Devon treat in the publicity for Jess's new album, Bookshelves. I meet Jess in the News Café for lunch just down the road from the Christian Aid office where she works as Regional Co-ordinator for Berkshire and there was not a scone or pot of jam and cream in sight.
There she told me about her work inspiring people to stand against poverty and the role music plays in her life. Jess was born in Berkshire, but moved to Devon aged five, where she grew up in South Molton and Barnstaple.
"I went for a cream tea in Oxford and it wasn't the same," says tee total Jess who admits that fizzy drinks and cake are her only vices. Growing up in a church going family, Jess was a member of Girls Brigade and the church youth group.
She was just eight when a friend came round and told her she had become a Christian. "She went to a church across the road from my house.
Becoming a Christian seemed like a good idea which doesn't sound profound.
People say 'bang' about when it happened to them, but for me coming to faith was more of a journey.
When you are young you are learning about everything and growing up learning about God along the way.
I was 13 when I went to Soul Survivor for the first time. "Jess kept going to the Christian youth event through her teens and says it sustained her in a church where "she was the youth group".
On leaving school at 18 she did a gap year at Soul Survivor's offices in Watford.
"I thought I would discover my purpose and what I was supposed to do next but actually I think that time was about developing my relationship with God.
It was more about being than doing," she says. After a short stint in London, Jess moved back to Devon, where she worked in the factory where her dad worked, until she figured out she wanted to study International Development.
"I didn't want to do a degree that wasn't useful," says Jess, who was aware university meant committing three years of her life and a lot of money.
So when the International Development leapt off the page of a list of courses, Jess knew immediately it was for her.
She landed herself a place at university, the nearest UK university campus to a beach, where Jess would spend a lot of her relaxation time during her university years. She says her inspiration for helping others came from a book about Florence Nightingale she was given as a child.
"It was about her calling as a nurse and how she went about that much to her family's displeasure. They were wealthy and didn't fancy her hanging out with sick people. "Jess's studies took her to Kenya to research responses to poverty, comparing Kenyan students to UK students.
Kenyan students felt they needed to be the answer whereas in her sample of UK students, there was very little awareness of global poverty issues. Jess's upbringing however had been informed by Tearfund's children and youth resources and she was switched on to how people in the UK can have a positive impact on poverty.
She decided her calling was to campaigning and awareness raising in the UK. After graduating in 2005 she took a mammoth coach journey with her mum to Edinburgh for the launch of Make Poverty History.
"I saw the people handing out the placards and thought 'This is it, this is where I want to be. ' I wanted to be the person handing out the placards and getting people inspired. "Competition for jobs in International Development is fierce and Jess started working in the public sector, overseeing a district council grants scheme in Devon for sustainable development projects. "I had a lovely time working with really lovely people.
After three years I started feeling like it was time to move and in a very Jess way it was quite random. "It was then that a friend told her Oxford was a nice place and a job came up in the probation service in the city.
"I got the job and everything fell into place which made me think that God has a master plan.
The accommodation got sorted out really quickly," says Jess, who found her day job was a dull but dutiful role doing administration support for the substance abuse team.
When she looked for other work, she discovered there was a Regional Christian Aid Office in Oxford, and landed a job there.
"I love public speaking.
I get to hand out placards, I talk to groups of people about how they can be involved in justice issues," she says. So what about music? "I started singing when I was 10 or 11," recalls Jess, who says she loved a Carols by Candlelight Service at the Methodist Church where her family worshipped. She volunteered to sing in an open mic section of the service and her voice just came out.
"I loved it.
I was always in the primary school choir. " She went on to have formal singing lessons, training in classical and opera until she was 16.
She got to Grade Eight, which is as high as you can go before considering a music diploma or degree. She also sang in competitions, but remembers the embarrassment of her very first one.
"It was nerve racking.
My parents sat there getting nervous with me and the first year I forgot the song half way through and burst into tears. "The adjudicator was really sweet.
They would give comments and helpful feedback and he said he would love me to come back the following year so he could hear me sing a song all the way through. "She was introduced to folk music when she was young and while the genre can traditionally have dark lyrics, she describes the songs she writes as wistful, hopeful and romantic.
Naturally she was involved in church worship while growing up, and thought hard about whether her energy should go into doing music in a church environment or for a broader audience. "I wondered what the difference was and if you should just do one or the other," says Jess, who was encouraged not to segment music, or become legalistic about it.
She was still in Devon when she first performed at an Open Mic night and when she moved to Oxford, continued regularly playing.
While during her teens she mainly listened to worship tunes, she has now become a regular on the Oxford music scene and has broadened her musical horizons while living here.
The music Jess enjoys includes Sigur Ros from Iceland and Efter Klang.
"Meeting people on the music scene exposed me to more artists," she says. She says she is described as folk but feels her sound is closer to Eva Cassidy, more of a blues or jazz version of folk.
Since then she has released an EP, an album, as well as local festivals. Jess worships at St Aldate's, Oxford. @jesshallsongs on Twitter, www. jesshallsongs. co. uk