Aspiring vocalist and Mount Si High School graduate Jessica Oliver brought her music closer to the people in 2007.

She starred in and created a music video with help from fellow Mount Si grad Kevin Walsh. The video of Oliver’s song “Just Getting Started,” from her extended-play album “Woke up to Love,” can be seen on YouTube, a Web site that allows people to post their own videos. To view the video, visit the site: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-eP_-GvGJA.

Oliver, who was back in the Valley on holiday break, is continuing her musical education. A freshman studying vocal performance at Colorado Christian University, she has performed at the college several times this fall. During an all-campus prayer event, Oliver was one of five students selected to perform for the entire school. As a freshman, she said, that selection was a big deal.

“I’m keeping my ears open, and people are trying to figure out who I am around school,” she said.

Oliver is focused on making music with a moral center.

“I’m not going to be singing songs that the 10-year-old kid that I babysit isn’t going to be listening to,” she said. That makes her a bit different from the mainstream.

Positive music can be hard to find, but if you look hard enough, it’s out there – it’s just not in the spotlight, Oliver said. “That’s not what the world wants to hear,” she said. “All that stuff sounds the same to me. I want to be fresh, new and real.”

Oliver writes her music on her acoustic guitar, and is learning to write songs on the piano. According to Oliver, when her friends hear her music, they tell her that then can “totally tell that that was you.'”

Oliver’s music video was filmed last spring at Centennial Fields, at the lake at Wilderness Rim and at Walsh’s Wilderness Rim home. It was filmed to be simple, focused on the singer. But it didn’t start out that way.

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