Since gaining well over 400,000 hits on Youtube for her song "Said the Raindrop to the Seed" , Jess Chalker has enjoyed a whirlwind introduction to what promises to be a very exciting career.

This has included touring as a support act for acclaimed Australian artist LIOR, performing duets with the ARIA-award winner in establishments such as the SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE, SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY, and 2009's APRA AWARDS in Australia, not to mention securing herself a spot in the top 12 of thousands of entries in the recent VANDA AND YOUNG songwriting competition and a memorable appearance at Peat's Ridge Festival. Altogether, not too bad for a girl whose humble beginnings began in her living room singing into a webcam just over 18 months ago…

Although classical piano lessons were the ordre du jour for many of her younger years, Jess Chalker's fascination with the guitar began early. Her father, once a keen flamenco player, established (but later sold) the now iconic Sydney musical instrument store, The Guitar Factory, where as a very young girl Chalker would often spend long hours hoping to catch a glimpse of clients like Tommy Emmanuel or John Williamson strolling through the door for guitar repairs.

Being immersed in a musical environment growing up certainly made its mark on Chalker, but it wasn't until her early twenties that she was to actively re-acquaint herself with it. The side-effects of finishing school, abandoning a strict upbringing as a Jehovah's Witness and several years of backpacking throughout five continents impacted greatly upon Chalker, who returned home to make sense of it all by enroling in an arts/psychology degree at Sydney University in 2006. For her birthday the following year, Chalker was given an old Yamaha guitar and taught herself to play it, reviving an old Beatles songbook to familiarise herself with chord structures she had vaguely learnt as a teen. It was not long until Chalker was finding chord progressions to complement poetry she had written and began singing along, though her voice had never been much to her liking. After hearing her singing voice quite by accident one day, a friend suggested that Chalker audition for a music performance course that the university offered through the conservatorium of music. Although convinced she would not be good enough, she was accepted. It was here, by the performance critiques and mentorship of Winsome Evans that Chalker eventually found her voice.

In February 2008, Chalker began posting videos of her songs to Youtube under the pseudonym of 'alleycat82'. Steadily, and much to her own surprise, Chalker began forging a devoted online following which further intensified after her song, Said the Raindrop to the Seed was featured on the front page of the popular media site in September that year, quickly amassing hundreds of thousands of hits.

Shocked by the unexpected response to her original material (her videos have now accumulated more than a million hits), Chalker began to consider a music career. It was after her second ever gig at Sydney landmark establishment, The Basement, that she caught the eye of Aria-Award-winning singer-songwriter Lior, who, after discovering her videos, promptly asked her to support him on several dates of last year's Shadows and Light Tour. Chalker now often accompanies Lior in many of the live duet performances of his song "I'll Forget You" (the recorded version of which features the wonderful Sia). Perhaps just as flattering is that Lior has publicly championed Chalker on several occasions by inviting her on stage throughout his own sets to perform one of her original compositions, a telling sign of the artist's faith in her.

Chalker's humility with regards to her journey so far is endearing.

"I had just enrolled in a Masters of Media degree because I wanted to be a writer", chimes Chalker, beaming with her trademark smile. "The Youtube stuff just blew me away. I posted this cute little ditty I wrote called "Strange Bird' which I recorded for my boyfriend and sent the link to him for his birthday. I never thought in a million years that anyone would actually tune in to it or want more. Not even my parents or closest friends knew I sang or wrote little tunes. But the feedback has been nice. It took a little while for me to feel comfortable with the idea that this is who I might be after all. My third gig was supporting Lior in a theatre of a thousand people and I was so scratchy! But I like being on stage now. It doesn't feel so unnatural anymore. Like everything I guess, it takes time to hone your craft. I still have so much to learn and I'm taking in as much as I can.'"

You get a sense of the real Chalker from her charming, amateur Youtube videos. Unassuming and self-effacing, Chalker's songs and her undeniable warmth continue to silence audiences everywhere she plays as she grows increasingly strong as a live performer.

With heartbreaking, pure vocals and a poetic wistfulness that recalls the early folk scene of the early 70s, Chalker's sound invokes what might be culminated if Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon and Sarah McLachlan ever caught up for a jam in a bohemian, New York coffee house; her style is at once melodic, lounge-room intimate, and possessing of a lyrical sensibility that always strives to capture the heart and imagination with lasting sincerity.