Jewel: Closing the Circle, Coming Home to Country
Country Music Association®
June 25, 2008
By Vernell Hackett
Jewel fell in love with words at an early age. It's a love affair that continues today. "I was fascinated by words and how more can be said than what is in the actual words," the singer/songwriter said. "Being raised in such a remote region, reading was a source of entertainment. I read philosophy, the classics, poetry . I just loved it."
Growing up on a ranch in rural Alaska provided an awesome setting for this young woman as she began writing songs at 15. While most folks would consider it a hardship to live in the wilderness with no running water or indoor plumbing, Jewel embraced the lifestyle and used it as a cornerstone for her songs and art.
She learned about the craft of performing from her parents, both of whom were recording artists. By the time she was 6, she was traveling by dog sled to their shows in remote areas of the state. The 8-year-old became a duet partner with her father after her parents divorced, and by the time she was 15, she was performing solo.
During spring break from the Interlochen Center for the Arts, a private arts school in Michigan, the 16-year-old took off for two weeks to Mexico, where she performed on street corners and soaked up the culture she found there. The experience completed the picture that would inspire the singer/songwriter to pen tunes about the land, the family values she learned in Alaska and the emotions that come from experiencing life. Jewel could not have made up a background better suited to becoming a Country singer.
Her path detoured from the Country realm, though, after she moved to San Diego and through a series of circumstances found herself living in her car.
"I became homeless after I got fired from my job because I wouldn't have sex with my boss," she said. "I almost died from blood poisoning because I had bad kidneys. I fell into this bad poverty cycle, and I couldn't get out.
"It wasn't like I was an artist trying to make my dream work," she explained. "I started writing songs and performing because that would give me money so I could live. Then a radio station put a bootleg recording of mine on the radio and my first label heard it."
That label, Atlantic Records, signed Jewel close to her 19th birthday and issued her debut album, Pieces of You, in 1995. When it sold only 3,000 copies during its first nine months of release, Jewel hit the road to take her music to the people.
The people responded: A year later, she had a major hit with "Who Will Save Your Soul," a song she'd written three years earlier during her travels in Mexico. Two other singles, "You Were Meant for Me" and "Foolish Games," pushed album sales to more than 11 million units and earned Jewel acclaim as one of the major singer/songwriters of her time.
Despite her success at alternative radio, Jewel always thought that her writing fit the Country Music mold, with her chief inspirations including Merle Haggard's lyrics and Loretta Lynn's sassy songs, such as "The Pill" and "Fist City."
"When I first came around, the only opening for me was alternative radio, which was a wide-open, anything-goes kind of format," she said. "Country radio right now is an open format. You have your traditionalists like George Strait, or your pop-sounding entertainers like Rascal Flatts. It's the spirit that keeps it unified. I think any one of my songs would have been a great hit for the Country market."
Jewel's instincts about her music were justified when Merle Haggard called and asked her to sing on For the Record: 43 Legendary Hits, his 1999 compilation of No. 1 singles. "I was shocked and flattered that he knew who I was," she admitted. "I did two songs with him, 'Silver Wings' and 'That's the Way Love Goes.' Then he asked me to be on the CMA Awards show with him."
Soon Jewel was coming to Nashville on a regular basis. She talked with Atlantic about doing a Country album, but they were not open to the idea. Finally she left the label "because I felt so strongly that Country Music was home for me."
Nashville embraced her right away. She was invited to co-host USA Network's "Nashville Star" talent show in 2007. There she met John Rich of Big & Rich, who suggested they write together. At the time, Jewel had already started pulling songs together for what would become her first Country album, Perfectly Clear - and after playing some of them for Rich, he realized that the material was already in place and instead offered his services as her co-producer.
On a whim, they hired a band, with whom they cut 10 tracks in two days. "I knew exactly what I wanted this album to sound like," Jewel said. "Some of the songs date back to when I was 16 and 18. That's how long I've known about making a Country album."
Rich and Jewel, judges on the current season of "Nashville Star," now on NBC-TV, proved to be a strong match in part because of their similar thoughts about recording. "I believe in the story of the song," she said. "My ego should get out of the way and so should the producer. John cares about songwriting, so what we both did was let the song tell its story."
That was enough to persuade Rich to commit as well to Jewel. "She is one of the greatest singer/songwriters of any genre and one of the most uniquely creative people to work with in the studio," he noted. "It was a serious honor to work with someone of her caliber."
Released June 3 from The Valory Music Co., Perfectly Clear includes 11 songs, all but one of which Jewel wrote or co-wrote. Their lyrics document her continuing love for words, from the title track's wistful reference to "five years worth of kisses packed in your bag" to "Love is a Garden," on which she compares love to planting seeds in a garden that she will "feed with kisses." The sole cover, the Lisa Carver/Liz Rose-penned song "Till it Feels Like Cheating," is included because, as Jewel relates, "it sounded like a song I should have written." It has the same sensibility as "Garden," with the singer pleading, "Kiss me like we're about to sin."
Jewel strives constantly to hit the balance between the arty song that no one will ever hear and the throwaway hit that has little meaning. Keeping in mind the fact that Haggard, Lynn and her other favorites are remembered because "they came from a perspective that no one else had at the time," she aims to achieve a perspective in her work that is similarly unique yet accessible.
"I wouldn't trade anything," she insisted. "I'm proud that my first song, 'Who Will Save Your Soul,' was not about what most 15- and 16-year-olds would write about. I was dealing with pretty big social issues. I saw a lot of contradictions, brutality - but also a lot of beauty.
"Writing helps you focus on becoming more hopeful and work harder instead of becoming complacent," she continued. "I remember reading those great writers who wrote during the Russian Revolution and finding that their passions empowered me. I'm proud of my life and proud that I've made beauty out of my life. I think it's given me a gift I wouldn't have gotten otherwise."
Jewel is adamant that she is exactly where she is supposed to be right now and that she's found a home in Country Music. "There are two reasons to do this: You love art and you struggle every day to be great at it, and to be famous," she summed up. "At the end of the day, I have to be true to my music and tell the story to the best of my ability."
On the Web: www.jeweljk.com
Jewel fell in love with words at an early age. It's a love affair that continues today. "I was fascinated by words and how more can be said than what is in the actual words," the singer/songwriter said. "Being raised in such a remote region, reading was a source of entertainment. I read philosophy, the classics, poetry . I just loved it."
Growing up on a ranch in rural Alaska provided an awesome setting for this young woman as she began writing songs at 15. While most folks would consider it a hardship to live in the wilderness with no running water or indoor plumbing, Jewel embraced the lifestyle and used it as a cornerstone for her songs and art.
She learned about the craft of performing from her parents, both of whom were recording artists. By the time she was 6, she was traveling by dog sled to their shows in remote areas of the state. The 8-year-old became a duet partner with her father after her parents divorced, and by the time she was 15, she was performing solo.
During spring break from the Interlochen Center for the Arts, a private arts school in Michigan, the 16-year-old took off for two weeks to Mexico, where she performed on street corners and soaked up the culture she found there. The experience completed the picture that would inspire the singer/songwriter to pen tunes about the land, the family values she learned in Alaska and the emotions that come from experiencing life. Jewel could not have made up a background better suited to becoming a Country singer.
Her path detoured from the Country realm, though, after she moved to San Diego and through a series of circumstances found herself living in her car.
"I became homeless after I got fired from my job because I wouldn't have sex with my boss," she said. "I almost died from blood poisoning because I had bad kidneys. I fell into this bad poverty cycle, and I couldn't get out.
"It wasn't like I was an artist trying to make my dream work," she explained. "I started writing songs and performing because that would give me money so I could live. Then a radio station put a bootleg recording of mine on the radio and my first label heard it."
That label, Atlantic Records, signed Jewel close to her 19th birthday and issued her debut album, Pieces of You, in 1995. When it sold only 3,000 copies during its first nine months of release, Jewel hit the road to take her music to the people.
The people responded: A year later, she had a major hit with "Who Will Save Your Soul," a song she'd written three years earlier during her travels in Mexico. Two other singles, "You Were Meant for Me" and "Foolish Games," pushed album sales to more than 11 million units and earned Jewel acclaim as one of the major singer/songwriters of her time.
Despite her success at alternative radio, Jewel always thought that her writing fit the Country Music mold, with her chief inspirations including Merle Haggard's lyrics and Loretta Lynn's sassy songs, such as "The Pill" and "Fist City."
"When I first came around, the only opening for me was alternative radio, which was a wide-open, anything-goes kind of format," she said. "Country radio right now is an open format. You have your traditionalists like George Strait, or your pop-sounding entertainers like Rascal Flatts. It's the spirit that keeps it unified. I think any one of my songs would have been a great hit for the Country market."
Jewel's instincts about her music were justified when Merle Haggard called and asked her to sing on For the Record: 43 Legendary Hits, his 1999 compilation of No. 1 singles. "I was shocked and flattered that he knew who I was," she admitted. "I did two songs with him, 'Silver Wings' and 'That's the Way Love Goes.' Then he asked me to be on the CMA Awards show with him."
Soon Jewel was coming to Nashville on a regular basis. She talked with Atlantic about doing a Country album, but they were not open to the idea. Finally she left the label "because I felt so strongly that Country Music was home for me."
Nashville embraced her right away. She was invited to co-host USA Network's "Nashville Star" talent show in 2007. There she met John Rich of Big & Rich, who suggested they write together. At the time, Jewel had already started pulling songs together for what would become her first Country album, Perfectly Clear - and after playing some of them for Rich, he realized that the material was already in place and instead offered his services as her co-producer.
On a whim, they hired a band, with whom they cut 10 tracks in two days. "I knew exactly what I wanted this album to sound like," Jewel said. "Some of the songs date back to when I was 16 and 18. That's how long I've known about making a Country album."
Rich and Jewel, judges on the current season of "Nashville Star," now on NBC-TV, proved to be a strong match in part because of their similar thoughts about recording. "I believe in the story of the song," she said. "My ego should get out of the way and so should the producer. John cares about songwriting, so what we both did was let the song tell its story."
That was enough to persuade Rich to commit as well to Jewel. "She is one of the greatest singer/songwriters of any genre and one of the most uniquely creative people to work with in the studio," he noted. "It was a serious honor to work with someone of her caliber."
Released June 3 from The Valory Music Co., Perfectly Clear includes 11 songs, all but one of which Jewel wrote or co-wrote. Their lyrics document her continuing love for words, from the title track's wistful reference to "five years worth of kisses packed in your bag" to "Love is a Garden," on which she compares love to planting seeds in a garden that she will "feed with kisses." The sole cover, the Lisa Carver/Liz Rose-penned song "Till it Feels Like Cheating," is included because, as Jewel relates, "it sounded like a song I should have written." It has the same sensibility as "Garden," with the singer pleading, "Kiss me like we're about to sin."
Jewel strives constantly to hit the balance between the arty song that no one will ever hear and the throwaway hit that has little meaning. Keeping in mind the fact that Haggard, Lynn and her other favorites are remembered because "they came from a perspective that no one else had at the time," she aims to achieve a perspective in her work that is similarly unique yet accessible.
"I wouldn't trade anything," she insisted. "I'm proud that my first song, 'Who Will Save Your Soul,' was not about what most 15- and 16-year-olds would write about. I was dealing with pretty big social issues. I saw a lot of contradictions, brutality - but also a lot of beauty.
"Writing helps you focus on becoming more hopeful and work harder instead of becoming complacent," she continued. "I remember reading those great writers who wrote during the Russian Revolution and finding that their passions empowered me. I'm proud of my life and proud that I've made beauty out of my life. I think it's given me a gift I wouldn't have gotten otherwise."
Jewel is adamant that she is exactly where she is supposed to be right now and that she's found a home in Country Music. "There are two reasons to do this: You love art and you struggle every day to be great at it, and to be famous," she summed up. "At the end of the day, I have to be true to my music and tell the story to the best of my ability."
On the Web: www.jeweljk.com
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