From: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org (jewel-digest) To: jewel-digest@smoe.org Subject: jewel-digest V4 #187 Reply-To: jewel@smoe.org Sender: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk jewel-digest Thursday, April 8 1999 Volume 04 : Number 187 * If you ever wish to unsubscribe, send an email to * jewel-digest-request@smoe.org with ONLY the word * unsubscribe in the body of the email * . * For the latest information on Jewel tour dates, go to: * http://jewel.zoonation.com and click on "TOUR" * OR * go to the OFFICIAL Jewel home page at http://www.jeweljk.com * and go to the "What, When, Where" section * . * PLEASE :) when you reply to this digest to send a post TO the list, * change the subject to reflect what your post is about. A subject * of Re: jewel-digest V4 #xxx or the like gives readers no clue * as to what your message is about. Today's Subjects: ----------------- NJC: poery on the web stuff [Fervent Spirit ] Jewel review ["Jean" ] Jewel and Ireland [Harte Adrian ] SJC-Need your help...thanks in advance! [Jeff_Hebert@domecqct.com] Jewel review in Malaysia ["Jean" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 8 Apr 1999 00:11:50 -0500 From: Fervent Spirit Subject: NJC: poery on the web stuff Hello Angels, I just createtd a new homepage and i wanted to put a poetry page on there where people can put there own poems without having to go through me. The only idea i have right now is using a message board, any ideas??? Thanks! p.s.- COME ON TEXAS ANGELS WE NEED TO HAVE A BLOW OUT!!! "Scott S." -Big Sexy Angel "LOVE HURTS! BUT IT'S WORTH IT!" P.E.A.C.C.EŠ President/Founder and Proud EDA! http://www.homestead.com/rocksolid ICQ#9685289 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Apr 1999 14:34:58 +0800 From: "Jean" Subject: Jewel review Hello! This review appeared in a local S'pore magazine called 8 Days and has 3 nice pics of Jewel and one of Steve's. Jeanette Precious Jewel (By Andy Chen) If Jewel's recent performance in Singapore is anything to go by, the Alaskan singer-songwriter is through with folk music. Pictures usually speak a thousand words. But not the photos here. Herded to the front of the stage for only the first three songs, photographers couldn't capture a booty shaking Jewel, a whooping Jewel, a jazz-vocalising Jewel, and on yes - how can we forget her calling card to fame - a yodelling Jewel. Indeed, by the end of the two-hour show at the Harbour Pavilion last week, Jewel Kilcher had pulled out from her bag of tricks every last show stopping vocal gymnastic stunt. Determined, perhaps to lay to rest Vogue magazine's suggestion that she's the Mariah Carey of Folk. When asked at a press conference the day before the concert when she thought of the dubious epithet - which most likely referred to Mariah's popularity and showboating melismatic vocals - she had expressed objection to the "simplistic label". Her protestation's at least two-pronged: that she's only a strum-and-sing folk musician, and all that she's all smiles. flowers-in-the-hair and angelic sweetness. Ever since she catapulted into the pop scene with her multiple platinum debut, "Pieces of You", Jewel's had to contend with her Polyanna image. She told * DAYS recently, "[The press] are constantly looking for ways I'm not, and there're lots of 'em!" Well, what're the media and fans to think when she's given to such magnanimous sentiments as - "When I'm lying on my deathbed, my success will be determined by the number of people I've been able to help." Surely then we can't be blamed for expecting a little warmth and sincerity in her interaction with the audience. It took about five songs into the concert before Jewel acknowledged her adoring fans, the majority of who were girls from eight to 28 (there was even a grandma), relating to the lengthy anecdote - complete with well-rehearse comic touches and timing - about the origin of the smash single, "YWMFM". The crowd lapped up every word about how she met Steve Poltz (her best friend, guitarist and also her charming opening act) on a songwriting expedition to Mexico, and ended up trailing the police on a drug bust. What personal insight! Then, nothing for the next 44 minutes. No 'How are you feeling, Singapore?', no 'I'm feeling wonderful today', not even 'Is everybody enjoying themselves?'. She delivered song after song mostly from her very- folkish second album, Spirit. "What's Simple is True', 'Jupiter', 'Kiss the Flame', and 'Barcelona'/ Jewel amply demonstrated her magnificent vocal range a la Mariah (a few off-key notes notwithstanding); where she was accompanied only by a piano and a single shaft of spotlight. This was the Alaskan folk princess, as journos have dubbed. Say bye bye to her. For Jewel spent the second half of the concert burying this image with a handful of new numbers. With an electric guitar, she rocked and strutted. With her curvy booty, she grooved, jumped and jiggled. With her elastic vocals, she scatted and yodelled. Why stop at Mariah, when she can be the Sheryl Crow, Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin and Julie Andrews of Folk? The fans previously ensconced in their seats barely twitching an muscle except to applaud, were now thronging the aisles and standing on chairs. Exactly the way Jewel had urged them to do so earlier. "My friends who have performed here told me, [the Singapore audience] are very quiet," she said. She must have missed the part where largely-unknown singer-songwriter Poltz won over the 1,500-strong audience in the short space of 30 minutes. By Poltz's second song, one written from the point of view of an abused chair, everyone was cheering and clapping appreciatively. Without prompting too. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Apr 1999 16:48:23 +0200 From: Harte Adrian Subject: Jewel and Ireland Hi all, Be warned, this is a long post. >From Irish Heartbeat section of Irish Daily Mirror on March 24. Jewel is a real gem in the world of pop. "Last week, Irish Heartbeat woke up with one of pop music's newest sensations, Jewel. > Well, not exactly. > She lay sprawled in an Australian hotel room, Irish Heartbeat was on > the phone to her from our Irish office. > But it was close enough. > "I'm over here on tour at the moment but I'm only sharpening myself up > for Dublin," she said of her reasons for being down under. > Jewel sold 10 million copies of her debut album Pieces of You back in > 1995. > Her recently-released follow-up Spirit has made her a megastar across > the world. Except this part of the world. > She's still playing second fiddle to other female artists, but more > and more she's beginning to enter the public eye as a contender to > Alanis Morrisette and Tori Amos. > Promoters have pre-empted this by booking her for a gig at the Olympia > Theatre on Sunday May 2. > Her music is, as expected, mainstream pop, but has more texture than > most women of the same ilk. > And she's stretching out into different musical agendas. > "I'm hoping now that things will come together. > "My next album is going to have more of a country feel to it than > Spirit. I have a lot of it worked out already." > Jewel's next single, Down So Long, is released on May 3, but if you > still think Top Of The Pops is a great television show then Jewel > could be worth her weight in gold to you. > She has a lot more street cred than, say, Billie or power ballad diva, > Celine Dion. > She acknowledged that it has been an uphill struggle. > "With my name, I can understand why people in Ireland would have a > fixed idea of what my music should sound like, but it has more to it > than that. > "People of different ages can get what I am trying to do, which I > like. I've been working so much lately that I'm really up for a tour > of Ireland." > Shine on, girl." BTW Jewel's concert in Olympia Theatre, Dublin on May 2 is being promoted as part of the Dublin Green Energy Weekend, which features performances at different venues from April 27 to May 3 from Barenaked Ladies, The Beautiful South, The Cardigans, Catatonia, Ocean Colour Scene, Happy Mondays, Tony Bennett, Ben E King, UB40, Belle and Sebastian, Mercury Rev and Jewel. And so far, the Jewelster is the only one sold out, though, admittedly, some play in bigger venues. One final bit of info, dunno if this has been posted before - but it's a Jewel feature from Reuters Singapore - dunno in what publication it appeared. Jewel wants more Spirit in life than music. By Jacqueline Wong SINGAPORE, April 8 (Reuters) - She has dug her way out of poverty and now top-selling Alaskan singer Jewel wants to help those who have not. "When you've lived with poverty, it bites your heart and changes how you see the world forever. It changes the course for the rest of your life," says the folk-pop singer whose home used to be a van. Jewel, 24, surfaced worldwide in 1995 with her hauntingly sparse acoustic debut album Pieces of You. The album has since sold more than 10 million copies. Despite her success, Jewel regards herself an ordinary person yet feels the burning need to make a difference to other people. Music is fun but it doesn't change the world, she says. "I'm now in a position where I can do something about it, and I can't just turn my back on it...can't just pretend that (poverty) doesn't happen to many, many other people that didn't have a talent to get them out of it." Born Jewel Kilcher, she rose from waitressing in coffee houses and playing gigs in San Diego, California, to become an international star who has graced the covers of Time magazine, Rolling Stone and Vogue. "I get paid to be who I am and that's really fun, a great position to be in," mused the young musician on the Southeast Asian leg of the Jewel Spirit Tour. But her child-like nature seems to belie a serious intention to make things other than her career happen. "All over the world there is tremendous need. We have set up an organisation that can be limitless in its ability over time to do many, many different types of projects," she says. The organisation, Higher Ground for Humanity (HGH), a non-profit, humanitarian foundation set up with her mother, Nedra Carroll, was launched about five years ago. MAKING A DIFFERENCE Jewel dedicated her second album Spirit to the one who inspired that outlook - her mother and manager. "I don't have enough good words for her," she says. Carroll wrote that Higher Ground's vision was to help the ongoing discovery of what it meant to be human. The organisation is involved in projects to produce clean water in Asia, Peru and Mexico. "My mother has always sought to understand what it means to be a human being in the highest sense and how to be that." About the wider purpose of her life, Jewel freely admits that music is kind of frivolous. "It's creative, it's a lot of fun and I make a really good living out of it, but it doesn't change the world." "When you're on your death bed looking back at your life, I don't think that's what's going to make me feel like I did a great deed." According to a mission statement on HGH's Web site, the foundation is funded by Jewel, her mother as well as other individuals and organisations. Jewel has donated money from sales of her book of poetry A Night Without Armour, merchandise and concert tickets. The foundation also takes gifts of expertise, time, ideas and prayer, because many projects involve promoting values in the family, workplace and community, the mission statement says. Groups that have received help include youth, research, the arts, community building, spiritual development and alternative health care. FROM RAGS TO RICHES Jewel used to work the bars as part of her family's trade of entertaining, but the singer-songwriter hasn't come away hard-edged. "The reason I was in bar rooms wasn't because my parents were neglectful. It was just our jobs," she says. Jewel performed with her father as a duo in local bars, hotels and Eskimo villages. She attributes her ability to stay above the fray of bohemia to a childhood in Alaska, which she calls a strong place of very self-reliant people "where women live alone, build their own cabins and hunt by themselves". Jewel and her two brothers spent their early years in Anchorage, Alaska. When her parents divorced, she moved with her father Atz Kilcher to Homer, Alaska. They lived in a log cabin on an 800 acre (320 hectare) family homestead with no electricity or running water. In 1992, she moved to San Diego to live with her mother and tried a variety of jobs, including waitressing. Mother and daughter attempted to cut down on living expenses by moving into separate vans. Part of their experience was to eat cheaply, mainly peanut butter and carrot sticks. "Nothing's killed me you know, so it's good ... Being alive and having a house is the best thing anyone has and I've always really felt thankful for that," she said. With two albums to her name, Jewel feels fortunate but says the responsibility to humanity becomes larger the more successful she becomes. Pieces of You has been described as a time capsule of where she was at 19 and her second album Spirit, the embodiment of the themes she now cherishes. Asked if she still believes everyone yearns for love, she says unequivocally: "I believe there are two places each action comes from in the world, and that's love and fear. That's the choice all the time...and you usually do both in a day." "I think I'm moving more and more towards love." That's all for now, adrian, the irish eda in exile ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Apr 1999 14:47:43 -0400 From: Jeff_Hebert@domecqct.com Subject: SJC-Need your help...thanks in advance! howdy angels! i am looking for jewel's most recent performances on saturday night live (from november 1998). a fellow eda was going to do it for me but the deal fell through and i am desperate for a copy from anyone that can do it. i have plenty of angelfood in exchange... sorry to grovel but i am in dire need of these performances so please help me out if you can. if you can do a real quick trade or can turn around a tape for me, please let me know as soon as you can and i will try to help you out in return for your kindness. on the kilcher related front, i saw a screening "ride w/the devil" and she definitely makes it worth seeing..the rest - eh so so. nice screen pressence though. oh well..keep smiling, glad to see this place one big happy family again. drop me a line if you can help me out (i'll be in your debt forever!!) gracias ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Apr 1999 00:01:16 +0800 From: "Jean" Subject: Jewel review in Malaysia I don't know if anyone has posted this... but I found this review while reading Steve Poltz's interview.... I guess she enjoyed playing for Malaysia more than Singapore :-) Jeanette Jewel reflects multi-facets in concert By Steven Patrick AWWW ... poor Jewel, living in a cramped camper-van, feasting on peanut-butter sandwiches, writing her songs on a crummy acoustic guitar. Imagine the consequences--bumping your head on the roof every morning, fertilising trees when Mother Nature calls and that's not all the lifestyle leaves you with--there's peanut-butter-smeared guitar strings ... all for the sake of a bunch of songs and avoiding property tax. But it was probably worth it for 24-year-old Jewel. Those songs formed the Pieces Of You album that went on to sell 10 million copies worldwide. This album made Jewel the female-folkie of the MTV generation. The soul-baring fragility of her music and the little-girl-lost singing voice made her debut the perfect contemplative late-night companion. Her rags-to-riches story made Jewel the "real deal" to many. While Alanis Morissette was ranting and raving about being ditched, Fiona Apple was listening to too much Debussy, Jewel's "ordinary-angel" persona touched many. She was the bucktoothed messiah, posing musical questions like Who Will Save Your Soul? Now with the new 1998 album, Spirit, Jewel is a step closer to becoming Bob Dylan's head cheerleader. She continues to sing songs that would send any Sunday-afternoon do-gooder into a frenzy--such divine subjects as armies of faith and reflections of God are mentioned in Spirit. Versatile ... Jewel is a boisterous pop diva and fragile folkie rolled into one. Jewel has come a long way from her camper-van apprenticeship. As she told the 3,000-odd crowd at Dewan Merdeka at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) on April 1, she is now "bloody rich." But oddly enough, the crowd was largely an under-18 audience, presumably because of Spirit's syrupy-sweeter sentiment which includes the lighter-waving tune Hands. Although Spirit maintains Jewel's acoustic style, Patrick Leonard's (Madonna's partner-in-crime) production has given her a "poppier" sound than her debut. With two relatively different sets of songs under her belt, it was anybody's guess who Jewel would be at the performance--the boisterous pop diva or the fragile folkie with a tale to tell. Jewel managed to be both of them; she switched from butt-shaking, sequin-bloused band leader to the intimate entertainer with ease. All of Jewel's earlier performances in her career have been casual (there were just her and her guitar, not even a chair) understated affairs that included jokes and yodelling. While Jewel strummed her guitar and sang about being deep, she also "revved it up" and "kicked it." She stepped up a gear from her low-tempo songs onto an extended, "reggaefied" version of Who Will Save Your Soul?. Jewel partied a bit but maintained her serious side, too. She played songs like the thoughtful Pieces Of You intensely. The song's lyrics contained references to ugly girls and homosexuals. This Alaskan-born lass joked as she watched a parent and two children walk out after the song. "I guess he didn't hear the first album," she laughed. Jewel interjected with barroom humour regularly, giving the impression that she was the ordinary lass with extraordinary gifts. She shared her experiences about bringing her street-smarts to a glitzy model award show, where she got a lukewarm response and, according to Jewel, they "give awards for polka-dotted ties." Her rapport with the audience was unashamedly casual, even going as far as telling a member of the audience to "shut up about Enter From The East" after the song was requested. (She finally played it anyway, ribbing him further.) In a more conventional style of pop concert audience rapport, Jewel dutifully got the crowd to sing along to You Were Meant For Me. But that was it; the rest of the show was uniquely Jewel. Singing and playing the guitar, Jewel ran through her two-hour set with a relaxed confidence that is normally associated with seasoned pub musicians with beer mugs in their hands. She began with Near You Always and ended with a mega yodelling session and in between squeezed in the hits Who Will Save Your Soul?, Foolish Games, Hands and the standout freedom anthem, A Life Uncommon. There was also an embarrassed reading from her book of poetry after dithering over her jottings Taiwan I, II and III. Jewel's band was far from tight but eager. She interacted with her friend/guitarist Steve Poltz more than the rest. She introduced him as the co-writer of You Were Meant For Me. Steve Poltz was also more than an impressive opener for Jewel--he was an act in his own right, with his song/critique on the Star Wars movies (how Hans Solo never got into Princess Leia's pants.) But before we get too engrossed in too much inter-galactic talk, let's get back to the issue at hand--Jewel. She was the singer-songwriter who wooed an under-18 audience at the PWTC with her saintly songs. Her encore even included yet another heavenly paean titled Angel Standing By. Said any prayers lately? ------------------------------ End of jewel-digest V4 #187 ***************************