From: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org (jewel-digest) To: jewel-digest@smoe.org Subject: jewel-digest V7 #103 Reply-To: jewel@smoe.org Sender: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk jewel-digest Wednesday, March 13 2002 Volume 07 : Number 103 * If you ever wish to unsubscribe from this digest, send an email to * jewel-digest-request@smoe.org with ONLY the word * unsubscribe in the BODY of the email * . * For the latest news on what Jewel is up to, go to * the OFFICIAL Jewel web site at http://www.jeweljk.com * and click on "calendar" * . * 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 V6 #xxx or the like gives fellow list readers * no clue as to what your message is about. Today's Subjects: ----------------- [EDA] Re: break me radio adds [Fredsteve@aol.com] [EDA] jewelstock '02 ["Pupecki, Stacy" ] [EDA] VH1 ["FabioJJ" ] [EDA] i heard break me on radio!!! ["jake skyles" ] [EDA] being [CleaningDuster@aol.com] [EDA] internet ticket dates [CackyH2@aol.com] Re: [EDA] jewelstock '02 - yes! july 19-21 [Tlcathome@aol.com] [EDA] RE: (NJC) Does anyone know if there is a [SIGNALSYYZ@aol.com] [EDA] Re: Angelfood [Rasputina11@aol.com] [EDA] (NJC) Shakira controversy [EDA ] [EDA] "Acoustic Guitar" article ["Scholastic Angel" <70030.225@compuserve] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 01:20:37 EST From: Fredsteve@aol.com Subject: [EDA] Re: break me radio adds I'm not saying Break Me is a hit YET... I'm just saying that it's a good start. The reason she got more mainstream adds than Adult adds is simply because there's more mainstream stations. There's about 130 mainstream stations, and about 80 Adult stations. 14/130 and 9/80 may not sound like many... but for pre-impact it's extremely impessive. Just for comparisons sake - that new Shakira song which is blowing up at mainstream now got only 9 pre-impact adds at Mainstream ... Break me got 14. It's a very good early sign. We'll see what happens next week. I think the best thing everyone could do this week is call their local radio stations and request the song... if we all give our local stations a call once or twice this week then they'll definitely be encouraged to add the song next week. I'm sure the pre-impact adds will encourage many radio programmers to add the song next week... but if we call and request that will help even more. I'll update you as soon as I have any more info on how the song's doing... and I'll definitely update you guys as soon as I know exactly how many adds Break Me gets next Tuesday, it's official impact date. Steve ps- the list is really quiet lately - where is everyone? > So you're basically saying that "Break Me" is already a hit? > > I'm quite surprised that she had more adds at Mainstream than at Adult. I > think this is the best thing that could happen, if she wants to sell more. > > Fabio ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 06:20:42 -0500 From: "Pupecki, Stacy" Subject: [EDA] jewelstock '02 with all of these living room concerts, does that mean there won't be a reunion at jewelstock this year? when was the last year that people met there? stacy, the connecticut angel ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 11:16:58 -0300 From: "FabioJJ" Subject: [EDA] VH1 Outtakes, interview and Jewel Poll; http://www.vh1.com/insidevh1/shows/being/jewel/ They show Jewel remixing "Break Me". It's pretty cool. Fabio >> www.jewel.com.br <|> BRASIL <|> Fa-clube Jewel << >> www.geocities.com/fabiojj <|> BRASIL <|> Jewel+Sarah << >> www.jeweljk.com <|>JEWEL <|> official website << >> music <|> BREAK ME <|> Jewel <|> THIS WAY << >> http://www2.allaccess.com/sounds/jewelbre.ram << ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 09:34:59 -0500 From: "jake skyles" Subject: [EDA] i heard break me on radio!!! I heard Break me last night on the adult contemporary station here in St.Louis. It was late at night but I was still so exited. And I don't think this add is one that is on Fredsteve's list, (if he is going by allaccess, allaccess isn't really a complete list of all stations), so there is one more add. I'm about to call and request it right now. Jake _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 16:14:57 EST From: CleaningDuster@aol.com Subject: [EDA] being I feel so weird watching the clips of being, because i feel like a stalker, does anybody else feel teh same way. Chandini ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 16:45:47 EST From: CackyH2@aol.com Subject: [EDA] internet ticket dates Can anyone tell me when the tickets for tampa go on sale? The only ones taht were listed at ticket master was atlanta, and such. Thanks! - -Katie ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 16:54:14 EST From: Tlcathome@aol.com Subject: Re: [EDA] jewelstock '02 - yes! july 19-21 Of course there will!!! We have done it every year and I don't plan to stop planning it any time soon - just been procrastinating the announcement to the list :-) It will be july 19-21 (remember, Jewel is NOT involved in the weekend!!) Will post an official announcement next week!! Tammy :-) annualbearsville@aol.com > with all of these living room concerts, does that mean there won't be a > reunion at jewelstock this year? when was the last year that people met > there? > > stacy, the connecticut angel ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 17:39:28 EST From: SIGNALSYYZ@aol.com Subject: [EDA] RE: (NJC) Does anyone know if there is a hi does anyone know of a michelle branch list like the jewel list we are on? .....i am need of some michelle shows...i saw her on "Late World with Zach" .....and i`d love to have a show or 2....thanks alll....peace,edward ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 18:42:37 EST From: Rasputina11@aol.com Subject: [EDA] Re: Angelfood Hi Everyone~ Does anyone know of an online group like this, but discusses Angelfood? Please let me know! Thank You, Sasha-the Vegas Angel ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 15:48:05 -0800 (PST) From: EDA Subject: [EDA] (NJC) Shakira controversy I remember reading some EDA's discussing Shakira so I thought this news blip might be of interest. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> Tower Records Denounces Shakira Albums Billboard reports that singer Shakira's boyfriend is affecting her record sales in Argentina. Tower Records is apparently refusing to sell Shakira albums because her boyfriend, Antonio de la Rua, appears in her video, "Underneath Your Clothes." Rua is the son of former Argentine president Fernando de la Rua, who resigned in December in the midst of economic and political turmoil. The record chain says the decision was made by the president of Tower Records Argentina and it's a protest against Antonio de la Rua, not Shakira. Shakira's latest album is "Laundry Service," which contains the song "Underneath Your Clothes," as well as "Whenever, Wherever." <~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _____________________________________________________________ Get your free Crapmail---> http://www.crapmail.com _____________________________________________________________ Run a small business? Then you need professional email like you@yourbiz.com from Everyone.net http://www.everyone.net?tag ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 16:20:17 -0700 From: "Scholastic Angel" <70030.225@compuserve.com> Subject: [EDA] "Acoustic Guitar" article [[I enjoyed this piece. And she got a lot of coverage (7 photos including cover; parts of 12 pages; sheet music and lyrics; 3000+ word article). Ironically, for a publication of this name, the middle of the interview has her admitting she played no guitar on her current record (save for the bonus tracks) . . .I added in at the end the material in the magazine not included in the online version;.]] Acoustic Guitar www.acousticguitar.com article at http://www.acousticguitar.com/issues/ag112/feature112.html April 2002, Volume 12 Number 10, Issue 112 JEWEL The Writing Life Jewel finds a new groove in songwriting and the studio by Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers Photo by Jay Blakesburg Jewel is sure not in Homer anymore. In fact, it's hard to imagine a setting more remote from her storied youth in that little town in Alaska, riding bareback across the homestead, scribbling in her journals, and yodeling shyly on stage alongside her dad. When Jewel rings me up for this interview, she's in a car in Miami, in transit with her band from sound check to their posh hotel. Seven years after taking the pop charts by complete surprise with her live-in-the-coffeehouse debut, Pieces of You, Jewel is so accustomed to high-velocity multitasking that she just giggles when her car has a minor accident, pausing only to request that the other driver not be informed he's having a scrape with stardom. This kind of breakneck schedule has taken its toll on Jewel in the past, though: it's the reason why her new album, This Way, follows a two-year sabbatical from the music business. During that time she channeled her creative energies into acting (Ride with the Devil) and writing (the journal-based Chasing Down the Dawn, which follows the best-selling poetry collection A Night without Armor), a change of pace and medium that has re-energized her songwriting. This Way captures for the first time on disc something of the spunk and quick wit that are evident in concert and conversation, with nervy vocals and playful, often rocking arrangements by Jewel and coproducer Dann Huff that should help update her lingering image as a hyper-sincere teenage siren. Like the little fender bender, Jewel Kilcher seems to take all these changes and challenges in stride. Only 27 but with more than 20 years of gigging behind her, she reflects on the musician's life like the versatile veteran that she is. I wanted to start by asking about your high school years studying music at Interlochen in Michigan. What does that experience mean for your singing and writing now? Jewel I didn't really study music. I never took music theory. I was studying classical voice, but I couldn't read or anything like that. I majored in art as well, and I minored in dance and acting. As long as I did good during my recitals, my [voice] teacher would let me skip lessons. So I did maybe a third of the voice lessons I was supposed to. But I think that was a good thing. I was starting to write songs, and I enjoyed classical music a lot, but I enjoyed creating and writing more. I was teaching myself guitar, and other kids were playing-we were trading chords and things like that. And I didn't take the classical thing too seriously. I'm kind of glad. A certain amount of training is fine, but it can homogenize your style. One of the nice things about the way I grew up learning music on my own and from my family is that I learned to have my own style. And you were also doing singing gigs on the side, right? Jewel Yeah, I got a partial scholarship, so just to make the ends meet I was singing in piano bars and things like that around town. I played with a jazz pianist, and he turned me on to Bessie Smith and some killer recordings from the 1920s. We did "St. Louis Blues," a lot of those old standards. We did cool versions of Bob Dylan songs as well. He was real funky. He taught me a lot. Your voice takes on so many colors and characters from song to song. As a kid, did you spend a lot of time imitating voices? Jewel That's how I taught myself to sing. I'd do Ella Fitzgerald until I could imitate her perfectly, and then I'd do Edith Piaf until I could imitate her perfectly. It taught me control of my instrument, and it taught me different colors, so that eventually I could take a little bit of the blue of Billie Holiday, a little bit of the bright tones from Nanci Griffith, things like that, and bring them together to get across whatever I needed to emotionally for any particular song. I get bored easily; you know, I'm a Gemini. I don't enjoy hearing singers who sing the same all the time, which is why Ella Fitzgerald has always appealed to me. Her voice always sounded like her, but it was really versatile. She could have round low notes and crisp, bright, agile high notes, and she played around a lot with it, which is something I've always enjoyed doing. Do you ever have a sense of going into character when you're singing, like an actor? Jewel It's just whatever mood I'm in; I don't feel like I'm stepping into a character or anything that premeditated. And if you ever see me live, you'll hear the song 50 different ways. "Who Will Save Your Soul" is different each night. It's just improv, keeping myself interested and trying to push the envelope every night. In your songs, you often speak through different viewpoints. Jewel That comes really naturally to me. One of the first songs I ever wrote was called "Billy," and it was from the male perspective. A lot of my songs are from a guy's perspective. A lot of them are character driven, I think because I came from a literary background, from reading and writing stories and poetry. Are there feelings you can access in character that would be hard to reach otherwise? Jewel It's strange, but it's first person as well as stepping into another character. I take it through me. I experience the emotions, and I don't feel like anything is so far detached that it's completely another person and another voice. Unlike a lot of artists, you embrace your younger work even when you see its shortcomings. Do you look at writing as more of an ongoing process than as a series of final products? Jewel Hmm . . . A lot of songs on this record are quite old. Some of them I wrote when I was 17. I wrote "Love Me, Just Leave Me Alone" when I was 21, I think, and "Cleveland" when I was 20 or 21, so a lot of my old work has stood up. I did work on the arrangements a bit, but the bulk of the song is the same as when I wrote it. There's a lot I learn from my early work. The structure wasn't as solid, but I was really creative. I took a lot of chances, and there weren't really any rules. There's a lot of swagger and bravado that I think is really good. As you learn the craft, sometimes the swagger and bravado can leave, and it can make songs less interesting but more technically perfect. I don't think it's my job to perpetuate a myth of perfection as an artist. I really liked reading [Charles] Bukowski and Anaos Nin and authors who would let me see their process, let me see how they developed. Because as a young kid, I thought, "OK, this is something I can do. You don't just start out writing The Grapes of Wrath." And so I've never wanted to look more perfect than I am in the public eye, because why would you want to alienate people from thinking they can do what you do? I think a lot of artists like perpetuating the myth that they are a special chosen race, but it's not true. There are a lot of songs I've written that aren't very good, and all you can do is put out what's honest and keep going and just focus on development more than anything. That's why I put a lot of early poems in my poetry book: so kids could see that you don't start out writing sophisticated stuff, you start out writing really simple stuff. You've said that songs come to you pretty much whole-words and music, straight out of your head-but on the new record there's a lot of co-writing. How does a co-writer fit into the process? Jewel I write all the lyrics and all the melodies, but I'm not a very good guitar player. I'm just not very trained on guitar. So working with somebody like Rick Nowels, I can go, "No, that's not quite the voicing I want, I'm wanting something that's more dissonant and a little bluer," and he'll just show me the chord. It makes it go that much faster for me. I had never really written with people besides Steve [Poltz, singer-songwriter and co-writer of "You Were Meant for Me"], and it was really fun. I was able to do a lot of things that I can't do on my own. Over time are your hands becoming more capable of playing what you hear? Jewel Oh, not particularly. I started learning to play piano, just because it's so much easier to get the voicings out of it. I still play with different tunings, but I am a lot better writer then I am a guitar player. Do the new songs use open tunings? Jewel Some of them. "Do You Want to Play?" is a new tuning [D A E A A E]. I just do tunings by ear. To this day, I have to screw around with "Do You Want to Play?" for a half hour to get it. You aren't credited as a guitarist at all on this record. Are we hearing you play aside from the two live solo tracks? Jewel I didn't play on this record. I'm not very good in playing solid, solid time. I wanted to do this record live-the band and my vocal live at the same time-and for me to be able to sing good enough to keep a vocal take, and then to play good enough to keep it in the take, it wouldn't have worked. I would have had to just play guitar. I add more as a vocalist than as a guitar player, so I didn't mind giving somebody else the acoustic guitar to do. So how close are the recorded guitar parts to the way you wrote these songs? Jewel Pretty close. I am a slave driver with my guitar players in the studio. I have a way of playing that involves half strumming and half fingerpicking, and I'm very particular about getting a player to imitate my feel. Had you ever recorded live with a band before? Jewel My first record was live, but it was solo. And then on Spirit, the band recorded while I was in the control room, and I would do separate days of vocals where I would listen to the band on my headphones. And it just didn't work for me. It made me sing careful and cautious-not to mention there's no audience, I am in a quiet room, and it's really loud in my ears. So on this record, I kind of insisted [on recording live]. A lot of producers like everything to be pristine, and it's not common to have a producer be cool with a whole band wanting to record a song at once and have it be a take. But it worked way better for me. We peaked at the same places, we came down at the same places, we just fed off each other. You mention in the liner notes that you hated recording "This Way" as well as "You Were Meant for Me." Why? Jewel Those two songs are sincere, sweet love songs. There's nothing else to them; they just embrace the sweetness. I have always preferred songs that are a little more clever, a little more layered lyrically. So it has been hard for me to find peace with those songs. They make me feel like a simpleton, and I hate being corny-it drives me nuts. But with "You Were Meant for Me" I learned the value of being sincere and being sweet. It does translate and it works. Have you found it difficult to play large venues and feel a connection with the audience? Jewel It's really different. Playing with a band is a different thing than playing solo, too. I still feel like even in huge venues, playing solo will connect better if you can get the audience focused on you. But I really like both. There's nothing like rocking a stadium-it's just fun. And who gets to do it? Not many people, so you feel honored. But I wouldn't trade theater shows or small shows to save my life. Were you always comfortable talking and just being on stage? Jewel You know, my dad was really good at it. He was always the one who would tell stories and make up songs on the spot about audience members. We'd do four hour-long sets, so we would walk around between sets and talk to everyone. I was really shy and stiff on stage, real self-conscious. And then I went through other phases where I'd been on stage so long, at ages 14 or 15, that it would get way too comfortable-you're too relaxed and you don't have any respect for it. You're not entertaining, you're just like in your living room. I think when I started playing my own music I came into my own, because I just get lost in the emotion of the song-I don't have to think about it at all. And I grew up singing in so many bars and coffee shops that I just learned to have a rapport with the audience and talk and tell stories and joke around, and I began to enjoy that as much as singing. I have to ask about the multiple references to disco in your latest songs. Does this reflect a lot of hanging out in discos in recent years? Jewel [Laughs.] I was traveling abroad a lot, and discos are really big. On my last record, Spirit, I think the word flame came up several times. I don't notice it when I am writing. Maybe it's because I read Pablo Neruda, the poet. There are words in all of his books that come up over and over-words like blue, foam, rose, dust. They come up in almost every poem, it's like his own vocabulary, and I kind of do that in my writing. I notice that words take on their own meaning for me and I use them repeatedly. They're like landmarks in songs that tie them together. Is the experience of putting together books of poetry and prose influencing your songwriting in new ways? Jewel Reading has always influenced my songwriting. I grew up writing prose and poetry, and I didn't start writing songs until I was about 17, so my background in creative writing is more extensive. Songs like "Jupiter" and "Break Me" are affected by Pablo Neruda. Things like "Jesus Loves You" are affected by Charles Bukowski. I really like writing and drawing, and I get bored doing one thing too long. It's like if you are a farmer and you plant the same crop every year, it depletes the soil; but if you rotate crops it puts nutrients back in the soil, so when you go back to the same crop, it makes it stronger. For me, writing is like that. If I switch from songwriting to poetry, my songwriting gets better in my absence. Whereas if I do it all the time, it just burns me out. I don't get any new information that makes my songwriting better. Sometimes just doing visual art, concentrating on pure shapes, makes my melody writing better. It makes my phrasing stronger. It's funny, but it all has a really good effect on my writing. How would you compare poetry writing to lyric writing? Jewel The real difference for me is the structure. Songwriting has a very defined structure, and it almost always sounds better when [the lines] rhyme or have some sort of internal rhyming. If I try to take poetry and put it to music, it doesn't work, because it doesn't fit the structure that a song needs: it needs to have four lines pretty much, and it should have a chorus that recurs. Poems don't revolve around that at all. I can take little teeny lyrics as long as I fit them into a songwriting structure-like in "Foolish Games," "you were always so brilliant in the morning," that was out of a poem. But line for line, I've never been able to put a poem to a song. For somebody who grew up with so much solitude, you live with an awful lot of movement and noise now. Is it hard to find the space and time for writing? Jewel I've been lucky to be fairly prolific wherever I go. I can write in hotels and airports, but it isn't what I enjoy most. I don't get a lot back out of it. The way I was raised, writing was just alone, just for the sheer enjoyment of creating, and to this day I write better that way. I write better when I'm in Texas on the ranch, being able to go way deep inside myself alone in the quiet. I access pop culture, but my most socially relevant songs are written the farthest from society. You get a better perspective that way. And something I have insisted on during this record is not to tour for more than two to four weeks without taking a ten- or 12-day break, so that I can go away and write the way I enjoy writing. It makes me feel nourished and fulfilled again. I don't know if I will have as big sales or as big hits, because I am not going to be promoting or touring as hard-I certainly will not make as much money because I won't be touring as much. But at least I'm going to have a rhythm that's sustainable, that makes me feel like I can do this for the rest of my life. DISCOGRAPHY This Way, Atlantic 83519 (2001). Joy: A Holiday Collection, Atlantic 83250 (1999). Spirit, Atlantic 82950 (1998). Pieces of You, Atlantic 82700 (1995). Excerpted from Acoustic Guitar magazine, April 2002, No. 112. [[An additional sidebar]] What They Play When _Jewel_ signed with Atlantic Records in 1993, she picked up a Taylor 912-C that was her steady companion for several years, along wish an intricately decorated custom Ferrington given as a gift from a boyfriend. Since then, Jewel's relationship with the southern California guitar company has deepened, as she's acquired a whole rack of Taylors, including a 420-PF (pao ferro), 512, 612-C, 814-C, custom 915, and PS10 as well as her own signature model, built as a limited edition in 2000. Jewel's stage acoustic guitars are wired with Fishman Matrix pickups, run direct with no external preamp or effects. At band gigs, she supplements the Taylors with a Stratocaster, a Paul Reed Smith, three Telecasters, and two Gibson Howard Roberts, plugged into a Matchless DC30 amp. All of Jewel's guitars are strung with D'Addario mediums, and she plays either with her fingers (often combining strumming and fingerpicking) or a heavy pick. [[Accompanying the score an words to Standing Still was the following]] Standing Still Words by Jewel Kilcher, music by Jewel Kilcher and Rick Nowels The driving lead track on _This Way_ is one of several new songs that Jewel co-wrote with guitarist Rick Nowels. "We had a loop that we started off with," she recalls. "It was really energetic. Before we even wrote chords to it, I wrote those lyrics and that melody to the loop. It just gave me a mood and feeling, and I started going [_sings opening lines_], and we had a tape player recording my goofing around." On the record, John Willis supplies the acoustic guitar, with electric guitar work by Jerry McPherson and coproducer Dann Huff. - --Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers __END__ ------------------------------ End of jewel-digest V7 #103 ***************************