From: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org (jewel-digest) To: jewel-digest@smoe.org Subject: jewel-digest V9 #159 Reply-To: jewel@smoe.org Sender: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk jewel-digest Sunday, June 6 2004 Volume 09 : Number 159 * 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 V9 #___ gives fellow list readers * no clue as to what your message is about. Today's Subjects: ----------------- [EDA] Jewel goes ahead with selling live cds at shows!!!!! ["Stephen H." ] [EDA] request to jewelfans in CA ["michiel" ] [EDA] interesting story on the tour [GAMGRIFF@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 05 Jun 2004 17:42:50 +1000 From: "Stephen H." Subject: [EDA] Jewel goes ahead with selling live cds at shows!!!!! A few months back Jewel announced in Billboard that she'd be making live recordings of her shows available for purchase after the show... then she said that her record company vetoed the idea. I guess Atlantic have backed off because Jewel has partnered with Instalive Concerts to produce the live copies of her shows. Go to http://www.instantliveconcerts.com for details, and here's what it says on their website: "Another New Tour! Instant Live is proud to announce that well be heading out on the road with Jewel! Starting June 10, well be offering our high-quality discs at Jewel shows across the U.S.!" Excellent news!!! We should have a huge number of high quality bootlegs from now on! Go Jewel! I'm really glad she's decided to do this. It's a great money making venture and it's good for the fans as well. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 5 Jun 2004 10:50:36 +0200 From: "michiel" Subject: [EDA] request to jewelfans in CA hello jewelfans, I hope there are kind angels who are willing to buy for me copy of the jewel show on cd that they attend in june/july. i really would appreciate the help of the fans on this list to let me enjoy the jewel shows! bye michiel www.jewelkilcher.nl the nr#1 jewel fan site ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 5 Jun 2004 10:57:33 +0200 From: "michiel" Subject: [EDA] it would be great hi fans, if we can start all having a jewel concert series bootleg at home. it would be great to play her gigs in june. i am really hoping that fans will buy them for the fans and for me!! so any jewelfans heading to the upcoming jewelshows, be wise and buy a jewel concert cd for me and i can pay by paypal or any other event bye michiel ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 5 Jun 2004 20:42:10 EDT From: GAMGRIFF@aol.com Subject: [EDA] interesting story on the tour This is a interesting story on the tour. ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. About a year ago, Richmond singer-songwriter Susan Greenbaum won a contest. Not a little contest, mind you. A rather big one. After more than 100,000 votes were cast, Greenbaum emerged the national winner in the band category of the Soul City Cafe Music Quest. The idea for Soul City stemmed from Jewel, who wanted a place for talented up-and-comers to be heard. The winner of the contest was slated to open for her on her fall 2003 tour. A couple of weeks before that tour, Jewel's bass player died. The tour was off, though Jewel later went on the road alone. With the cancellation, Greenbaum's hopes faded. No big tour for Jewel and her band equated to no opening slot for Greenbaum and her band - bassist Mike Drake, guitarist Ed Drake and drummer-new husband Chris Parker. Months of phone calls between Greenbaum and Jewel's management followed, and finally, earlier this spring, Greenbaum received the call she was waiting for. Ten Jewel concerts along the East Coast in May would feature Greenbaum as an opening act. However, since Jewel was still performing without a band, so would Greenbaum. The rules of the road were straightforward: Greenbaum would receive a small stipend for each show, but was responsible for her own transportation, food, lodging, gas and other amenities. She, Parker and two close friends rented a van to make the 3,000-mile round trip, which began in Atlantic City, N.J., on May 7. They visited Lowell, Mass., Albany, N.Y., and Wilkes-Barre, Pa., among other cities, before ending May 16 in Mashantucket, Conn. I spent the first day of the tour with her to witness the amount of glamour that accompanies a budding star. As you'll see, it's rather minuscule. 3 p.m. With six hours until showtime, Greenbaum sits in her hotel room at the Taj Mahal, rehearsing songs and timing them with a watch. She is granted only 15 minutes onstage - a blink for a performer used to engaging in small talk with her audience between tunes. There won't be much conversation from Greenbaum, so she works to squeeze as much music as she can into those 900 seconds. She'll start with the blues-tinged "Wake Up!", a showcase for her multi-range voice. Then comes the finger-snapping "I Got Me Some Friends," the new ballad "This Life" and her most popular song, the poppy "Everything but You." They time out to 17 minutes. Greenbaum figures she'll cut a verse from "Friends." 4:30 p.m. Greenbaum and Parker head downstairs to the theater, assuming it will soon be time for a sound check. No one from Jewel's camp has contacted Greenbaum with a time for the pre-show ritual, so she takes her chances. After wandering around the theater with no answers, Wilma, the box office manager, steers Greenbaum to Jewel's sound man, who informs her that Jewel doesn't do a sound check and if Greenbaum wants to test her sound levels, this is her one chance. Lucky timing, apparently. Greenbaum notices Jewel's merchandise table in the venue lobby, including a Jewel-emblazoned thong. "That's what I need to sell! Thongs!" she says with a wicked grin. Greenbaum, Parker and their two friends wander around the hallways before they happen to bump into Jewel's public relations guru. Greenbaum is informed that she has a dressing room several halls away from Jewel's and is advised to please stay away from Jewel's area at all times because "she doesn't like people around before or after the show." At this point, the chances of a handshake with Jewel before the concert are slipping. She still hasn't landed in Philadelphia, about an hour's drive from Atlantic City. "I have no expectations of Jewel," Greenbaum says matter-of-factly. "This is her job, just like it's my job. For her, it's just another gig, and I understand she might not want to socialize." 6:30 p.m. The friends who are accompanying Greenbaum and Parker on the tour to help drive and sell merchandise discuss how much product to unload from the van. It's the first night of the tour, so they aren't expecting Jewel's audience to be clamoring for Greenbaum's CD and T-shirts. They thought wrong. 7:30 p.m. Back in her hotel room, Greenbaum is totally relaxed. She stands in front of an oval mirror, straightening her naturally wavy hair. Parker scoots down in a nearby chair, telling his new wife more than once how beautiful she looks. Greenbaum flashes an excited smile, then turns the conversation to a recent Richmond Forum, where she sang the national anthem and impressed speaker Thomas L. Friedman, the New York Times foreign affairs columnist, so much, he mentioned her twice in his address. The butterflies haven't arrived yet. 8:05 p.m. Greenbaum wants to return to the venue early to readjust her microphone stand. She fiddled with it at the sound check, but now she has heels on her 4-foot-10-inch frame, and wants to get the height perfect. At the box office, some Jewel fans congregate and study their tickets. "I'm so glad you got here early!" Greenbaum chirps to the unsuspecting patrons, patting one on the back as she breezes through a backstage door. The Jewel fans give her a confused look. Backstage, Parker whips a tiny flashlight out of his jeans pocket and illuminates the midnight path to the stage for Greenbaum to check her mic stand. "All these little things you have to think about," he says about preparing for the tour. The Taj Mahal stage manager, impressed with Greenbaum's voice at the sound check, is also apparently enamored of her friendly demeanor and the fact that she has already learned every crew member's name. He pulls her aside to tell her the Taj might want her to come back to open for Don Rickles or Steve and Edie Gorme sometime. Greenbaum retorts, "Hey, I'm Jewish, so that could work!" He then asks her to sign the "door of fame" leading to the backstage area. "It's something we recently started," he said, handing Greenbaum a silver marker. It's her first brush with fame for the tour. 8:30 p.m. The dressing room is actually the Chorus Room, but no worries. It's huge, with a wall-length mirror outlined in round, white lights - like something out of the backstage of a Bob Fosse musical. Parker sits in a nearby chair while Greenbaum gazes into the mirror. She has suddenly turned quiet, and her expression is one of deep contemplation. "Man, I gotta tell you. I'm getting a little nervous," she says, patting her stomach. Parker looks over at several small bottles of - what else? - Trump Ice standing on a nearby table and asks Greenbaum if she wants to take one onstage. "I only have 15 minutes up there. I won't have time to drink it," she says. 9 p.m. Greenbaum paces the backstage area in the dark, her acoustic guitar hanging from a small shoulder. She frets for a moment over whether she should cover her sleeveless blouse with a tight, black hooded zipper sweat shirt. The sweat shirt gives her a younger appearance, but Parker weighs in. "Sleeveless. It's sexier." Sexier wins. 9:05 p.m. The house lights dim. About three-quarters of the audience of 1,500 has arrived and responds with cheers, believing the person they came to see is now coming onstage. "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Susan Greenbaum!" intones the stage manager. He forgets the detail that Greenbaum is the Soul City Cafe winner, but Greenbaum realizes it so she can mention it during her time onstage. Tepid applause greets her and the disappointed vibe that she isn't Jewel sweeps toward the stage. But Greenbaum isn't cowed. She rolls into "Wake Up!" and, about halfway through, that is precisely what the crowd does. It's almost as if someone flicked a switch marked: Pay Attention, Opening Act Is Actually Good. Before she finishes the tune, whoops and whistles can be heard. Greenbaum excitedly bounces and grins, launching into the a cappella "I Got Me Some Friends." The crowd begins clapping along to the singsong rhythm Greenbaum is tapping on the body of her guitar. So far, so good. Then it happens. The moment when an opener pulls out something so amazing, she suddenly seems familiar to those who have never heard her before. It is her new song, "This Life," written as a letter to her deceased brother, Ronnie. It's thoughtful and pensive, sweet and uplifting - and it doesn't leave a dry eye in the house. It is the song that audience members will quote back to her when they come to the merchandise table, asking where they can get a copy (it isn't recorded yet). It might even have eclipsed the insightful and insanely melodic "Everything but You," a song Greenbaum unleashes with touches of her soaring falsetto, as the favorite for the night. Parker leans over and whispers, "She really looks happy up there, doesn't she?" It's a generous statement from a partner who has to stand on the sidelines for this odyssey, but he's right. Greenbaum is glowing. 9:24 p.m. Greenbaum giddily thanks the crowd, who now cheers and claps for her. But her spirits nose-dive the moment she steps backstage. Jewel's tour manager - whom she hasn't met until now - pulls Greenbaum aside and asks if she took the stage five minutes late. Yes, it probably was about 9:05 when she was introduced, Greenbaum says. Why? "You played 18= minutes. You have 15. That's too long. You need to cut it back. It's in the itinerary," she is told. "Will I be getting an itinerary?" Greenbaum responds. In fact, she does finally receive an outline for the next 10 days, though it might have been helpful to have had it before she played her first show. 10 p.m. Jewel still isn't onstage (a second opener, newcomer Ryan Cabrera, performed for 20 minutes after Greenbaum), so several impressed audience members head to the lobby to Greenbaum's merchandise table. They compliment her voice, share stories of deceased loved ones and ask which CD contains certain songs. This first night, Greenbaum sells about 55 CDs - a healthy amount for an unknown opening act in an unfamiliar town who performed only four songs. And after tonight - and being chastised for playing three minutes too long - - she cuts it back to three songs per show. By the end of the tour, after running out and recruiting a friend to ship more, she will move about 750 discs. Midnight After spending several hours chatting with new fans and signing autographs for teens and senior citizens alike - a trend that will repeat itself every night of the tour - Greenbaum heads upstairs with her gang for a few hours of sleep before leaving in the a.m. for another six-hour drive. Day 10, the final tour day Jewel has yet to surface in Greenbaum's presence - not to say hello, congratulations or boo. The only time Greenbaum sees her is onstage every night. Finally, after Greenbaum's last performance, she is granted a five-minute audience. Jewel, Greenbaum says, "couldn't have been nicer." They hugged, took pictures with Jewel and her little dog, George, and then it was off to the stage for the richer of the two. Jewel's parting statement to Greenbaum? "Let's keep in touch." Contact Melissa Ruggieri at (804) 649-6120 or mruggieri@timesdispatch.com This story can be found at: http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD _BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031775838228&path=!f lair!ae&s=1045855936372 ------------------------------ End of jewel-digest V9 #159 ***************************