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Rested and renewed
Jewel didn't feel ''useful anymore'' after her 1998 album, Spirit, had run its course. So she took a break. Her new album shows what a good decision that was.
By PHILIP BOOTH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published June 13, 2002
[Photo: Atlantic Records]
Jewel
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When Jewel came down with a bad case of pop-star fatigue several years back, she chose to neither burn out nor fade away, to borrow images from onetime tourmate and informal career counselor Neil Young.
The 28-year-old singer and songwriter -- she of the multiplatinum albums, bestselling poetry collection (A Night Without Armor) and a brief fling with Hollywood (Ang Lee's Ride With the Devil) -- instead chose to chill: After recording and promoting 1998's Spirit, Jewel opted to take a break from career demands.
The result was two years out of the limelight. She spent much of that time at the Texas ranch of boyfriend Ty Murray, a champion bull rider. There, she told Vanity Fair for a cover story on a dozen contemporary music "greats," "I castrate cattle on my days off."
This Way, Jewel's fourth CD (one was holiday music), debuted at No. 9 on Billboard's album chart last November. And her summer tour of theaters opens Friday at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Her vigorous return was made possible by that extended vacation, she said recently.
"By the end of my last record, I didn't feel useful anymore," she said by telephone. "I felt I was adding to the noise. It didn't give me a sense of purpose. I was promoting so much, I felt I was fake. It didn't sit well with me.
"I'm thankful for promotion. But it isn't what ultimately inspires me. I was just really worn out. There was nothing left for me to be generous with. When I decided to quit, I was getting so bad at interviews, my label was like, 'Why don't you take a break? . . . Take as much time as you need.' I got rested, finally. I knew what I wanted to say again. I wasn't afraid of making a record."
In this case, absence makes the muse stronger: Jewel demonstrates greater craftsmanship and control on the new album, which emphasizes the earthy folksiness that initially captivated her fans.
The title track and Standing Still boast guilt-free pop hooks. Serve the Ego is all scratchy guitar, exotic percussion textures and such inscrutable lyrics as "Eat the flesh, spit out the seeds." Cleveland is a sexy hymn of devotion. And Love Me, Just Leave Me Alone is bluesy, bad-girl rock 'n' roll, pure and simple.
Critics haven't failed to notice Jewel's artistic gains. "She's one of the most richly idiomatic female pop singers of her generation, combining the blazing timbral containment of Karen Carpenter with the rootsy looseness of Bonnie Raitt," James Hunter wrote in Rolling Stone. "With This Way, Jewel continues on: elegant, earthy, engaged."
Jewel's take on her growth: "It's been kind of a personal joke. I write less, but I think I write better. I'm a little less experimental. You have to learn craft and structure over time."
Her commitment to the cause was partly pragmatic: She ditched Spirit producer Patrick Leonard and his pop gloss in favor of co-producing her latest with Dann Huff, a Nashville guitarist and studio veteran best known for his work on Faith Hill albums.
Jewel found the process of joint decision-making on recording and arranging instructive: "I've really enjoyed collaborating lately. When you get with someone else's mind, something entirely else is created. I learn how they put chords together and how they process things harmonically."
This Way was recorded in Nashville. The city's rootsy guitar sound, with occasional twangy flourishes, colors the recording.
"(The country influence) was obvious on my first record as well," Jewel said. "I've had people my whole career go, 'Is she country? Is she pop? What is this?' I consider people like Loretta Lynn to be very punk rock. It's all music. Rod Stewart wasn't country just because he had a mandolin. I've done a lot of work in Nashville, mixing things there. I prefer Nashville, because it's outside of the mainstream" of the pop-rock industry.
Jewel, a van dweller in San Diego at 18 and a rising star four years later, is by no means an alternative artist. But she has never come off as an entertainer merely interested in the proper positioning of her product for maximum sales impact. The music came before the merchandising.
"When my first record (1995's Pieces of You) came out, it was during the height of grunge, and I was a folk artist," she said. "I think the beauty of music is that it moves people. As long as you're honest, it's going to move some segment of society. That's why Nirvana moved some segment. (Kurt Cobain) spoke to people that saw it as true for them. Celine Dion is able to do the same thing, and Meatloaf is, too. Hopefully, I'll be able to have formed a career that's based around craft and performing."
PREVIEW: Jewel with M2M, 8 p.m. Friday, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa. $40-$45.50. For information, call (813) 229-7827.
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