When a musician achieves success, it means he or she can generally work on
their own terms.
So why, in the middle of recording her next album, is Jewel Kilcher going
out and doing 11 shows in 12 nights across two states?
Actually, that is her way of calling the shots, she says from her ranch in
Texas.
"I don't really enjoy having a night off in any city except where I live,"
she says. "I'd rather just work. My voice seems to handle it just fine. I'd
rather do 14 shows in a row with no nights off, then get my time all bunched
up together."
If you do night-on, night-off, "it takes twice as long to do the same amount
of dates. I just don't think it's very fun," she says.
The marathon begins Wednesday night at the Denver Botanic Gardens, moves to
Chautauqua in Boulder on Thursday, then the Telluride Bluegrass Festival on
Friday.
"My schedule has been kind of weird," she acknowledges "It's my last record
for Atlantic under my contract. I'm not recording nonstop. I don't like to
go in the studio for five months and not see daylight. I'll do five days of
recording then take a couple of weeks off. It doesn't feel like homework
that way."
It's a time of transition in the career of the 31-year-old singer-songwriter
who grew up in Alaska and went on to find fame with hits like Who Will Save
Your Soul and Hands. She has to deal with the transitions of the music
industry in the digital age like everyone else does. In fact, she stays
slightly ahead of the curve, as she was one of the first major artists to
sell instant live discs of her shows to fans.
But she also has to struggle with an industry that pigeonholes artists. When
Neil Young goes off on a weird tangent, that's just Neil being Neil. When
Jewel made 0304 in 2003, setting her lyrics to dance grooves rather than the
singer-songwriter style fans knew her for, some people flipped out.
"Women in my industry have changed musically out of that premeditated,
image-driven way," she says. "I don't think the industry has seen many women
exploring musically." Even icons such as Joni Mitchell puzzle fans when she
does something a little off the wall such as Dog Eat Dog.
As for 0304, "I made a record I really like. My goal is to make my
interpretation of modern dance-hall music. I imagined people crowded into
bars in the '40s, during the second World War. That was the record I was
looking to make," she says. "As a songwriter, it's some of the best
songwriting I've ever done. There's a song on there called Haunted that's
really good. . . . it reminds me of Who Will Save Your Soul."
As for the reaction, "I was a little disappointed because a lot of people
didn't listen to the record. I think they looked at imaging . . . and things
like that and it got carried away. I was just disappointed that people
didn't listen to the record, they didn't hear the songs."
She does do those songs live, where they get new context. Playing solo
acoustic gives her a chance to be a bit looser with the set list and the
crowd.
"I talk more when I'm solo. I tell more stories and goof around with the
audience more," she says. New songs from the album in progress will appear
as well.
"I always do new stuff. That's how I'm able to tour as heavily as I do. I'm
writing all the time and I'll always play a new song when I write it. I also
have 400 or 500 songs in my catalog. I do obscure stuff that's not on any
record but is probably pretty heavily bootlegged. I've always encouraged
bootlegging. Fans request really obscure songs," she says.
Fans who want to know which way the new album is going probably will be
pleased it's more of her traditional singer-songwriter work.
"The record is going fast. I did six songs in five days. I'll have the
record done in a matter of weeks, total. I'm guessing I'll release it in the
spring. I'm in no hurry. I'm enjoying my time off, just working in spurts,"
she says.
That relaxed schedule has allowed her to develop a cartoon series for
Nickelodeon called Punk Rock Angel Girl. It's still in development.
"I drew her and invented the whole world and wrote the first episode,"
Kilcher says, but she's frustrated at the slow pace of television. "It takes
forever. I work fast by myself, but working with a TV company, it starts to
drag out."
Mark Brown is the popular music writer. Brownm@RockyMountainNews.com
It seems that Rolling Stone mag, (in a welcome change from asking her to
ride a horse in the buff), asked Jewel to write about Joni Mitchell ~
and Jewel's commentary is published in RS 972 (dated April 21, 2005):
60) Joni Mitchell By Jewel
Joni Mitchell is a bigger icon than she is a star. Bob Dylan and Keith
Richards
became famous in such a worldwide way that they became stars and icons.
But Joni
is still quite unknown to a lot of people. The impact she had wasn't big
and
flashy. But she influenced people who became stars.
I remember a friend in high school playing me "A Case of You," from
Blue, and me
liking it -- a lot. I could tell that Joni was a painter by the way she
wrote
lyrics. She describes smells and sounds to translate what is happening
in her
songs, using fewer words to transmit more feeling. Her melodies are all
about
shapes. The singing lines are slow, steep plateaus. One of the things
that I
learned from Joni, and that I love about her: If you can tell the story
right
and keep things moving, you don't need to return to the chorus on time.
Joni never tries to make herself more perfect in her lyrics. What she
writes is
closer to journalism: On Blue, you hear everything she experienced, the
highs
and the lows. It's such a lonely album: not in the "I don't have any
friends"
sense but in the sense that you're a little bit removed, and always
watching.
And it takes a lot of courage to be that honest, especially as a
woman -- to
talk about love and other intimate things so frankly. When she first did
it, it
was a very fluffy time -- pretty girls singing about pretty things.
Joni had an edginess that not many women expressed then. Most women
singers had
strong vibratos and a lot of mascara. Joni Mitchell never made a big
deal out of
being a woman. She had such a strong sexuality, but she didn't feel the
need to
deny that part of her in order to be taken seriously. She also didn't
play it up
- -- although many of her songs are about sex.
I met her only once, at a Vanity Fair photo shoot. It sounds like a
pathetically
feeble Hollywood story, but Stevie Wonder introduced us. He took my
hand -- I
guess I led him to her -- and he said, "Joni, I'd like you to meet
Jewel." I
just shook her hand and tried to swallow. I didn't have anything to say
to her.
Her influence on me is so obvious. I hope she can hear it.
The semester is coming to an end for me and i've finally got some time to fix the site up a bit. I am uploading some files from a copy of the site saved from january. Although this version won't fix all the problems, it should certainly provide more update information and fix a few broken links. It may create other broken links, however.
I ran a links checker on the site an hour ago. Most of the broken links are external on the links page, old links from the guest books, or links to dynamic portions of the site that are down.
I uploaded a new copy of the links page, books section, images, my personal site, and am working on the lyrics section. I will check pictures out as well.
The next round of ticket presales will take place on Wednesday, April 20th for the following shows:
June 25, 2005
Ironstone Amphitheatre Murphys, CA
Unedited Pre-sale: April 20th @ 10am Pacific Time
Public sale: Saturday April 23rd 10am Pacific at Ticketmaster
July 22, 2005
Pabst Theater Milwaukee, WI
Unedited Pre-sale: April 20th @ 12pm Central Time
Public sale: Friday April 22th 12pm Central at the Pabst Theater
July 26, 2005
Louisville Palace Theatre Louisville, KY
Unedited Pre-sale: April 20th @ 1pm Eastern Time
Public sale: Saturday April 23rd 10am Pacific at Ticketmaster
Jewel is working on a new album. I've posted some details about the album previously, but to summarize. Portions of the album are live recordings from various concerts last year. Hopefully this won't be another fritz creek store. (early news articles cover the spirit fiasco)
