Jewel
In 1997, all the critical accolades may have gone to Beck, but the real pop success story of that year belonged to a 21-year-old woman named Jewel Kilcher. Raised in Homer, Alaska, where she grew up in what might best be described as an alternative "hippie" environment (her parents, in fact, were a folk music duo before they divorced), Jewel began performing at the age of eight. She seemed to have a natural ability for music, and she later learned to play guitar while on scholarship at the prestigious Interlochen Music Academy in Michigan.
Kilcher eventually ended up in San Diego where, following a series of dead-end jobs and living in poverty--for a time, out of her car--she decided to pursue music full-time. She developed a large following while playing at that city's Innerchange Coffeehouse, where she was signed by Atlantic Records.
The result was Jewel's folk-pop debut LP Pieces Of You, some of which was recorded at the San Diego coffeehouse. The album took a surprisingly long time to break through--it was originally released in early '95--but Jewel kept her profile up through constant performances (including an oddly mismatched opening slot on Bauhaus frontman Peter Murphy's tour, the role of Dorothy in a musical Wizard Of Oz production that co-starred Natalie Cole, Jackson Browne and Roger Daltrey, and countless acoustic shows at coffeehouses across the U.S.). However, Pieces Of You eventually spawned three MASSIVE hit singles ("Who Will Save Your Soul," "You Were Meant For Me" and "Foolish Games") and remained in the Billboard 200 for an astounding two years.
Originally dismissed--especially after a pre-stardom relationship with Sean Penn (who directed a never-aired early video for "You Were Meant For Me") was revealed--Jewel has actually worked very hard to get where she is. (Plus, she's awfully beautiful to boot.) Jewel may be the first true bona fide star of the new "folk" music, and with her long-awaited sophomore album Spirit--her first release in three years, unless you count the spoken-word audio version of her poetry book A Night Without Armor--it's likely she'll hold on to that title. Yet Spirit, which features the co-production of Madonna collaborator Patrick Leonard and such guest stars as Josh Clayton-Felt, Jude Cole and Red Hot Chili Pepper Flea, may help the singer once best known for her yodeling reach new listeners with a darker, edgier sound, as evidenced on the album's first single, "Hands."
Jewel returned in November 2001 with This Way, an album that was looser and more upbeat than the darker strains of Spirit, buoyed by the hit single "Standing Still." Prior to recording This Way, the singer-songwriter spent time with her boyfriend, champion bull rider Ty Murray, who co-wrote the album's "'Til We Run Out Of Road." But the time spent with Murray at the ranch proved to be dangerous. In April 2002 Jewel was thrown from a horse at Murray's ranch in Texas. The singer broke her collarbone and a rib in the accident. The mishap forced Jewel to postpone some European concert dates, and when the tour resumed, she had to hand over any guitar-playing duties to her band, since she was still recovering from her injuries.
By August 2002, however, Jewel had recovered enough to launch a solo tour through the Western U.S. in the final push behind This Way. While on tour, Jewel began writing songs for her next album.
Released in June 2003, O3O4 marked a departure from Jewel's folk-rock roots. The album's first single, "Intuition," had her trading in acoustic guitars for dance beats and a video that showed Jewel strutting her stuff like teen-pop sex kittens Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. While the "simple girl in a high-tech digital world" may have been spoofing the mass marketing of pop stars, sex, and consumer goods in the clip, the message may have been lost of some of her fans. Nonetheless, Jewel was confident that her "fun" album would comfort fans in these troubled times.
