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Eilen Jewell
Sinners, Strangers, and
Sweet Dreams of Rolling Thunder

Brattleboro, Vt,  September 9  -  "I'm a huge fan of that country music that originally put Nashville on the map, the early stuff that was being played at the Opry," said Signature Sounds recording artist Eilen Jewell.   "Patsy Cline, Hank Williams Sr., Loretta Lynn. . . . Maybe they didn't all come from there, but Nashville was the mecca for that early country sound."  One may well imagine Jewell's thrill, then, over her next big booking.  She opens a Loretta Lynn concert at the Calvin Theater in Northampton, Massachusetts, Thursday, September 13.

Jewell's own sound ought to have great appeal in Nashville, a city with a long history of having a diverse music community; but she has not yet played Nashville.  Asked about airplay there, she said, "[T]hey've played the new album in Chattanooga and Knoxville, so hopefully we can spill over a bit."

Loretta Lynn is a perfect example of the Appalachian style of country music that has been popular in New England since the early days.  Eilen Jewell's sound, though, is quite different.  Without particularly being a sound-alike, Jewell's music falls more nearly into the stream of blues-influenced roots-rock commonly associated with Bonnie Raitt.  And on more than a few spots on her latest CD, Letters From Sinners & Strangers, Jewell croons a little like a big band singer of the 1930s and '40s  -  one might say, of the Helen Forrest school.  Jewell's music roots seem to be quite rich and complex.  An artist comparison of some cross between Bonnie Raitt and Patsy Cline  - each of whose style features a good deal of versatility  -  would seem about right.

Jewell fronts a really hot band.  Asked how this gifted group came together, she recalled, "I met Jerry Miller and Johnny Sciascia through Jason Beek, essentially.  Jason knew them from living in Boston for years and going to Spurs shows.  He's been a fan of theirs for a while.  So when the time came to record the first record, Boundary County, he suggested Jerry and Johnny.   I took his advice and realized they were perfect for what we were doing.  They must have liked us all right because they stuck around, we started touring, and now we're touring behind record number two, with a third one on the horizon."

Many New England Music Scrapbook newsletter readers already know about The Spurs.  Mark Erelli worked with these musicians on his acclaimed and popular western swing album, Hillbilly Pilgrim.  Newsletter readers may be more likely to know violinist Daniel Kellar from his past rock outfits, such as Vasco da Gama and the Laurie Geltman Band.  "I think Dan's violin playing is a great match for my music," said Jewell.  "The violin as an instrument has country, bluegrass, and old-time connotations, but the way Dan plays it is very unique, not linked to any particular style.   I think this works well since what I'm doing is not strictly country, bluegrass, or old-time, either.

"The drumming [of Jason Beek] provides the beat, makes a lot of our stuff something you can dance to," she continued.  "It also links us with a more rockabilly or early rock and roll flavor.   I think this sets us apart from most others in the folk world these days, since you just don't hear a lot of rockabilly out there."

I asked about in-concert challenges Jewell might face, thinking, after hearing Letters From Sinners & Strangers several times, that singing over the drums could pose some difficulties.  For reasons I could not explain, on record, her voice seems to interact with the drums more than with her band's other instruments.  And drums certainly can be loud.  Anyway, apparently this is not a problem.  And luckily so.  The drumming is an important part of the overall Eilen Jewell Band sound.

"My main challenge as a singer comes from never quite knowing what to expect from one show to the next in terms of the sound on stage," explained Jewell.  "Will I be able to work with the sound person to be heard in my monitor?   Will the sound of the monitor itself be something like nails on a chalkboard or will it be the greatest sounding thing I've ever heard?   If I can't hear my voice very well in the monitor I tend to blow my vocal chords out trying to be heard.  That's a bad scene.  If I can hear myself but the quality of the monitor is poor I feel off-kilter for most of the show.  So I would consider trying to overcome bad mixes and equipment my biggest vocal challenge.  Luckily it doesn't happen all that often."

What are Jewell's ambitions as a musician?   "What I want to do is make music that feels right to me and that others can find meaningful in some way," she answered.  "If I can make art that I can feel good about and that is somehow important to other people, I feel like everything else will follow.  All those things like 'play the Opry' or 'be the musical guest on SNL' . . . all those things I could mention that would be a sign of success wouldn't really get at the heart of it for me.  Unfortunately, what is at the heart of it is very hard to measure.  But I think I'd recognize it when it happened.  It's already starting."

Letters From Sinners & Strangers is a strong mix of original material and interpretations of songs by other writers.   "I feel like I don't really choose songs to cover," said Jewell.  "It feels more like they pick me.  It usually happens in the van, on a trip somewhere.  I'll be minding my own business and a song will come on out of the blue and just grab me by the ears.  It won't let go of me until it's satisfied that I'm going to learn it and incorporate it into the set list.  It's a fairly passive process, really."

Myself, I am a major sucker for songs in minor keys, as well as for tearjerkers.  After playing Letters a few times, I wondered whether Jewell might have a similar soft spot for minor-key tunes.   "I am definitely a sucker for songs in minor keys," she agreed.   "I haven't been able to figure out why yet.  It might be the melancholy side of me."  Her voice is also nicely suited for these melodies.

"Being on Signature has helped immensely," said Jewell.  "Jim [Olsen] is wonderful to work with.  The label is that perfect balance between small enough to get hands-on treatment but big enough to make a splash nationally.  We've suddenly been able to play at festivals that had no interest in us a year ago.  We have a support team of great people working to get us out there and get us heard.  And Jim really seems to believe in the project and understand what we're going for.  That helps immensely."

David Crosby of Crosby, Stills & Nash recalls that this is the way it once was even with major labels.  He says that today a label executive can report how many copies have been sent to a given city but would not be able to answer the question, "Copies of what?"

Eilen Jewell's stock clearly is on the rise.  In our interview, she gave the lowdown on her career upswing.  "The things that have done the most for my career have been signing with Signature and working with Mongrel Music, the folks who do our booking.

"WRSI [Northampton, Massachusetts] has definitely helped, along with a few other Boston and New York [radio] stations (WUMB and WFUV for example).  The influence radio has over people is hard to track though, unless they happen to mention to you that they heard you on a particular station and came to a show or bought a CD because of what they heard.  This does happen, but how often is hard to tell.

"I guess I think of radio airplay like advertisement.  It's of course crucial to advertise, and the more the ad is seen the better the chances people will respond.  But in the end it's hard to say whether people got on board because of the ads or because their friends suggested it or, in the case of music, maybe they caught you at a festival or other show.  I've found that good old-fashioned word of mouth is one of the most powerful things out there.  People's friends can get them to do all kinds of things, including come to an Eilen Jewell show."  As a case in point, this article came about as a direct result of a recommendation from e-mail friend Sheryl Hunter, the "Sounds Local" columnist of The Recorder out of Greenfield, Massachusetts.

It is always fun to ask about events in a career that came completely out of the blue and took the musician totally by surprise.   "I was surrounded by a demanding mob at Grassroots in Trumansburg, New York this year," recalled Jewell.  "It was totally overwhelming.  We played a set in the dance tent and the place was packed.  The crowd was singing along to some of the songs and dancing like crazy; and afterwards, they pretty much rushed the stage, demanding autographs and CDs.  It was great!   Overwhelming  -  since I was alone and the band was hiding in the van  -  but great."

These interviews can produce intriguing suggestions about appealing musicians who are not yet widely known, at least not in this part of the world.  "There's this Australian musician named C.W. Stoneking who I think is just the cat's meow," said Jewell.  "What he does is kind of a vaudeville-type minstrel thing with some country-ish blues thrown in.   I think he's a genius at it, and I can't stop listening to him."

If there could be a perfect double-bill involving the Eilen Jewell Band, what would be the other act?   One does not keep neatly organized records of these sorts of things; but to the very best of my recollection, over many years and hundreds of interviews, one hundred percent of the artists who answered this question named a headlining act they would open for.  Eilen Jewell broke this very long streak with a creative reply.

"Well, if there were such a thing as a musical fairy godmother," she said, "I would ask her to wave her wand and have a convoy of buses and private jets appear.  And I would put together something akin to Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue.  I'd tour the world, doing shows with C.W. Stoneking, Holly Golightly, my friends Miss Tess and the Bon Ton Parade, The Spurs, Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Loretta Lynn.  There wouldn't really be a headliner.  It would be more like a traveling music festival."

Jewell says this is an actual dream, and it is a fantastic one.  Those fans who can get to western Mass. can live part of the dream at Northampton's Calvin Theater when Eilen Jewell splits a bill with the legendary Loretta Lynn.

• Who:   Eilen Jewell Band, Splitting a Bill With Loretta Lynn
• Where:   Calvin Theater, Northampton, Massachusetts
• When:   Thursday, September 13
• For more information:   www.iheg.com, www.eilenjewell.com

"Without particularly being a sound-alike, Jewell's music":   The difference is not huge between the percussion-driven rocking country music that Jewell speaks of and the often blues-spiced roots-rock of the field led by Bonnie Raitt.  Raitt, for instance, had one of the very finest cuts, "Don't It Make Ya Wanna Dance," on a classic country music collection, the Urban Cowboy motion picture soundtrack.

"One does not keep neatly organized records of these":   A very few answers to this standard question have fallen into a more or less gray area, such as the rocker who named a triple bill where the pecking order of bands might seem a little less obvious.