Jewel

I don't really know where to start but I guess the best place would be at the beginning!

Her full name is Jewel Kilcher and she was born on May 23, 1974.

She was raised on an 800-acre homestead in Homer, Alaska. Since the age of five she has been performing with her parents who were also in a band.

Her junior and senior years of high school were spent at Interlochen Fine Arts Academy in Michigan. This is an expensive private school, and most of Jewel's tuition was paid for by a vocal scholarship. The remainder of the expenses were raised by various low-paying summer jobs.

After high school, Jewel came to San Diego, which she now calls home. She worked a variety of jobs including waitressing, but generally lost them when her interest in chatting with the customers surpassed her desire to do the actual job. Eventually she decided that working unfulfilling dead-end jobs was an unbearable way to live. She moved into her VW van, and with lots of peanut butter, carrot sticks, and a guitar, settled down to write songs.
She soon started performing to sparse crowds at a coffeehouse in Pacific Beach called the Inner Change. Word started to spread, and soon she had a regular Thursday night spot and an ever growing audience.

Always a prolific, versatile songwriter, Jewel regularly debuted a handful of new songs at each show. Jewel was regularly joined by frequent collaborator Steve Poltz (lead singer of the Rugburns).
Everyone who saw her must have told five friends, since each week the crowd continued to grow. Soon, people were being turned away, while a few hardy souls could be seen staring through the large windows at the packed house inside.
Around this time, the news of the 19 year old singer had gotten to L.A., and record executives started driving down to sleepy San Diego to catch the shows.
They immediately recognized the quality of what they were seeing, and soon the limos were directed towards Jewel's van/home. After a brief courtship, she was signed to Atlantic Records.
The advance on the record enabled Jewel to rent a house with her mother, a new car (a used Volvo) and a new guitar.

All this added exposure continued to draw crowds to the Inner Change. By this time, Jewel had written over a hundred songs. On July 28 and 29, 1994, a sound crew descended on the Inner Change to record 4 sets of Jewel.
All the live recordings on Pieces of You come from those two sessions.

Jewel Kilcher's debut album,"Pieces Of You", was released on February 28th 1995.
Since then she has made frequent apperances on the likes of Conan O'Brien, Leno and Letterman. "Pieces Of You" is a haunting work of pain and beauty from an artist whose style is stark and honest, and whose songs are deftly observed and deeply compelling.
It is a terrific collection of self-penned songs about love and hope, anger and wasted lives, bigotry and redemption. A work of art and beauty I feel I am very lucky to have been indroduced to.