By Joe Hadsall
jhadsall@joplinglobe.com
If you listen to music like a radio programmer, or if you keep your iPod’s music sorted by genre, then Jewel has probably frustrated you.
She started in alternative radio, then moved into pop as her songs “You Were Meant For Me,” “Who Will Save Your Soul” and “Foolish Games” received constant airplay.
Then she embraced her inner J-Lo, slapped on some heels and sang a few techno-dance numbers. After that, she released a country album, then a kids’ album and is currently working on another country album.
But the Grammy-nominated singer who made a meteoric rise in the ’90s says she has always written the same kinds of songs — genres have simply changed around her.
“The reason I’m attracted to country is that the focus is on storytelling,” Jewel said. “Where I see pop right now, the hook is in a sound or a beat. But in country, the hook is probably always the lyrics.”
Jewel will sing some of her songs during a solo acoustic show Sunday at Downstream Casino — the same kind of performance that landed her the record deal that eventually produced her 1995 breakthrough, “Pieces of You.”
Such a show is what Jewel has been performing for most of her career.
“This is what I trained doing, when I was growing up,” Jewel said. “It’s a lot more work, but I like it.”
Meteoric rise
Her story is now legendary: After attending and graduating from the Michigan fine arts academy Interlochen when she was 16, Jewel Kilcher busked her way to San Diego and into Mexico, where the people she met inspired “Who Will Save Your Soul.” After going back to graduate from high school, she returned to San Diego and ended up homeless for a year.
She developed a loyal following at a local coffee shop, where she was eventually discovered by record labels and found herself in the middle of a bidding war.
She chose the label that let her remain a simple songwriter, she said.
“I was really afraid of fame,” Jewel said. “I was afraid I’d be trying to uphold something that I wasn’t.”
The selection of Atlantic Records, which released “Pieces of You,” likely cost her some money up front. She said she turned down some big signing bonuses, but that was OK with her.
“I didn’t want a lot of money up front,” she said. “That puts on the pressure to do albums. I’ve always been under the suspicion that nothing is really free. You’ll have to pay it back somehow.”
One of the reasons she enjoys the solo shows is that she gets to tailor each night’s set list to what the audience would like to hear, similar to those coffeeshop appearances and busking performances. That’s a sense that she has fine-tuned over years of performing, she said.
“There’s not a secret to it,” she said about reading an audience. “It’s like a dance partner. Every partner feels different. You learn to read their body language and get a feel for them.”
She picked up the skill from touring with her singing father when she was 8. Dad taught her how to avoid writing a set list, the value of punctuality and professionality and how to read a crowd.
That lets her sense when it’s time to break into something a little more upbeat, or when the audience is ready for something more emotional.
Influences, genres
Jewel has about 500 songs at the ready, inspired from a range of influences, but most of all from writers such as John Steinbeck and Pablo Neruda. She also loves a variety of music — she said she loves Joni Mitchell for the same reasons as Loretta Lynn; and Bob Dylan as much as Paul Westerberg.
With such varied influences, it’s no wonder Jewel has no problem skipping across genres. She said that there have been songs she’s held back because it wouldn’t fit with a certain genre.
“If ‘You Were Meant for Me’ came out now, it would be a country song,” Jewel said. “I had written ‘Rosie and Mick’ a long time ago, but it was country influenced enough that it didn’t quite fit the album I was working on. So it had to wait for ‘Perfectly Clear.’”
Another explanation is that the genres change: Jewel broke out, she said, at a time when country music was largely “beautiful people singing cover songs,” and pop was in a singer-songwriter format. Those two have changed over the past few years, letting songwriters such as Darius Rucker and Taylor Swift enjoy surges.
The genre-skipping exercise has earned criticism from those who care about genres — especially after “0304,” her exploration into bouncy dance, high heels and short skirts. The CD offered the hit “Intuition,” but cries of “sell out” soon followed. MAD TV and VH-1 unleashed a barrage of snark and parody.
Jewel said she learned about the nature of criticism at the release of “Pieces of You”: A critic who wrote a favorable review seemed to change his mind a year later, after he wrote a review that panned the very same album.
“I guess I got too popular,” she said. “It just drives home the point that you can’t make everyone happy. The only way to navigate through life is to stick with what you like.”
One group of listeners that doesn’t seem to mind is her fans. Jewel said that her fans’ iPods are likely filled with just as much variety in music as hers.
“People look at albums like they look at outfits,” Jewel said. “They have their comfy sweat pants and their going-out clothes. That’s how people experience music.”
Want to go?
Jewel will perform a solo acoustic concert at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Pavilion at Downstream Casino. Tickets range from $50 to $75. Details: 918-919-6000.
If the ticket price is too steep because of job loss, Jewel may be able to help you out. Become a follower of her Twitter page, www.twitter.com/jeweljk, and read updates about giveaways for any leftover promotional tickets.
