by James Cassara
Although her country-flavored and blues-infused version of contemporary folk – combined with a smattering of rockabilly and even surf music – has drawn comparisons to Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch, Eilen Jewell’s strongest influences are Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday. Holiday in particular has served as inspiration for Jewell’s characteristic calculatingly stretched vocal style, one that changes tempo as the song dictates.
Born and raised in Boise, Idaho, Jewell was playing both piano and guitar by the time she became a teen. Falling under the spell of Smith and Holiday, along with Bob Dylan and Howlin’ Wolf, she began playing local farmers’ markets and bars, all the while attending community college and trying to decide upon her next move. That move meant first relocating to Los Angeles and then, deciding the “city of angels wasn’t right for me” moving across country to western Massachusetts.
In 2005 she settled in Boston, where she quickly threw herself into the vigorous local music scene. Later that year she made the audacious decision to release a live album for her debut; the self recorded Nowhere in No Time sold briskly at her shows, giving Jewell the money needed for her first studio effort. The critical response to 2006’s Boundary Country led to a deal with Signature Sounds with her first national release, Letters from Sinners & Strangers, coming out a year later.
Since then Jewell has released three more studio efforts, the newest being last years’ exquisite Queen of a Minor Key. Like the best of her music it inhabits a space between vintage country and the blues, with her straightforward but artful songs serving as an apt reminder that the history of those two styles are inextricably intertwined. It’s a loving tribute to Patsy Cline by way of Loretta Lynn. One can almost hear the late night laments of broken hearts and faithless men, told in hushed tones to the accompaniment of tinkling cocktail glasses with the scent of tobacco lingering.
Her quiet, insistent delivery carries the day while the songs themselves, all 14 of which she wrote, provide ample evidence to her growth as a songwriter and keen observer of human nature. Her crackerjack band conjures up variations of the honky tonk sound, each song given careful consideration. It’s a welcome respite to the bluster and overkill that dominates so much of contemporary music with songs that demand to be heard from the stage.
If You Go: Eilen Jewell at the Grey Eagle on Thursday, August 16. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 day or show for this all ages limited seating performance. Visit www.thegreyeagle.com for more information.
