Gray, S. (1998). Heartsong: The story of jewel. New York: Ballantine.

OVERVIEW

In addition to the book review, there is also information below included from Internet entries and Entertainment Weekly.

Women are moving into greater prominence in the pop music scene, and girls are becoming a primary target for their products. The needs/wants of this teenage female market seems to be what one writer (Ann Powers, Spin, November, 1997) describes as "their own desires, ambitions, and identities." Many of us see also an idealistic streak in young women and men today.

Alanis Morissette and Jewel, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Erykah Badu are noted messengers of female dreams and aspirations. Young newcomers who have hit platinum (selling a million copies) include Fiona Apple, the Spice Girls, No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani, Erykah Badu, and Jewel.

Alanis and Gwen are slightly more alternative, high-energy, and have with a slightly different message than Jewel. Fiona is more soulful and jazz/bluesy, reminiscent of Nina Simone and Ella Fitzgerald, and the Spice Girls are most specifically focused towards adolescent girls, and perhaps teeny-bop.

Jewel Kilcher was born in Payson, Utah to Atz and Lenedra Kilcher in 1974. As an infant, she was taken to a new family homestead (left to Atz by his father) of 800 acres eleven miles east of Homer, Alaska on the southwestern Kenai Peninsula. Jewel was raised as a Mormon by her father from whom she also developed her great love for nature and a strong and hard work ethic. Her mother gave her a love for, and ability in, poetry and the arts. Her young life was challenging but idyllic throughout its first eight years. The Kilchers performed as a family singing act in dinner shows at tourist hotels during these years. Jewel’s first public solo came at age of six.

Then her mother left the family to find herself, learn, and grow. " ‘It was like being put under water. Leaving your mom on a street corner while you drive away in the back of a car is just...brutal. And my dad at that time was out to lunch, bless his heart,’ " Jewel remembers. (Gray, 1998, pp. 16-17)

For a while Jewel and her dad traveled as a father-daughter team. She gained experience singing a variety of music: folk, country, pop, and blues. Against her father’s fear of ruining her young voice, she learned to yodel as well. And she was beginning to learn from great women like Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Yma Sumac, and Late Bush.

She also watched both parents date and became aware of sex at an early age (in hotel and bar scenes). She witnessed what happens when sex and alcohol are mixed. It is not clear what she actually experienced or how she may have been hurt. It is clear that lessons were learned.

In her early teens Jewel often dressed in 40s style, sang in a rap group, whose African-American leader became her boyfriend. And she was informally adopted into a Native American family at a powwow. This experience may express a life-theme of speaking from the heart:

‘(A Native American family) took me out to a meadow and said, "Your life in the future will call for you to speak honestly to people. You don’t now how to speak from your heart, and you need to learn how." I was crying because I couldn’t say anything sincere’ (p. 2).

At about the age of fifteen she spent a few months with her aunt in Hawaii, but wasn’t accepted well by the older and bigger Samoan kids and soon came back to live, this time with her mother in Anchorage.

Jewel is dyslexic, very bright, but not a high achiever in school. She became excited about a very exclusive high school in Michigan (Interlochen Fine Arts Academy) and spent her last two years of high school there. A scholarship, her first solo, public gig, and part-time jobs paid her way through. One of her teachers commented, " ‘She knew where she was going. Actually, she acted like one of our peers.’ " Jewel, who was one of the 5 percent of Interlochen graduates who don’t go on to college, ironically became its most famous alum. (pp. 26-27)

After high school Jewel joined her mother and brother in San Diego. Despite a variety of jobs, they could not keep up with the house rent. Jewel couldn’t stand jobs like waitressing, and this became one of the low points of her life. Younger brother, Atz, went back to live with his father in Homer, while Jewel and her mother borrowed money to buy vans. Living on peanut butter and carrots she spent her days with her guitar and writing poetry. She became closer than ever to her mother. Through Steve Poltz (long time friend and one time boy friend) at a coffee house called Java Joe’s, Jewel found her own gig at Innerchange coffee place. From a disappointing first night of six, she gradually built a growing audience paying $3.00 each.

Burgeoning crowds jacked the price up to $5.00, and a second show was added. A&R men and record executives, hearing of this new talent, began driving down from Los Angeles. She was signed by Atlantic Records (later with Mercury) and a strategy was developed, by Inga Vainshtein, co-manager with her mother, and her Atlantic A&R rep, Jenny Price. The plan was to put Jewel out on the road meeting the public (to fly into a strategic city, play a high school during the day, open for a larger act in early evening, and then on to a bar or coffee house in the wee hours). But first she needed an official CD. This was mostly recorded live at the Innerchange where Jewel felt most at home.

Jewel’s three-year rise to the top was phenomenal. Her ground-breaking album, "Pieces of You" was released February 28, 1995. It took off slowly; two months after its release, it sold only 700 units nationwide in one week. To Rolling Stone, Jewel said, " ‘When I sold 8,000 records in one week, I remember crying on the kitchen floor, thanking God that I might never have to waitress or live in my car again.’ "

In the final week of April, 1996, "Pieces of You" sold 22,000 copies. By August, 1996, the album had gone Platinum. It remained on Billboard’s chart of top CDs for 100 weeks. Globally, "Pieces of You" has done extraordinarily well as the following shows:

Sales of "Pieces of You" have been declared Gold in Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Norway, and Spain. In September, 1997, Jewel visited Taipei, Taiwan, Osaka and Tokyo. "It was a mutual love affair between Jewel and the audiences of the Far East" (p. 154).

Jewel was chosen to sing the national anthem at San Diego’s SuperBowl XXXII in January, 1998. Perhaps a pinnacle of success was the way she took audiences at Lilith Fair in the summer of 1997.

Jewel’s fans rave about her voice, her attitude and style, her lyrics, and the way she captivates and works an audience. Los Angeles Times writer, John Matsumoto, wrote, " ‘On her debut album, "Pieces of You," singer-songwriter Jewel challenges listeners with darkly shaded acoustic material that is lyrically complex and compassionately executed...’ " Time Out magazine goes on: "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" (p. 57). With characteristic humility, Jewel herself says: " ‘I don’t think it is a great album...But it’s got a lot of heart.’ "

About her voice, this author writes:

She manipulates chromatic shapes by altering the stresses and accents in her vocal lines. Jewel’s voice can be husky and throaty in midrange, crystal clear in the upper registers. She speeds up and slows down at will and to great effect.

A review in Us magazine raves, ‘When she sings, her voice doesn’t just follow the melody in a straight line but dips and soars all around it like an acrobat falling through the air, then somersaulting, then flying upward.’ Her vocal control is phenomenal, and her phrasing is vibrant and complex. Jewel will whisper, whoop, twang, and deliver a sexy alto in the course of a single song. And don’t forget the wild card in Jewel’s deck of skills—she can yodel! (p. 129)

Like a stage actor—an area where Jewel has some experience—she doesn’t just recite words, she feels them in her bones and can communicate those feelings to an audience...She’s able to evoke every conceivable emotion simply by varying the pitch and cadence of her singing. You can feel the sorrow and frustration in "Adrian," the giddy elation in "Morning Song," the disgust in "Pieces of You" and "Daddy," the heartbreak in "Foolish Games" (p. 128).

"Pieces of You" does exude worldly realities and deep personal responses. Jewel turns from the gross materialism of the world around her as well as from the self complaining, cynical anger of previous music. When put down for her positive and idealistic simplification of life by New York critics she replied, " ‘Cynicism isn’t smarter; it’s only safer. There’s nothing fluffy about optimism. It’s just a matter of people being more fulfilled and more whole as human beings...I think some of them (critics negative about her positive message) are working out their lives on paper. They’re bummed about their life and (the music) reminds them of something’ " (p. 90).

So what are Jewel’s lyrics about?

‘Who Will Save Your Soul’ (written when she was 17) is an indictment of modern urban life and an open challenge for listeners to take responsibility for their own salvation, rat her than looking to outside sources.

‘Pieces of You’ is an unflinching indictment of bigotry and hatred in general.

‘Little Sister’ (Jewel doesn’t have a sister; the words refer to a friend’s younger brother whose life was drugs and TV) deals with all forms of addiction and the starvation of the soul that goes with them.

‘Near You Always’ embodies the fear and desire that come with putting your heart in another person’s control. ‘Your hands are in my hair, but my heart is in your teeth.’

‘Painters’ about the feelings of an elderly woman whose husband has passed away...the possibility of immortality through art and the interweaving of beauty and art in everyday life.

‘Morning Song’ describes a happy couple enjoying a morning together with a playful sexy line.

‘Adrian’ is about a boy who suffers severe brain damage in a canoe accident and the friend who remains loyal to his memory.

‘I’m Sensitive’ expresses Jewel’s belief that if people are surrounded by beauty, they become beautiful. The line, ‘We are everyday angels’ has inspired Jewel’s fans to call themselves The Everyday Angels.

‘Daddy’ says this is not about her father but a fierce look at the effects of past child abuse on a sensitive young adult. Elsewhere she alludes to rocky times between her father and her.

‘Amen’ delves into the price of fame, the death of idols, and the hopelessness felt by many fans after Kurt Cobain’s suicide. (pp. 57-67)

Many considerations of Jewel note her spirituality. You catch some of her spiritual background in the Mormon religion, Native American and other cultures, in nature, and through good, bad, and growing relationships you’ve read so far. Here are some more of Jewel’s thoughts:

‘You really have to stay focused and dedicated to what you’re doing and always stay joyful and thankful. Otherwise it’s very easy to become over exhausted and begin taking things for granted.’

‘I don’t really think any one of us is truly alone...I think by nature we’re good.’

Certainly Jewel exhibits a deep faith in herself...with a little help from her angels...whether they are spiritual beings or especially helpful companions. She learned early to avoid the excesses of alcohol and drugs. This is a story of a great deal of experience, learning, and achievement packed into the first, short chapters of a life. It is certainly a story of a great communicator.

Her album called simply, "Spirit," came out in November, 1998. In its title and content is a significant reflection of the youthful spirituality in the late 1990s.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

(Other suggestions for discussions: deal with the lyrics of a specific song; ask what the message is. What does this indicate about Jewel? Do you agree/disagree...also in this web savvy era, perhaps you could surf through some of the web pages and gage the fan responses etc...)

1. How well do you know, and how well do you like, the music of Jewel?
2. How effective is this brief introduction to Jewel and her music? What bothers you or impresses you most in this article?
3. What song of Jewel’s would you like to discuss? What do you see as its message? What does it indicate about Jewel? Do you agree or disagree with the message of this song?
4. What do you think of the statement on the cover of "Pieces of You"? "What we call human nature is actually human habit?" How do you see Jewel’s faith, her spirituality, and her philosophy of life?
5. How did Jewel Kilcher rise to fame? Does this story rebuff the claim of some that the music industry simply manufactures its stars and that older men write songs for women to sing to kids for big profits? How does the system really work, and how do you see the balance between art and commerce, popular needs and the products of the music industry?
6. How are we to enjoy and critique popular art such as Jewel’s? How can we help teenagers be better music critics and interpreters of the popular arts?
7. Why do you think Jewel has struck such a cord in fans across ethnic, national, and age boundaries?

IMPLICATIONS

• Popular music is a main current of youth culture and an important factor in globalization. Twenty years ago (from 1998) a four-year-old girl was out with her father exploring a rural homestead in Alaska—and learning to sing with her family. Now kids in Europe, Asia, the Americas, and around the world feel they know her personally. It is important to understand this phenomenon.
• As an entertainer, Jewel is a powerful communicator. Both her communication skills and her message are important for those who would understand and communicate with young people today.

Dean Borgman cCYS