Eilen Jewel
2/8/14
Southgate House Revival, 111 E 6th St, Newport, KY
7:30pm doors, 8:30pm show
$15 adv, $18 dos, Buy Tickets
Eilen Jewell is the queen of the minor key. Sad songs are her wealth and finery. The Idaho native’s unique originals feature a blend of influences from early blues, rockabilly and surf-noir, to 1960s era rock and roll. The Los Angeles Daily News wrote, “Sometimes as darkly damaged as Lucinda Williams, at others as defiant and teasing as prime Peggy Lee and always authentically Americana in the Gillian Welch tradition…. She’s mighty good.” The Word in the UK described Jewell as “A voice of real distinction [that] manages to transcend some powerful influences and pierce the fog long enough for her own point of view to emerge.” Jewell and her band tour relentlessly, regularly selling out venues around the world. Their tour dates span from North America to Western Europe, New Zealand and Australia. She has shared the stage with Lucinda Williams, Mavis Staples, George Jones, Emmylou Harris, Blind Boys of Alabama, Chris Smither, and Junior Brown. Eilen’s music has been heard on NPR, XM-Sirius, and the BBC. She has also received airplay in Canada, Australia, Spain, Holland, and Germany. TV shows Sons of Anarchy and True Blood have featured Eilen’s music as well as commercials such as T-Mobile’s Fast Songs national TV campaign. Hollywood stars (Tom Hanks in Entertainment Weekly) to heads of state (British Prime Minister David Cameron in Britain’s Telegraph) have praised Eilen’s music in the press.
Queen of the Minor Key, Jewell’s fourth album was released in June, 2011. Queen landed the #14 spot on the Billboard Folk chart and was met with a staggering number of shining reviews upon its release, cementing Jewell’s reputation as a roots star. Born out of a mountain retreat in Idaho, it is Jewell’s most seamless album to date- a perfect blend of rockabilly, surf-tinged country, blues, and folk, coupled with Jewell’s razor-sharp songwriting and elegiac vocals: “An undiscovered gem…a layered, shimmering pearl of an album that shines like cut crystal” (American Songwriter). Jewell is currently recording her fifth, full-length, solo album with her long-time road band of Jerry G. Miller (named instrumentalist of the year the past two years in a row), husband and drummer Jason Beek, and slapping upright bass player Johnny Sciascia. She currently resides in her hometown of Boise, ID.
