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Writer and editor Home > Blogs > Brain Droppings > Archives > 2008 > June > 09 > Entry
Jewel goes pure country on new CD
Hey, y’all, here’s the disc du jour:
Jewel
PERFECTLY CLEAR
So, why the heck shouldn’t Jewel recast herself as a country singer?
A few crabby critics have picked on her for going all twangy and pure country on “Perfectly Clear,” but one could argue it’s a natural enough call on her part.
She’s already done nearly everything else: folk, folk-rock, Americana, country-rock, pure pop, dance tracks, straightforward rock songs — in fact, she seems to have been beating around the country bush for a while now. Plus, she’s blonde — that seems to be a pre-requisite for women singers in Nashville these days.
But seriously, Jewel looked right at home at the recent CMA Music Festival, and she sounds good surrounded by fiddles, dulcimers and steel. If she’s able to become the latest city mouse to move out to the country, she brings along plenty of what she needs to make it work.
When her voice drops into its feathery hush, it sounds like recent-vintage Dolly Parton (not a bad thing). And when she brings out the tried-and-true yodeling that she’s been doing since she was a kid, as she does on “Loved By You (Cowboy Waltz),” you know you won’t be mistaking her for anybody else on country radio these days — because yes, they can all sound alike sometimes.
Jewel does more of her own songwriting than a lot of other country singers, and she turns out to be a fair hand at penning a good three-hanky weeper. In fact, the precise turns of phrase and mature observations she brings to the title tune are more than a little smarter than what we usually hear from a lot of her new peers. Is that perfectly clear? If not, it will be soon enough.
Grade: B+
iPod picks: “Perfectly Clear,” “Stronger Woman,” “Anyone But You.”
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