Alaskan frontier hippie songstress Jewel Kilcher

[quote]She was plastered across the media from the mid-late '90s and I think the over-exposure might have turned off some people—I know it did me.

It did me, too. I called her "Stool."

I think your Joyce Dewitt post is slightly less offensive

This was an astonishing surprise.

my associates and I despised her because she was oversaturated even before she became famous... and afterward, it was unbearable.. you couldn't even visit a small independent bookstore without running into her book of poetry.

she attracted the pumpkin spice latte crowd before there was a pumpkin spice latte crowd.

Very talented, mispronounced Yates on her Oprah interview, told stories about kidney infections whilst being homeless that made me cringe. Not mainstream or slutty enough to ingratiate herself with all the other tartlets.

R3 wow, an impressive rendition indeed. Girl has pipes.

some people liked to mellow out and, for them, jewel and - to a lesser degree of artistry - alannis provided them the music to do so

She's pretty good live. Better than I thought.

Only loved one of her songs.

R4 she has always seemed extremely shrewd and business-minded to me (she is very conscious about marketing herself and still is), which is odd for someone who has the artistic and musical talent that she has. Most people tend to be one or the other.

Her dance pop single “Intuition” is the only song that I half-way enjoyed.

She was one of those mixed-up white chicks Oprah always creamed for.

R8 I saw her live when I was in maybe 6th grade. I went with my parents. My dad has been a musician most of his life and is a hard sell, but even he was very impressed by her. I don't remember much of the concert, though I do recall her yodeling for the audience during the encore.

Some rumor her mother took a lot of money from her .

Didn't she have a sad story, living in the car with her mom or something? I don't blame her for whatever she did to make money after that.

Except for Dancing With the Stars, cheering on some county music guy (?) she married who competed. That's uncalled for.

Agree R4. That's an embarrassing treacly terrible song, but if you ignore that, her voice makes it a gorgeous thing.

There was one other sing, not a hit, that impressed me, too, but I don't recall the title offhand.,

"She was one of those mixed-up white chicks Oprah always creamed for."

In my defense, I creamed for a rainbow coalition of chicks. And also Doritos.

r5, how does mispronounce 'Yates'?

R15 she lived in her car in San Diego in her early 20s. I believe she went down there to reconnect with her mom from whom she had been estranged for some time (I think the mom ran off and left the family when Jewel was a child). Her mom turned out to be a viper who pocketed millions (according to Jewel) while being her "business manager". Her mom sounds like a cunt.

William Butler Yates. His last name is not pronounced so it rhymes with "EATS" . "ATES".

R20 his name is spelled "Yeats" and pronounced "Yates". I am assuming Jewel pronounced it "Yeets" in that interview.

I admittedly have no expertise in the French language, but her accent in that performance of "La Vie en Rose" sounds flawless to my ears

When I was in grad school her treacly grade school diary lyrics set to music always made me nauseated. That was a great time for talented women in music but she always felt like a snowflakey wannabe. Oh, and she's also a Joe Rogan-loving twat these days.

r22, she probably mispronounced the whole thing.

r9 you mean Steve Poltz.

[quote]She was one of those mixed-up white chicks Oprah always creamed for.

What am I - chopped liver?

I always felt Oprah was jealous of a lot of her guests.

r9 try 31

Wasn't her big thing yodeling?

Is it just me or have there been a lot of Jewel threads here recently?

Anyway, I quite like "Grateful", "Dancing Slow" and "Living in Your Memory" from her most recent album.

She bugs.

R31 she got a lot of coverage here because she was (controversially) on the Joe Rogan show earlier this year

Heard rumors that she developed an attitude once she became famous, and was then diva-ish. Just second-hand rumors, no concrete evidence. It happens to a lot of successful people.

[quote] My dad has been a musician most of his life and is a hard sell, but even he was very impressed by her.

She also has a large chest and blonde hair. Some straight men find her attractive.

Pines if You was one of the albums I retreated to almost nightly. I was 15 when it came out and my home life was absolutely dreadful. My mom was in the throws of psychosis constantly drinking and numbing herself with pills and when she wasn't she was screaming and hitting us kids. My dad's house was worse with my stepmom doing everything she could to make me unwelcome and my dad being completely disinterested in doing anything about it. I had the cassette and I would play it over and over on my Sony walkman and revel in each song. It wasn't long after that both my parents kicked me out and I was couch surfing with whomever would take me in while working at Little Caesars and going to school. She got me through that and kept me going and for that I'll always be a devoted fan. But that aside she makes a lot of music that I absolutely love. This Way is a pretty fun album and Even the pop album is one I enjoy just for the oddity but there are some very solid well produced pop songs that are just absolute ear candy.

Er Pieces of You. Oops.

Serenading DL fave Chris Isaak

My mom heard "I break the yolk and make the smiley face" and said, "What kind of song is *this*?" She said, "I can write a song like that."

I also like that there doesn't seem to be anything she won't try. I remember her Fisher Price lullaby albums being available at the listening station at Target for what felt like years.

r34 More like suburban soccer mom. . . Oh, no, I never did anything scandalous in my past, I never inhaled and no sex before marriage.

I remember her getting cast in Ang Lee's "Ride with the Devil" was a bit of a head-turner, but I thought she was actually pretty good in that movie. She reminded me of Michelle Williams a bit (minus the ice princess quality).

[quote] Her dance pop single “Intuition” is the only song that I half-way enjoyed.

Me too. For reasons.

Didn't Sean Penn help her get discovered?

R36 I've always thought the album closer on Pieces of You was hauntingly beautiful. It is a very good album.

I love Foolish Games

She never fixed her teefus.

Jewel lives in the same mental box in my head as Jann Arden. Though Jann is a lot more raw and less polished, which I like.

r48 the songress of compulsive eaters anonymous, fraus and unrequited wuv everywhere.

R13 what's with the yodelling, anyway? Is it an Alaskan thing?

R48: LOVE the Jann show on Hulu. Absolutely LOVE it.

Jewel(s)!

She's basically the American Joss Stone.

I took for granted the number of talented artists, and particularly female artists, we had in the ’90s. It was easy to knock them for things other than their music because there were so many of them and, back then, being at least somewhat talented was much more of a given than it it today.

r55 Joan Armtrading became a one hit wonder in the 90s but alas, she had much longer career... as did many others that broke the mainstream.

It was likely the shift to where it became far more common for television to sell a soundtrack and then, the sheer number of teen and young adult shows that included a "live" performance in-show as so many had coffee houses they visited.

Even Sesame Street went into overdrive, despite alway having musical guests, for some reason they were more revered in this period, too...

I remember some people obliquely associating her with Christian music because she made a reference to God in "Hands", which is hilarious given the scathing lyrics in a song like "Amen" ("Such an injustice, as children we are told that from God we fell") which are enough to send any church frau into cardiac arrest.

It appears she is a friend to the gays

Does she have “an” OnlyFans?

she used to be one of my girl crushes. She was also one of the only Lilith Fair crew I could tolerate musically (and of course Fiona Apple)

r57 She send out mixed signals herself. pre-fame she was just another panhandling bohemian trailer trash street urchin that played anywhere with an open door and acted like she didn't have any of the opportunities, education or connections she did...

post fame, she seemed split between trying to be a bit of everything. .. sad girl, mysterious girl, riot grrl, lilith goil, with the same blank blank stare with the slightly smiling-frowning expression...

A few years later, it was Taylor Swift-light, frau next door...

a few years later reality star wannabe...

and now, it's what is wrong with her face category of nostalgia.

^ Now that think back on it. . . that was her entire schtick when she was slumming around S.D. it was the homeless, down on her luck, hobo with a heart of gold, untrained and unaware of her "own" talent...

she was just a few years shy of music reality shows that employed those kind of exaggerated backstories.

Maybe those of us that couldn't stand her were just unconsciously aware... than her just being an obnoxious twat that seemed too dumb to live.

This is my favorite song of hers. You'll know why after you listen to it.

She did a good job on The Wizard of Oz filmed 90s concert. A friend at Turner got me the DVD- last time I checked it was on YouTube. With Jackson Browne, Nathan Lane and many others. Worth a watch.

R60 that is an indicator of good taste IMO

We are getting tan in America.

We love Spam in America. . Polanski's banned from America.

R66 that record has its share of fans (and it's actually a decent pop album), but it is a true wildcard when you stack it against her previous work. If I remember right, she alluded to the notion that she made it as some quasi-meta commentary on pop music, but that doesn't make sense to me.

She once told a story about being on one of the late night shows along with James Carville and when they were backstage, he kept staring at her tits and she yelled at him

She married a rodeo star R15, not a musician, but they got divorced quite awhile ago. I always thought it was a weird pairing. He's fug and quite goofy looking. Their son fortunately got more of his mother's features.

I'm not even saying this to be a cunt but her husband looks like he has mild Down Syndrome. Probably just a bad photo though. He's a cruel cunt involved in rodeos though so fuck him entirely for that.

Chris isaak had a talk show?

Yes, it was one musician for the entire show. Not many episodes.

A song for DL. ❤

This was my favorite thing she ever did

The resident DL elberlez comes back out of the closet yet again

I will always love Foolish Games and Standing Still.

I still hear this song regularly. It has. always connected, particularly the line , “AmI standing still with the scenery flying by?” It makes me think of the old movies where people in a car would appear moving by having a rolling background scenery scrolling.

You say he's a faggot, does it make you want to hurt him? You say he's a faggot, do you want to kick in his brains? You say he's a faggot, does he make you sick to your stomach? You say he's a faggot, are you afraid you're just the same? Faggot, faggot Do you hate him 'cause he's pieces of you?

These lyrics made some of us queens uncomfortable

She’s unique and talented, but it’s her self-satisfaction that’s annoying. She has smug Frau soccer mom vibes now.

The art direction on her debut is beautiful and iconic, back when there was still some thought going into it and not just a busted version of a Vanity Fair photo with the name and title in a huge, clunky font.

R73 that song is actually really sad, she wrote it about an overweight kid she went to school with who killed himself

I saw her live this summer opening for Train. Train should have opened for her. She was always soulful but she's matured into somebody who can really put a song across, like she's lived it. You felt swept up. Her yodeling sounded like some kind of otherworldy, Aeolian harp. Serious pipes.

R80 agreed, I've always thought all the photos in the liner notes of that album were gorgeous. There are outtakes of them floating around on the internet as well. She reminded me of a fuller-faced Renee Zellweger.

She's always been okay with me. I never really got into her music and while I was obviously aware of her being everywhere, I never engaged with it much. She seems like a decent person.

I caught her on Rogan's podcast and, as smart as she came off, something about the story of her life felt off and didn't seem to hang together logically. It bugged me enough that I spent some time afterwards researching her bio. I dunno, it reminded me (this will seem odd) of the Theranos story when everyone was celebrating it in the media before the fraud allegations came out ... and in my gut I felt, this just doesn't make sense. I felt that way during her interview.

R82 I'd like to see her live these days. I don't doubt the shows are excellent. I watched this concert of hers on YouTube awhile back—just her and her guitar onstage for over TWO hours, and it is completely captivating. Even among the greats, there really aren't that many musicians who are able to pull that off.

Oops, this is the concert I was referring to:

[quote]Even among the greats, there really aren't that many musicians who are able to pull that off.

R86 I'm thinking maybe Celine Dion. But yeah, not many others have that kind of depth, intensity and voice.

R88 Celine is a powerhouse for sure. Some people were just born to be performers. Jewel is in that camp. She seems completely at home onstage, and her performances are always effortless. I suppose part of this is due to the fact that she performed with her dad from a very young age, so it's always been a part of her life.

Here are Jewel and Jessica Simpson singing Who Will Save Your Soul. I think Jessica was a fan of Jewel. Jessica got really into the song, almost to a comical degree, but I admire her earnestness and love for the song.

Whos a better songwriter, Jewel or Stevie Nicks?

Who's*

Jewel and Kelly Clarkson singing Foolish Games. Jewel looking like she's had facial procedures.

Here she is singing Foolish Games, this summer in Toronto. Not the concert I saw, but similar to how she sounded...

I could never stand her voice. She’s a bit overrated.

R94 Jesus Christ! Her voice sounds great, the same… but she looks like she skinned the couch from Roseanne to make a tunic and she’s adopted that upscale California heroin junkie cowboy chic look

She often stretches her voice too far and it sounds strained. She's a great singer with a powerful voice but when she tries to belt it's painful.

LOL R74, I forgot about that. Loder is correct, but he was being a tad annoying. I think Jewel was probably mostly self-taught/an autodidact when it came to writing and literature, so those kinds of mistakes are bound to happen. I give her a break on that.

R85 I do agree that there is something odd about her life story. She has been telling the same anecdotes for 20 years (living in her car, teaching herself philosophical “anti-anxiety” brain training methods, etc) in a way that it almost feels rehearsed. It is strange because in most other ways, she seems pretty genuine. She has the mind of a businessperson for sure, as she tries to monetize all the different ventures she takes (I remember a few years ago she was pimping out her “mindfulness” exercises and trying to incorporate them into big company work settings, which was just weird—she also has a jewelry line). Despite this, I like her and recognize her as a legitimate musical talent.

I wouldn't be surprised if she lied about it, no. So many do.

Pieces Of You (the song) was well-intentioned but played into the idea that homophobes are closet gays - it’s an underhand way of exonerating all straight people, so straight people tend to seize on it; it’s their favourite explanation for homophobia.

she fucked Sean Penn so she probably has herpes.