Jewel Solo Acoustic Concert

FrankBlunt · Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 9:56 pm Post subject: Jewel Solo Acoustic Concert

Those of you who were following my "Gemini Thread" in the past few days know that I attended the Jewel concert in Jackson, CA on 11/18. She lives up to her reputation as a storyteller, and has a wonderful sense of humor. It goes without saying that her vocal range and technique are phenomenal.

At one point, she began her usual soulful singing and experienced an ADD moment in mid-verse, re-shelved her guitar, and asked, "Is it okay if I tell a story first?"

Her "meet and greet" accounts were hilarious. One was of a man hoping to meet her who had sent a video of himself completely nude, covered in vegetable shortening, singing "You Were Meant For Me" at half speed on his turntable. She watched the whole thing because it had that "Can't look away" auto accident quality to it. I should note that the man was not on his record player, revolving: point being that it simply was not a CD, hence lacking 45 and 72 settings.

Almost as strange was the man who put his arm around her and said it had always been his dream to get her into his chair. Her first thought was of him being creepy, and that he was using innuendo to refer to a love chair of some sort.

She then quoted him as saying, "No, don't struggle."

The quote was retracted, because he never said that, and as it happens he was a dentist. One of Jewel's trademarks is her crooked teeth, and she admitted how humbling the touring process can be based on events such as this.

I don't know if she responded in the way that she claimed in reality, but it was apparently the first time she'd ever told an obsessive fan, "Hey, sicko... Look down."

Jewel's height is such that all the men who ask to put their arms around her at the meet and greets manage to fit her head snuggly into their armpits, according to her testimony. The viscosity, as she described it, led to popping sensations when she finally broke the suction of the one-arm embraces. I know she was exaggerating, but the acting and sound effects on her part were classic.

She sang the "best song she'd ever written" for us, which was a polka about her having a stuffy, runny nose, and the willingness of the partner to share a cold with her. I have to agree with her that it's impossible not to improve your mood when a polka begins playing.

"Who Will Save Your Soul" is not a studio recording of which she was terribly proud, and feared that she sounded like Kermit the Frog. Her fears were realized when she heard it for the first time on the radio, between tunes by Nirvana and Soundgarden. Sleepy D.J., obviously. She openly mocked herself from that point in her career, and was spot-on with the Kermit impression.

The show ended with an encore, including an aria, "Over the rainbow," and some extremely rapid yodeling. She asked rhetorically if we wanted her to yodel faster, and before anyone could respond with applause or approval of any kind, she called us sickos and yodeled like an auctioneer mountaineer selling crackly gibberish.

I have no complaints whatsoever about Jewel's performance, stage presence, or song selections. An uninterrupted 2 1/2 hour solo acoustic concert is quite a gift, but I wish people had refrained from cheering and applauding at the high notes, because the point at which the sustained note wavered into vibrato was drowned on each occasion. Excellent show, though, and plenty of previously unrecorded material was introduced.

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