Blog posts

• 

  May 23, 11:51 AM

  Emergency Landings & Birthdays

  Hi everyone! It’s been an eventful week!! The ACM's were fun in Las Vegas (the red carpet was so hot! Over 100 degrees! ) - and I got to get up and sing with John Rich at an after party he hosted which was a lot of fun! I didn’t want to stay out late though, since I had to fly early the next morning to LA for press about my album launch.
  
  Well rest would not prepare me for what was about to happen! After about 30 min of flying, the stewardess starts running around frantically and bells start ringing and the pilot comes on and says we need to make an emergency landing in Ontario – about an hour away from LA! So everyone takes their seats and we land ASAP! They ran tests on the ground while they kept us on the plane for an hour - it was over 100 degress on the plane - and the pilot came on finally and said they made the right decision to land, as the tests confirmed some sort of major electrical/fuel problem! So glad we landed!!! They said we would all have to wait 2 hours for a bus to come and drive us to LA airport. Of course I was now hopelessly late for the TV appearances I was to film, and so my tour manager and I were trying to find a rental car - which we did finally, and with no food we raced our four cylinder car to where the interviews were taking place. Pretty wild!
  
  After LA, I went to Nashville to film my second video for the next single “I Do” - it was so fun to film!! It’s not like any of my other videos - there are hot rods and car racing and it was so much fun!!! I think you guys will really like it! After the video, my manager Virginia and my friend Jessica and Amy and Ty all took me to a place for birthday cake and presents (a surprise!) Virginia was so thoughtful to track down my Rolling Stone covers and frame them for me! Can you believe I have never kept a single magazine cover or gold album or anything in my whole career?! Its so sad! It was so sweet of her to track them down and give them to me. (She got them on eBay from a fan who probably had no idea he was selling to me...)
  
  Now I’m on a plane headed back home - hopefully with no surprise landings! - to have my real birthday at the ranch, and I’m so ready to be home. It will be the last time I’m home until August I think! Nashville Star, my album release, and the tour all start soon!
  
  Anyways, I hope you guys are all good and happy!! Talk soon, and SAFE TRAVELS!!!
• 

  May 21, 08:45 AM

  Come to Texas with Jewel!

  Jewel’s PERFECTLY CLEAR Getaway
  Live From The Heart Of Texas
  May 29-30, 2008
  
  Jewel has come full circle musically. Come home with Jewel to Stephenville, TX, in the heart of the Lone Star state, and experience a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with the singer of country music’s fastest-climbing debut hit of 2008!
  
  One lucky winner and a guest will have the chance to see first-hand what it is like to be part of a major label album release, all the while, experiencing one of the most rejuvenating spots in America – Stephenville, TX – in the heart of the Lone Star state!
  
  You will get the chance to:
  Meet Jewel and get autographs and photos
  Be part of an exclusive listening party
  Witness a campfire concert performance from Jewel
  Interview Jewel for her online outlets (JewelJK.com, Facebook, MySpace, etc.)
  Be part of Jewel’s LIVE album premiere special
  
  For your chance to win, visit http://www.thevalorymusicco.com/jewel and sign up! Must be 21 or older to enter.
• 

  May 07, 12:49 PM

  Are you a "Stronger Woman?"

  

  Jewel wants to hear your stories of being a STRONGER WOMAN!

  Click here to share your stories!

   
• 

  Mar 14, 09:14 AM

  Tour, Album & More

  Hi! Sorry I haven't written in a while...I have been in Nashville at Country Radio Seminar - pretty fun...lots of work though! At the seminar it was announced that I will be touring with Brad Paisley. If you don't already know his stuff, he's great! He is a throw back to the old school type of artist who writes, sings, and plays great - and in his case, he really plays GREAT! Maybe he will give me a few guitar pointers! I just gotta start playing a little lead guitar - there's no excuse besides pure laziness on my part! I know alot of you would rather see me solo acoustic in a theatre rather than with a band before Brad, but I promised myself I would invest in my career, and reach out to new fans, and keep building my career - so this will be good for me, and alot of fun hopefully along the way. Brad is really a nice guy, and I think you will appriciate his talent and musicianship. I'm excited for my fans to get to know him, and for his fans to get to know me.
  
  I can recomend two great songs of Brad's that you may like - one is called "Letter To Me", which is on the radio now, and is really good. My favorite song of Brad's is "Waiting on a Woman" - actually, a friend of mine, Wynn Varbil, helped write that song. It's really a great song - wish I wrote it! I'm gonna post a video blog with me and Wynn. An interesting side note: Wynn also wrote a song with me on my album called "Anyone But You." I know him from the bull riding circuit - he's friends with Justin McBride, the current PBR champ.

  What else...Oh - I finally finished my album! I picked the sequence of the songs, and polished it all up - can't wait for you guys to hear it! I'm pretty proud...this is the first album I have produced almost entirely alone, so it was pretty fun to see the whole thing through. John Rich (of Big & Rich) was with me for the band tracking and he was amazing. It definitely wouldn't have come out as good without him there. But after that two days, I've been on my own - and what a rush to record the vocals, and harmonies, and overdubs and mix it and weed through parts and arrange the songs, and simplify and refine the tracks,  and everything...it feels good not to have to go through everyone else to get my music across. The album is named PERFECTLY CLEAR and will be out in stores on June 3!
  
  I'm flying to NYC today for a show tonight - a private show, an industry thing for retailers who help get my albums in stores...then I go to San Diego to do a charity show, (for St. Jude's hospital) then to Calgary for another charity show...(Another children's hospital) then back to TX for a few days.

  Oh! Did you guys see the video on Perez Hilton's site? I was too chicken to go look at it cause everyone is so snarky, and I have thin skin! Perez is a friend actually - he saw me sing in Miami years ago in a tiny club- back when i was about 19 or so - and he still has the ticket stub. I know we seem like odd friends, but he really loves true music, and hates fake posers...and I guess he's made a living at it! His music taste is pretty amazing, and he's always turning me on to new bands and singers, and I was flattered he wanted to debut the video (he gets like 2.5 million hits a day!) But I told him I was too afraid to watch! But hopefully you guys got to see it, and if not, they will start playing it on CMT and GAC this week...lemme know what you think!
  
  I haven't been bringing my computer out with me the last few runs, so it's been hard to catch up on how you all are doing, but I will set time aside this weekend...and post a new drawing soon, and a new "short story/prose type thingie" soon, too. Thank you for requesting "Stronger Woman" at your local radio station! Until then take care, xxJewel
• 

  Mar 10, 08:38 AM

  Cinnabuns

  I’m sitting in an airport - leaving Las Vegas. I stepped off of the tram at the D terminal, only to be met with a considerable foe, whose menacing presence could be sensed in the air...the hairs on the back of my neck bristled – I sensed it all around me. Oh that Devil that delivers itself on a cloud of cinnamon could be detected with rich ribbons of buttery icing, winding through the cavernous halls like a sugar-coated serpent. I walked slowly, with careful purpose and peered tentatively, like any prey animal, wary of the encroaching danger. I branched off to the left for gate D11, and as I turned the corner suddenly my adversary was interrupting the successful completion of my travel. Big white sign, back lit as if by angels breath, soft blue shadowing around each letter - a somewhat precious little swirl to emphasize what the heavenly scent was already driving home. The source of all this temptation was radiating warmth and warm-fuzzy moments for all road-weary travelers: CINNABUN.
  
  I squared my shoulders, and as if into a stiff wind, I braced myself against the temptation of the gooey goodness and carried myself on - "10 gates to go and I will be safe" I thought to myself, genuinely shocked I was able to pull my screaming flesh past this universal bosom of warm yumminess. I must admit - I was rather impressed with myself! "Yeah, thats right! I am the master of my self! I walk these legs - these legs DON’T walk me! I am made of iron! I am a ROCK!" But what’s this?! Just as I was getting a bit cocky, I saw before me a food court oasis by D6...a Starbucks...and a smaller Cinnabun...like a wounded animal I circled the food court, sickly...weakly...sensing the inevitable defeat my will power dissolved like Icarus's wings the nearer I got to the radiating warmth of that oven. Soon, I stood before my own personal sun, defeated. With a small voice I ordered a pecan sticky bun with extra icing. The nice man behind the counter rang me up, and questioned "Did u say extra icing?" A bit trapped feeling, I answered tersely "Yes” and I stared him down defiantly as he handed me my change, before I scurried off to find my gate and a dark corner in which I could succumb fully to my carnal desires....Yum! Yes yes yes! Oh! Worth every empty calorie! My tummy strained against the burden of so much dough swelling to maximum capacity, warning me to stop half way through- but fear not! I am not defeated so easily, and I spurred myself on. "You wanted this, and your gonna get it." All at once it became a treat and a punishment - intertwined and swirled together, a Jacob’s ladder that stretched infinitely in two directions straight to heaven and plunging to hell. Fitting, I mused- we are always in between these two things, it seems...and I resigned myself to experiencing both with each bite. A bit melodramatic? Yes, surely, but I am prone to such fits, and have simply grown used to this activity in my brain- I watch it amusedly, like a play that I put on for myself - acting each part out in my mind - my imagination the Ultimate Puppeteer.
  
  I remember when I was young- I had to be 5 I’d imagine- I was sitting in LDS church on a bench, next to my parents. I was quite excited about the dress I had chosen for myself that day. It had lace. I was quite a fan of lace. And it had a green turtle ironed on front, that was looking back over its shoulder with a look that was humorous and shy...yes, it was quite a bold thing to combine lace with a shy turtle, but it worked somehow, and I absolutely loved to wear it. The thick itchy tights however, I was not a fan of. Hated them. The uncomfortable elastic band had to seriously strain to tame my little girl pot-belly. I had quite a kid pot-belly. And I hated those damn tights. I’d scratch and itch my calves constantly during the whole service - lots of adult talk about things I tried to gasp, but it was words mostly, abstract and droning. But just when I thought I couldn’t take anymore inside the prison of my tights, and I contemplated squirming off the pew to run madly toward the restroom to rid myself of the medieval garment, the whole service changed. The 8 year old Sunday school class of "Sunny Bees" began to march in a single file down the isles and head up to the stage. To a 5 year old, the 8 year olds were an impressive sight. With solemn purpose, the whole class assumed rehearsed positions on the stage. They were putting a play on - the point of which I don’t recall. What I remember impressing me was how each of them were 8, and so to distinguish their roles and to make each character clear, they used simple props. The "father" wore a tie. The "mother" wore pearls and rouge and a miniaturized yet grown-up pants suit. The boss sat behind a cardboard desk and barked orders. They were all only 8, and yet they assumed these rolls with the use of simple cues and props. It flat out freaked me the hell out. Everyone was play-acting. I had an existential breakdown, I think. Suddenly, I could not tell the difference between that play and real life. I looked over at my parents suspiciously. My mom wore a purple polyester pants suit. My dad had a waxed handle bar mustache that he groomed carefully each morning. Holy cow! What if life was all play-acting! What if everyone in the world put on clothes and assumed roles they had no idea how to fill, and so they just play- acted through life! My mom felt absent so often. There was no fooling me about it. There was a silent terror that emanated from her all the time. As if she were in a dream, I watched her go through her life as if she were faking it. She looked at us 3 children and knew the warmth she should feel, and she tried to project that warmth, and she tried to be a good Mormon home-maker, and she went through the motions, but kids are smart, and they sense things, sense phoney-ness- and it wasn’t lost on me, even if I couldn’t exactly put my finger on it at that age. And my dad - I could sense the strain. I could sense the routine. I could sense the terror of a man who still felt like a kid, but who was now raising kids. Like he kept walking down a road or a path he felt he should walk down, but he was terrified he didn’t really know what he was doing, or how to do it exactly, or if he would fail or be good at it. There was always a cheerful tension in the house- two people that were desperately trying to be a perfect family, but the strain and gravity of their own broken childhoods was unresolved and pulling them apart. It was pulling the family apart. Violent out bursts and screaming behind doors could be heard. Us kids would become overly animated and cute to relieve the tension at dinner. Bitter smiles and icy cordial conversation was put on for us kids, a brave face my parents wore - but they were like frightening masks worn at a ball, which hid the truth behind them. I was only 5, and the divorce was still 3 years away, and it would be years before I could fully understand the history of these two people who were my parents, that would allow me the perspective needed to understand the complexities of the times they were facing. It turns out my parents really were just scared kids, who were having kids. And they were good people, but they were bound to the scars of their own youth, and so much healing could not be avoided, and that healing would demand the most of them ultimately, and us kids would journey down the path with them as they discovered themselves, and lost themselves in turns- until ultimately us kids grew up and began the process ourselves. That, however, was far in the future. For now I was 5, sitting on a church pew, learning about heaven and hell in the Mormon church, and i was having an existential melt down. I saw those kids on stage play-acting, and I sensed my parents were play acting through their lives in some way - and it terrified me. All of a sudden, I couldn’t tell the difference between my parents and me. Who was in charge here?! What if we all were the same, just in different clothes and different bodies, and what if the only thing that defined our roles were arbitrary things like mustaches and skirts! I felt dizzy and sick. I looked around the faces of the congregation and I couldn’t tell where the play on the stage started and where the play in the audience ended. What made the Deacon any different than Brother James who was sitting in the front row? Who assigned him that role and gave him the robes? It just all seemed so surreal and creepy all of a sudden. So random. I suddenly felt forced out of time and I couldn’t get back in.
  
  We left church and went to my brother Shane’s soccer practice. All those kids, in the same white uniforms with red trim chasing a white ball with black spots with parents cheering madly. I tight-rope walked along a low wooden banister- arms stretched out, face in stern concentration, my patent leather white dress shoes slipping here and there on the wood which was worn smooth and slick from so many other children doing the same thing, I suppose. Here I am "I thought" doing what 5 year olds do. And there is Shane, doing what 8 year olds do. And there’s the coach, doing what coaches do. And we are all pretending.  I don’t think I was ever the same after that. I know it sounds really weird, but whenever the teacher in class talked to me, I saw her like an 8 year old that was dressed up in teachers’ clothing. And there has always been a part of myself, watching myself- watching everyone in a detached way, from some other vantage point. Seeing myself in everyone. Seeing everyone else in me. Fascinated with the roles we all play. How some of us are playing roles we don’t realize were put on us. How we forget we can change rolls if we are unhappy. With some effort we can recast ourselves, if we like. Switch jobs. Switch behaviors and habits. What started as a scary experience turned out to be a great comfort to me through the years. As I faced many challenges, I would train myself to handle them in a way. I would study on what was needed and I would adapt. I would focus hard and work hard and I would be ok - I would keep redefining myself as life required, keep building on the theme...it’s been a wild ride -like when I was living in my car - and I would be overcome with fits of panic. I would pretend there was a switch in my head, and I would tell myself it wasn’t fear I felt - it was excitement...it was like the nervous butterflies you feel before you go on stage to sing or play your biggest role. That’s all, nothing more - something exciting is going to happen, and it all depends on how I act. If I act well enough, it will become me - for what is life but our experience of it? And so I would change my experience. Or rather I would perceive my experience differently, and focus on the effect I could have on myself and my life, no matter how small. I’m not talking about pretending and escaping in fantasy. I’m talking about hard work and not letting what you think are limitations hold you back. We all write our own script. I wanted to write mine well. Carefully. On purpose.
  
  I have seen so many people over the years wake up in the middle of their own lives as if from slumber - shocked at the state of things. Wives who lived for husband and kids and lost themselves along the way. Husbands who abandoned dreams unwittingly. Kids in college that don’t know why they are there. The best we can expect of ourselves is to live THOUGHTFULLY. Cognative. As much as possible, to be awake in each moment and choose to wake ourselves up at each turn, instead of numb ourselves to avoid the confusion it brings. There is no avoiding the inevitable. I watched drunks spend fortunes and lifetimes in bars and they never out-ran the ghosts they so desperately longed to avoid. Gosh life is painful- but what an exquisite symphony of sorrow and joy playing counterpart to one another. With each new wave I try to bolster myself and take it on the chin and defeat it with intimacy. I write to get to know these pains intimately and they become small with knowledge.  I play games in my head, like a child. I try to enjoy my imagination and explore wildly ordinary things. All things. My lover’s body. A melody. A darkened stage. A Cinnabun! I wish you all could feel what I feel on stage. I feel you all. I have trained myself over the years for the purpose of hearing everyone in the silence as you sit in the audience. It’s ecstacy. It all takes place behind the melody. Behind the words. Beyond the stage. Beyond my role as musician, and your role as audience. Beyond my role as woman and girlfriend and writer, and beyond your roles as secretaries and bosses and waitresses and drivers and mothers and children- beneath all that we have built our lives in being, there is one massive beating heart. One unified longing to be known and loved. One fear each of us are not enough. One spark we proudly, if not shyly, feel we harbor deep inside us. One special something we each feel we were born with. It’s beautiful when we all lose ourselves in a song and we become one heart beating to one rhythm. It teaches me so much. It teaches me everything I have ever written about. And it surprises me constantly how the simplest things, like walking through an airport, and eating a cinnamon roll, and listening to the folks who sit beside me - how all things lead me back to the ocean of everyone else.
• 

  Feb 29, 07:52 AM

  Ranch photos

  

  So, by popular demand I give you all pictures of my silly cold weather wear, to go along with the story I wrote about my life at home... I look pretty silly, but I hope you enjoy! Here is the first photo...me and the cows!
• 

  Feb 18, 09:49 PM

  A day on the ranch...

  I often get asked what life is like day-to-day at the ranch, so I thought I'd give you a wee peek of my life off the road...
  
  6 AM - Ty gets up. I am convinced there is an old man who is grissled and heroic that lives in Ty's mind - purely a fictional character, but he starts yelling drill sergeant style at Ty around 5:30 AM - rousing him from slumber. I imagine he says things like "Hey, puss, getcher ass outta the feathers!" In Ty's mind there is an image of what tough is, and what being a man is, and that image spurs him onward through each day - and it does not include sleeping in. Sometimes, if Ty can tell I'm really wiped out, he will let me sleep - but its rare! He always says it's best to get up early, so you go to bed early....no mercy for a road dog!
  
  So we get up...he drinks 2 sips of coffee while I scramble into my jeans and boots and multiple layers of warm gear, and we head out he door to go feed. (Ty wear jeans, boots, a wool vest, coat, and a cowboy hat. I look considerably more like something you see in documentaries about villagers who live in the extreme arctic north. I have long handles on under jeans, wool socks in my boots, thermal sweaters and no less than 3 layers beneath a giant puffy down coat, a silk scarf around my neck, and a ridiculous patagonia hat that is complete with ear flaps so the stiff Texas wind can't penetrate to my wee ears.)
  
  Ty has about 250 mother cows, and they are all having babies...very cute little calves that are furry and curious. We feed in the west lake pasture - a rugged and diverse piece of land that's a couple hundred acres - with plenty of water and dense river bottoms to find shelter from the harsh winter wind. Ty gets on the tractor by the shop, and I drive the ranch truck over to the west lake pasture - about 3 miles from the house. All the cows are waiting in a bunch- they act pure to death starved, which is funny, because we POUR the feed to them - alternating daily between cubes of protein enriched feed, and dry Klein Grass round bails. Today is a round bail day - my favorite, because unrolling 7 giant thousand pound bails means I get to skip the gym - it is a work out! Ty arrives on the tractor shortly after me, with a bail loaded in front and behind, and he heads to a gentle slope in the field - a slight advantage for me when wrestling the bails. Before I cut the bailing twine, I check to make sure the grain of the hay is headed the right way, so it rolls out proper, and then with my pocket knife I snap, snap, snap the black twine and then bundle it up and put it in the truck. Ty maneuvers the tractor around, and gets behind the bail and gives it a good push to get it started, and I run like a mad eskimo after the thing, my scrawny arms pushing with all their might to keep the momentum going - and the cows all chase down after me, excited and jockeying for the best position to feed from. While doing this I imagine what we must look like from above. I see me all puffy and over-dressed, a round dot pushing the hay, as it unrolls like a Ranch Red Carpet, well, a Golden Carpet - and the black cows that are so impossibly black that they look like cow-shaped holes in the ground, like black shadows that move and breathe and eat. Each bail we roll out more break away from the previous bail looking for fresher newer hay, with fewer neighbors. All the calves hang out together off to the side, mostly. Their mothers seem to absolutely lose their minds getting to the hay, and sometimes very young calves spend the afternoon bawling confusedly for mothers that have scattered hurriedly in the frenzy of feeding, which I hate. I worry the whole time we feed over the calves and remark to Ty constantly "You think it's ok?" "You think the baby will find its mom?" "You think its mom knows where it is?" To which he always replies, at first patiently, but eventually with a bit of impatience by the 15th time "Oh, mother nature will work it all out." But that doesn't keep me from fretting.
  
  After we feed, we both get in the truck and make a thorough round of the whole pasture - looking for cows that may be calving, checking for orphans, and giving some "room-service" to cows that stayed brushed up with calves that are too new for the mothers to take and go eat. I like these moms - even though they are hungry, they stay with their newborns till they are strong enough to make the trip. These are the ones we bring a flake of hay to. Sometimes cows abandon their calves so they can go eat. I hate these cows. If the calf doesn't get that first day of cholostrom (the nutrient rich milk that is in the cows bag the first day or so after birth) then they are never the same and often die. We really try to keep our eyes out for lone calves - but it's a fine line between interfering and helping.
  
  I remember about a month ago we saw a calf by itself - it looked healthy and bright eyed, and we just figured its mother stashed it in a good spot and would be back, so we left it alone. The next day we saw it off by itself, so we picked it up and took it closer to the herd, and we made bawling noises, but no cow came to claim it. Which posed a dilemma - do we step in and feed it, but risk it not learning to suck and hunt its mom, or do we leave it alone? We decided to feed it one bottle out in the field, and see if that got it through till it found its mom. Well, the mom never did come for it - so that night we brought the weak little creature to our ranch hand's house, and we bottle fed it, and put it in the shop with a heat lamp, so it would stay warm. The next morning we came to check on it, and it wasn't looking good. It was skinny, and sickly and already smelled half dead. It broke my heart. I wanted to go find its mom and kick her in the utter! This poor innocent calf was just suffering so. It even rattled Ty. He looked the calf over and said, "Doesn't look good boys" (He was addressing Heraclio the ranch hand, and I, but he often just calls any group of any sex "boys" - just another quirk) then he added "I wish I could go find that bitch...." (Meaning the calves mom). Ty is a very tough and macho guy- but he LOVES animals- probably loves animals more than humans. He doesn't hunt, and he hates to see any animal come to harm. I've seen a lot of ranchers that don't get too bothered by a calf dying, but it kinda touches Ty, and as we loaded up the calf to go kill it, he was quiet and annoyed.
  
  We drove to the Pump Pasture, which is where we usually take anything that needs killing. It's a big open pasture that buzzards can come in easily to clean it up. Just a sad part of ranch life. I of course fought back tears the whole way, to which Ty reasoned "Well, it's just suffering at this point and it would just be cruel not to kill it and just let it die slowly over the next day," which I know is true. But it still stings.
  
  We drive a ways and Ty stops the truck, and we get out and lay the calf down. It doesn't even move when we set it down. It just lays limp and struggles to breathe, and looks up with its dark large eyes and blinks slowly. Ty gets a .22 pistol out of the truck and places it pretty much on the top of its little skull. I stand near by, hardly able to see through the salty tears in my eyes. Ty looks up at me and says "Damnit Jewel, you don't gotta see this - go get in the truck," but the writer in me wants to see and feel and document everything, so I stay put. I can tell it kinda bothers Ty, strikes him as perverse, maybe even, but he looks back down and focuses on the task at hand. He breathes out and squeezes the trigger. The calf goes limp instantly, and a small stream of of deep red blood escapes the black vessel, and mixes with the dirt. I'm sniffling, Ty's kinda mad about the whole thing, and the calve's lifeless body is sorta jerking and twitching involuntarily- which kind of alarms and off-puts me. "Are you sure its dead?", I worry, through soft little sobs - he doesn't look back, just holsters the pistol as he heads for the truck and gruffly says " Deader than Hell."
  
  But that's somewhat a rare happening on the old ranch, and most days are filled with cute fat calves and fat happy moms, and the cold hand of winter eventually loosens its grip on the countryside, and the gentle blush of spring begins to blossom and take hold.
  
  But today is cold, and the wind is stiff, and it's just coming daylight outside, and I just got home from my Northwest Radio run, and my video shoot, and I'm tired - but Ty is already in the truck and waiting on me, so I grab my gloves and my silly warm hat and decide to finish getting dressed in the truck. As I shut the front door behind me, and prepare to face the first insult of icy air, I sigh to myself and say "Well, at least I can skip the gym..."
• 

  Feb 10, 08:58 PM

  The Walking Pneumonia Blues

  Well, the good news is that I have 3 days off - the bad news is I got "walking pneumonia" while in Arizona, and then kept flying several more days, and singing, so that now I can't even talk...waaahhh! I'm so bummed...it's so sunny and pretty out -I hate wasting it laying in bed. And speaking of laying here, it feels like there is a 300lb man sitting on my chest.
  
  I'm really hoping I get well enough to fly Tuesday to my video shoot in Nashville! We shoot wednesday. I hope you guys like it. It was a hard video to get a good concept for because the directors kept making the video very literal, as if it was all about a man treating a woman bad - which isn't what it's about to me at all. To me, the song is about a woman finding her self worth and satisfaction. It's not about being a victim of a guy that you let treat you poorly. It's about finding strength in yourself to have the life and relationship you want for yourself....and that if where you are makes you unhappy, then fixing yourself and getting what you need - demanding that from yourself. Men always say they want woman who aren't "nags" - fair enough. To me, when a woman feels unsatisfied and unfulfilled in her own life, she gets whiney and passive aggressive and blames it on everyone else. A strong woman is sexy and attractive to a man, because she makes herself happy. She's confident and not waiting for permission from someone else to lead a life they enjoy. I really didn't want this song to be a "down with men song." It's not even an angry song...it's just that feeling when you look down deep and say, "there's a stronger person in me and I'm gonna demand better out of myself." So needless to say, I didn't want a video to be crying over an aloof male.
  
  So, here's the concept i came up with - I hope it's not too metaphorical and "artsie" though...its very simple. It's gonna use visual metaphors to portray how woman have in effect been responsible for binding and restricting themselves. I'm gonna use fashion as the metaphor. We will see 4 women from different areas and time periods, and there will be close ups of what they do to bind theselves - like a geisha with tiny bound feet tittering elegantly on tiny shoes- or a Victorian woman being cinched into a hourglass corset, or a middle Eastern woman in beautiful colorful veils, with nothing showing but her exotic eyes...(each of these women will look sexy and beautiful and may even make you want to try on a corset, because it is so undeniably asthetically pleasing)....and there will be me, singing in front of a microphone with carry-overs from each of these fashion "binders" like high stiletto heals, and a metal corseted belt, and so on. Then slowly I start to undress myself of each of these things - take off the glittery earrings, take off the bracelets, take off the corset, step out of the shoes. And you will see each of these women "un-do" themselves - the corset strings showing a hint of flesh, the hair of the geisha cascading down her back like a silky black waterfall, the veil lifted to reveal a sumptuous Persian mouth. All these women seem impossibly sexier in the natural form...and it will end with me, barefoot now, in a simple slip dress, hair down, playing guitar, uninhibited- a stronger woman.  So, not much story line! But, it's the best I could think of...and I gotta get the video done soon or it will be too late!
  
  Anyway, I will let you know how it goes and we'll have some photos to post from the shoot!
  
  XxJewel
  
• 

  Feb 06, 01:47 PM

  Hi all!

  I'm on another radio tour. Today is Arizona - Phoenix and Tuscon, headed to Seattle tonight. My song "Stronger Woman" is doing good! I'm in the 30's already on the Country chart! And it's very early on, so it's a good sign. Fingers crossed - there's sure no guarantee, but I hope it catches on and moves up the chart! It also came out on iTunes yesterday, and it's # 14 there, so hopefully that will keep selling. I know it's #14 because of you guys - so thanks!!
  
  My days off were good. I rested a little and then headed to Winston-Salem for the PBR performance - which went good...I thought....till I watched it the next day! We handed the mix to NBC and somehow by the time it aired, they only turned on the input with my vocal mic so you couldn't hear my guitar or the band! Such a bummer! So much time and effort by so many people and it got messed up....geez! I'm gonna post the board mix from that night so you can hear how it was supposed to sound! Oh well, thats life...
  
  I'm writing a "blog from the ranch" but it has turned out to be an epic long blog, so I decided to write this in the meantime just to say hi...hope to see some of u in Seattle! Or Salt Lake City...or on line!
  
  Xx Jewel
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  Jan 28, 02:22 PM

  Hello!

  Hello from Stephenville TX!

  Well, the day is overcast, and the wind is chilly and building speed, but it feels so good to be home! I have been traveling a lot, trying to meet radio folks so they will play my new song, Stronger Woman. It's been fun actually - feels like my first album. I haven't worked this hard since my first album!

  For those of you who may not know, I got off my old label Atlantic, and I'm on a tiny (5 employees!) label called The Valory Music Co. in Nashville, and I'm really excited. Atlantic and I had an amazing ride together - since the begining - and we fought together to get my songs heard, and it wasn't easy! But then they got bought and went public and got consolidated and it became so hard and so corporate that I was getting very disheartened. It was getting so hard to be a songwriter and a storyteller, and to keep the label fighting for music that wasn't an easy sell to radio. I was so glad when my contract came up, and I could get off. I knew what kind of record I was gonna make, (it has country leanings, stuff I've been playing live for years - like Perfectly Clear, and Rosey and Mick, and The Cowboy Waltz - which some of you who trade bootlegs may recognize - and some new ones that kinda don't have any real "genre" and arJ kinda just "Jewel" songs) and I went about making it on my own. I had the album done, and no label. I thought about putting it out direct online, but I don't really have a mailing list with your specific info to let you know! So, I though about skipping a label, and going diect to Wal-Mart, or Target, or Starbucks....but no one would hear a song on the radio that way, so I worried that it would make me alot of money (going direct is very lucrative) but that ultimalty very few folks would hear the record. Then i met Scott Borchetta, (he runs an idie label called Big Machine, and he broke Taylor Swift) and we fell in love - Musically of course! :) We had the same passions and hopes for music, and he heard my album and didn't want to change it, or label it, or do anything, but he vowed to help me get it on the radio - country radio this time. Hey, "Who Will Save Your Soul" was "alternative", "You Were Meant For Me" was "pop" - why not let one go at "country"?) We are going to country radio because I feel it's the best chance I have to get my style of songwriting on the radio. I love lyrics, and stories, and sincerity and honsty - and it's gotten harder and harder on pop radio to get simple stuff on. Plus, fankly, I've been wanting to make my own type of country album my WHOLE career. I've been writing these songs since I was 16, and Atlantic wouldn't work anything country, so I've had to wait. As many of you know, I grew up in Alaska on a ranch, and I grew up on country music - so I'm a fan, and excited for you to hear my style! But I digress, where was I? Oh, my new label - Yes, Scott and I wanted to put an album out, but Big Machine's roster was full, so he started a brand new little label just for me - The Valory Music Co.! Of course other artists will be on there - I already have 2 label mates, Jimmy Wayne and Justin Moore. I have been traveling in rental cars going to 6 cities a day, singing at every radio station - just like I did on my first album!

  Which brings me to you guys - I have always had the best community of fans. Community is the best word I know for the amazing atmosphere you guys create! Since the begining of my career, I have had such smart, cool fans that really support each other, and I have always enjoyed being in touch and watching you guys, but when I switched managment a lot of it got lost, and now I'm finding ways to find you guys again. I blog a lot on my myspace page, but my friend Justin told me about iLike and I had no idea you guys were here! So I wanted to say hi, and say I will be posting blogs and pics and journal entries from the road and random stuff regularlry here. So, I look forward to checking you all out. I will also post my radio promo tour, so you can see if I'm coming to a station near you. Also, you guys can call local country stations and request my new song "Stronger Woman." We gotta let them know fans want my music!

  See u down the road! Xxjewel