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Jewel Goes Country

Jewel Goes Country

Jewel has always been known as a singer-songwriter who has generally, with the exception of 2003's 0304, leaned more toward country than glossy, over-produced pop material.

So her new (and first) country album Perfectly Clear finally seems to be a perfect fit for the 34-year-old artist, even if Nashville industry folks weren't enthralled with the idea.

A lot of them wanted me to be more pop, I was so surprised that was the reaction I got," she says.

They wanted me to be a bit more slick and produced and pop-driven country. I thought, 'I can't win for trying. I'm too country for pop and now they're telling me I'm too pop for country. '"

The album follows an eventful few years for the performer. After 2006's Goodbye Alice In Wonderland, Jewel parted ways with Atlantic Records, eventually landing on Nashville-based label The Valory Music Co. (Open Road Recordings in Canada).

I've been writing country music since the beginning," she says. I always thought I should get played on country radio but I don't know if my label (Atlantic) had any connections to country radio being a New York-based label.

It's always been such a fight to break me anywhere. I've always been such an odd fit no matter where I am.

But because I was raised in Alaska on a ranch I was always listening to country music -- Loretta Lynn and Merle Haggard but also Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. I loved storytellers, people who were authentic about who they were, talking about their life and their experience."

Those influences seem to come through on Perfectly Clear on numbers such as Stronger Woman, 'Til It Feels Like Cheating and Love By You (Cowboy Waltz). Perhaps the strangest thing is how old some of these songs are.

Some of my stuff was too country to go on my other records so I saved them, like Perfectly Clear or Cowboy Waltz," she says. Cowboy Waltz I wrote when I was about 16, I wrote Perfectly Clear when I was 18. So a lot of these songs have been sitting around for a long time."

Although coming up with songs was never a problem, trying to pare the album down was a chore for Jewel. Previous records where she aimed for just 10 tracks ended up with a handful more.

I think people can listen to it at one sitting and I've noticed that people can fall in love with every song instead of being overwhelmed with 15," she says. I really wanted it to be a short concise record that was very focused.

Heart Like A Wheel

I used Heart Like A Wheel (Linda Ronstadt's 1974 hit album) as inspiration. It's an unbelievable record because they let her voice be the centre-piece and they picked great songs. And that's what I tried to do with this. I picked my best songs and I tried to sing the heck out of them."

Jewel also says having John Rich of country act Big & Rich co-produce didn't hurt either-- despite being an unlikely combination.

He's very flamboyant and outgoing and I'm much more introverted and thoughtful," she says.

But when you scratch beneath the surface we actually come from the same place. We're people who love music. I think the reason he was really a great partner for me is because he didn't think about (the songs as) country or not country or pop, I mean it doesn't even cross our minds.

It's something the press really seems to get caught up on. It seems to us like just another colour, like you're a painter -- pink isn't any harder to use than yellow."

While she has her critics, former rodeo competitor and longtime partner Ty Murray made it perfectly clear what he thinks of Perfectly Clear.

This is his favourite record of mine not because it's country but because my personality came through the most. I think he likes that."