Jewel - Perfectly Clear
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Music CD Cover
Artist: JewelBrand: Baker & Taylor
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Enhanced
CD Release Date: 2008-06-03
Music Label: Valory Music Co.
Soundtracks:
- Stronger Woman
- I Do
- Love Is A Garden
- Rosey and Mick
- Anyone But You
- Thump Thump
- Two Become One
- 'Til It Feels Like Cheating
- Everything Reminds Me Of You
- Love By You (Cowboy Waltz)
- Perfectly Clear
Free Music Notes for Perfectly Clear
Free Music Review: Beautiful. It does me in.
Hit: 5 Stars
I'm always startled when I'm taken by a disc on the first listen. Just yesterday I acquired the newest Emmylou Harris CD - an artist I go back with for decades; someone who just can't make bad music, and on the first listen I found it - uninteresting. I'm sure it'll grow on me.
Such is not the case with "Perfectly Clear", the new country album from Jewel. It's been evident for some time, with Jewel's interest and appearances in the television show "Nashville Star" that her heart is rooted in country music. She's a bit of an anomaly there, since her heart is in the lyric and the beauty of the lyric, not something always pursued in country music. Indeed "Stronger Woman" the first release from the CD is more formulaic than the rest of this Jewel CD is comfortable with. "I Do", the second song is also easy to see as a hit. Jewel's little girl voice quality is utilized to perfection on "Love Is A Garden", and "Thump, Thump". Jewel collaborated with John Rich (Big and Rich) as a producer on this CD, and she seems a little uncomfortable with Rich's shameless pushing of the CD on the TV show (never revealing his own participation).
In the liner notes, Jewel credits her musical influences to Loretta Lyn and Joni Mitchell, Merle Haggard, Bob Dylan, Linda Rondstadt and Brenda Lee. You can, with a little imagination, see each of them in her own compositions (some of which were written years ago and only just now recorded). From the first notes, I was taken with the whole CD...it did not bog down in the middle for me, as did her concept CD "Alice in Wonderland". And while others note that the steel guitar is used liberally throughout the backgrounds of all the songs, the steel remains my most treasured instrument, and I loved the use of it. Also scattered liberally throughout the compositions is the Wurlitzer, mandolin, banjo and dulcimer. Together, although perhaps a little overproduced, this rich backdrop sets the stage for Jewel's romantic collection. "Anyone But You" takes the biggest advantage of traditional country, and will perhaps be the least favored by Jewel's folk followers. I loved it.
My personal favorite on the CD is surprisingly the only song NOT written by Jewel, the ballad "Till It Feels Like Cheating" ... and while it's not as lyrically surprising as others, the twist of the song is in keeping with a Jewel ballad. It's book-ended with great choices.. a remake of her "Two Become One" from the pop album (and frequently reviled) "0304". This time backup vocals on "Two" belong to John Rich...
"...Like a bird owns its wings
Like song belongs to melody
You belong to me
I fold your arms around me
Let your flesh, your breath, your love surround me
You feel like home."
And on the backside, "Everything Reminds Me of You" showcases the big voice, as does the song she sings to the memory of her father... "Loved By You" featured as a Cowboy Waltz, with the brave and beautiful yodel that Jewel's rolled out on television appearances and in "Alice in Wonderland".
That brings me to "Perfectly Clear", which closes the CD, and, for me completes the picture of Jewel's influences ...Dylan. There's a departure from the heavy steel here, drawing on piano and viola....I've heard this influence in several of her older songs, and here it is evident to me, in the small ramblings, in the exquisite lyric, in the way she shakes down the phrase... "no need to explain, it's perfectly clear" ....
And in this CD, it's perfectly clear. Jewel is an artist, comfortable with her muses, somewhat greater than her discography makes her out to be. The CD shines.
Perfectly Clear Poster
It comes as no surprise that Jewel, an acclaimed American singer, songwriter, actress, poet, painter, philanthropist and daughter to an Alaskan cowboy singer-songwriter, finds herself in the embrace of country music for the release of her seventh career album, Perfectly Clear.Nashville Connections
Jewel's personal odyssey, partly chronicled on one of the best selling debut albums of all time, the twelve-time platinum Pieces of You, comes full circle with her forthcoming country album, Perfectly Clear, the debut release on newly launched Nashville-based independent label The Valory Music Co.
Jewel is set apart her whole career for not only singing, but writing all her songs, and this album is no exception. "I've been writing country songs my whole career; some of the songs on this record date back to when I was 18 years old. I've been hanging on to them until now. They were meant for a record like this one."
The record's first single "Stronger Woman" is a powerful and positive message that resonates with women of any age. Perfectly Clear is produced by Jewel and John Rich of Big and Rich fame. "Jewel is probably one of the greatest American singer-songwriters we have. It is such an honor to work with anyone of that caliber of talent," Rich says. Jewel has spent a lot of time in Nashville over the last few years, and has naturally been drawn to and accepted by the Nashville music community. "If I were discovered today, there is no doubt that I would be signed as a country artist. Songs like "You Were Meant For Me" would have been a country hit today, and not a pop hit as it was in the 90s. The genres have changed more than I feel I have," says Jewel.
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