Eilen Jewell: St Bonaventure's

Friday 9th October 2009

This is a Crackerjack review of Eilen Jewell. Do you agree? Rate and review this event.

Crackerjack rating: 7 / 10.

She may not have broken into the mainstream music world and is not particularly a major name in Americana circles either.

But it says a lot for the appeal of the Boston-based, Idaho-born singer songwriter in this country that Eilen Jewell managed to sell out Bristol’s premier alt.country venue.

It was not difficult to understand why she should have managed to build up such a following.

Backed by her long term three man band, Eilen Jewell took us on a 20-song cruise through her own songbook and almost the history of American popular music as well.

For, while remaining rootsy and with her own very distinctive sound, Jewell skilfully manages to bring in all kinds of influences into her music, including traditional folk, blues, jazz, country, blues, Western Swing, pre-Sixties rock’n’roll and modern-day country rock. Her guitarist added to the melange with reverbed solos that switched from Dick Dale to Johnny Cash.   

The handful of cover versions, such as Loretta Lynn’s honky-tonk classic The Darkest Hour, the fiercely difficult I’m Gonna Dress In Black from Van Morrison’s Them and Dylan’s Walking Down The Line showed some of the scope of her influences.

However it was when she did a version of Billie Holliday’s Fine And Mellow that was as fine and mellow as the title, that it became obvious who was probably her major influence.

For Holiday’s very distinctive vocal style was never far away, whether she is singing the sensuous country of opening song Rain Roll In or the rockabilly Heartache Boulevard.

She is not just a fine singer but a talented songwriter whose lyrics have a refreshing plain speaking, direct approach, which was particularly evident in the title track to the new album, Sea Of Tears. 

The bluesy High Shelf Booze swung along, Mess Around was a good time romp inspired by jug band music, Too Hot To Sleep had a latin-beat that may have been a rumba, while Rich Man’s World really rocked.

Her treatment of Eric Anderson’s Dusty Boxcar Wall worked extremely well. Far less successful, although great fun, was their version of Johnny Kidd’s rock classic Shakin’ All Over which contained a very messy country rock guitar solo from Jerry Miller.

A thoroughly enjoyable gig from a singer songwriter with loads of charm and humour who will never suffer from being categorised.

Mention must be made of Lou Brown from Dorset who provided the opening set for this gig. She started by saying that she is a “nervous gigger” but there were no obvious signs of this at this gig. In fact she seemed very confident, chatting easily to the audience between her own songs, of which the thoughtful David’s Not Sleeping was particularly strong.

Keith Clark

This is a Crackerjack review of Eilen Jewell. Do you agree? Rate and review this event.