Eilen Jewell

Words and Photos by Joe Koch

Beantown boasts a music scene that is filled with an array of artists that the world should know more about — Sarah Borges, Jesse Dee, Ryan Montbleau and Rachael Price to name a few. Eilen Jewell is an artist at the top of that list also, as she made her mark in 2009 with her critically acclaimed third album, Sea of Tears.

She does not stray too far from her early country-Americana roots, from which she draws most of her influences. She proudly display three autographs on her guitar — Loretta Lynn, Lucinda Williams and Mavis Staples. Now, she delivers an album that is packed with vocals that make you smile, sway and cry.

“Most likely you’re probably not going to hear our songs on most radios across the country, unless the tides turn and the radio stations start playing really cool stuff,” says Eilen, “’cuz’ I’m not willing to give up my stand-up bass and twang to become more mainstream.”

You have to admire any musician who is not willing to compromise their sound or sell out to appeal to the masses.

I recently sat down with Eilen and we talked about the new album, life on the road and at home. This is what she had to say:

Sea of Tears is your third full-length album and it’s been getting a lot of positive reviews. Do you read any of them?

Congratulations on the engagement!

Thank you.

With most of the reviews being positive, does it ever go to your head? How do you keep yourself grounded?

I take them all with a grain of salt, even the good ones ‘ya know. The good ones and the bad ones, because I know how easily “come by” opinions can be.

I try to focus more on… I mean I really love good reviews. It definitely makes me feel better about what I’m doing. I try not to take it to heart though. I think it’s good practice for when you get the occasional luke-warm review or a bad review.

I know I have a mechanism in place in my brain that says focus on your own opinion. So I try and do that for the good and the bad. But it’s hard to have an opinion about your own music, it’s hard to stay objective. Cuz, so much of it for me is how I feel when I play the song, not so much is this a good song or not? And what is a good song? Who knows?

Are you a fan of your music? I know some artists never listen to their music after the recording process.

I don’t put on my own records for fun. It’s usually for specific reasons, like to compare something or make sure the sound is okay. But for me it’s not fun to listen to myself.

What if you’re driving in the car and one of your songs came on the radio?

Sure, that’s always a great feeling. It’s like when we walk into a club and they’re playing our music, that’s really fun. I don’t run out of the club with my hands over my ears, but it’s very distracting.

It’s like a little experiment that I observed. When someone’s sitting at a bar and there’s a mirror in front of them, eventually they’re obsessed with looking at themselves in the mirror. It just becomes a natural distraction; that’s what it’s like when I hear my music somewhere.

With Sea of Tears, a lot of critics are noting the missing fiddle as a push towards your songs becoming more mainstream. Do you agree and how far do you see yourself experimenting with sounds on future records?

Yeah, I’m just taking it one record at a time. Right now I’m so into this record it’s hard to imagine the next one, honestly. I don’t necessarily feel myself trending towards mainstream. I guess part of the problem is that I don’t really listen to mainstream music. I’m not influenced by it at all. When I hear it, I don’t like it.

I’m just so into vintage rock n’ roll, rockabilly, country and blues — anything that has early in front of it. That’s what I always say — that’s what I love.

So I don’t see myself getting more mainstream. It’s funny to me that some people think this record was my attempt. Cuz, if I was going to do that, I wouldn’t have written a murder ballad. I mean every song is about death or sadness and people of mainstream don’t want to hear about that. They might want to hear about a break-up or something but they don’t want to hear the gory details. And to me that’s the stuff I love.

So with most of the songs being about death and sadness, are they autobiographical?

Some of them are but a lot of people are surprised to learn that I’m in a very happy and filling relationship, engaged and everything. A lot of people take what I say very literally. It’s just that I get my inspirations from a lot of sad stuff. Ya know, you don’t have to actually be experiencing it right now to know it and understand it and react to it.

I read somewhere that the song “No Where in No Time” had been kicking around for a while. How did it end up on Sea of Tears?

Yeah, that’s one of the first songs that I ever wrote. I didn’t want to include on this album at first. But a friend, who’s a big fan, wanted it. So he got it. I trusted his opinion and the guys in the band also wondered what had happened to it cuz we used to play it when we first met up.

Do you have a box full of songs waiting to be resurrected?

Yes. I don’t like to force any songs. Sometimes I’ll have lyrics that don’t become songs cuz they don’t feel musical to me when I’m writing them and they don’t become songs for whatever reason. So I’ll always go back through stuff that I’ve written.

Like the song “Codeine Arms.” I’d written parts of the verses maybe 10 years ago. I was just going back through old writings of mine and I caught like part of one or two verses and I thought ‘oh, that’s fitting in with something I’ve been thinking about lately and something else I’d written.’ And when I put them together, then the music happened behind it. So I rely on earlier stuff — failures really. You can’t burn or throw anything out … The stone the builder refused will become the cornerstone.

How has the tour been going for this record?

We’re definitely seeing a difference. We played Denver for the first time. We played Buffalo for the first time. In Buffalo, we were pretty sure no one would know us. But people were yelling out request. So that’s always a good feeling.

I don’t think they wanted you to stop. You probably could’ve played for another hour.

I would’ve loved that. We definitely feed off of the audience. I’m not saying that if the crowd isn’t into it, that we fall apart and start playing badly. I’d rather have people show that they’re into the music. Sometimes I can’t read a crowd and I think they’re not into it, but then they come up after the show and say they loved it and buy a CD.

You guys play everywhere from honky-tonk juke joints to theatres. Have you ever been awestruck?

Oh yeah, definitely when we opened for Loretta Lynn. I definitely had that moment of… ‘I can’t believe we’re here.’ And it wasn’t just cuz’ we were opening for Loretta Lynn. It was the most beautiful old theatre in Calvin, Massachusetts. The guys took the stage first and then when I walked out. Everybody started clapping. I thought maybe they thought Loretta was walking out. It was a great feeling.

How long do you see yourself touring in support of Sea of Tears?

We’ve actually been talking about that recently. This record is different from our last one. With our last record we signed a two-record deal with Signature Sounds. So this is the second of the two that were required of us contractually. So this has opened up this gray area. We don’t know what’s next. We haven’t talked with our label to see if they want to do more records with us.

So for me there’s a lot of gray areas. I really haven’t been writing lately, cuz we’ve been touring like monsters, but I know the guys want to keep things rolling. So we’ll have to see what happens, but we’ll definitely be touring in 2010.

You tour like monsters, and I know you have some other music projects Sacred Shakers and Butcher Holler (a Loretta Lynn tribute band). Is music all consuming? What do you like to do when you’re at home?

When I’m at home, if I can get away with it, I don’t like to do music stuff, business stuff. It’s a shame that I think of music as business but it’s kinda had to develop in that way cuz I’m kind of the band leader. I do so much music-related, music-business stuff, that when I’m home I like to cook. I’ll go crazy. I’ll cook for days just for one meal. I like to invite friends over and make it a several-day process. There’s something grounding about it. I don’t ever get to cook when I’m on the road.

Do you see it as an art form?

Definitely. There’s so much creativity involved in it. Creative cooking is one of the joys of life.

How do you see married life impacting your music career?

It’s hard to say. I have friends who have little kids and when I go visit them I get all misty eyed. Then I say, ‘I can’t do this right now.’ It’s hard. You give up a lot. But, I feel really fortunate to have the man I’m going to marry also in my band. I don’t have to feel like I’m leaving him when I go on tour.

Do you feel pressure from family and friends to settle down?

Yeah, I would love to settle down but also be able to tour. I really live off of the dichotomy of being on the road and then the joy of coming home. When you’re tired of being at home, hit the road again.

Eventually I would like to be able to be at home and have it feel more like my home. Some property and a house. I’m a western girl so I need my elbow room.

For more information go to: www.eilenjewell.com