EILEN JEWELL : GET BEHIND THE WHEEL

1. Alive
2. Crooked River
3. Lethal Love
4. Come Home Soon
5. Winnemucca
6. Could You Would You
7. Breakaway
8. You Were A Friend Of Mine
9. Outsiders
10. Silver Wheels And Wings
11. The Bitter End

Label : Signature Sounds

Release Date : May 5, 2023

Length : 41:22

Review (Bluestown Music) : De Amerikaanse singer-songwriter Eilen Jewell is geboren op 6 april 1979 in Boise, Idaho. Hier groeit ze ook op voordat ze gaat studeren aan het St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, waar ook haar muzikale carrière als straatmuzikante begint. Jewell verhuist vervolgens naar Los Angeles waar ze als straatmuzikante optreedt op Venice Beach. Weer volgt een verhuizing, nu naar Boston, Massachusetts, waar ze in lokale muziekclubs optreedt. Sinds 2015 woont ze weer in haar geboorteplaats Boise. Haar debuutalbum ‘Boundary County’ verschijnt in 2006. Een jaar daarvoor had ze een ‘live demo’ album opgenomen genaamd ‘Nowhere In Time’. De muziek van Jewell is doordrenkt van country, Americana, folk met een vleugje rockabilly en surf. Met haar groep The Sacred Shakers nam ze ook twee gospelalbums op. Kortom, Eilen Jewell is van vele muzikale markten thuis. Begin mei verscheen er na vier jaar weer een nieuw album van Eilen Jewell, haar negende. Op ‘Get Behind The Wheel staan negen eigen composities en twee covers. De eigen composities zijn persoonlijke songs over de tegenslagen van de afgelopen jaren (behalve de coronapandemie strandde ook haar huwelijk met drummer Jason Beek). Met Alive begint het album rustig, twangy gitaarlicks en de heldere zang, maar het nummer wordt al snel steviger en broeierig. De band met de fraaie pedal steel is sterk op dreef in het melodieuze en soulvol gezongen Crooked River. Lethal Love is een typische Jewell song, met drums, percussie en twangy gitaar. Soulvol is de zang weer in het met strak drumwerk en Wurlitzer versierde enigszins psychedelische Come Home Soon. Zeer fraai is het gitaarwerk naast de pedal steel en de schitterende zang in Winnemucca. Could You Would You van Van Morrison is een ontspannen rockabilly-achtige versie. De tweede cover is Breakaway, een compositie van Jacky DeShannon. Eilen Jewell’s uitvoering is een langzamere versie dan die van Jacky DeShannon en zeker ook dan die van Tracey Ullman. Sprankelend is het gitaarwerk en tamelijk ingetogen de zang in You Were A Friend Of Mine. Het gitaarwerk in de slowblues Outsiders is ook weer om je vingers bij af te likken. Silver Wheels And Wings is een ballad met wederom fraaie zang, heerlijke gitaarlicks en een pedal steel. Het slotnummer The Bitter End is een ballad waar een spacy sfeer hangt. Dit nummer is ten overvloede weer een voorbeeld van de geweldige vocale kwaliteiten van Eilen Jewell. Conclusie: Met ‘Get Behind The Wheel’ voegt Eilen Jewell weer een pareltje toe aan haar toch al fraaie oeuvre. Mede dankzij de voortreffelijke begeleidingsband is dit een album met rootsmuziek van hoog niveau.

Review (Americana Highways) : This young vocalist & song stylist occupies a respectful seat beside the likes of Emmylou Harris, Nanci Griffith & Patty Griffin. Her songwriting is Lucinda Williams dominating. “Alive,” opens with a guitar gritty splash of early morning autumn rain. Characteristic of the music of the plains rather than say a rural town in the South. Eilen Jewell (vocals/harmonica/acoustic guitar/organ) is an individualist. Original as much in her vocalizing as in her songwriting. When both are put together it’s like a salty potato chip with dark chocolate & a kaiser roll. She’s a delight. Songs like “Crooked River,” are steeped in a vintage country thicket (so is the Patsy Cline-type balladry of “You Were a Friend of Mine”). It possesses an organic grace & vintage scented. Beautiful stuff. Her voice is like a cold sip of cola on a humid day or a shot of Old Crow on a back porch — eyes closed in a rocking chair. The 11-cut Get Behind the Wheel (Drops May 5–Signature Sounds Recordings) was produced by Eilen & her band & by Will Kimbrough. Loaded with story songs Eilen doesn’t recycle song ideas written & performed countless times before. She goes deeper, digs for the motherlode & reaches for something lesser songwriters don’t seem to grasp (“Outsiders”). Her word clever choices are colorful & imaginative. She relies more on her storytelling instincts than just adding carbonation to her musical oeuvre. The instrumentation is somewhat laid back but not production-wise – more for atmosphere. Her voice has clarity as evidenced in both “Come Home Soon,” & “Winnemucca.” What’s obvious is the quality of the storytelling. The care taken to shape each song musically, lyrically & then when the time is right, the application of the committed voice. The performance, the sell. A peculiar cover song I grinned through was Van Morrison’s “Could You Would You,” — a remarkable time capsule with rich 60s guitar structures. Similar in nature to vocalists like Skeeter Davis, Diane Renay, Sue Thompson, Robin Ward & Gale Garnett. The snow-cone tasty arrangement. It just conjures another era for me with its 60s guitar chimes. A beauty. The charm also comes with Ms. Jewell’s exuberant voice — how she possesses & applies generous ounces of retro musical identity & yet manages with expertise to personify it all with sinewy strength. She doesn’t sound dated. Never. Evident in a cover of Jackie DeShannon’s “Breakaway” with its Owen Bradley-style production. Highlights –“Alive,” “Crooked River,” “Lethal Love,” “Come Home Soon,” “Winnemucca,” “Could You Would You,” “Breakaway,” “You Were a Friend of Mine” & “Outsiders.” Musicians – Jason Beek (drums/vocals/percussion), Steve Fulton (Wurlitzer/vocals/organ), Fats Kaplin (pedal steel guitar), Jerry Miller (electric guitar), Matt Murphy (upright bass), Will Kimbrough (electric, acoustic & baritone guitar/mandolin/keys/percussion/vocals/baritone guitar), CD cover image courtesy of Beth Herzhaft.

Review (Popmatters) : Life has been hard for singer-songwriter Eilen Jewell. There was the pandemic. She ended up divorced. Her creative inspirations seemed to disappear, so she retreated to a remote existence in the mountains. Jewell contemplated and reflected on her situation, found inner resources, and emerged renewed. She’s back on the road touring to promote her latest release, Get Behind the Wheel. As the title suggests, Jewell’s ready to roll ahead. At least that’s the back story about Jewell and her ninth studio release. But the songs on Get Behind the Wheel offer a different portrait. The protagonists of these 11 tracks are still hurting. Even when the messages are upbeat, their silver linings are filled with dark clouds. She ain’t going nowhere, as Bob Dylan would say. Jewell repeatedly imparts her desire to move, but she seems more like a traveler stunned by a traffic accident than a voyager making headway down the highway. Consider the first-person narrator of “Lethal Love”. Jewell sings, “No one here who runs from here makes it out alive”, with Jim Morrison-like aplomb. This relationship isn’t that of ordinary fun and games. It’s more akin to Russian roulette. She escapes loneliness only to be caught in the quicksand of another. When Jewell’s on the road, as in the ballad “Winnemucca”, she’s more likely to be waiting by the highway sign than getting where she wants to go. Life can be hard with a cold wind blowing and holes in her clothes. Things will be better when she gets to the Nevada city and has boxed wine, a good trailer, and a lover. She may not desire much, but that seems temporarily out of reach. The road is a harsh mistress. There is something very outdoorsy about the music, a sense of the Western outdoors with a big sky and empty landscapes. Jewell co-produced the album with Will Kimbrough (Todd Snider, Hayes Carll, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell). They put Jewell’s stoney voice front and center. Her affectless singing conveys a stoic sense of beauty. Her pain is buried so deep that the smallest inflection communicates heavy feelings. Meanwhile, the instrumentation could serve as the soundtrack to a cowboy movie from the fifties. In many ways, the happiest track on Get Behind the Wheel is “Breakaway”, a Jackie DeShannon classic previously recorded by Irma Thomas and Tracey Ullman. The singer boasts that she is so in love that it’s impossible for her to leave her no-good boyfriend. Jewell may want to drive on, but she can’t escape due to her limitations. She celebrates her desires even when it holds her back. Get Behind the Wheel closes with “The Bitter End”, a dark meditation on how to live one’s life. The singer croons about recovery while it is still possible to rise Phoenix-like from the ashes of existence. The bitter end is the place from where one has to start. “You have to break before you bend,” Jewell chastises. In this respect, the album is hopeful. The singer implies that one has to be stuck before one can be truly free. She feels trapped, making her ready to be liberated.