Born in Boise, Idaho on April 6, 1979, Eilen Jewell developed a love and appreciation for music at and early age. She learned to play the piano at seven and at fourteen taught herself how to play the guitar. Eilen's musical influences are as diverse as she is unique, drawing inspiration from the likes of Bob Dylan and Lucinda Wiliams, Billy Holiday and Bessie Smith, to Loretta Lynn and  Hank Williams, to Van Morrisson, The Kinks, and The Animals.

A part from Eilen's versatile music genre, Eilen's experiences during, what she calls her "rambler days" also played an important role in developing Eilen as an artist and individual. After high school, she attended St John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico where she studied liberal arts. Performing at local farmer's markets  to earn extra cash for schooling, she speaks affectionately about these days, the people she met, and all the jellies and jams she received from the locals along the way. After college, Eilen made her way North to the boardwalk on Venice Beach in Southern California, a place known for its creative, artistic, and progressive community of beats, buskers, and activists. Here, she was introduced to an array of new colors and spectrums while she earned her keep as a street performer before heading back home to Idaho, and finally, cross country, to  New England in 2003 where, at 24, she actively began pursuing her career as a musician.

Eilen Jewell fell in love with the Boston music scene, a community rich in culture and diversity. She quickly established a band, first  meeting drummer, Jason Beek, followed by Johnny Sciascia (Upright Bass), and Jerry Miller ( Acoustic, Electric, and steel Guitar). It's been just about seven years since she made a permanent residence in Cambridge, Massachusetts and in that time she has released five incredible  albums with her band: Boundary County (self released, 2006), Letters From Sinners and Strangers ( Signature Sounds, 2007),  a side project of gospel music with the Sacred Shakers ( self titled, Signature Sounds, 2008), Sea Of Tears (Signature Sounds, 2009) and her latest release Butcher Holler,  a tribute to Loretta Lynn, Signature Sounds, 2010)

Thanks to Jason Beek, I was fortunate to land an interview with Eilen...so, thank you Jason ;-) ! Here's how we did...

ATNE: How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard you perform before?

EJ: It's a mix of country, blues, rockabilly, folk...you know, all things American with a little bit of jazz in there. It's classic American mutt music in the sense that it's a blend of all roots music.

EJ: There's a lot of despair in my music, but there is a lot of redemption too. I think what that says about me is that I've got one foot in the darkness and one foot in the light.

ATNE: Describe yourself as a kid growing up in Boise, Idaho.

EJ: Well, I was a really headstrong little girl...very much anti  anybody telling me what to do. I tend to look back at the way I was as child and say I was really bratty, but my Mom will tell you that I was willful. I also really liked books and reading...I really liked school. I was a pretty happy kid.

ATNE: Who was your best friend and where might we have found the two of you on a lazy, summer afternoon?

EJ: I had two best friends growing up when I was real young...when I was just in grade school...Jana and April. We were like the trio...we were inseparable. On a lazy summer afternoon you'd find us either on our bikes or on one of our front porches making up songs. We had quite the repertoire of songs...one of them was about Popsicles...our favorite summer time thing. 

ATNE: You’ve mentioned Bob Dylan and Billy Holiday as the “King and Queen” in a diverse family of musical influences. What is it about these performers that resonates in your mind and how have they influenced you both as a writer and performer today?

EJ: What I like about both of them is that they are both extremely unique. You can hear a song and know that it's Billie Holiday just by her voice...it's the same thing with Bob Dylan. They are very much one of a kind. What they taught me is that in music and, really, in art in general, it's okay to not follow the pack. In fact, the truly great musicians never followed the pack. They did their own thing. I think there's something really freeing about that. A lot of musicians try to follow an equation or a list of this is how it's suppose to sound...this is what you're supposed to do... or this is how you go about making yourself famous on your music. There are an infinite number of ways to reach where you want to go...following the pack is not one of them. It's got to be  a different thing that is very much from your own soul. Both of them ( Dylan and Holiday) have this way of showing themselves and seeing. They are extremely unique people and their music really comes from the soul.

ATNE: Where did your love of music begin ?

EJ: I begged my parents to let me take piano lessons when I was seven. So I went to piano lessons every week for pretty much my entire childhood. I loved the piano and that's kind of where my love of music began.

ATNE: How did you overcome your fear of performing live?

EJ: This happened gradually. Little by little I got less frightened by performing in front of people and eventually came to kind of enjoy that fright. I always feel like there's something wrong if I'm not nervous before a show...that means I haven't really thought about it enough and I'm not investing enough in it. The thing that I accredit the most, as far as the end of my stage fright goes, is busking... street performing...because it was a way playing music in front of people as opposed to just in my room. No one was really paying attention except for occasional people who would stop and listen. There's something less intimidating about it than being on stage. So it was a natural progression to go from by myself in my room to busking on the street to eventually open mics and then being on stage with a full gig. So, yeah...it was just a fairly organic flow and process. 

ATNE: What did you major in at St John’s in Santa Fe?  What did you gain from this experience and how did it affect your decision to pursue music professionally?

EJ: Well St John's is kind of a strange college because there's no major. Everyone studies the same thing. There's no elective...So there's a bit of a disagreement sometimes among students as to what exactly our major will be called when we're done. You get four years of math, four years of science, our years of language...I just say I was a liberal arts major because I studied a little of everything including music. What I gained from my experience at St Johns is that I clarified the fact that I really wanted to be a musician. I met people there who were musicians and they really encouraged me to pursue music. My deciding to become a musician wasn't a direct result of the curriculum there, but of my whole experience in Santa Fe and of that time in my life. I'm not sure I would have ended up here if it weren't for my four years at St John's.

ATNE: What was the first song you learned to play on the guitar?

EJ: Boy...I think it was Puff The Magic Dragon. I was 14 or 15 and I just sort of taught myself...I didn't really learn it ...I just kind of made something up.

EJ: There were a lot of strange experiences in Venice Beach...I'm trying to choose which one. There was one person that I befriended there in particular...his name was Roland. He rode around on his bicycle all the time. His bicycle and his entire outfit was covered, every square inch, with flowers that he would pick every day and then somehow attach to himself and to his bike. He was a really wonderful man. He never said much, but when he did speak, he was very complimentary about my music. He would always go by my open guitar case and throw in flowers, little petals, or sometimes some loose change. He didn't have a home...he slept on the beach like a lot of people did then. One day he came by on his bike while I was in the middle of a song. There were a few people around me listening. He road by and threw so many flowers at me that they rained down for what felt like several minutes...A shower of flower petals. It was strange in the sense that this had never happened to me before. It was strange in a positive way. Venice Beach and my whole experience busking was full of things like that ...mostly experiences that were extremely positive, but very unusual. 

ATNE: In 2003, at the age of 24 you came to New England to visit friends in the Berkshires and basically never left. Instead, you moved to the Boston area and put your music career in full throttle. What was it about the Boston music scene that lured and grounded you here as a musician?

EJ: Boston is very unique in the sense that it's very urban. It's  a very dense population of musicians for one city. There must be more musicians per capita than most any other city besides Nashville...I don't know...I'm making that up. It just seems every one's a musician... mostly thanks to Berkley and the New England Conservatory. Boston has a very healthy music scene...and a really vibrant folk music scene. There's something very friendly and acceptable about Boston...even for a girl from Idaho who had never lived on the East Coast. It all just seemed really acceptable to me. Even though there were so many musicians and so many gigs to be had, I never felt like there was a cut throat competition going on here. I felt  like I was welcomed into a family when I got here. That's what made me stick around more than anything else... that welcoming quality that Boston has... at least among musicians, anyways. I feel very grateful for doing that. You know, so many people in this city really took a chance on me and I don't know if most other people would have done the same.

ATNE: Within two years you had put together a band of remarkable musicians, started performing together  live, and, in 2005, put out your first, self released album, Boundary County, that  would lead you to a record contract with Signature Sounds. Things fell into place. To what do you accredit this? What makes the four of you work so well together?

EJ: Let's see-the four of us are, well, we're all really different personality-wise and we're also very different age-wise...so each one of has a unique perspective to bring to the quartet. I don't think that we would be nearly as successful together if we were all too similar. It's our differences that balance us out.There's a couple of us in the group who are pretty Type A and there's a couple of us who are pretty easy going. The things we get uptight about are compatible. If we were all upset about the same thing it might be too much. We get along well and, actually, the four of us have very similar taste in music. There are very few bands, artist, or types of music that one of us likes that the others really dislikes...So we're all coming from the same place musically...that helps a lot.

ATNE: Is it true that the drummer in your band, Jason Beek is also your husband and manager? What affect does your relationship have on the dynamics of the band?

EJ: Yeah! It's hard to say. We have been together since just before the band got together...so as long as the band's been around so have the two of us. It's hard to talk about the dynamics because I have nothing to compare it to. In our relationship together it's hard to figure out how much of it is the band, how much of it is music, and, if we didn't have this common project, how much of a bond would we still have...they've always been so intertwined. We're both very comfortable with that...that intertwining of business and relationship...because it's what we both really love. He's a great drummer and a great manager. We got married in February...and, so far, he's a great husband.

ATNE: From where do you draw your inspiration for writing? Are your songs autobiographical or more along the lines of fiction and storytelling? Describe your process.

EJ: Each song is a little bit different. Some of them are autobiographical...some of them are more like story telling. I'm trying to figure out the process as I go. It used to be that I'd just be strolling along somewhere and suddenly a song would pop into my head...it was a spontaneous thing and very passive. Music would pop into my head and I'd have to write it down. Lately, I've been so preoccupied with touring and all the logistics that, well,  this hasn't been happening at all. So I'm trying to figure out just what my process is so that I can kind of nurture it and encourage it. That's really the big trick. We have to stay on the road and, so far, the way it's worked out is that I have to do a lot of the business end of things, I have to figure out a way get that all set up while also needing to be creative too. No one's going to be very happy with me if I just start saying, " Um, I'm not going to write any more." I'm having to sit down and do everything for the first time. I think my process involves solitude, but beyond that, I'm not really sure because it was always such a passive thing before. I'm trying to seek out solitude more often and trying to let myself off the hook a little bit.

EJ: (Laughs) Boy...It's hard to choose a favorite. Let's see...there's a drink that a friend of mine has proposed we call the Eilen Jewell because you don't hear about it very often, but it's very tasty. It's Jameson Irish Whiskey and Ginger Ale. I think that is a legitimate drink already, but it needs to be named after me, I think. 

ATNE: Tell me a little bit about your first, national release, Letters from Sinners & Strangers. What was this experience like for you and the band?

EJ: Well... it was really fun. I look back on those days fondly. It was the first time that we got any real national press. It was right around the time when we first started touring. After we released Letters we got to open for Loretta Lynn...there were just a lot of really exciting things going on...it felt like things took off with that record. It was a very good time to be us. We also quit our day jobs that year and became full time musicians. That was exciting and also scary...it was a very exciting time. 

ATNE: How do you feel about performing live? What do you find to be the most rewarding and challenging parts of performing live?

EJ: The most rewarding part of performing live is seeing people respond positively. I love seeing people smile. I love getting them to interact with me  while I'm on stage and getting them to laugh. I love it when people dance. I even love  it when people say they've heard a song of mine and they cried. I think it's very rewarding to see people showing any kind of emotion...especially joy and happiness over my music.That's what really keeps me doing it. Meeting new people after the show is great fun...hearing their feedback about how the songs are important to them ....to me it's all about the audience. I'd say the most challenging thing about being on stage would be letting go of my inner critic and my inhibitions. Fundamentally, I'm still that shy 7 year old, in the moments before her recital,  who's really terrified of doing anything on stage. That girl is still there, so it becomes a matter of keeping that inner critic quiet for a while.

ATNE: I think Sea of Tears is your best album to date. It has a stripped down, live performance kind of feel to it. How were you able to obtain this kind of sound in the studio? What is your approach to making albums?

EJ: Yeah, our style is to record in a very live way. For the most part, the rhythm section is all playing together at the same time. A lot of musicians separate everything so that they can get everything real perfect...you know, the bass track will be separate from the drums...which will be separate from the rhythm guitar. We record those things all at the same time. We don't tweak very much. It really is a live performance that you are hearing for the most part. Sometimes we'll go back and add...like I added the Hammond B3 part for certain Sea Of Tears  songs  ...but, for the most part, it's pretty live and we like it that way. I personally/ don't like to hear perfect recording. I'd rather hear something raw...something that has life to it. Sometimes recording can be too sterile because people try to over perfect them.

EJ:  I love going out and meeting people in the audience, signing CD’S, and just chatting with people. That, to me, is a really important part about what we do because we learn so much about where people are coming from and the towns that we’re visiting. It’s not just about going from the van to the stage and back into the van. We get to know the people of the area and we’ve made a lot of friends that way.

ATNE: What do you do when not performing or playing music?

EJ: I cook…I cook neurotically…compulsively…I cook everything…I throw dinners where I get way in over my head…making, like, ten recipes that I’ve never tried before. I'll invite a bunch of people over and make way too much food. It’s compulsive…and it’s kinda gotten to the point where it’s like, "is this healthy? (laughs)…cooking this much?" I never took home economics or had any cooking lessons…so I’m kind of just teaching myself and really enjoying it. I love pleasing people with food. It’s a very basic way to say, "I love you" to somebody.

EJ: Good question. Two weeks ago I made this amazing Cool Corn Soup which sounds really weird, but it was amazing. I think that’s going to be my signature dish…in the summer time anyways.

ATNE: You said “cool”…is it chilled ?

EJ: Yeah, it’s chilled and it’s mostly just corn  with a little bit of garnish…there’s some mushroom and a little bit of lemon juice. It’s very simple, but it’s kind painstaking in a way because you have to slice all the kernels off of each cob. It’s really fresh and it's is going to get better later in the season when the corn gets more fresh…Some of the last corn I used wasn't that tasty, but it still made really amazing soup!

ATNE: Tell us a little bit about your side project with the Sacred Shakers.

EJ: The Shakers are going to do a co-bill with my band in Natick at the end of July. However we don’t play very often…just because we are always touring. We don’t have any plans for another record right now, but hopefully some time soon.

ATNE: Your latest album, Butcher Holler, is a tribute to Loretta Lynn and is due out this month. What inspired you to put together this compilation on songs?

EJ: Yeah…It’s actually already gotten some pretty favorable reviews. It’s really just a fun thing that the four of us put together as a way of thanking Loretta Lynn for being so awesome. I really enjoy singing her songs and it's also fun to see people who ove her songs too. You know, when I say, "okay. this next song is a Loretta Lynn song…", I love seeing people's reactions... they say, " oh goodie…yeah…!"

ATNE: Got to ask…how many times did you watch Coal Miner’s Daughter?? I loved that movie as a kid.

EJ: By the time I realized that I liked country music I was in college. When I was growing up in Idaho the only country music I heard was top 40 country music…really modern stuff that just, to me, sounded more like pop music ...so,  I always thought I didn’t like country until fairly recently, really. So, I didn’t watch that movie while growing up. I just watched it for the first time a couple of years ago. I’m kind of a late bloomer in the country music department...but I think I’m making up for lost time.

ATNE: What does the tattoo on your left forearm represent?

EJ: It's a sun, a wing, and a maze: a symbol I came up with to represent the Greek myth of Daedalus.  It's been one of my favorite stories ever since I was a little girl.   Daedalus and Icarus were imprisoned in a maze on an island, and Daedalus built two pairs of wings so they could fly out.  Icarus flew too close to the sun, which melted the wax holding his wings together.  He fell into the sea.  Daedalus flew just right--not too high or too low--and made it home again.  So, to me, the tattoo is a reminder to build wings when you get trapped, and to fly right, keep yourself balanced, and find your own way home.

ATNE: Who has made the greatest impact on your life and why? 

EJ: Hmmm…probably my father because he always challenged me growing up in many, many (laughs) different ways…but, also, always encouraged me in the world of music…he did a lot to conform my musical taste. He never once batted an eye when I announced that I wanted to be a musician (laughs). His support has meant a lot to me…really, both my parents…but my Dad was the one who made  a point of making me listen to his music when I was growing up. I think I would have eventually discovered Bob Dylan…but thanks to him, I got an early exposure to really good music like  The Bootleg Series, Howlin Wolf…His whole record collection became mine. I think I inherited his musical taste and I’m very grateful to him for that.

ATNE: What do you like most about living in New England….What do you miss most about Idaho

EJ: What I love most about living in New England is the diversity…the culture…just the fact there’s so many different worlds coming together in this part of the country. I’ve learned a lot from that. Growing up in Idaho, we didn’t exactly have the same kind of diversity that you can find here (laughs)…so it’s been eye opening and I love the fact that you can, on any given day, go to any number of amazing museums...you can go to the MIT campus and speak with the most amazing professor of  anything…fill in the blanks…you can go and get great Mexican food right down the street…there's the ocean right here…it feels like it has everything. But what I miss about Idaho is the one thing that New England doesn’t have which is wide open spaces. I tend to feel a little closed in on the East Coast. I miss that feeling of just having a lot more elbow room. I wish I could manage to bring all the diversity and culture  and art and amazing entertainment that New England has and somehow plop it down in Idaho….but then I don’t think it would be Idaho.

To learn more about Eilen Jewell and to see a schedule of tour dates, you can visit her website at http://www.eilenjewell.com/

Written By : Jessica Layne

Let us help promote your business with a story ABOUT YOU! For more information, visit our Advertising and Promotions page. To stay up to date on our latest stories and information around New England, visit our home page at www.allthingsnewengland.com, follow us on Twitter or become a fan on our Facebook page. Thanks for reading!