Jewel debuts in first

Picking Up the Pieces

"The worst crime a person can commit is to be boring," sings Jewel in "Plain Jane," a track on "Picking Up the Pieces," her 12th album. Thanks to her origin story, no jury could ever convict her of such an atrocity. In her childhood, Jewel Kilcher's father brought her with him to perform in bars. By 15, she was living on her own in a cabin and riding a horse to multiple jobs. A year later, she busked her way across the country, into Mexico and back as she wrote ...

Sweet and Wild

Jewel's latest offering sounds pretty good (it comes with both acoustic and electric versions), but it's certainly more pop than country - most of the songs are fast-paced, and there's nary a dulcimer, fiddle or steel guitar to be found. But that fact notwithstanding, there are still a couple of tear-jerker songs here that would make even Hank Williams himself cry. Take, for example, the deeply melancholy Bad As It Gets, the enigmatic and powerful Fading or What You Are, a song ...

Perfectly Clear

The charge of opportunism could be laid at Jewel's door. "Perfectly Clear" comes after the disappointing sales of her previous CD, "Goodbye Alice in Wonderland" (her first album not to go gold.) And she's flirted with different genres in the past, as on the "modern big band" sound of "0304." On the other hand, it may be that Jewel's always been at least - like another famous Utah-born singer - a little bit country. And it may not matter ...