Eilen Jewell Photo: Otto Kitsinger
Nick Bollinger talks to soon-to-visit Americana artist Eilen Jewell.
Boise, Idaho is not a place that often comes up in discussions of American music, but it was the birthplace of this most American of artists. For more than a decade now she’s been making lovely records of the kind you could broadly classify as Americana. Her songs mix elements of country, jazz, and rock’n’roll and she has a hot and swinging band to help bring those songs to life. Eilen left Idaho in her late teens, first to study in Santa Fe, New Mexico, then spending time on both coasts before settling in Boston, where she formed her band, launched her recording career and until recently was based. But not long before she made her latest album Sundown Over Ghost Town she moved back to the place of her birth, something she seems to reflect on in a number of the songs. Eilen Jewell is due to make her second visit to New Zealand this month – she’s playing at the Tuning Fork in Auckland on March 24th.
Songs played: Hallelujah Band, Needle and Thread, Here With Me, Worried Mind, My Hometown
Sundown Over Ghost Town is available on Signature Sounds.
