3 articles in Nov 24, 1998's USA Today on Jewel and Spirit

Article one:
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Jewel's semiprecious 'Spirit' still sparkles

NEW YORK-  Three years after MTV polished a perfect Jewel out
of Pieces of You, the 24-year-old singer-songwriter and poet returns
to the pop charts with her follow-up album Spirit. Initially she entered
the studio intent on deviating from her soft soprano melodies. But after
eight weeks of recordings, Jewel's Thanksgiving release is as sweet and
familiar as pumpkin pie. While Jewel hopes Spirit reflects creative and
emotional growth, the new material doesn't present a significant shift in
style or attitude. However her girlish voice is backed by a spirited band
and a savvy producer, Patrick Leonard, renowned for his
collaborations with Madonna.

Article two:
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Jewel, Spirit ( 3 stars - out of four): The reigning diva of hippie folk-pop
reveals her multifaceted side in this tasteful setting, a refinement of the
rough-and-tumble debut that vaulted her to fame. With its billowy pop
melodies and lilting vocals, Spirit could hijack the masses. But it's not
1995's Pieces of You re-pieced. Jewel's slightly twangy singing is more
nuanced and her songwriting more sophisticated. She's enlisted a
spirited band and a savvy producer, Patrick Leonard, renowned for his
collaborations with Madonna. In a sweet, girlish voice that projects
vulnerability (and, less convincingly, wisdom), Jewel effuses hope and
encouragement on New Age sermons such as Deep Water, Life
Uncommon and first single Hands. On close inspection, this gem has
its flaws. Jewel's gentle musings can turn shrill, self-conscious and
annoyingly naive. But at 24, she's entitled to the blind optimism and
inspiring mantras at the core of Spirit.

Article three:
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Jewel goes where 'Spirit' moves her

NEW YORK - Spirit, the eagerly awaited sophomore album from
multiplatinum-selling artist Jewel, could have been a gritty,
rock-flavored, radical departure from her 1995 debut, Pieces of You.
And it nearly became a Christmas album.

Over herbal tea in her midtown
Manhattan hotel suite, the 24-year-old
singer-songwriter explains she made
her first stab at a second album more
than two years ago - a project called
off after only a few weeks in the studio,
when it became obvious that Pieces,
now a worldwide 10-million seller,
would have a lot more staying power
than was initially anticipated. For this
short-lived venture, Jewel had
recruited some veteran rock session
musicians to help her make a grittier,
more muscular album than Pieces,
which consisted of songs she had
written while still a teenager.

"My first album was like student art- it wasn't meant to be sold in
galleries," says Jewel, who drops metaphors the way other young stars
drop names. "When it ended up being a hit, it was like an alley dog
winning the Westminster dog show."

If Pieces of You was a surprise success story, it wasn't one that
happened overnight. Prior to being signed by Atlantic Records in 1994,
Alaska native Jewel Kilcher lived out of a Volkswagen van in San
Diego and struggled to support herself by waiting tables and performing
in a coffee shop. Then, after Pieces was released, the singer toured
relentlessly for about 18 months - covering, she estimates, "15,000
miles every four weeks" - before her softly glowing debut single, Who
Will Save Your Soul, began climbing the charts.

With her delicate soprano voice, tender lyrics and mellow, mostly
acoustic arrangements, Jewel was perhaps more comfortably
accessible to mainstream audiences than some of the edgier young
female artists who helped make "women in rock" a media phenomenon
in 1996 and 1997 - Fiona Apple, for instance, or even that
commercial behemoth Alanis Morissette. Some critics may have
panned Jewel's lyrics as overly earnest or naive, but fans praised her
straightforward warmth and sincerity.

Granted, it didn't hurt that Jewel's wholesome, blonde good looks
appealed to MTV and VH1 viewers, or that she was linked
romantically to Sean Penn, who directed the video for her second hit,
You Were Meant for Me. Pieces yielded a third hit, the ballad Foolish
Games, and landed Jewel on the covers of both Time and Rolling
Stone.

*NOTE FROM MIKE CONNELL: to those who do not know, there were TWO videos of You
Were Meant For Me. The first one was directed by Sean Penn and is rarely seen
(I've never seen it). The second one, the one most of you have seen, was
directed by Laurence (sp?) Carroll, who is no releation to Jewel's mother
Lenedra Carroll.*

Junking the rebuttals

When Jewel prepared to re-enter the studio earlier this year, she
realized that the songs she'd written for the aborted 1996 follow-up
"were catered to rebutting the criticism I'd gotten in the press - which
is a really weak way to make a record." So instead, Jewel did what her
fans would no doubt have wanted her to do: She followed her heart.

"At first, I was gonna do an album of spirit-of-Christmas stuff," she
says. "Then I thought, what is the spirit of Christmas - and why is it
just for Christmas? . . . It became this question of spirituality. Spirituality
is all aspects of being human. How do you have courage? How do you
love yourself when you don't live up to your own standards? How do
you stop feeling bad when feeling bad is all you've ever done?"

According to Atlantic executive vice president and general manager
Ron Shapiro, one of her early champions, Jewel turned such reflections
into product with unusual swiftness. Shapiro says the label had been
gearing up for a new album from Jewel in 1999, when the singer called
him up last spring and said she would have it completed sooner.

"It wasn't some corporate fourth-quarter thing," says Shapiro, alluding
to labels' desire for high-profile autumn releases. "This incredibly driven
woman . . . wrote this incredibly moving, sonically pleasing, brilliant
album, recorded it in eight weeks, and delivered it for Thanksgiving."

While Jewel describes Spirit as a more personal album than Pieces of
You, and hopes it reflects creative and emotional growth, the new
material doesn't present a significant shift in style or attitude. Produced
by Madonna collaborator Patrick Leonard ^^W whom Jewel chose after
interviewing numerous boardsmen "because he was the only one who
understood the album's theme and wasn't afraid of it" - Spirit is full of
spare, sweetly folky tunes that promote love, faith and positive action.

On the first single, Hands, which Jewel co-wrote with Leonard, the
singer rejects apathy and cynicism. Discussing the song's message,
Jewel uses firm, somewhat studied language, sounding - as she often
does - like a cross between a self-help guru and an eager young
schoolteacher.

"When you're down and out, cynicism is a luxury you can't afford," she
says. "There are two kinds of optimism: blind optimism, which is denial,
and informed optimism, which is what somebody like Martin Luther
King represented. He never let himself despair; he said, I will persevere
and I will win, and I will kick ass. That's intelligent optimism."

Fierce competition

The question industry insiders may ask is whether sales for Spirit will
vindicate Jewel's intelligent optimism. In addition to being the follow-up
to a successful breakthrough album, Spirit is facing a market saturated
with superstar releases. Morissette's sophomore U.S. album preceded
it by two weeks, while the day of Spirit's release, Nov. 17, also saw
new entries by Garth Brooks and Whitney Houston, as well as Mariah
Carey's greatest-hits package and The Prince of Egypt soundtrack.

Turbulent youth

In conversation, at least, Jewel herself seems to empathize most with
her younger fans. Her own youth, she says, was turbulent: Her parents,
who also sang, split up when she was 8. Jewel, the second of three
children, lived for a while with her father, Atz Kilcher, with whom she
performed in Alaskan bars, before reuniting with her mother, Nedra
Carroll, now Jewel's manager. (Spirit is dedicated to Carroll.) In
addition, Jewel struggled with dyslexia and adolescent insecurity.

Before she started writing songs, Jewel turned to poetry as an
emotional outlet; last May, a collection of her poems, titled a night
without armor, quickly became a bestseller. (The anthology inspired a
parody, titled a night without armor II: the revenge; Jewel says she
hasn't seen it, but she isn't offended by the concept. "A friend of mine
said that I would like it - it's fun.")

"I wanted to do something that would let kids know who I am, and
what I thought about when I was growing up," Jewel says. "Even
though the first stuff I wrote wasn't great, it shows a process I went
through - being disillusioned by love, coming to terms with my
sexuality. . . . That way, kids can go, 'Wow - she was just as
confused as I am!'

"To tell you the truth, I make decisions based on how I felt when I was
a little girl. I remember I couldn't look at magazines because I never
saw (women with) my body type or nose or teeth. I still can't look at
magazines like Vogue, or watch certain movies."

Of course, Jewel herself is now a cover girl, and she just filmed her first
movie role, as a Civil War bride in the upcoming drama Ride With the
Devil. But she seems a bit conflicted about how to handle her status as
a fledgling celebrity and sex symbol. She'll stress the need for keeping
her private life private but will reveal she has a new boyfriend, "a
cowboy from Montana." (Jewel is currently based in San Diego; they
travel to visit each other.) She'll lament the way other actresses and
female singers bare their breasts to sell magazines, but the ribbed tank
top she modeled for Rolling Stone left little to the imagination.

Then again, Jewel would be the first to admit that she's still learning to
be a public figure - just as she's still learning to be an artist.

"I'm a person who's trying to get her chops down," the singer smiles.
"I'm not always gonna make the right decision. But every decision I've
made has been about how to keep creating good art, and the best way
not to do that is to create in order to please outside opinion. All I can
do is be honest. Beyond that, it's up to the graces of whatever."

By Elysa Gardner, Special for USA TODAY