Wild At Heart – Eilen Jewell interview

Wild Bill Ketelhut provides the "blog" to this anti-blog
He has a radio program on WXOU out of Oakland University

Wild At Heart

I was sitting at the corner of the bar at Abeline’s in downtown Rochester, a small bar built inside a house, which caters to the Americana scene. Think of it as what the Ark would look like if it was located in Hamtramck. Eilen and her band stopped in Rochester for two sold out shows which had her playing a wide variety of new and old music ranging from her songs “Rain Roll In” to “Final Hour” along with covers of Loretta Lynn (a whopping three songs) and Them along with their version of “Shakin’ All Over” by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. She will bring her music to the Ark tomorrow night in a line up that includes the Swell Season, Mavis Staples (who she has played with before) and Judy Collins. She is very excited about playing the festival, noting that the Ann Arbor is a wonderful place to play music and very open to embracing artists. The only thing she is not looking forward to is keeping her set to 20 minutes which means she has to make sure to keep her storytelling to a minimum.



Eilen had always liked music and started playing piano at the tender age of 7. She grew up in Idaho and the family had moved to Alaska for a year for a failed job opportunity. On the ride back to Idaho with her parents and week old brother in the car, Eilen felt comforted by the playing of Beethoven that her father was playing in the cassette deck. She remembers being moved by the music and she “would play air piano with the dog in the backseat”. She would take lessons and become classically trained in both piano and violin.

When she turned 15, she got her first guitar. She started taking lessons but stopped and became essentially self-taught as she was concentrating more on singing and just using the guitar as a way to accompany herself. She soon found herself playing farmer’s markets and playing with her friends. Around 2002/3, Eilen, wondering what she wanted to do with her liberal arts degree (she didn’t study music but kept up her Piano), decided that music was “the only thing I really loved doing”.

While she admitted “She’s So Unusual” by Cyndi Lauper might have been her first album, given to her by a friend, she was more interested in early roots music, whether it be blues, gospel or bluegrass. She “thought I was discovering all this music but learned other bands did so first” (such as the Rolling Stones, etc). Going through her dad’s old 60’s and 70’s records, she found music by Howlin Wolf and Mississippi John Hurt. Mostly she was “curious about the names but it was love at first listen”. She also enjoyed the scratchiness of these old vinyl records pining that today, most music is over produced which caused it to lose some of that early vitality. We seem to agree that there is something special about those old recordings that newer digital releases can’t seem to capture.

Looking at her songs, I found two common threads in them, the first being “heartbreak”. While happily married now, she admits to having many failed relationships. When thinking of love, she admits to being “naïve and romanticizing as well’ and while she doesn’t have a dark outlook on life, there is truth in sadness. Part of it might also come from growing up in Idaho where the culture expects keeping your emotions hidden. If someone asks you how you are doing, you just say “fine” since it is impolite to say sad things. Only your closest friend do you tell the truth to what is bugging you. When I heard those old blues song, like those by Billie Holiday, it “was like talking to a friend”. Trying to recapture some of that in her music makes her songs more meaningful. She admits that along with sad songs, she is also drawn to sad stories and paintings as well. Thinking back to being a kid, the classical music she was drawn to was always in a minor key, like Chopin’s “nocturnes”.

The second thread is traveling which reminded me almost of the hobo lifestyle. She admits that there still is a life of riding the rails in Idaho. While not a hobo herself, she admits “after college, I was driftless, living out of my car (by choice) and that suited me”. Her family didn’t travel much but she “always wanted to see the world” and when they family did travel; it was very poignant for her. Eilen stated that “in the 6th grade I was reading a book and came across the word “wanderlust” and that’s what I have”. When I travel, I love to stop at museums and other attractions, but it is different for Eilen. I “like to aimlessly walk when I reach a new town”. The idea is to walk out of the hotel and passively walk and look around without any real goal. She “like(s) to absorb where I am. It’s the going I like, very meditative”.



While starting off with a very folk sound, it has become something more. A blend of what reminds me of delta blues permeates the music along with a old southern country feel. With the band, she admits she lost some fans when she added a drummer. “Folk still has a fear a rock” and when we started playing in certain shows “people worried about the drums before they were even played”. Of course, Ann Arbor seems to be above that and accepts musicians as they are so it creates a wonderful atmosphere unlike anything I have ever experienced. I would say that her music does seem a bit more removed from traditional folk in sound and her newest album, coming out in June/July is supposed to be a blend of the sparse acoustic sound of her first album mixed with the more 60’s Brit rock feel of her third. They finished recording it so it is just a matter of time now. She admits “I locked myself in a Idaho cabin for 10 days in August to write 2 songs a day” which became the backbone of this recording and there is a big 60’s Brit invasion influence.

When not touring or writing she likes to cook and admits “I like to do one thing at a time”, so when on the road she stays focused on the performance and rarely writes.

Make sure to check out Eilen if you get the chance. If you can’t get a ticket for the Folk Festival, she is sure she will get back around sometime. Remember, despite being sold out, if you get to the venue when they open the box office, the usually release a few extra tickets for those first in line. You can keep track of her projects and touring schedule at www.eilenjewell.com and she just updated she will be in Austin for SXSW on March 17th.