JEWEL’S NEW ALBUM, PICKING UP THE PIECES, AVAILABLE FRIDAY; PREVIEWING NOW ON PANDORA

 
 

Singer-Songwriter-author to appear on The View, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Fox & Friends, Steve Harvey, Howard Stern, and NPR’s My Big Break, On Point with Tom Ashbrook, and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me; first album in five years out Sept. 11 on Sugar Hill Records, New Memoir Blue Rider Press’ “Never Broken” follows Sept. 15

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – (Sept. 8, 2015) – Jewel’s new album Picking Up the Pieces is receiving its worldwide debut Friday, but the album is available now for preview on Pandora, offering fans a first look at the album critics are calling “remarkably raw” and “bracingly honest” (Entertainment Weekly) ahead of its Sept. 11 release.
 
The album is a personal return to her roots as a folk- and country-influenced singer-songwriter. The New York Times’ Best Selling author and poet also will be sharing her story through her new Blue Rider Press memoir, Never Broken: Songs Are Only Half the Story, due Sept. 15. The raw look at her struggles, even at the peak of her career, led Loretta Lynn to write, “Jewel’s Life in ‘Never Broken’ reminded me so much of my own. But if we hadn’t of come from hardship and nothing, we wouldn’t have made something out of ourselves.”

Jewel will celebrate the releases with a number of television appearances and book signings in the coming weeks. She’ll visit FOX News’ Fox & Friends on Sept. 14, ABC’s The View on Sept. 15, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live on Oct. 1 and Steve Harvey on Oct. 22. Additionally, Jewel will make appearances on The Howard Stern Show on Sept. 21 and NPR’s My Big Break, On Point with Tom Ashbrook, and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me throughout September and October. Book signings begin Sept. 14 in New York and will include Nashville, Boston, Denver, Phoenix and Los Angeles. She’s also appearing at this year’s AmericanaFest during the Americana Music Festival and Conference on Sept. 15 in Nashville.

Jewel’s 1995 release Pieces of You, recorded by Ben Keith at Neil Young’s home studio, should be considered a cornerstone of the current Americana and folk movements. The raw look at life on the edge buoyed by the hit “Who Will Save Your Soul” sold more than 12 million copies, but as Jewel chronicles in “Never Broken,” the time was far from happy. Picking Up the Pieces also covers difficult territory, and critics are responding.

“When the time came to make a new album, she wanted to get back to the vibe she captured on her debut and close the loop on Pieces of You with a bookend called Picking Up The Pieces.” Entertainment Weekly writes. “The result is a remarkably raw, bracingly honest set of folk and Americana tunes that tap into both the remarkable spirit in her voice and her incredible lyrical honesty.”

Rhapsody’s review notes “Jewel proves she is the sum of her parts: Picking Up the Pieces lightly treads in the country terrain she fully explored on her last two albums, while returning to the folk-pop poetry of her Pieces of You debut...”

Picking Up the Pieces is Jewel’s first new adult-oriented album of studio material in five years. Keith has passed away, so Jewel took over production of the album herself, hiring a band comprised mostly of Young collaborators. The album comes after a difficult period that included her divorce and the birth of her first child. Picking Up the Pieces captures some of these moments on “Love Used to Be” and “Mercy,” and also gathers longtime unrecorded live favorites like “Carnivore” and “Boy Needs a Bike.” The album includes “My Father’s Daughter,” a stunning autobiographical collaboration with Dolly Parton.

For more information about Jewel, Picking Up the Pieces and tour dates, check in at www.JewelJK.com. And follow @jeweljk on Twitter. 

About Jewel
Spending the past several years alternating between penning her memoir, Never Broken, and recording a pair of children’s albums, Jewel is set to return with her first proper album of new music since 2010’s Sweet and Wild.  Picking Up The Pieces, which serves as a “bookend” to the Alaskan-born singer’s landmark, multi-platinum-selling debut, 1995’s Pieces Of You, is some of Jewel’s most striking work yet: front and center is the iconic singer-songwriter’s world-renowned vocals, laser-sharp songcraft and intricate guitarwork. “It was time in my life to do this,” Jewel, who Rolling Stone calls “one of the most richly idiomatic pop singers of her generation,” explains of the 14-track LP, recorded in Nashville with seasoned musicians, and featuring road-tested fan favorites (“Carnivore,” “Boy Needs A Bike”) alongside groundbreaking new tracks (“Love Used To Be”) and a stunning collaboration with country legend Dolly Parton (“My Father’s Daughter”). Says Jewel: “I wanted the album to be purely an extension of my soul.” 

JEWEL RETURNS TO HER ROOTS WITH PERSONAL NEW ALBUM PICKING UP THE PIECES

 
Folk-influenced LP out Sept. 11 on Sugar Hill Records, offers fans 14 new tracks; Available for pre-order here now.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. ­ (July 28, 2015) ­-- She first appeared on the scene like a supernova and now, just five years since her last singer-songwriter album, Jewel is returning to the deep, personal territory and folk sound that made her one of music's most exciting young voices when she released the transcendent Pieces of You.

As revealed by RollingStone.com this morning, Jewel will release her new album Picking Up the Pieces on Sept. 11 through Sugar Hill Records, now available for pre-order here. She self-produced the 14-track LP - with her first producer, the late Ben Keith, always in mind – and hired a band comprised mostly of Neil Young collaborators to help her strip away the veneer she’d built up over two decades in the music business.

“This is just me. These are my thoughts. These are my feelings. This is my poetry,” Jewel said. “It really felt like returning to a part of me that I didn’t mean to lose, but with time and relationships and life and surviving and dealing, you take on new things and not all of them are great.”

The last five years have been full of change, both personal and creative, for the 41-year-old Alaska-born singer. Her 4-year-old son Kase was born, but her marriage fell apart. She wrote her memoir, Never Broken, and recorded a pair of children’s albums. Picking Up the Pieces captures some of these moments on “Love Used to Be” and “Mercy,” but also gathers longtime unrecorded live favorites like “Carnivore” and “Boy Needs a Bike.” The album also includes “My Father’s Daughter,” a stunning autobiographical collaboration with Dolly Parton.

Jewel said she wanted to make an album where she didn’t feel “diluted”: “I was trying to keep my mind quiet and honestly get back to something I feel like I’d lost touch with in my life. It was really an exercise in shutting out fear. I was giving myself permission to be exactly who and what I was.”
For more information about Jewel, Picking Up the Pieces and tour dates, check in at www.JewelJK.com. And follow @jeweljk on Twitter.

About Jewel
Spending the past several years alternating between penning her memoir, Never Broken - in stores September 15th -  and recording a pair of children’s albums, Jewel is set to return with her first proper album of new music since 2010’s Sweet and Wild.  Picking Up The Pieces, which serves as a “bookend” to the Alaskan-born singer’s landmark, multi-platinum-selling debut, 1995’s Pieces Of You, is some of Jewel’s most striking work yet: front and center is the iconic singer-songwriter’s world-renowned vocals, laser-sharp songcraft and intricate guitarwork. “It was time in my life to do this,” Jewel, who Rolling Stone calls “one of the most richly idiomatic pop singers of her generation,” explains of the 14-track LP, recorded in Nashville with seasoned musicians, and featuring road-tested fan favorites (“Carnivore,” “Boy Needs A Bike”) alongside groundbreaking new tracks (“Love Used To Be”) and a stunning collaboration with country legend Dolly Parton (“My Father’s Daughter”). Says Jewel: “I wanted the album to be purely an extension of my soul.”

# # #