EILEN JEWELL

First things first, countless times I’ve heard people tell their friends about this artist. They say, “You’ve gotta check out this AILEN Jewell.” Or heard during Treefort, “EILEEN Jewell has a great new album!” She would likely never correct you herself, but just so we’re all on the same page, it’s pronounced “EE-len.” Rhymes with “how ya feelin’?”

Eilen kindly accepted an invitation for an interview and session during our noon hour. You’ll want to catch the show this Sunday Night, Charlie Sutton is the opening act for this show at The Olympic Venue on Main Street. This is the bar just above Mulligan’s.

We had a great visit, and she did a couple of songs for us. This is “Rich Man’s World.”

Boise is spoiled to have artists like Eilen play in town, between spots on the world tour they are planning. She’s playing Portland and Seattle this weekend before returning for the Boise show.

During our chat, Eilen said she really likes Ray LaMontagne for modern music, and Lana Del Rey. She says friends tease her for being late to the party. I asked her if there was a location in her history of touring that pleasantly surprised her. She said it was Sweden, because it is beautiful and spread out like Idaho.

Here’s one of the songs from her latest album, “Gypsy.”

If you need a comfort song, close your eyes and listen to this. I asked for a holiday song we could share next month. We will have enough now that we can do an “Eilen Christmas” Lunch in the Library! This is a beautiful classic song covered by many, including Roy Orbison. It was written by Willie Nelson.


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Eilen Jewell


It had been well over a year since our last session. We all laughed as we were beginners again at everything. What side of the TV does the USB plug into? Did someone ask Eric for a graphic? Where's Tim's music stand? There were 2 times that I pretty much closed my eyes and pushed a button on the mixer to get where I needed to go. We could go live on Facebook, but with no audio. We were all very rusty, but couldn't ask for a better person to start our year of sessions.

Our winners were so excited to get together and have amazing lunch from Piehole Pizza! They gave us a great vegan pizza and 3 others, I was so excited to see my favorite potato bacon.

As we got ready to go live, Eilen mentioned that it was "great to live life again."

During Covid, Eilen said she did a little writing, but no full songs yet. She is just happy to have a healthy family. Before the session, she mentioned being nervous as daughter Mavis is off to her first summer camp!

Eilen spoke of the loss of a great Idaho songwriter, Pinto Bennett. I used to watch him play when Lock, Stock, and Barrel was on Emerald. Eilen and Jason had produced Pinto's last album, "The Last Saturday Night." When asked about the loss of Pinto, Eilen said, "The world just got a little less interesting."

When the session was done, listeners mingled ate pizza, shared hugs and stuck around. Our friend Carrie noted that people never stuck around as they have to get back to work. Eilen said, "There was a time when I thought this would never happen." We couldn't agree more, and no one knows if we're past this or just between quarantines. We hope you can hear some great outdoor music this summer, including weekend shows with Eilen at Kin.

Have questions or comments? Email me.