INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

IndieBrew presents Eilen Jewell, Tim Grimm

The Royal Theater, Danville, Ind.
Saturday, Sept. 15, 7 p.m. doors, $15, all-ages

Eilen Jewell (pronounced E-lynn) feels like an anachronism on the landscape of modern music. The songs on her first national release, Letters from Sinners & Strangers, sound more like they are drifting from a scratchy, dust-covered record rather than a shiny compact disc. It’s a pleasant feeling.

But Jewell shouldn’t be cast aside as a musician whose creative output comes from milking an era gone by. Her songs, full of loneliness, desperation and the search for a sense of self, ring just as true today as ever before. They are themes ever present in popular music. Jewell just chooses an old-fashioned vehicle to deliver her views on the subjects.

It’s appropriate that Jewell’s music sounds as if it’s been pulled from history itself. The Boston-based musician, often compared to Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch, received musical history lessons at the hands of her father, who used long road trips to teach his daughter about different aspects of music. Each trip was dedicated to a genre, which would provide the soundtrack to their journey. The diverse lessons showed vintage country merged with folk, rockabilly and jazz.

This music carries lyrics that transcend emotional boundaries as easily as the notes her band plays. While she often lingers in the realm of loneliness, her songs also capture reckless desire, like on “Too Hot to Sleep.” Then the Martin Luther King Jr. inspired “How Long” is full of determination, where the question “How long?” is answered with “Not long. The truth is marching on.”

It’s evident that history shows up in her song selections. While Jewell composes most of her own music, she’s covered the likes of Bob Dylan, Charlie Rich and Eric Andersen.

Country music is a genre where its artistic side has unfortunately been covered over by marginally talented pop stars celebrating stereotypes in their cowboy hats and boots. Thankfully, there are musicians like Eilen Jewell who can tap into country’s roots and deliver heartfelt songs to new and old audiences alike — the kind of songs you might find on those scratchy, dust-covered records long stashed away.