A mere couple of years ago, Alaska-born Jewel Kilcher settled down in her newly-adopted
San Diego to pursue a dream. Working drudge jobs by day, writing, singing and learning
guitar in whatever time was left, Jewel struggled to make headway. After getting fired
from a succession of waitressing gigs, she decided to quit trying to lead two lifestyles
at once. Moving into her Datsun, and then a Volkswagen van, Jewel lived wherever her
car happened to be parked -- surviving on peanut butter and carrot sticks, thinking
five dollars in her pocket at once was pretty fine. She concentrated on her art,
playing for money once or twice a week at local coffeehouses and devoting the rest of her
time to thinking, writing, and perfecting her music.
In a sudden (yet long-worked-for) reversal of fortunes, she became locally well-known
for marathon sets at a local venue called the Innerchange, and was soon
discovered by an Atlantic Records scout. Jewel signed with Atlantic, recorded the
tracks that would become her debut album Pieces of You, and has since been
"busting her butt" touring in support of the album. About the time of her debut release,
a group of interested fans acquainted with Internet mailing lists lobbied for a list
devoted exclusively to Jewel and her music. Thanks to list manager Jeff Wasilko and a
dedicated group of Jewel fans, the Jewel mailing list, informally known as the Everyday
Angels, thrived from the beginning.
Jewel has long been aware of the energy and tenaciousness of her fans; she has written
a song for us (Deep Water), and always managed to send a cheery note to us via
her management at regular intervals. An almost offhand suggestion by one of the list
members resulted in a chain reaction: Jewel agreed to perform a free concert just for
her mailing list fans. After the go-ahead from her management, several gung-ho list
members leaped at the chance to organize a concert, and JewelStock was born. Timed
to coincide with the recording of Jewel's followup CD, this gathering brought nearly
300 Jewel fans from across the country together to celebrate the success of their
favorite performer. Without further ado, let's go to JewelStock in Bearsville NY on
the magical date of July 18, 1996!
Click on each icon to bring up a bigger, annotated image
I think I have all the names and faces right now! Yay!
All pictures by Greg Dunn © 1996 :) except for me in front of the sign (taken by Matt
Wendel), Liz and Fuzzy (Robb Leigh), and me with Jewel (taken by my lovely daughter Toni).
Thanks to Dennis Harris of the illustrious Harris Brothers for the use of the
artwork.