JANUARY 2020 EDA INCLUSIVE by Alan Bershaw

Hi All, 
   Let’s see a show of hands. Who considers 2019 the best year ever? What? Nobody? Well, I hear ya on that! 2019 has been the most challenging year ever on my end, but at least we all survived it, and now it’s history… One thing I learned this year, as my wife and I experienced it firsthand, is that our lives can change in an instant.     

      It’s this concept, that led me to select a particular unreleased Jewel song as our first EDA Inclusive for 2020. Among the 200+ new songs that Jewel wrote during the long preproduction stage for her next album, a few were collaborations with her Handmade Holiday Tour band. Only those lucky enough to attend the last few nights of that December 2018 tour, got to actually hear them, when she began veering off the holiday music path into uncharted territory. 

      What I’d like to share with you is a social commentary song tentatively titled “Change”, which Jewel only performed three times and has never addressed in the studio. It didn’t make the cut for the short list of her next album contenders, but nonetheless, it’s an engaging experiment. So, I thought I’d share it with you before it descends into the realm of back catalogue obscurity.          

      Although different than anything else Jewel has written, it does reflect the presence of elements from other stages of her career, with one of her structural trademarks intact - verses that are in marked contrast to the choruses. The verses are also spoken, rather than sung, magnifying that contrast. If nothing else, its another example of Jewel transcending the compartmentalization of the music industry and in terms of her live audience, defying expectations.      
    
      The version I’d like to share with you is the final performance of it, recorded in Biloxi, Mississippi on December 22, 2018, on the last night of the tour. I initially planned to share the audio alone, but was pleasantly surprised to discover remarkably good footage exists - thanks to an intrepid fan (Thank you DTenacity!) and their cell phone camera. I synchronized our stereo house mix to it, so now you can listen to clean clear audio while watching this fan footage.     
  
      Despite 2019 being the most challenging year yet, we’re still going strong and I hope you are, too. We made it thanks in no small part to friends, family, nurses, doctors, puppy trainers, caregivers and colleagues who stepped up to support us through it. I know you get it, as thoughtfulness and supporting each other are both concepts The EDAs have always held dear - going on a quarter of a century now! Despite everything else going on in our collective world, some of it monumentally depressing, there are extraordinary people everywhere, doing remarkable things for others. If you’re not one of them, you can always make that change.         

      Goodbye, 2019. Can’t say I’ll miss ya... Here’s to a Happy and Hopeful New Year!     

      Alan Bershaw