NEW CLUB EDA DOWNLOAD!

Hi All,
Time for another free Club EDA download!

Many of you have been following the progress of Jewel's new kids album project these past two months and may be wondering what to expect. Jewel has always had the ability to transcend any niche categorizations and never was this more apparent than on this album.  This project officially began on January 22nd, with the initial writing of the song "Sara Swan Sleepyhead."  Since then, it has been a remarkable non-stop ride and one of the most incredibly focused bursts of creativity that I've ever witnessed.   Jewel has never explored such a broad range of styles on a single project and her ability to balance sweetness, humor, strength and sensitivity has never been more apparent.  Folk, pop, jazz, country, bossa nova and even some avant-garde influences surface among these new songs. One of the keys was assembling such a talented team for this album.  In addition to her song-writing collaborator, Patrick Davis, these musicians (Les Hall, Ken Halford, Eric Darken, Jonathan Yudkin, Jason Freese and her engineer, Mark Dearnley) are supremely adept at a wide variety of styles and lay down the perfect grooves for Jewel's versatile ideas. Their diverse abilities have helped Jewel to not only create an adventurous album that will entertain children (the initial goal), but have helped her to explore American musicology in a way she never quite has before.

I could go on, but enough of my rambling and back to the song "Sara Swan Sleepyhead," which is where this project began. I'll turn it over to Jewel here:

One afternoon I had been feeling guilty for not having written anything for the children's album. I had a half hour before I had to leave for the movies (yeah, super important to get to the movies, right?) And so I decided to give myself a deadline... Come up with something before I left.

The result was Sara Swan Sleepyhead.   I didn't start with an idea of what it would be about- I just started playing what would be the verse chords, and let the tape record as the song came out. Alan has that work tape.

I watched the story unfold before me.  Sometimes (not always) writing songs is like reading a book in my head. Like it already exists, I just have to read it, and discover where it goes.  Sometimes I feel like a 3rd party reading someone elses work.  Its strange. Sometimes the writing seems obscured and I have to work at getting what it says just right... But it seems like it already exists... And I just have to copy it faithfully. I know a lyric is wrong when it doesn't match or translate the original I'm copying out of my head. Hard to describe.  Its a zone u get in, and if you stay out of your own way, it can just flow....or if you get off track, its obvious, and you just have to get back on...

In that half hour I got everything but the bridge written, if I remember correctly...and then went and saw The Green Hornet... Ha

I came back to finish it the day I was to record it. I seem to remember that the lyrics to the bridge had existed from that first day, as an extra long verse or something- and upon further inspection it seemed clear they were bridge lyrics, I just needed to create some music for it... A minor chord sequence... As I wanted the bridge to be the scary part of her dream...

So here is Sara swan Sleepyhead... Its the tale of a girl that loves to sleep in.  She loves to sleep in because she thinks her dreams are better than her real life.  Her mom tries to wake her up, but its always a fight...

But during this particular lucid dream, after ignoring her mom twice, her dream turns into a night mare, and gets a little too real... and she is scared and so glad to wake up... And that cures her... She no longer sleeps in or thinks dreams are better than real life... And her mom no longer has to badger her every day to get out of bed!

Enjoy the angel food and I can't wait for you to hear this on the album- the production was fun!  Theatrical...

Xx jewel

With that in mind, todays free Club EDA download is a lo fi preview of "Sara Swan Sleepyhead" in its unadorned solo acoustic form.  This is a live recording made at home on her laptop, which is how many songs initially begin.  In addition to the audio, there is a second free download for you of Jewel’s handwritten lyrics that also contains one of her humorous drawings.

OK.  Here we go.  Recorded at home on her laptop, enjoy a preview of the new song "Sara Swan Sleepyhead” as this month’s free Club EDA download.    

Alan