NEW Club EDA Download!

Hi All,

Time for another Free Club EDA download!

Jewel has created an enormous catalogue of songs over the past two decades, but autobiographical songs have been few and far between.

Jewel wrote “Stephenville, TX” in January 2000, at age 25, just after relocating from San Diego to the ranch in Texas.  Written shortly after this big transition, it was the first song to find Jewel so openly reflecting on her own life.  She had written many character study songs by this point, but unlike the others, “Stephenville” resulted in a sort of self-character study. She first recorded the song during the sessions for her fourth album, “This Way,” and a live version was issued as a bonus track on a "Standing Still" single, but it didn't see an official studio release until 2006, when she rerecorded it for the "Goodbye Alice In Wonderland" album. 

The public debut of “Stephenville” occurred at the February 2000 taping for Jewel’s Austin City Limits appearance, just a few weeks after she wrote it.  Since she wasn’t touring the first half of 2000, many fans initially heard it that June, when ACL premiered her episode on PBS stations nationwide.  Since then, it has remained a staple of her solo acoustic repertoire, right up to the present day.

With that in mind, I thought you would enjoy hearing Jewel’s most recent performance of “Stephenville,” recorded live at her New Year’s Eve concert in Park City, Utah.  Some of the lines written at age 25 now take on a new resonance (ie, "maybe a mother someday"), making this song just as compelling as the years fly by. 

Also, on a more humorous note, I’ve also included a portion of Jewel’s monologue leading up to this song that evening. She began with her “meeting Bob Dylan” monologue that many of you are familiar with, but then she spontaneously veered off into some new territory, which is also included in the audio file.

In addition to the audio, there is a second free download for you of Jewel’s handwritten lyrics, which in the case of this song, took a lot of writing!

OK.  Here we go.  Recorded on December 31, 2010 at the Eccles Center for the Performing Arts in Park City, Utah, help yourself to this most recent live recording of “Stephenville, TX,” as this month’s free Club EDA download.     

Alan