Eilen Jewell w/ Steve Fulton

Saturday April 28, 2018 @ 8:00 PM

EILEN JEWELL returns to the Bridge Street stage with her new album “Down Hearted Blues,” on Saturday, April 28th at 8 pm! Singer/songwriter STEVE FULTON will open the show.

EILEN JEWELL laughs when told her label’s president called her a musicologist. But she confirms she and her husband and band-mate, Jason Beek, have a passion for studying American music. “We really love to uncover the past. It’s almost like digging for buried treasure,” she says. “For me, that’s where music is at. I like all kinds of music as long as there’s the word early in front of it.” For her new album, “Down Hearted Blues (2017, Signature Sounds), Jewell and Beeck unearthed 12 vintage gems written or made famous by an array of artists both renowned and obscure, from Willie Dixon and Memphis Minnie to Charles Sheffield and Betty James. Then, like expert stonecutters, they chiseled them into exciting new shapes and forms, honoring history while breathing new life into each discovery.

Known for what allmusic.com describes as a “country-flavored and blues-infused version of contemporary folk (which also can include healthy doses of rockabilly and surf),” Jewell’s discography includes several albums of original material and one of Loretta Lynn covers. Jewell has also recorded two albums with her eight-piece gospel-group side project the Sacred Shakers. But this latest effort, which she and Beek co-produced, with engineering by pianist/banjo player Steve Fulton and Pat Storey, is her first collection of blues — despite the fact that she credits the genre for igniting her musical curiosity in the first place.

While Jewell doesn’t exhibit whiskey-scratched vocal tendencies, she can certainly make a gutbucket lose some splinters — or beguile with silky sexiness. It’s as if she’s doing a one-woman play, slipping into a different persona with each song — a feat that becomes even more impressive when she reveals these tracks were recorded in only two days, live, and that Miller and upright bass player Shawn Supra hadn’t even heard some of them beforehand. That’s how spontaneous it actually was. They just happened to book some studio time during a free day in Boise, and had so much fun playing these songs they decided to make an album. “It really felt serendipitous, like what was supposed to happen was happening,” Jewell says. “I finally gave myself permission to do what I wanted to do, and the universe supported me.”

STEVE FULTON is a singer/songwriter from Boise, Idaho who performs under the stage name, SFM - Steve Fulton Music. He has performed all over the country for the last 20 years touring with his band and as a solo artist. His musical persona includes full band funky-rock-reggae and stripped down Americana. In October 2016, SFM - Steve Fulton Music released "Eponym," the first new album in 11 years. Available at The Record Exchange in Boise, Idaho, CD Baby, iTunes, and Spotify. "Eponym" finished the year as the number one selling CD at The Record Exchange in 2016.

Tickets are $22 for General Admission and $32 for VIP Reserved (+ fees).

Links:

Tickets:

$22, $32