EILEN JEWELL

Letters from Sinners and Strangers

2007-07-23

Eilen (rhymes with feelin') Jewell checks in with her second release. She's based in Boston, but her hometown is Boise, Idaho, where dad and mom weaned her on Bob Dylan and Howlin' Wolf records. She does a Dylan number on this set (#11), but critics have most commonly compared her to Gillian Welch. I don't know that I'd go that far in comparison, but Eilen does a bit of "atmosphere" about her songs that give them a depth of feelin' (hey, that rhymes). I liked the Charlie Rich nugget "Thanks a Lot" (#4) and "Heartache Boulevard" (#5) was impressed by her putting music to the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. for the song "How Long" (#8). - MJVD