By Todd Lavoie
A honky-tonk angel and devil, all wrapped up in one? It appears so with Boston singer-songwriter Eilen (pronounced “EE-len”) Jewell. The slow-drawling ambassador of old-timey sounds and rustic reveries offers equal measures of small-town charm and sassy backtalk on last year’s sublime Letters from Sinners and Strangers (Signature Sounds).
If you’ve ever been seduced by the potent country cocktail of twangy sweetness and “my man’s done me wrong” vinegar – think Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn for classic examples of such barstool tell-alls – then Jewell will surely get you good ‘n’ drunk. See for yourself – she’ll be hootin’ it up Wednesday, June 11, at the Rickshaw Stop.
Blessed with a pristine, uncluttered production – ably handled by Jewell and her band – Letters from Sinners and Strangers approaches the sounds of pre-suburban America with reverence and genuine affection. There’s no attempt here to modernize these country/folk/blues idioms, nor is there any sort of ironic distance being created between the singer and the subject. Rather, this is quite authentic, no mucking-about stuff. Other than the contemporary fullness of production, the album feels like an artifact from yesteryear, much in the same way that the work of Jolie Holland and Gillian Welch has also defied easy decade-classification.