A
Jewel that shines
By
JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK, Times Staff Writer
)
published
--
Alaskan folk star Jewel kicked off the American leg of her This Way tour
Friday
at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, thrilling a near sellout
crowd
of 2,500 with more than 90 minutes of her intensely personal, poetic
reflections
on life. Having broken her collarbone and a rib in April, Jewel
relied
on her backing band to provide the music for most of her set, focusing
her
energy on soaring vocals that entranced the audience. She played several
songs
from her latest CD, including the hit Standing Still and the skewering
Jesus
Loves Me. Jewel also reached back for the crowd pleasers Foolish Games
and
You Were Meant For Me, which became a sing-along, as well as more than a
dozen
other tunes. Band members Mark Oakley and Stuart Mathis on guitar,
T-Bone
Hannon on bass, Steve George on keyboards and Trey Gray on drums
skillfully
bolstered Jewel's performance, never getting in the way. Perhaps
most
pleasing, though, was when she shooed the band away for a 30-minute
acoustic
set for which Jewel slung a guitar around her neck and played. When
she
could remember the songs, that is. She trotted out one number, only to
toss
it aside remarking that she did not recall how it went. "Okay, we're not
doing
that one," Jewel said with a laugh, quickly moving on. Out came a silly
polka
in which she sang, "When your nose is running, it's a perfect time for
kissing
and hugging. Do you want to catch a cold with me?" Next was the
gorgeous
ballad Grey Matter, followed by a remembrance of a friend she said
had
died of cancer. The band returned to close out the show with Jewel, whose
voice
was in fine form. She ranged from coquettish, getting guys to scream as
she
sang, "Do you want to play?" to a belt in several songs that would
have
made
Janis Joplin proud. She only looked uncomfortable in that she seemed not
to
know what to do with her hands when she did not have a guitar in them. But
Jewel
bantered with the crowd, and they loved her back. A couple of fans
shouted
so much that at one point she urged them to shut up so she could
play.
The rest of the audience burst into applause. Jewel released This Way
in
late 2001, and then toured Asia and Europe before heading back to the
states.
She plays Fort Lauderdale tonight and Orlando on Sunday, with her
40-date
tour ending in September in California. The Norwegian teen duo M2M
opened
with a 25-minute set of mainstream pop about absent boyfriends and bad
days.
Impressively, the girls, Marit Larsen and Marion Ravn, wrote many of
their
lyrics. At first clearly apprehensive, they seemed to warm to the crowd
toward
the end of the performance. Larsen, the primary singer of the two, had
a
powerful if sometimes breathy voice that could take her places.
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