I was looking for pictures and couldn't find any, but here is a review:
http://www.timesonline.com/entertainment/local_entertainment/jewel-shines-bright-on-munhall-stage/article_c27f3e04-0d68-11e6-a06d-8bdf3d3e880f.htmlJewel shines bright on Munhall stageBy Megan Miller memiller@timesonline.com
MUNHALL -- It didn't take long for Jewel to get to her first story.
In an intimate concert that felt more like an episode of VH1's "Storytellers" than a rock show, the talented folk-indie singer-songwriter quickly launched into a monologue introducing herself after the show-opening, Broadway-esque "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" during her Thursday night concert at the Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall.
She came from humble -- some would say downright tragic -- beginnings in Alaska, facing an absent mother and an eventually abusive father. She left home at 15 to attend school in Michigan. We learned that Jewel is in fact her real name (everyone asks her that) and her teeth are real, too (though she joked that no one has asked her that question). She talked about working countless dead-end jobs, being homeless, sick, living in her car and wanting to break the cycle of where she comes from.
Jewel called it "emotional English," where it's not enough to just hate your language but you have to be willing to learn a new one. She worked and worked and decided that paying attention to her thoughts -- really thinking things through -- would help her grow into the person she was meant to be.
So she wrote the song she would sing next and introduced it by telling the fairly full theater about the first time she heard it on the radio. It was Sept. 14, 2001, when she was camping and didn't have communication with the outside world. When she came down from the mountains she had heard about 9/11 and a radio disc jockey played her song as a symbol of solidarity, a song she wrote at a low point in her life that was symbolic to the low point in the country's history. With the opening lines of “If I could tell the world just one thing/It would be that we're all OK/And not to worry because worry is wasteful/And useless in times like these,” the song went on to be an almost-anthem for the world tragedy.
It may seem like a long-winded story to get to the point of the second song, "Hands," but instead it was a poignant anecdote, a way for the audience to get to know Jewel.
Because as you can probably tell by now, she isn't your typical songstress. There is feeling and meaning behind her songs, often reading like poetry set to a melody.
Appearing on stage by herself with just a guitar, microphone and coffee mug, Jewel told shorter stories throughout the evening. And, always wearing her smart businesswoman hat, she regularly referred to her most recent album, “Picking Up the Pieces,” and memoir, “Never Broken: Songs are Only Half the Story.”
Nearing the last third of the show, Jewel asked the all-ages audience what songs they'd like to hear.
Well, there was a mixed consensus. Everything from "Foolish Games" to her regular set-closer "Who Will Save Your Soul" was shouted toward the stage in almost an assault-like manner. And she diligently belted out song after song during her 105-minute concert. (Jewel is one of those artists who has been around for so many years that you forget how many radio singles she has in her songbook.)
While there were some cool stage light fades, Jewel’s showmanship consisted of her songs, her stories and her soul instead of the usual, "Hey, your city makes a really good sandwich"-type banter that fans in these parts are usually met with.
The Munhall audience was treated to another Jewel specialty -- an encore consisting solely of her yodeling.
Yes, yodeling.
A skill she learned from her father at age 5. A skill she credited for possibly being the reason she didn’t have friends as a kindergartner.
And it's one of the many skills that makes a Jewel concert a must-see.
