Jewel in the frown
‘Foolish Games’ singer releases post-divorce album
AS she recorded the track “Love Used To Be” for her new album, “Picking Up the Pieces,” available Friday, the singer Jewel faced an unusual challenge: She was unable to stop crying.
“This is a very raw, very emotional record,” she says of the new album, recorded as her marriage to rodeo star Ty Murray was crumbling. (The two announced their divorce last year.)
“I wrote ‘Love Used To Be’ as a eulogy for the marriage,” says Jewel, 41. “I think I ruined seven takes. In general, I only do two takes of each song. But for this, I kept crying so much during the recording that I kept ruining takes, and had to come back to it later.”
Listening to the song, the album’s leadoff, which addresses the sadness of broken love, one hears her despair, her voice building from an almost conversational tone to a heartbreaking keen, evocative of loss as she cries, “I’m alone” and “I’m lost at sea.”
For Jewel, who wrote her first song and, subsequently, first hit at 16, the contemplative “Who Will Save Your Soul,” sharing her darkest emotions in song has always been part of her healing process, noting, “Songwriting has always been cathartic for me.”
“Picking Up the Pieces,” which will be released just days before her memoir, “Never Broken,” includes songs Jewel has written throughout her career. Some, like the lilting “His Pleasure Is My Pain,” a detailed account of a breakup in progress, were written when she was about 18.
“A lot of older songs took on a much more current poignancy because of what I was going through,” she says, referring to the collapse of her marriage. And the heartache: “I let it be very evident in the performance of the song. It’s a very raw, very emotional record.”
Jewel and Murray were married for six years and together for 16, and have a son together, Kase, now 4. Since their divorce, the excouple has vacationed together with Kase. Jewel explains that, because they’ll be raising a child together, Murray still holds — and will always hold — an important place in her life.
“The man I fell in love with is still that person. He didn’t change so completely that he’s not a person I can respect and admire, even if it’s not in a romantic way,” she says.
“We have a child together, and it would be incredibly selfish for either of us to not [make an effort to] have a friendship. That would be incredibly shortsighted. We’re in a relationship forever, because of our child. The nature of that relationship changed, and it takes a lot of care and mindfulness to help that transition. But you don’t get to burn it down. You don’t get to walk away.”