Big Picture Big Sound

The Performance

With her debut album Pieces of You in 1995, the native-Alaskan singer/songwriter Jewel infiltrated the airwaves with her Country-tinged acoustic folk songs about love and the humdrum daily rituals of life.  Coming along at a time when grunge was still the predominant form of "alternative" music being played on the radio stations and promoted by MTV, Jewel seemed out of place between the Nirvanas and Soundgardens of the day.

It's not surprising then that being a fan of Jewel's music became almost a taboo. Comedians and musicians alike had a wealth of jokes in their cannon concerning the music of Jewel and her fans. The crowds still followed, however, and Jewel, raised on a homestead and taught to play the guitar and sing by her music-loving father, would go on to chart many hit singles and release gold and multiplatinum albums.  So faithful are Jewel's fans that many were even willing to overlook her 2003 attempt at Britney Spears-inspired dance/pop, 0304.

Jewel: The Essential Live Songbook is taken from the PBS Soundstage series and documents Jewel's tour for her "comeback" after the mild commercial success, though ultimately ill-received aforementioned album. It captures her performing in two separate live sets touring for 2006's Goodbye Alice in Wonderland, which found the folksy blonde with the quirky lyrics and odd, Mitchell-esque tunings returning to form, newly inspired by her home and surroundings in Stephenville, Texas.

Disc 1 of the collection, entitled Goodbye Alice in Wonderland, is taken from a set at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Texas. Consisting of twenty songs, the performance is split approximately into two halves. The first seven numbers are performed by Jewel solo, with only her acoustic guitar as accompaniment, before the band joins in from "Long Slow Ride" on to finish out the show.

Disc 2, Live at the Rialto Square Theatre (Juliet, Illinois) contains much of the same material, and as on disc one, is mostly performed by Jewel solo, before she s finally accompanied by a band and live chamber orchestra for seven out of the last eight numbers.

Disc 1 is the stronger of the two sets, anchored by a rousing rendition of Jewel's first hit single, "Who Will Save Your Soul," that contains some very fun vocal play between the singer and her guitarist, the big, country-inspired single from Goodbye Alice in Wonderland, "Stephenville, TX", in which the singer muses "I'm 32 years old That ain't the end but it sure ain't where I began," and the Blue-era Joni Mitchell-styled number, "Where You Are," that has Jewel playing an Appalachian dulcimer with sparse accompaniment from the rest of her band.

Disc 2 has its share of strong moments as well. Jewel once again shows her strong Joni Mitchell influences with the disc's opener, "Near You Always," and the disc offers pleasing solo-acoustic renditions of the familiar numbers, "Who Will Save Your Soul," "You Were Meant for Me," and "Foolish Games". At first it seemed like an interesting idea to hear Jewel perform with a chamber orchestra, but the arrangements are too sentimental and the way the string section was recorded gives it a very gratingly electronic sound. Ultimately, the ending portion of the set with chamber orchestra makes an otherwise enjoyable live set end on a weak note.

Jewel: The Essential Live Songbook is a great document of a strong songwriter who has survived longer than most people ever do in the music industry, proving her critics wrong and her fans right. Long after grunge has faded into history, Jewel and her old-style folk are still going strong and these sparingly instrumented  arrangements  only serve to expose just how strong her songwriting is.
 
The Picture

Jewel: The Essential Live Songbook is an original high definition production and its 1080i source appears on this Blu-ray release in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio in an AVC/MPEG-4 encoding. This is one of the better live concert high definition captures I have seen on Blu-ray Disc. It does not display many artifacts, outside of perhaps a little extra video noise in dark areas, and it is particularly well detailed on close-up shots. Black levels are excellent showing strong detail delineation and dark, stable black levels. Contrast is also set superbly, offering bright picture that never blooms even when the stage lights are at their most active.

Saturation is of a high quality, with lifelike flesh tones and vivid colors, like Jewel's turquoise-colored dress during her Meyerson Symphony Center set. The HD capture for this set is so well detailed and balanced that it is effortless to make out Jewel's hazel-green eyes and the pores of her skin. Even so, there is a slight bit of softness in long shots and in fast pans that could be a result of the 1080i format. One wonders just how much better this could have looked had it been captured at 1080p.

The Sound

The sets on both discs, including the bonus Red Rocks set come with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless (48kHz/24-bit), PCM 2.0 (48kHz/24-bit) and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio options.  I chose the DTS-HD Master Audio mix as my main listening option for the purposes of this review, sampling the PCM stereo along the way. Truth be told, both mixes are nearly identical. The 5.1 mix opens up the soundstage a bit by spreading some ambience and crowd noise into the surrounds, but both mixes are otherwise identically balanced, residing mainly in the midrange with a slight boost in the upper frequency range that is enough to be noticeable, but not enough to cause any listener fatigue.

Jewel's vocals are well recorded, full and clear over the sound of the band. Instrumentation is well delineated and the acoustic instruments, in particular, ring true with great realism. The LFE is not used as effectively as it could have been, resulting in a bit of weak low end -- the kick drum is often lost entirely -- but, it doesn't not hamper enjoyment of the performance. Jewel's music doesn't necessarily lend itself to g resounding low frequencies anyway. In all, it's a competent, good sounding audience mix that can be turned up to fairly loud levels and almost feel like one has been transported into the performance space.  

The Extras

Koch is to be commended for supplying bonus materials on this release that Jewel fans will actually want to go back to for repeated viewings.  Most enjoyable are the additional four songs from the Red Rocks set and the music video for "Stephenville, TX".

The extras available on this release are:

• Live at Red Rocks (Blu-ray Exclusive Tracks)  (1.78:1/AVC/high definition/DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1) -- These four bonus live performances from Jewel's Red Rock's set offers fans even more material for their viewing and listening pleasure. All four songs can be found in main sets on both discs, but its interesting still to compare the slight differences in performance style. Out of the four tracks, "Who Will Save Your Soul" is the strongest number and the biggest crowd pleaser. The tracks available are:
  • "Everybody Needs Someone Sometime"
  • "Love Me, Just Leave Me Alone"
  • "Standing Still"
  • "Who Will Save Your Soul"
• "Stephenville, TX" Music Video (1.78:1/high definition/PCM 2.0 48kHz/16-bit)
• Interview (1.78:1/high definition/PCM 2.0 48kHz/24-bit) -- In this interview Jewel talks about everything from growing up in Alaska to touring during the early days of her career. Fans will appreciate this further look at the musician, but their isn't much information offered that most won't already know.

Final Thoughts

Jewel proves that she is a worthy musical artist, over a decade after her debut, by still managing to fill large venues and hold on to her loyal fan base. This Blu-ray Disc release is a great value for any fan of the musician, offering two discs filled with hours of Jewel performing live. The soundmix and picture quality are of a high caliber making this release nearly impossible to pass up for anyone who considers them self a true fan.

Where to Buy

• Jewel: The Essential Live Songbook

Product Details

• Actors: Jewel
• Directors: Various
• Language: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit), PCM 2.0 (48kHz/24-bit), Dolby Digital 5.1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rating: Not Rated
• Studio: Koch Vision
• Blu-ray Disc Release Date: October 28, 2008
• Run Time: 265 minutes
• List Price: $34.99
• Extras:
  • Live at Red Rocks (Blu-ray Exclusive Tracks)
    • "Everybody Needs Someone Sometime"
    • "Love Me, Just Leave Me Alone"
    • "Who Will Save Your Soul"
  • Interview with Jewel
  • "Stephenville, TX" bonus video