Eilen Jewell

Eilen Jewell

When this first came on my recently added playlist on my ipod today, I was bemused as to how a country artist had made their way through a pretty ruthless screening process. The closest to country i've allowed in the past is Jenny Lewis and that's exactly the reason she's on there.

She has the smoke and fire of the Rilo Kiley frontwoman with the darkness and whiskey tinge of Chan Marshall. The instrumentation too, is gorgeous. Slow downstrokes that sound like spilling a thousand tiny diamonds. Lyrically the themes are what you would expect but it's the original perspective that makes her stand out. It's all undeniably rooted in country but with an irresistable edge.

As a rule I only reccomend one country artist a century but I have no problem making an exception here. Seriously though if you know of any other great non cliche artists from this genre i've got a pretty open mind right about now.

Sea of tears