Jewel, the voice from Alaska (2024)

Advanced level English

Music

If you drive 200 miles down the lonely road leadingsouthwest out of Anchorage, Alaska, you'll eventuallyreach thesmall town of Homer - an isolatedcommunity, population 4000, near the end of the Kenai peninsula.

Maybe by Alaskan standards it is not too wild. Atleast there is a road - the kind of luxury that is not offered to everycommunity in America's distant northernmost state. In winter time, thesnowplows cut through the snow, leaving it banked up twenty feethigh on either side of the road. "You can drive it," says Jewel,"If you're a good driver."

This is where Jewel grew up. Her childhood was spenton a 400-hectare homestead, withno television and no runningwater. As a child her main occupation apart from going to school, waslookingafter her horses.

Jewel was born in 1974 in Utah, the daughter of aSwiss-born father and an Alaskan mother; her parents, who were Mormons,earned a living as social workers, and also as a folk-singing duo.

When Jewel was a baby, the family moved up to Homer.There was work there for her parents in the region's tourist hotels,whosemanagers were delighted to have some locally-resident folk singers;when shewas six, Jewel and her brothers joined the family group, the Kilchers.Thesinging family was a big hit, becoming one of Alaska's most sought-afteracts. However, her parents did not want to go down the commercial roadfollowedby certain other singing families, and did not make any records.

When Jewel was eight, her parents divorced; it was a heart-wrenchingmoment for Jewel when her mother left the family home, and headed forthewarmer climate of San Diego, leaving Jewel and her brothers with theirfather.To cope with the divorce, Jewelfound comfort with her horses,and also turned to writing poems and songs.

"For a child," she told the magazine Interview,"Divorce is like being torn out of the only air you've ever known. Mypenbecame, to a large degree, my oxygen supply."

As she grew older, people in Homer increasinglyrecognized the musical talents of the young Kilcher girl. At age 15,when shewon a 70% scholarship to theprestigious Interlochen Arts Academyin Michigan, Homer residents chipped into cover the rest of thefees.

Before going to Interlochen, Jewel had been thinkingof becoming an opera-singer; but she did not particularly like her twoyears inMichigan, and while there her tastes changed, she took up the guitar,and beganwriting her own songs.

After graduating, she went to join her mother who wasliving a fairly precarious lifein San Diego. At first things didnot work out too well. Jewel found jobs, but seemed to lose them almostasquickly; employers did not really appreciate the way she spent too muchtimetalking to customers and employees, rather than getting on with the job.

Eventually she got a folk-singing job at the Innerchange,a popular coffee bar in Pacific Beach. And that, as they say, is wherethingsreally began to happen.

Jewel's Thursday night spot soon became the mostpopular event of the week at the Innerchange; people started pressingin to seethis beautiful 19-year old blonde folk-singer, and by 1994, she wasdoing fourshows a day, and still the people kept coming.

Naturally, word soon got around that there was thisamazing young folk-singer at the Innerchange, andsome record company executivescame down from L.A.; the men from Atlantic records liked what theyheard, andwithin weeks they had offered Jewel a recording contract.

Jewel's first album, partly recorded live at theInnerchange, came out in 1995. At first it went nowhere, taking 14months toreach the Billboard top 200. Since then, everything has fallen intoplace. In1997, Pieces of You was the second highest selling album of the year inthe USA (4.3 million copies sold), and so far now it has sold over tenmillioncopies worldwide. Now, at the end of 2014, she is working on herfourteenth album.

Though Jewel is now a megastar, she remains stronglyattached to her Alaskan roots, and looks forward to her visits backhome."I'm not American," she says, "I'm Alaskan. It's a differentcountry. People look at me very oddlyin the States, but at homeI fit right in."

WORDS

eventually:finally - peninsula: narrowfinger ofland, almost an island - bankedup:piled up - homestead: home,rural home -Mormons: members of the Mormon religion - soughtafter: desired - heart-wrenching:terrible - cope with: survive - 70% scholarship: 70% of the cost is offered free - chipin: participate- precarious:unstable - executives:managers - odd: bizarre.

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Studentworksheet

Music : Jewel - the voice fromAlaska

Readthe article about Jewel Kilcher, the put these events into the correctchronological order.

A.Gets a folk-singingjob
B. Moves to Homer
C Thinks of operasinging.
D. Gets recording contract.
E. Parentsdivorce
F. Lives in Utah.
G. Goes to SanDiego.
H. Goes to school in Michigan
I. Joinsfamily singing group.
J Has second best selling album of theyear.

Then use these events as the framework of a short biographical summaryof Jewel Kilcher, to be written using between ninety-five and a hundredand five words (nomore, no less).

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