Much changed for Eilen Jewell when she had her daughter 14 months ago. The under-heralded singer-songwriter moved back to her native Boise, Idaho, from her adopted New England home and much of her focus was on her baby.
Jewell had to plan for child care while touring.
“So much happened,” Jewell said. “I had to make adjustments since my life was altering.”
Just about everything changed for Jewell since her life dramatically morphed, except her music. “Sundown Over Ghost Town,” Jewell’s first album since 2011’s “Queen of the Minor Key,” is another eclectic album, which has that familiar Western feel. Even when Jewell lived for a decade in Boston, her Americana was distinctly Pacific Northwest.
“The West has always been all over my albums,” Jewell said. “That imagery has always been there, but I think it’s even more so with this record.”
“Sundown” is full of warm, poignant and melancholy songs, which are as deep as anything Jewell has written. “My daughter has made a huge impact when it comes to this material,” Jewell said. “The songs were written in a manner of what she will think of them someday.”
Jewell, who will perform Thursday, Sept. 3, at Bridge Street Live in Collinsville, has written a collection of songs that veer from country to folk to blues.
“It all comes from an organic place as far as what’s sonically going on with this album,” Jewell said. “I’m all about doing what makes me feel comfortable. I’m not about experimenting now. Maybe I will experiment in the future, but when I was making this album, I just wanted to make music that makes me happy.”
What pleases Jewell is her daughter, Mavis; her husband, Jason Beek, who is her percussionist; and her mother-in-law, who is on the road to provide child care and all-around support. “It’s been a great situation,” Jewell said. “I have the best of everything. I’m able to tour thanks to the help I get. The bottom line is that my daughter is the center of everything in my world. When I’m not writing, recording and touring, it’s about her. I just came back from the zoo with her. I think her arrival has made me a little deeper and, hopefully, that will make my songs more meaningful. My life has changed. There is no time for partying anymore and that’s a good thing. I’m well past that and I think everything in my life is better because of it. Even with all the new in my life, I’m still old school.”
Part of the reason that Jewell sounds like such a throwback is due to the way she was raised. “During the ’80s and ’90s I listened to a lot of great classic rock,” Jewell said. “That helped shape my musical sensibility. I remember listening to Buddy Holly and the Kinks. I think that rubbed off. And now I’m back in Boise and I’m listening to some great classic rock on the radio here. That music is part of what makes Boise, Boise. I love it here.”
One of her most touching new songs, “My Hometown,” was inspired by Boise and the senseless and incomprehensible mass murder in Newtown, Conn., in 2012. “I went into mourning when that happened and I couldn’t help but think of the innocent children and all the suffering their families went through,” Jewell said. “It also made me realize how happy I was to be going back to Boise.”
But Jewell admits that she misses New England. “There is so much I love about it back there and it will be fun to connect with that when I come back next week. I now live in a red state, which is never a good thing. I miss New England for the push and pull it has with its politics. It’s a blue state that actually has had Republican governors. There is no push and pull here. Also, I miss the music and art in Boston and New England. Boston has had a great music scene for a long, long time. It’s getting better here in Boise. I’m trying to help with that. I’m just trying to get through some things but I have a baby but that’s a cool thing. I know how fortunate I am to be a parent and a musician. I want to be the best I can with both.”
EILEN JEWELL appears Thursday, Sept. 3, at Bridge Street, 41 Bridge St., Collinsville. Tickets are $20 and $25. Show time is 8 p.m. Information: 860-693-9762, and 41bridgestreet.com
