These photographs are copyright 1997 Dominic May (mrdomay@aol.com) and may not be reproduced without permission.

During the course of the evening, Jewel relays a story of the time she played a San Diego club, turned up early in her van which doubled as her home, and unwittingly usurped Ike Turner's parking spot. "Ike Turner!" she exclaimed in mock terror as panicked club staff tried to appease the situation. Tellingly, Jewel stayed put, Ike found another space, watched the show and afterwards gave her a pre stamped autographed photo of himself with the charming inscription, What's love got to do with it? Not a damn thing! " And we looked at the woman who was with him and thought 'This is your date?!!'"

The story speaks volumes for Jewel's quiet but steely determination and confidence as much as the unteachable art of entertaining your audience. Jewel has already acquired both in spades, the result of a lot of touring to promote her two year old debut album Pieces Of You. She starts with the album's title track, the opening lines "She's an ugly girl" inducing a few titters as it's a phrase the statuesque, blue-eyed blonde beauty is unlikely to have thrown at her. From the back, a male member of the audience shouts that he can't see her. She asks everyone to sit down. Amazingly, everyone complies and Jewel bemoans, good naturedly that she will now be known as "that hippy chick!"

Musically, Jewel does not disappoint. She is a vocal powerhouse, with a range that seems like several octaves, equally capable of soaring melody and subtle nuance. Thus we have the pathos of 'Foolish Games', the girly suggestiveness of 'Let's Go Back To Bed', the raunchy, as yet unrecorded 'Racing Car Driver' and the poppy 'Who Will Save Your Soul?'. The newer material sounds tighter, more mature and better than the songs on her album. A potential Joni Mitchell for the '90s, she just needs that killer tune, that 'Big Yellow Taxi' for the breakthrough.