Eilen Jewell has bounced back from a gruelling period when everything was falling apart with a stirring album, GET BEHIND THE WHEEL. The Idaho-born singer-songwriter, on top of general pandemic-related problems, had to come to terms with the break-up of her marriage to Jason Beek – he was also her drummer, band manager, and the father of their young daughter – as well as the deaths of family members and some close friends. In an attempt to overcome her plight, Jewell temporarily moved to a small cabin in the Idaho mountains and spent some time alone there, hiking, embracing her surroundings and writing daily. This new album was conceived in that period and it includes the most personal and heartfelt writing of her career. Bringing those songs to the studio, she called on Will Kimbrough to co-produce, the first time she had outsourced a producer. With her trusted band of Jerry Miller on guitar, Jason Beek - returning to the fold as drummer and band manager - on drums and Matt Murphy on upright bass, Jewell has delivered an album of strikingly evocative songs to add to her impressive back catalogue.
In our recent review, we described your new album, GET BEHIND THE WHEEL, as your bravest and most personal album to date.
Yeah, it was. Previous albums have always been a mix of autobiography and fiction. This one is the most personal, the closest to the bone. In a lot of ways, it was just a really difficult time for me in general. But at the same time, it was my favourite writing process of all the albums I’ve written even though it was really difficult. I had started to wonder if I was ever going to be able to tour again after the pandemic and if there would still be venues open. I just kind of started to realise that I couldn't take anything for granted, so the album is very meaningful.
To deal with the issues you took time out for reflection in a cabin in the Idaho mountains. Were all the songs written during that time?
I was reading a lot while I was up in the mountains. I wasn't really necessarily writing songs but I was just writing something every day just to keep myself sane. I honestly wasn't sure if what I was writing would someday become songs but I hoped that it would. Most of what I wrote up in the cabin did eventually become songs.
What was the timescale between writing and recording the songs for the album?
I started writing in the cabin when I went up to the mountains in 2020 during the pandemic. My husband at the time, was also the band’s drummer, and I had separated and I continued to write like crazy for two years, I guess. When it suddenly became apparent that I could get back into the studio in the summer of 2022, I had those two years of writing for the album.
Rather than self-produce, as you have done in the past, you brought Will Kimbrough on board to co-produce this album.
I've always wanted to work with a producer. I never really had and always produced albums with my band or on our own. But I always thought it would be interesting to get another set of ears on a project. I just could never really think of anyone who would be a good fit and then someone suggested Will Kimbrough. I remembered meeting him at a festival some years ago when he was playing with Emmylou Harris, and just thinking he was so down to earth, easy to talk to and a really normal person. So, when his name came up, I thought, yeah, let's reach out to him because he seemed like a person who would be a good fit. And he really was, he played all kinds of great stuff on the album and I think he was a real asset to us.
What did he bring to the album that would not have happened had you produced it yourself?
He did this cool thing that I had never heard of before where he played a baritone guitar in a certain way and when he ran it through a certain kind of pedal it sounded just like a horn, like a saxophone. That really blew my mind, I would never have come up with that and I don't think anyone in my band would have either. He also played some really cool slide guitar and we don't do a lot of slide when we’re left to our own devices. That kind of pushed us in not an entirely different direction but just gave it a new flavour that I thought was really cool. He had great ideas for the first song on the album, called Alive. It's a cool song and we did it in one take and were making it up as we went along. It kind of meandered along for a while and then came together. It was just really magic and it wouldn't have been even half the song if it weren't for Will.
Fats Kaplin’s pedal steel on the tracks Crooked River and Winnemucca emphasises the raw emotion in both of those songs. Did Will Kimbrough bring him on board?
I agree, that was exactly what I wanted to hear in those songs. That was Will, he and Fats go way back a long way so he roped him into the project, and I'm so glad he did.
There is a sense of sadness and distress on the album but the overriding signal is one of defiance and rebirth.
I think defiance is a great word for it and I did get a sense of rebirth from it. But there is a lot of sadness on the album. too, but I don't think it dwells on that, it doesn't just get stuck there. At least that's what I hear. I hear the full range of experience you know, there is some bitterness in there on some of the songs. The Bitter End for instance. There's also a lot of grief in it, but I think there's also a lot of joy. I think of the album as a circular piece, it starts pretty defiantly and it ends kind of cynical and bitter – it's all part of being human, the whole experience of all the joy and all of the difficulty. Now I feel like I've been through a lot more than I ever thought I could survive and that’s what I wanted to address.
You have nearly two decades behind you with, essentially, the same band which is quite unusual these days. Could you imagine ever playing without Jerry Miller and Jason Beek?
I can't really imagine that. I thought about it for a while during the height of the pandemic and if we were ever going to travel again. I thought that there was a very real possibility that we wouldn’t get to do this again, and it just seemed very bleak. I wouldn't want to try playing with others. I think that we really have crafted a sound together and the way we've done it, it's just been so serendipitous.
Your vocals and Jerry Miller’s guitar playing is your signature sound across all your albums. You seem to work hand in glove alongside each other.
Isn't he amazing? I taught him everything he knows (laughs). A lot of people mix him up with the Jerry Miller from Moby Grape, but I don't want to get that Jerry mad, so I better be careful what I say. Jerry and I are the ones in the band with the fewest words, we're the quiet ones. We don't like to give each other much direction and we don't communicate about what we want to hear, we just do it. We don't even need to discuss what direction we’re going, we just kind of get it instinctively and that’s the kind of thing that you can't force. We just click.
What was it like getting back on the road after all the uncertainty and stress?
It was really exhausting at times at the start. I think we might have tried to get back on the road a little too soon. Looking back, it was kind of scary. We were still wearing masks and Jerry worried about COVID even though we were vaccinated as there were still breakthrough cases. So, our numbers were down but the cost of everything was up and for the first time it wasn't working financially, and that was really stressful. I lost a lot of money on touring at that time. But it's now getting back to normal and so there’s less stress about money. I know it's probably in poor taste to talk about money in an interview, but we have mouths to feed.
You also have to deal with motherhood as a touring band in recent years which must also be difficult.
Motherhood has changed everything about life for me. At first, it was pretty doable because we could just bring my daughter along and she didn't know any other way. Now she’s older and really loves her school, she really excels at it and doesn’t like to miss school. So, we have to leave her for most tours with my mom. I'm happy they have a good relationship, but my heart just aches the whole time I'm away from her.
One of your idols, Loretta Lynn, sadly passed away last year. Was it her vocals or fearlessness as a writer and performer that drew you to her?
Definitely a bit of both. At first it was really just her voice when I heard Honky Tonk Girl for the first time in a cafe in Boston. I just froze when I heard that., I just thought that's the voice for me, that's the essence of classic country. Then, the more I got to listen to her stuff, the more I noticed that she wrote so fearlessly. She just kept rocking the boat and was a genius, sassy songwriter. It was so sad to lose her last year.
Your first trip to Ireland was to play at the Kilkenny Roots Festival in 2008. Any recollections of that?
Oh yeah, I remember that one. It was memorable because we had a problem getting the bass over on the plane from England. There was this whole piece of drama where we had to borrow one at the very last minute and our tour manager had to ferry it over from England.
You’ve played Ireland a number of times since then. Any ambitions to get back over to us?
Yes, Ireland is honestly one of my favourite countries. I'd love to get back and hope to in 2024.
Interview by Declan Culliton