Jewel

The American singer-songwriter Jewel Kilcher was born in Utah but raised in Alaska in a remote frontier house which lacked basic amenities. It was such a hard existence the Kilcher family were once featured in a Discovery Channel documentary which chronicled their challenging frontier lifestyle in the Alaskan wilderness.

After leaving school Kilcher travelled to California where she eked a living busking and playing acoustic gigs until she was discovered by music manager Inga Vainshtein. Vainshtein was so impressed with the singer she orchestrated a bidding war between interested record comapanies that eventually led to a lucrative deal with Atlantic Records. Her debut album 'Pieces of You' was recorded at Neil Young's ranch and featured Young's backing band, The Stray Gators.

After a slow start, interest in the album began to build and it eventually stayed in the Billboard Chart for two years reaching number four at the peak of its success. It eventually sold 12 million copies in the USA. Her follow-up albums have been similarly successful and she remains one of the the USA's most popular singer-songwriters, skilfully bridging the the gap between folk and country. The ability to cross genres has been the key to her success and in addition to her songwriting and guitar skills Jewel is also a successful author, poet and actress.