Eilen Jewell’s Sundown Over Ghost Town

Eilen Jewell’s Sundown Over Ghost Town

By Brian Rock

The “Queen of the Minor Key,” Eilen Jewell, returns for her fifth album, Sundown Over Ghost Town. As the title implies, it’s a sparse, introspective musical nocturne. Gone are the jazz and country swing musical flourishes of her earlier work. Instead Eilen’s voice does the heavy lifting, combining the earnestness of Lucinda Williams with the sultriness of Peggy Lee as she takes you on this musical tour of the “ghost towns” of her past.

“Worried Mind” sets the tone for the album. Returning to her hometown and her lover after being too long away, she sings, “I never had much money. I’ve never been quite satisfied. But you can weave the unraveled strings and ease my worried mind.”

In “Hallelujah Band,” she sings, “I’m an old guitar, won’t stay in tune. Worn out and faded, not fit for you. But I want to be played by the unseen hand. To make a good noise in the Hallelujah band.” Clearly Jewell is in the mood to return to her home and her roots – both physically and spiritually.

Other songs reinforce the homecoming theme. “Half-Broke Horse” uses metaphoric imagery to tell the story of a person caught between worlds, both traditional and modern as well as urban and rural. “Green Hills” sings a lament for a decaying town. “Needle and Thread” recounts the reasons for wanting to leave a place that’s, “one horse shy of a one horse town.”

But as Eilen answers the call to go “Down the Road,” she comes to miss, “My Hometown.” Singing, “If sweetness had a sound, it would sound like my hometown,” she comes to realize that there truly is no place like home. And the songs on this road journal of an album play like a musical diary. Direct, personal, yet yearning for something she can’t quite seem to define. Eilen Jewell seems to be singing more for her own understanding than to share something with an audience. It is a voyeuristic peek into the very heart and soul of an artist.

After the uncertainty of her searching Jewell ends, not with a happy homecoming, but with a Zen-like understanding that home was with her all along. In “Songbird,” she sings, “Oh songbird in my darkest night, you sing so sweetly I can’t be afraid… in my weariest day a few clear notes is all I need. And I see without warning the precious rays of the magic in each ordinary thing.” And when you can find the magic in each ordinary thing, there is no longer any need to search. And there is no longer any reason to fear – not even a sundown over a ghost town.

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