Eilen Jewell Adds Two Shows To Her March East Coast Tour

Following the COVID-cancellation of her 2020 Australian tour, American singer-songwriter Eilen Jewell and her incredible band return in 2023 for their first shows down here since 2018.

With many shows set to sell out, Jewell has announced two additional shows, including her first visit to the regional Victorian town of Yackadandah, where she'll play the Star Hotel on March 5, and, on March 12 at the Brunswick Ballroom, a special show in tribute to her heroine, the great Loretta Lynn.

Jewell notably paid tribute to Lynn, who passed away aged 90 on October 4 of last year, with the 2010 release of her Butcher Hollar A Tribute To Loretta Lynn album, a complete album of songs written and first recorded by the woman whose life was made into the award-winning, box office smash film The Coal Miner's Daughter back in 1980.

In the 1960s and 70s, Lynn dared to write songs about topics that were widely considered off-limits, especially for women - songs like The Pill, Rated X, Fist City and Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind). A mother of four by the time she was 19, Lynn went on to become the most-ground-breaking female artist in the history of country music and sustained a hugely successful career for over six decades. In 2004, Jack White produced her Grammy winning Van Lear Rose, and her final album, 2021's Still Woman Enough, featured duets with Carrie Underwood and Margo Price amongst others.  

Jewell says about Lynn, “And so, a toast: to the woman with more banned songs than anyone can count; to that voice that reaches the very grain of the theatre walls around her; to our national treasure. Gratitude is not enough, so I sing these songs for any who will listen.” 

As the reigning Queen of the Minor Key, Jewell leads a tight quartet that blends influences of classic country, folk, and 1960s era rock ’n’ roll with touches of surf-noir and early blues and jazz. For a decade and a half, they’ve toured relentlessly for legions of fans from Boston to Boise and Madrid to Melbourne, playing large festivals, theatres, rock clubs, and coffeehouses, sharing stages with the likes of Lucinda Williams, Loretta Lynn, Mavis Staples, Wanda Jackson, George Jones, Emmylou Harris, and Blind Boys of Alabama.

March 2023 will see Jewell and band back in Australia for an extensive East Coast tour that will take in theatre and club shows in Melbourne and regional Victoria, Sydney, North Coast NSW and Brisbane, as well as appearances at Port Fairy Folk Festival and the Blues Mountains Folk Festival.

Australia came under Jewell’s spell well ahead of most places, on the back of her intoxicating third album, 2009’s Sea of Tears. She toured here for the first time in 2010, on the back of that album and strong radio support for the album’s bewitching opener Rain Roll In. She returned two years later, following the release of her Loretta Lynn tribute album Butcher Holler and the album from which came her sobriquet, The Queen of the Minor Key, and appeared at Bluesfest and on Rockwiz.

Returning to her hometown of Boise, Idaho after building her career from the unlikely country base of Boston, Jewell soon took time out to start a family. Tours in 2016 – following her album Sundown Over Ghost Town - and 2018 – following her collection of rare blues Down Hearted Blues - followed, and every time she paid us a visit, her ever-growing Australian audience marvelled at her warmth and sly humour as well as her smoky voice and superb songs, and of course the stormy performances of her band, featuring ace twang master Jerry Miller on lead guitar.

 March 2023 will finally see Jewell and her band in Australian once more, belatedly touring on the back of her latest album, 2019’s Gypsy. Ticket and information can be found here.

EILEN JEWELL & BAND
Australian Tour March '23

 Fri 3 – ARCHIE'S CREEK HOTEL, VIC w/ The ReChords
Sat 4 – THEATRE ROYAL, CASTLEMAINE, VIC w/ The ReChords
Sun 5 - THE STAR HOTEL, YACKANDANDAH, VIC w/ Pete Denahy
Tue 7 – FACTORY THEATRE, SYDNEY, NSW w/ Lo Carmen
Thu 9 – THORNBURY THEATRE, MELBOURNE, VIC w/ The ReChords
Fri 10, Sat 11 – PORT FAIRY FOLK FESTIVAL, VIC
Sun 12 - LORETTA LYNN TRIBUTE SHOW, BRUNSWICK BALLROOM, MELBOURNE
Tue 14 – THE ESPY, MELBOURNE, VIC w/ The ReChords
Wed 15 – ELTHAM HOTEL, NSW w/ JB Paterson
Thu 16 – THE ZOO, BRISBANE, QLD w/ JB Paterson
 Fri 17, Sat 18 – BLUE MOUNTAINS FOLK FESTIVAL, NSW