Jewel Ornaments Her Seasonal Tour With Crafty, Charitable, And Familial Components

By Jon Domenick

For her Handmade Holiday Tour, the Grammy Award nominated singer songwriter, Jewel, will perform holiday classics, seasonal originals, and a number of her mega hit songs. She’ll be sharing the stage with her dad, Atz Kilcher, and brothers Atz Lee and Nikos celebrities in their own right from their Discovery Channel show, Alaska: The Last Frontier.

Prior to each show, a craft fair with workshops will feature local artisans showcasing wares, where concertgoers can also learn to make gifts. On her Facebook page, Jewel indicated that pet adoptions will be an additional part of the evening. The crafting portion of each gig will also help needy individuals via holiday gifts, and donations from attendees will be accepted.

“I decided to start this annual Handmade Holiday Tour to create an antidote to the stress I am seeing in the culture, and to help us focus on the simple pleasures that make us feel satisfied and truly happy,” Jewel told People magazine in September. “[It is] designed to provide experiences that friends and families can use to connect, make meaningful gifts, and most importantly memories.”

Born in Utah and raised in Homer, Alaska (a city also nicknamed “the end of the road”), the 43 year old toured and performed with her father in her youth. (Her German opera singer grandmother sailed to pre statehood Alaska in the 1940s to start a new life as World War II loomed.) Jewel moved into her own, plumbing free cabin at 15, riding a horse 12 miles to work in the nearest town before getting a scholarship to a fine arts school in Michigan.

She penned her famous ’90s hit, “Who will Save Your Soul?” while traveling through Mexico, staying in youth hostels and singing in restaurants in exchange for food, and became homeless in San Diego after being fired for refusing to bed her boss, before gaining a loyal following performing at a local coffee shop. “Against all odds,” she recalled, her first album, Pieces of You, went on to sell 12 million copies.

The Handmade Holiday Tour kicked off Thanks giving weekend in Las Vegas, and will head to the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood on December 19, the Theatre at Westbury on December 20, and the Hershey Theatre in Hershey, Pennsylvania on December 21. Tickets for the Englewood show start at $59.

Jewel
Bergen Performing Arts Center
30 N Van Brunt Street, Englewood / bergenpac.org