July 25, 2011

Review: Eilen Jewell’s “Queen of the Minor Key”


TRACK 11

“Only One”

from Eilen Jewell’s Queen of the Minor Key (Signature Sounds)

Liner notes: Best known as an alt-country artist, Jewell (not to be confused with the ’90s diva) channels jazz siren Billie Holiday on this torch song, as shimmering electric guitar and organ cast a late-night spell.

Behind the music: Boise-born and Boston-based, the versatile former street busker performs gospel in a side project, The Sacred Shakers, and released a Loretta Lynn tribute album last year. She wrote the songs on Queen of the Minor Key while holed up in an Idaho cabin without electricity or running water.

Check it out if you like: Progressive traditionalists such as Neko Case, Buddy Miller, and Lucinda Williams.

Click here for more music features from Mother Jones.

Front page image: Marcel Houweling/Flickr

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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