Jewel

Everyone knows Jewel’s rags-to-riches story — did the coffeehouse circuit, lived in a van, amassed a grassroots following and sold a bajillion albums. But last year, her career trajectory took an interesting twist when the snaggletoothed chanteuse shocked her granola-fed fanbase with 0304, an effort that sounded nothing like anything that had come before — at least from Jewel. Michelle Branch releases this kind of pabulum all the time. But by abandoning her roots and hiring Shakira’s producer to give her a sonic makeover, Jewel committed the ultimate folk sin, a modern version of Dylan going electric — or, in this case, electronica. As with Dylan, Jewel’s devoted fans wrung their hands and cried sellout. Dylan was eventually exonerated, but Jewel may never be forgiven. That’s too bad, because anyone who’s attended a Jewel concert lately knows that she’s hardly gone all Britney on us. She remains a compelling live performer with a voice that could stop traffic — as long as she’s not reciting any of those stomach-churning poems.