POLISHING JEWEL GETTING BACK TO NATURE HELPED THE SINGER-SONGWRITER GET BACK TO HER MUSIC.

Byline: Sandra Barrera Staff Writer

Jewel thought about leaving her line of work for another altogether. But that was before the singer-songwriter popular for the lilting folk songs put out her latest platinum seller, ``This Way.''

The album that Rolling Stone called ``elegant, earthy, engaged'' came as a result of a therapeutic two-year hiatus that found Jewel assessing her career for much of the time along the open spaces of her rodeo champion boyfriend's Texas ranch.

During that time, Jewel said, she had fallen out of love with the spotlight and its never-ending demands.

``I promoted way more than I wrote and, for me, writing makes me happy,'' the 27-year-old, two days shy of 28, said from the San Diego ranch that she shares with her mom.

But even her writing began to suffer, leaving Jewel with a feeling of desperation.

``I got into this job at 18 because it was the first thing I loved,'' Jewel said. ``To lose that was frightening. I thought I'd have to find something else, and so it was nice at the end of two years that I fell back in love with it.

``I knew what kind of record I wanted to make,'' she said. ``And I knew what things to change to guarantee it not happen again.''

Jewel's biggest problem was scheduling.

Following the breakthrough of 1995's ``Pieces of You,'' Jewel toured more than a month at a time with no weekend breaks or holidays off.

One Christmas, she sang for President Clinton at the White House despite being run down from pneumonia. As Jewel puts it, ``I wasn't getting better.''

Constant touring had affected her hearing in one ear, and Jewel was told that if she didn't rest soon, it would become permanent.

Jewel said that she started to feel ungrateful for the success that had befallen her at the age of 22.

``This isn't a job you should be unhappy in,'' she said. ``That's another reason I wanted to quit. That and the fact that I talked to a guy from England today who saw me on two television shows at the time and said he could tell that I didn't really want to be there. I'm really bad at faking it when I'm not happy.''

Fortunately for Jewel, who is also a best-selling poet, rest came shortly after she finished promoting her 1998 follow-up to ``Pieces of You,'' ``Spirit.''

For Jewel, rest meant getting back to the way she was raised in Alaska. Back to nature.

She said that it was the stillness there on her boyfriend's ranch that allowed her time to reclaim both her health and creative voice, resulting in what Billboard called ``(her) most ambitious effort yet,'' albeit ``This Way'' is also her least accessible to the masses.

``You don't just make records for you; otherwise, you just sing in your bedroom all day,'' Jewel said. ``If you don't have something useful to say and if you don't feel like you're adding to the craft, you should just let your heroes do it. You shouldn't be a part of it. But I didn't want to make a record until I felt like I knew what I had to say and I felt like it was valuable.''

Jewel said that she didn't have a problem. The songs off of ``This Way'' flowed with little effort.

``I wrote 'Jesus Loves You' during a walk along a river,'' Jewel said. ``It took me five minutes.''

Many of the songs are reflective, such as ``Standing Still,'' which harbors two meanings for Jewel.

The first, she said, is love.

``It's me wondering if me moving so much and my lifestyle causes my love life to stand still,'' Jewel said, explaining there's also a more cryptic meaning to the song that may not occur to people listening. ``I wrote it about the fact that fame really affords a prolonged adolescence and that unless you're careful emotionally, you start standing still to where you're a child and you're bratty and your writing quits developing and many dangerous things like that.''

As for her own life, Jewel said that she is no longer standing still but taking charge of her singing career. This summer she tours North America, playing three weeks straight and then allowing for 10 days of reflection at a time.

JEWEL

Where: Greek Theatre, 2700 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles.

When: 7:30 p.m. July 26.

Tickets: $29.50 to $50.50. Call [phone] or www.ticketmaster.com

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

no caption (Jewel)