No Jewel hasn’t been reconverted into Neutrogena products advertiser… (though) but this is her biggest setback : Jewel’s life has always sounded like a country song: Raised by her cowboy dad and discovered while she was homeless, she went on to sell 12 million copies of her debut, only to become the butt of countless zingers. So Perfectly Clear, her first proper country record, should have been her true calling to an art that’s one part twang to two parts self-mythology. But the album’s biggest setback, other than the fact that its title sounds like a Neutrogena product, is that Jewel doesn’t call upon the gritty storytelling of a real Nashville star. Co-producer John Rich of Big and Rich provides plenty of slide guitar, banjo plucks and fiddle, but no memorable melodies. The title track strikes a raw nerve with its slow, stripped-down arrangement. But the album is overcrowded by placid soft-rock tunes like “Two Become One” and “Anyone But You” with schmaltzy choruses and flavorless piano-laden verses. Jewel contributes bland pickup-truck philosophy about relationships in cutesy little-girl vocals that rarely show off her voice’s texture (though, yes, there’s some yodeling). On “I Do,” she says, “Love is a game” — one track later, “Love Is a Garden.” Even the girl-power anthem “Stronger Woman” doesn’t promise much: “I’m going to love myself more than anyone else.” Jewel, prepare to be zinged again. CARYN GANZ (RollingStone)

Here is a beautiful East-Coast Canadian Singer-Songwriter that evokes the dreaminess of former Vercua Salt bombshell Nina Gordon’s solo works and Beth Orton’s fragile yet wistful style while paying tribute to Jewel’s vocal sensuality. with the release of her sophomore album Short Stories,Jessica Rhaye ventures into her most musically mature territory yet. An album that features an attractive mix of folk songwriting, modern arrangements and ambitious production, surrounded by Jessica’s magnetizing voice. One listen to the eleven hook-laden tracks of this album and you’ll be struck by the natural, warm, rich and personal songs of this talented singer songwriter.