For Jewel, music really is an intimate art form. And at 30, this artist, sharing herself again with a new collection of songs in Goodbye Alice In Wonderland, is not shy about revealing the secrets of that intimacy.

     "I really believe in music. I believe in the power of music because I ve experienced it as a fan, and there’s still something very special and ‘unquantifiable’ that takes place between the listener and the singer," she says, in a reflective mood as she provides an update on her life and times. "As much as the music industry can fabricate it or distract you from that very special exchange that takes place, it still can’t be denied how it bonds a musician and a listener."

     That’s why she has tried to focus her career based on that reality, she explains. She believes one of her strong points is singing live, a medium in which that bonding can take place.

     The experience presents itself again as she shares a concert bill this summer with Rob Thomas. "For me, it hasn’t been about being imaged or cool or any of those things," the singer/songwriter/musician/poet/painter says. "That’s why I’ve toured so extensively, because I really still believe that when I get onstage and the light comes on and there’s real living, breathing humans in front of me, they’re going to hear my heart and they’re going to hear my hurt and they’re going to hear my hope and there’s no shortcut to that and there’s no way of fabricating it and I still believe in it. I still think it’s really special."

     For Jewel, the opportunity to work with Rob Thomas qualifies as special. "One of my favorite things about singing live is that it’s actually live music, so I was excited to tour with him because I think it will be a show that fans will like, because I do a different set list every night, and Rob is great live, and then we’ll also sing together," she explains.

     Jewel has put a band together for this tour. "I love having a band. I try and do a live show, which is the kind of live show I like to go see. I like it to feel spontaneous," she says.

     She says she really does not like to do set lists, or doing the same version of the same song every night. "If somebody’s doing a great solo, I want them to continue and make the song longer. You know, kind of old school, like a real band. I don’t like seeing live shows with a band where you just go and it’s like the record and it feels boring and rehearsed and not special. So I have a great band that’s really flexible, and I get to call out audibles and they follow me, and it should be fun."

     She seems to be looking forward to introducing more people to some of the material off Goodbye Alice In Wonderland. She is proud of the CD. "This record sort of chronicles my life going from Alaska to living in my car to singing in Hollywood the first time to getting signed for record deals to now we’re at full circle and I live on a ranch again, this time in Texas [with her boyfriend Ty]," she says.

     Jewel views this record as a bookend to her first album, Pieces of You, her landmark 1995 debut that launched a career in which she has to date sold 25 million CDs and branched out from her folk roots to incorporate rock, pop, country, blues, jazz and classical influences into her work. Rob Cavallo, whose work includes Green Day and the Goo Goo Dolls, produced the new album, her first in three years and her sixth since %Pieces of You%.

     She says she feels like she is finally comfortable in the studio. "This is the first time on a record that I felt like I made the record I wanted to make where the studio didn’t get in the way," she says. "I cut this record live.

     "I think [it] is a bookend because it was a really similar time in my life in a completely different way, meaning that I was turning 20 during my first record. Those decade birthdays always kind of cause me, it seems, to reflect, look back, and then look forward. I just was closing this period of my life where I was living in a car and just scrambling my whole life to now signing a six-record deal with Atlantic and looking forward to this crazy road that I was going to embark on. On this record I was turning 30. I’m now at the end of that six-record deal.

     "My life has changed so utterly, completely and thoroughly, and I was able to come full circle and I lived my life in a way that I did in the beginning, where I live on a ranch and have a really simple life. I make records, I go out and promote them, and then I go back to my really simple, normal life. So I think just the process and the thought process and emotional process that I was in was really similar. I guess it’s just because of turning 30 and trying to really see where I wanted my life to go and if I was happy with where it all was. So I guess emotionally it was sort of similar at this time, if that makes sense."

     She knows her career path has not fit into any mold. "I like John Prine and underground stuff. I made a folk record at the height of grunge. I certainly didn’t do it because I thought I was going to be some big sensation," she says.

     The more people who told her she could not do it, she says, the more she just worked harder as she aimed for a long career. She knew how daunting the task was. "So few people actually are able to pull off writing relevantly over 30 years, much less being relevant to pop culture over that period of time."

     One of two things often happens, she says. "You see people that are famous trying to hang on to their fame, and they just really start prostituting their guts out and they stop writing well. Or you see people that just live a lifestyle that makes them complacent in some emotional way and so they stop writing well."

     Jewel says she always knew that there was no guarantee that she would ever be successful, and she realized it was an even weaker prospect that she would be able to write well over a long period of time.

     "Pretty much where I’ve put my goal is to constantly try and remove myself from the distractions of my job to be able to try and hear myself enough and stay open and curious enough that I can still write well," she explains. "That’s pretty much been my daily charge to myself. My record sales and all that has been a secondary thing. I will work very hard on records. I will tour hard. I’m not afraid to work hard once I make a record, but I’ve always felt great about the records I’ve made, and their success has never really been up to me. It’s sort of up to the machine at that point."

     Jewel admits that she is not certain that she will always want to try and compete in the pop charts. "I don’t know if I’ll always want to try and put out big records with big record sales," she says. "I can really see myself just wanting to write songs for other people and maybe having a family. So I’m just enjoying this while I can."