LA Daily News: Sometimes as darkly damaged as Lucinda Williams, at others as defiant and teasing as prime Peggy Lee and always authentically Americana in the Gillian Welch tradition....She's mighty good.
Songs:Illinois: This record should be a wake-up call to Lucinda Williams, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle etc, etc; that they somehow need to get back to their roots, get back to when they were hungry, back to when they were doing it all themselves without high priced producers and impeccable session players; basically back to when they gave a damn.
About.com Folk: Letters from Sinners and Strangers stands as a wonderful second release. It's full of surprises. The album haunts like Chris Isaac, swings to country and jazz, goes south of the border and gets down with some acoustic blues, all the while maintaining its straight-up country vibe.
No Depression: Jewell is showing she can wander with the best of them, and write riveting song-stories about her adventures along the way”.
All Music Guide: There's an off-the-cuff manner to the opening songs of Eilen Jewell's Letters from Sinners & Strangers that makes the album easy to like...she mixes oldies with originals and, arrangement-wise, is capable of replicating everything from Western swing crossed with rock ("Heartache Boulevard") to jazzy blues ("High Shelf Booze"). ..Jewell's low-key, off-the-cuff strategy works well from beginning to end on Letters from Sinners & Strangers, delivering a fine contemporary folk album. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr., All Music Guide
Billings Gazette: The 27-year-old Boise-born, Boston-based Jewell follows up her 2006 "Boundary County" debut with a doozy of an album, a swinging blend of mountain music, folk, jazz, country and whatever else moves you.
FAME: Sounding like a hand-picked playlist from Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour, Letters From Sinners & Strangers, is a rousing and confident tour de force.... Not only is there a single track you'd want to skip over, there's not a bad note or clumsy arrangement within a thousand mile radius.
Dirty Linen: Forget about classifying this disc, as it will be futile. It is eminently modern and thrust in the present moment, and yet it harkens back to the time and work of Bob Wills...[it] might just snatch your breath away with longing and heartache.
The Word(UK): A voice of real distinction [that] manages to transcend some powerful influences and pierce the fog long enough for her own point of view to emerge. Recommended to box-car riders everywhere.
Sing Out!: In an industry in which it's too easy to do it wrong, Eilen Jewell has done it very, very right, resulting in this superb and seamless romp through swing jazz, smoky country ballads, and nostalgic old-time music... It's a winner.
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Boundary County
BOSTON GLOBE: Jewell's music has the languorous quietude of (Gillian) Welch or Norah Jones, but there is something more direct, almost in your face, about her stark, neo traditional melodies, subdued vocals, and confident, slow-swaying groove. It's as if she's daring us to say we miss the bells and whistles of pop...Jewell’s songs are achingly good, twanged-out elegies to a world of barbed wire, rusty trucks, and a frontier that no longer exists. Listen for the swagger of ‘‘Mess Around.’’ Blue state or red, cowboy or city girl, this is likely the best song about cutting loose that you’ve heard all year.
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS: Best of Show: Eilen Jewell. I loved Boundary County and have spun it a lot on KSYM, but the live show, with more uptempo material, proved Ms Jewell is the real deal with range.
POUGHKEEPSIE JOURNAL: The name of the CD is misleading, as Jewell seems to abandon the concept of boundary on this record, evoking all at once the confines of a smokey barroom and the far-flung frontier. Her voice combines the in-your-face attitude of Lucinda Williams with the polite gusto of June Carter Cash.
WORCESTER TELEGRAM: Jewell is a rising star who carves indelible lyrics into jazzed-up country-based music. Influenced by the grace of Billie Holiday and directness of Hank Williams, Jewell is a young artist loaded with both talent and promise.
ALL MUSIC GUIDE: Eilen Jewell's country-blues flavored folk on Boundary Country will remind listeners of many new, talented women singer-songwriters without ever seeming like a copy. Like the Be Good Tanyas, Jewell relies on fairly eclectic arrangements, though she's more progressive in her marriage of electric and acoustic elements.
THIRD COAST MUSIC: Like (Gillian) Welch, though more languorous and intimate, (Eilen) combines a spare Appalachian sound with personal lyrics, and if she’s going to be dogged for a while with Welch comparisons, there are much worse fates and a follow up, due later this year, may define her own individual identity.
SONGS:ILLINOIS.COM: Whether it's the soft longing for better times of "Boundary County" or the violin led romp of "Mess Around" or even the stripped down live in the studio sound of "The Train..." as far as I can tell every song is indeed a jewel.
ASHCAN RANTINGS: Like Gillian Welch or perhaps a folksy Norah Jones (but so much better the The Little Willies), Eilen produces music that’s beautifully melodic and ageless, with poetry for lyrics and vocals that produce auditory bliss.
ELSWORTH AMERICAN: Jewell’s music draws squarely on the western swing tradition, and throughout this and other songs she ably demonstrated her ability to fuse jazz and country into a soulful original sound.
VIN SCELSA's "IDIOT'S DELIGHT" Top 10 List
JUMPIN' HOT CLUB (UK): A lush and lilting songbird of a lady with a country noir flavoured backing (Gretch guitar/stand up Bass). Her voice would melt a hundred Texas hearts. Had touches of Jolie Holland/Lucinda Williams too.
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