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Apr 11, 2023 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Beth Herzhaft

Over the years, Boise-based singer/songwriter Eilen Jewell has built a career as a veteran of the Americana and roots music scene, fusing country and soul with shades of vintage rockabilly energy. However, like many other touring musicians, her career was upended by the pandemic, which was followed by a series of personal losses, including the deaths of several close friends and family members and a difficult divorce.

Amidst the upheaval, Jewell retreated to a remote cabin in the Idaho mountains and found herself writing once again, crafting songs of grief and resilience with her forthcoming album, Get Behind The Wheel. Jewell has already shared a pair of new singles from the record, “Crooked River” and “Lethal Love.” Today, she’s back with another new track, “Winnemucca,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Winnemucca” is a dusty and winding country ballad, lying in much the same vein as touchstones like Lorettta Lynn and Lucinda Williams. However, Jewell crafts her songwriting with her own magnetic and heartfelt touch, evoking a palpable sense of excitement and resolve running beneath the track’s reflective sheen. That electrifying undercurrent bursts through on the track with some sharp guitar work, but equally comes out with her lyrics: “I’m a lonely station in the desert tonight / Splice my wires I wanna get electrified / Plug me into your neon signs / I wanna blast my love, let it amplify / Blast my love, let it amplify.” With “Winnemucca” Jewell captures the uncertainty and sheer joy of rediscovering love.

Jewell explains of the track, “I have a crush on Winnemucca. It’s a dusty gem in the desert, under the big Nevada sky, relatively untouched by time. It’s not trying to be anything that it isn’t. It’s the kind of place you could drive to on a solo road trip and fall in love with an old love all over again, and write about it for days in a casino hotel, and there would be nothing to stand in the way of your longing.”

Check out the song below. Get Behind The Wheel is out May 5th via Signature Sounds.