[JewelWiki]

I e-mailed Alan/MrBB about this release and here's what he had to say:

Been buried in work here and general pre-holiday insanity, so apologies for the delay in checking my mail. Just getting caught up today. I think I can clear this up, as there does seem to be a lot of incorrect info being circulated, which others have forwarded here as well. The primary answer is no, Beginnings is definitely not legit and is not a legal release. This is why various online locations removed it immediately. Jewel has never granted permission for anyone to be selling those or any other bootleg recordings.

Although they are indeed one of the many 1994 live recordings of Jewel at The Inner Change, much of the hype about them is blatant false advertising. I'll simply addresss the actual statements I've read in print so far. They are certainly not the earliest proffessional recordings of Jewel. They are not even the earliest proffessional recordings of Jewel at The Inner Change, let alone proffesional recordings. The source is simply a cassette of a mono recording made off the little rinky-dink mixer they had at the Inner Change. By 1994, several digital soundboard-direct recordings had already been made. A couple of live multitrack recordings were also made prior to this recording, as well as many studio demos, so my point is they are simply not what they claim to be - "the earliest proffesional recordings of Jewel." Also, this particular recording was definitely not made prior to Jewel signing with Atlantic, which occurred in 1993, well before this performance. And needless to say, many of the song titles are certainly not the accurate titles, then or now. Just somebody guessing who was not very good at it - or possibly naming them incorrectly on purpose in a vain attempt to avoid publishing and copyright legalities. Anyone attempting to profit by selling you these recordings is doing so illegally. They are not trying to do you any favor.

That said, Jewel does plan to release official archive recordings and when she does, you can be certain they will be officially announced on jeweljk.com, her myspace page, etc. Feel free to pass this entire message on.