Personally, I'm not a big fan of the singer-songwriter earnest neo-folk genre. My musical tastes are eclectic; I like everything from Fugazi to Phish, but I mainly get my kicks from uptempo anthemic guitar-driven stuff. Then again, I also love Andrew Bird and Grizzly Bear. But Jewel? Not my thing... OR SO I THOUGHT.

At first glance maybe it's tempting to brush Jewel off as just a pretty crooner without much beneath the surface. But it turns out Jewel has a pretty interesting backstory, as I found out on Tuesday night when she performed for a tiny audience at the awkwardly named P.C. Richard & Son iHeartRadio Clear Channel theater. Sure, you probably know about how in her youth she was really poor and had to live out of her car for a while, then her car was stolen. But did you know Jewel's father makes necklaces out of roadkill, and embarrassed his daughter at a star-studded cast party for a theatrical concert production of The Wizard of Oz?

On Tuesday Jewel recalled how, at age 21, she played Dorothy in the production of The Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True. Her father Yule visited from Alaska for the event and came dressed in what Jewel described as "his town clothes" (creased jeans, a new fur vest) and a giant necklace of bones and teeth. At the cast party, surrounded by Roger Daltrey, Jackson Browne, and Natalie Cole, someone asked Yule what he thought of his daughter's sudden success. "It was one of those moments where the whole room suddenly gets quiet at the wrong moment," Jewel said. "And so everyone heard it when my dad replied, 'Yep, I put my best sperm into that one!' "

In the folkie tradition, Jewel engaged in plenty of stage banter, soliciting requests from the audience (one demand for yodeling was granted as the encore) and chatting with individual fans. (One woman attending her 20th Jewel show was jokingly dubbed "The Creepy Jewel Lady.") Jewel has a surprisingly self-confident stage presence for someone whose music is marked by such vulnerability and earnestness. In fact, at times it's hard reconcile the funny, self-effacing raconteur with the soulful musician who can bring an audience to rapt attention with her mesmerizing voice. It turns out Jewel's a little goofy, and rather endearing.

And so I have come to understand that Jewel's success is entirely justified, and like many pop stars she has more interesting songs in her repertoire than the ones that made her famous. My favorites on Tuesday night were "Hands," a song inspired by her shoplifting history, "Down So Long," a gritty blues-inflected riff inspired by Jewel's encounter with a junkie in a NYC bathroom tall, and "Little Sister," which was used in Batman & Robin but hey, do we dismiss "Exit Music" because it was in a DiCaprio movie?

In conclusion, I recommend keeping an open mind about this Jewel. She just released a Greatest Hits album on Rhino records this week, and judging by what I heard Tuesday, she's still got it. To be sure, Jewel's poignant songs of heartache and romance are never going to be the first thing I reach for on my playlist, but there's a time and a place for everything (like sipping a hot toddy while getting a foot massage in a sylvan cabin after a day of snowshoeing). And if someone wanted to, say, fly me down to the Fontainebleau Miami Beach on Valentine’s Day "for an intimate weekend experience including an acoustic performance by American singer and songwriter JEWEL as part of the iconic hotel’s BleauLive performance series" I wouldn't object.

So yeah, maybe I like Jewel. Shut up. You can watch the whole show live here.