Country label launches with Jewel in the crown

By Ken Tucker

NASHVILLE (Billboard) - Jewel has signed a multi-album deal with a new Nashville label, Valory Music Co.

Scott Borchetta, the president/CEO for Nashville-based independent Big Machine Records, is launching the second imprint. Its name is a variation on the late June Carter Cash's birth name, Valerie June Carter.

Jewel, who previously recorded for Atlantic Records, has cut five of her six albums in Nashville. She said country has always been in her plans.

"If I had been discovered now, living in my car in San Diego, I think I would have been signed as a country act," she said. "I like a beginning, middle and end to my songs. That's pretty much just country radio now."

Though she lives in Texas with bull-riding star boyfriend Ty Murray, Jewel has spent a good bit of time in Nashville during the last few years. Earlier this year she hosted the country reality show "Nashville Star," and she has made a number of appearances at Muzik Mafia events.

Jewel has sold 14.8 million albums in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. She has scored seven top 10s on Billboard's Adult Top 40 chart, including two No. 1s, "Foolish Games" and "You Were Meant for Me."

After surveying the label landscape, and even considering releasing her album directly to retail, she met with Borchetta. "Radio is still the best way to sell records, and I heard that he was a great radio promoter and tenacious," she said.

A veteran promotion man, Borchetta launched Big Machine in September 2005. The label is home to rising star Taylor Swift, Trisha Yearwood and Jack Ingram, among others.