Jewel [ tickets ] was a coquettish diva in the video for the tongue-in-cheek pop hit "Intuition"-- nothing like the multi-faceted, self-deprecating singer/songwriter who won over the wind-blown crowd at Saratoga's Mountain Winery on Thursday (6/17) with a divinely intimate show.

We'll pretend the black Chevy Tahoe SUV-limo didn't clip a helpless park bench while dropping Jewel off backstage during opener Anne Heaton's performance. The additional percussion was obviously unintentional.

When the headliner did reach the stage, she took to it with a campfire storyteller's zeal, bookending songs with tales of ex-boyfriends ("I wrote this song when I was 19, and I'm still bitter"), an encounter with Bob Dylan and other flights of fancy. The audience got the jokes, and definitely adored her remarkable voice, which ranged from lush, jazzy overtones to her trademark, folksy yodeling to gospel fervor to hushed whispers. Whatever the dynamic, the heart was there. The musical points, salient.

Still, it's tough to get around the quiet, quirky calm she exudes on stage. Zipping up her jacket, admiring the cold, she asked a front-row patron, "Are you wearing a tank top? You deserve an extra drink."

She then went on to reminisce about a fistfight at an earlier show at this same venue. "I attract a lot of domestic abusers," she deadpanned, mocking her rough and tumble image. When a younger fan screamed for the song "Inspiration," it brought a chuckle from the Payson, UT, native, and a quick, but benign, admonishment. "I don't think I ever wrote a song called ‘Inspiration,'" she pondered, scratching her chin, "I think it's called ‘Intuition!' Maybe you'll like my other hit, ‘Who Will Shave Your Soul.'" It's quite possible that, if she ever outgrows this whole music thing, she could have a career in comedy.

But seriously folks, Jewel's songs speak for themselves. Armed with a guitar, a microphone and little else, she held the theater in the palm of her hand with staples like "You Were Meant For Me," "Foolish Games," "Everybody Needs Someone Sometime" and "Standing Still."

There were a few moments after the sun went down (yes, it actually got colder), where her voice stumbled a little, but those moments were forgivable, and, more significantly, very few. When she belted out a fierce "Down So Long," no doubt everyone forgot about a stray note from another song.

Jewel also took advantage of the live recording (double CDs of the concert were available minutes after the show ended) to solicit space on Trisha Yearwood's next album with a new song called "So Close To Heaven." With that trademark country twang she cooed, "You're almost as good as it gets." If Yearwood picks it up, you heard it here first.

A lot of artists are judged, and rightfully so, by their ability to bring off their taped and video-ed performances live. By this standard, live Jewel actually fares much better than the tape. Those who knew her only by the "Intuition" video no doubt felt a little jilted, if the doe-eyed, pseudo-sexpot persona and little-girl falsetto was all that they wanted. There's much more to take in.