On Friday night at Colby College, the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Jewel performed in Wadsworth Gym. I pushed my way through the doors with a young, mostly female crowd to find a good spot on the bleachers where the scoreboard wouldn’t block my view.

A group called The Rug Burns from San Diego opened for Jewel. They will be continuing their tour with her for the next 40 days. The lead singer, Steve, is Jewel’s boyfriend and appears in her video “You Were Meant For Me.” His folk-rock group played “Lockjaw,” “The ABCs of Love,” and “Gold Gym’s Guy.”

Some songs involved audience participation for the chorus, and the band members even pulled kids from the front row up onstage to take a picture with them. The most entertaining performer was the percussionist, Stinky, who used his drumsticks on everything from a walking snare drum to Steve’s shoes.

Jewel opened with “Near You Always,” from her 1994 album “Pieces of You.” She played a good mix from that album and also performed new songs. She was joined by a cellist and a percussionist, and even the members of The Rug Burns came out to accompany her.

For the hit “You Were Meant For Me,” she and Steve sang together. Jewel told a story of writing the song in Mexico while on a three-day vacation. She and Steve had started out to go whale watching but ended up on a boat with narcs doing a drug bust. They were offered machine guns and a share of the recovered drugs. To entertain the Colby crowd, Jewel jokingly sang the line from Alanis Morissette’s famed song: “Isn’t it ironic?”

Throughout the concert, Jewel used her little-girl voice to tell stories about the origins of her songs. Some were humorous, such as the drug bust, and some were not so upbeat, such as “Amen,” about a friend who overdosed on heroin.

Jewel’s father, Atz Kilcher, was also at the concert. Toward the end, he came onto the stage and recalled singing in bars with a younger Jewel at home in Alaska. Then, the father and daughter sang a very impressive yodeling song which Kilcher wrote.

Both Jewel and The Rug Burns were personable. They talked to the crowd and joked with each other and were very real. A colored light show, with projections and spotlights, gave the gym a mystical feeling. It was hard to pay attention, though, because the inattentive crowd chatted through the whole show. The audience perked up and cheered when Jewel said the words “beer” and “pot,” but then continued to talk it up when the songs started again.

Jewel did soothe the crowd periodically with some of her lullabylike songs, such as “Angel Standing By,” which she wrote to put herself to sleep at night. The lights made her look angelic and some of the people in the back even hushed up through this last number.

Kristen Anstead is a junior at Orono High School.