When Jewel went to record her landmark first album, Pieces Of You — which celebrated its 20th birthday this year –most of it was cut live, capturing her unfiltered magnetism. Her voice is devastatingly clear, singing lyrics of a similar nature. This fall the singer released two equally raw chronicles. Musically, the bookend to that set, Picking Up The Pieces, as well as a memoir, Never Broken.

Now, Jewel joins EW for our latest Basement Series to perform an even more stripped-down version of “Everything Breaks.”

“I think people are going to assume, because it’s on this record, that I wrote it about my ex-husband,” Jewel says in the video, introducing the track. “It’s actually a much older song,” she continues, “though I have to say that singing it now, in the studio, it definitely took on a different meaning.”

In the clip below, Jewel speaks of the origins of her songwriting, saying she started young, as early as eight-years-old “because it was the best way to keep track of myself” — but as is the case with all great songsmiths, it’s not long before those lyrics about her are keeping track of you, the listener.

See Jewel perform “Everything Breaks.”