Rickie Lee Jones, the two-time Grammy Award winner (from eight nominations), embraced the sold-out audience at The Jane Pickens Theater & Event Center (The JPT) on Tuesday (May 6) for a Spectacle Live Production.
She battled sniffles between songs, but her voice was unaffected. She delivered powerful vocal deliveries and graceful falsettos while adeptly accompanying herself on guitar and piano.
Mike Dillon supported Jones on a combination of a drum kit with bongos and assorted “toys” and an xylophone. Dillon offered just the right glue to rhythmically hold together Jones’ unique songwriting, which often brings many twists and turns in the verse and the meter. He offered a couple of xylophone solos and an occasional harmony.
Jones played the songs folks hoped to hear, including her hit single “Chuck E’s in Love”, as well as “Satellite”, and as her memory challenged her, she paused and said: “I got a storm brewing here” and launched into “Young Blood”.
Jones offered the piece “A Scary Chinese Movie” and interjected, “kind of what’s happening right now”. She noted that “we’re in a bad feedback loop right now, but we’re gonna find our way” and thanked the audience for “sending loving energy back”.
Jones briefly touched on her early days in the canyon starting out living in a “one room place with a hot plate and a crappy shower” but it had an amazing parade of musicians that passed through to use the shower. Lowell George was a regular visitor. Jones collaborated with George on writing “Easy Money” together, and she was on top of the world with her picture on the cover of Rolling Stone at the same time that Lowell George’s Obituary was referenced on the same cover.
In 2021, Jones released her memoir Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of an American Troubadour, and she continues to write music. Her 15th studio album, Pieces of Treasure, released in 2023, earned her eighth Grammy Award nomination.
Jones concluded her program and returned with an encore of Last Chance Texaco as the crowd cheered for more. She appeared in the wings, waved, and the audience continued their embrace until the house lights signaled the end of a most memorable evening.
Photo Gallery
