Artist: Rickiee Lee Jones
Album: Balm in Gillead
Worth Buying: You bet!
The music of Rickie Lee Jones has been in my blood for a long time. Ever since her first album. And to a small extent I will compare my
relationship to her music in the same way that I compare my relationship to the Star Wars Movies.......Stay with me, this will all make sense in a moment.
I remember sitting in the theater back in the late 70's when the first Star Wars Movie came out. I remember that opening scene where princess Leah's ship flys overhead shotting at as yet unseen pursuer and everyone in the theater went "wow"!......only to be followed by the Imperial battle cruiser that was 10 times larger...and everyone in the theater went "WOW"!
Since then, this money scene has been topped over and over again. But this was the first time movie goers had seen anything this visually impressive in a very long time. Every Star Wars film that has followed has tried to top itself visually too, and while I have enjoyed the films that followed, none of it (even if it is technically superiour) will really ever make me feel the way I did sitting in that theater back in the 70's.
And this brings me to Rickee Lee Jones. Her first (self titled) album will always be one of the most important albums of my life.....Maybe it was just the timing, the time that it was released in, the age that I was at.....who knows. But each song on that album transported me into it's own seperate story and world, and still does everytime I listen to it.
No matter how good of an album Rickee Lee Jones follows up with, I don't think there will ever be one that does what that first album does for me. it's not at all fair to her as an artist. It just is what it is.
This brings me to her latest release Balm in Gilliad and it's one of her strongest releases since. "The Evening of My Best Day".
In fact with this album I had another revelation about her music..... Occassionly Rickie Lee Jones has stepped outside of her Genre. There was Ghosty Head her experiment with more electronic sounding music and her garage rock concept album "The Sermon on Exposition Blvd".....But for the most part she has been best described as a pop/jazz singer songwriter hybred (A description that would also fit what Norah Jones is doing now).
....And then it occoured to me. Back in the early 60's there was brief musical movent called the Brill Building sound. The Brill building sound has been described as a maturation of the music of the 50's and was typified by songs like "Stand By Me" and "Will You Still Love Me
Tomorrow". This movement came to a sudden and unexpected end with the 60's British invasion. But it occoured to me that the music of Rickee Lee Jones (this album included) is what the Brill building sound might have evolved into had it continued.
No where is this better typified than with her duet with Ben Harper entitled Old Enough. This song transports us into an earlier era without sounding nostalgic in a "nudge, nudge, wink, wink," kind of way.
Another song that does this very well is the Blue Ghazel. This chugging blues/jazz instrumental number, transported me into the backstreets and pool halls of another era without ever coming off as being deliberately or cleverly retro.
Songs like The Moon is made of Gold, sounds like like a lost song from the 40's beaming out of a magic radio from the Twilight Zone. As it turns out, the song is written by her Father and was originally written as lullaby for her.Film placement supervisor had better take note of this song as this track just seems to be a natural fit for an upcoming Disney or Pixar movie.
So many of the songs on this album have that aforementioned transporter effect (no Star Trek puns intended). The music transports into a different time but without coming off as old school, retro, or nostalgic. In fact, from this point onward I think that I will describe the majority of Miss Jones's catalog as music from an alternate reality wherein the Brill Building sound flourished and grew.
What about the packaging? The CD comes in a standard Jewel Case with lyrics booklet that is beautifully illustrated with photos (most of them taken by Rickie Lee Jones Herself)
TJR 03/23/10
listen to samples and get it in mp3 format for just $7.99
Get it on CD here
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