Rickie Lee at the Landmark
Comments(1) I had the honor of hosting Rickie Lee Jones last night at the Landmark on Main Street in Port Washington. Considering that she’s playing Carnegie Hall on Dec. 7, imagine how special it was to her here in a 425 seat theater.
You could tell she felt the vibe, like so many other who’ve played there, between the audience and the artist. She was open hearted and relaxed; when she smiles, her whole faces lights up, and the room with it.
A lot of the material came from her fine new CD, “Balm in Gilead,” which digs deeper into the spirituality she explored on her last CD, “The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard,” but in a more accessible way. A lot of it was quiet and contemplative, but with superb backup on keyboards, upright bass, and percussion, always riveting, never boring.
She picked up the tempo with a couple of old faves, “Satellites” and “Weasel and the White Boys Cool,” but also scored with “Last Chance Chance Texaco,” that gorgeous, slow, late night driving song from her debut album, and “The Moon is Made of Gold,” a song written by her dad in 1954, and “Wild Girl,” a finger snapper (a la “Chuckie’s in Love”) about her daughter from the new CD.
After spending most of the evening playing acoustic guitar on a stool, near the end of the nearly two-hour concert, she moved to the piano. Accompanied by the amazing Rob Wasserman on bass (whose Grammy-winning “Duets” album she played on), she did a medley of a new song and “Coolsville” from her first album. Just breathtaking. Four years ago Rhino released an anthology of her music, called “The Dutchess of Coolsville.” She still reigns.
We were there last night. Great show.
RLJ’s voice is as good as ever, something that can’t always be said of artists who’ve been at it for decades. She was charming and funny, the set list was a good mix, Rob Wasserman was spot on, and the band seemed to play well together.
We also took the opportunity to grab the new album prior to release.