The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 77, No. 10, Ed. 1 Friday, November 3, 1989 Page: 11 of 16
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THE RICE THRESHER FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1989 11
Rickie Lee is back in Coolsville
BY SHAILA DEWAN
I n the wake of the recent
success of intelligent, tough
female vocalists such as the
Indigo Girls, Tracy Chapman,
Suzanne Vega, and 10,000
Maniacs' Natalie Merchant, the
"Duchess of Coolsville," Rickie
Lee Jones, has returned to the
scene to get her share of the
action. On her first release in
five years, produced by Steely
Dan's Walter Beckman, she's
traded her declass6 spike
heels, bad-girl leer, and cocaine
habit for a conservative but jazzy
image.
Indeed, Jones appears to
have grown up in many ways on
Flying Cowboys. Her sound has
mellowed out from the finger-
snapping jazzy scat of her first
album, the grammy-award-
winning Rickie Lee Jones
(1979). She is no longer the
wounded girl who ran away at
14, slept under the "HOLLY-
WOOD" sign in L.A., and roller-
coasted through a love affair
Shop
FROM PAGE 10
general mayhem, ending, in a
boffo finish worthy of P.D.Q.
Bach.
The most enjoyable addition
the recent film made to the
original was an updated Greek
chorus, here played by Amy
Hemphill (who also did the
choreography), Maria Penfold,
and Jocelyn Neal. As a group,
they were stunningly good, and
although only Perrfold's voice
was strong enough to work well
in the solo passages, they
provided a solid, coherent
backdrop for the wild happen-
ings on stage. Stefan Wawersik,
as Seymour, did an appropri-
ately milquetoastish job with
one astoundingly insipid smile
which out of charity I will
assume did not come naturally.
One of the better musical-''
numbers was sung by Keri
Baxter as Audrey, extolling the
virtues of a suburban home,
complete with a "fence of real
chain link." And Kevin Timson's
acting more than made up for
his relatively weak singing voice.
The least enviable part was
Stephen Hanson's Orin the
Sadistic Dentist, for this was
the role that Steve Martin had
absolutely made his own. One
has to admire Hanson's willing-
ness to attempt it, and despite
a physique which makes the
idea of his being an overpower-
ing sadist rather implausible, he
manages to pull it off.
The biggest problem with this
show was the sound system
used. The microphones were
not well isolated acoustically, so
every scrape of shoes on the
set was amplified. And the am-
plifiers were not very clean, so
the audience had to listen
through a hum. Overall, how-
ever, the tech crews did a good
job, especially with Audrey II
(whose voice was supplied by
an offstage Loyal Murphy).
If you're looking for a bit of
naive fun to precede your
decadent fun at NOD, or a
lighthearted way to recover, go
see this show. It may just
change the way you view your
roommate's African violet.
with singer Tom Waits.
Despite the fact that the new
album is heavier on the slow
songs, Rickie Lee Jones retains
her versatility. Her vocals are at
times childlike and fragile, at
times they project a brassy
streetwise pride. In the palm of
her black net gloves she cradles
a certain innocence, trustingly
offering up a whirl of uncanny
associations, tremulous lonely
images and risky intuitions.
Sometimes these lyrics are
obscure, too personal to evoke
more than a fleeting sensory
impression, as in "Rodeo Girl":
"There's a medicine at the
gate/And a number on your
back/And this world is all jacked
up like a Cadillac." But that
affliction is much less present
here than in Pirates (1981) or
Magazine (1984). Flying Cow-
boys is Jones' most accessible
work in years.
Each of Jones' four LP's
depicts a neighborhood; she
shows the listener the ropes.
Her albums have been peopled
by such characters as Chuck E.,
Sal the Weasel, Johnny the
King, Dutch and Bird; these
homeboys frequent the barrio,
the local juke-joint, the precinct
paddy-wagon. But Cowboys has
a new dwelling place: the wide-
skied range. "Imaginary posses"
chase the listener through the
desert to "distant adobes."
Rickie Lee, raised in Arizona,
does not abandon the city, how-
ever. She returns to "wild it up"
in "Ghetto of My Mind," a tune
with a surprising reggae-based
beat. In "Ghetto" and another
world-beat track, "Love is Gonna
Bring Us Back Alive," Rickie
Lee's harmonies add a sort of
Bonnie Raitt-country sound, a
first for the jazzy vocalist.
The two masterpiece tracks
on the album are showcases for
her dark insecurities and
turbulent background. In the
first, an eerie tune called
"Ghost Train," Rickie Lee drags
her voice along bluesy gravel
depths. Her unpredictable and
precariously perfect phrasing,
missing from most of Cowboys,
is back in this slow-burning
ballad.
In the second excellent track,
"Atlas' Marker," Jones manipu-
lates her voice through a jungle
of dynamics to a primitive beat.
"Maybe you want another
Rickie Lee Jones is more reserved but still a duchess of jazz.
world," she sings to Atlas. "One
where heaven doesn't weigh so
much/Maybe you'll find another
girl/One you can feel when you
do not touch."
And in a third song, not quite
as vocally strenuous, Rickie Lee
exhibits her ability to give life to
her characters in words, to tell
stories with only a few images.
"You turn the carousel on/When
the lights have closed down/
And watch your ponies run/
Through the middle of town,"
she croons. And when I say
croon, I mean croon.
It's certainly true that Rickie
Lee Jones does not appeal to
everyone. To some her voice is
whiny, not wounded, bovine, not
angelic. But, not only is her
voice malleable, her moods
mercurial, and her lyrics mysteri-
ous, her wily charms are as
tough and seductive as Los
Angeles itself. While Flying
Cowboys is a smoother and less
raucous addition to her reper-
toire, it and her earlier albums
are more interesting, more
brilliant, intuitive and poetic
than...well, than the Indigo Girls,
Tracy Chapman, Suzanne Vega,
or Natalie Merchant.
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Broueht to vou courtesy of
C V V
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STAR
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WEDNESDAY. NOVEMBER 8
9:36 PM
RICE MEDIA CENTER
Sponsored by
RICE PROGRAM COUNCIL
RICE UNIVERSITY
Seating is on a first-come, first-admitted basis.
Please arrive early to ensure seating.
C n S M f ^
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Kahn, Greg & Leedy, Sarah J. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 77, No. 10, Ed. 1 Friday, November 3, 1989, newspaper, November 3, 1989; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245733/m1/11/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.