If you’re of a certain age, you’ll hear the name, Rickie Lee Jones, and instantly have ‘Chuck E’s In Love’ running through your head. It’s crazy to think that song is 40 years old, but it’s as bright and fresh today as it was back then. Rickie Lee is also as bright and fresh as she was too, with her new album, ‘Kicks’, set for release on June 28. The first track, ‘Lonely People’, is out now.
‘Kicks’ is released through Rickie Lee’s own label, OSOD, through Thirty Tigers, and comprises ten pop, rock, and jazz tracks handpicked by Rickie herself, spanning songs from the 50s right through to the 70s, to which she’s given her own spin. It follows from her critically acclaimed album, ‘The Other Side Of Desire’, released in 2015.
Lead track ‘Lonely People’, originally a Top Five Billboard hit for America in 1974, comes as an instant grat track with the pre-release purchase of ‘Kicks’.
When selecting tracks for ‘Kicks’, Rickie didn’t just pick the single releases that everyone knows, but also sleeper album tracks, such as ‘My Father’s Gun’, from Elton John’s ‘Tumbleweed Connection’ (1970). She also brings her own humour to songs such as ‘Houston’, originally released in 1964 by Sanford Clark but made famous the following year by Dean Martin. Speaking about the album, Rickie said,
“It is all part of what I heard growing up. The radio played everything! 1960’s AM radio was the primordial zone for our musical life today. As a kid I heard R&B, country, rock, and the most sophisticated singer-songwriters of the day forming their genre. Radio was a college education for a budding musician because these songs are all playing on my internal radio all the time, it’s not a stretch for me to put them together on an LP. Really, I just love to sing.”
Created entirely in New Orleans, ‘Kicks’ used local musicians, mixers, and studios, and was co-produced by Rickie and her bandmate, vibraphonist Mike Dillion. Rickie Lee will be touring the USA this June, and plans to bring her music to the UK for a live show this summer.
Find out more about Rickie Lee Jones online on her official website. You can pre-order ‘Kicks’ by following this link.
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