Rickie Lee Jones - The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard
![The Sermon On Exposition Blvd. [Deluxe Limited Edition --- includes 5.1 SACD version and 40 minute DVD of making the record]](http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000L211NW.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_V45869034_.jpg)
Almost from the onset of her long career, Rickie Lee Jones (music) has been both a musical chameleon and rogue champion of genre exploration.
Not content to continue down the familiar female singer/songwriter path that she traveled on her first two releases, Jones, not unlike Joni Mitchell, began to explore jazz, free-form song structures and whatever else caught her ear. While this may have sated Jones creatively, such decisions left much of her mainstream fanbase at a loss, marginalizing her career to that of a cult artist–albeit a relatively well-known cult artist.
“The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard,” Jones’ first release for New West Records, finds her wearing her roots-rock hat while taking her lyrical cues from the Bible. Throughout the album’s 13 tracks, Jones seamlessly integrates the words and message of Christ. But you wouldn’t necessarily know this from just a casual listen or two, as this may be the artist’s most experimental collection to date.
With a nod to the recent works of Lucinda Williams and Victoria Williams, Jones mines a raw Americana vibe, but adds her own stamp to the proceedings. “The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard” succeeds in tackling religion and religious imagery in much the same way Jim White’s 1997 debut, “The Wrong-Eyed Jesus” does: with complete class. Source: www.livedaily.com
