

Jones was born on November 8, 1954, in Chicago, but the volatile relationship between her mother and father resulted in an upbringing that led her everywhere from Phoenix, Arizona, to Olympia, Washington, where an expulsion ended her school career.

Whatever direction Jones chooses to follow, her work always reflects her personal connection with the music and an uncompromising creative vision.

#RICKIE LEE JONES ALBUMS FULL#
She took full control of presenting her music to the world when she founded her own label to release 2015's The Other Side of Desire and 2019's Kicks. (It was the first of several albums she would release in which she put her own mark on the work of other songwriters.) As the '90s gave way to the 2000s, Jones continued to explore new directions, experimenting with trip-hop on 1997's Ghostyhead, offering political broadsides on 2003's The Evening of My Best Day, delivering a decisively personal take on faith with 2007's The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard, and taking an introspective look into her own life on 2009's Balm in Gilead. A lyricist whose work reflected the influences of beat poets, a composer who could weave jazz, folk, and R&B into songs with a distinct pop sensibility, and a vocalist with an expressive and smoky instrument, Jones made a splash in 1979 with her self-titled debut album, a set full of memorable characters and boho cool that earned critical praise and clicked with mainstream listeners thanks to the hit single "Chuck E's in Love." Jones expanded on her stylistic repertoire on her second LP, 1981's Pirates, which added rock and soul flavors to the mix, and the 1983 EP Girl at Her Volcano was a live set that found her spreading her wings as an interpretive vocalist. Her greatest commercial success came at the outset of her career, but a restless creative spirit, combined with a stubborn refusal to fit comfortably into any one musical niche, insured her status as a highly regarded cult heroine. Few artists who rose to fame in the '70s sounded as individual and eclectic as Rickie Lee Jones.
