My music supervisor happened to give me a heads-up that Rickie Lee Jones would be playing a series of nights "in residence" at Le Poisson Rouge on Bleecker Street located in the space formerly known as The Village Gate. (I used one of her tracks in We Pedal Uphill and I just adore her music as well as her ferocious artistic integrity.) Needless to say, I ran to grab tickets.
And I'm so glad I did 'cause I just spent the past two-and-a-half hours being taken on a musical tour of this woman's brilliant career from about twenty feet away. The venue seats about 200 max, if that.
Those smaller venues that used to bring this kind of act within arm's reach have all but dried up in recent years so it's heartening to see that Le Poisson Rouge has managed to snag Rickie Lee Jones as their inaugural act. She will give three more performances—June 22, 29 and 30. And she promised they'd each be different, focusing on different material she's currently interested in working on.
If you want to experience the kind of intimate show given by a singer-songwriter at the top of her craft, a show in which she "tries out a few new things" before your eyes and ears, go to their website at: lepoissonrouge.com
And if you do go, write me to let me know how it was. I'm sure you'll be glad you did. This is a rare opportunity.
And it got me thinking about the music industry in general. It's as if the recording industry has done such a miserable job of treating musicians with dignity and for so long that finally the artists are standing up for themselves and performing on their own terms.
By choosing to play a venue of this size, Rickie Lee Jones gives herself the opportunity to try out new material in a safe environment but, perhaps just as important, she has the chance to connect with her audience, to really feel the room. Several people shouted out words of praise throughout the night. There was no shortage of back-and-forth between us and them. And it felt great.
I think as artists begin to experiment more with giving away recordings of their music (as has Prince, for example), they will return to the roots of why they entered the business in the first place. To make beautiful music and to connect with an audience through music-making. Period.
Record sales slowly lose their meaning (as a barometer of an artist's success) in a world in which fans want to and often can reach out and touch the stars.
Micro is the new macro. (Or something like that)