Rickie Lee Jones is challenging her listeners and the establishment with an absorbing musical vision that defies border and classification. She rocked the culture of singer-song writerdom with her refusal to conform to the careful eloquence of the folk rock generation that came before her. Neither punk nor pop, she tottered on a thread of her own devise. Her sense of humor, musical dexterity and song craft is all evident on her exquisite new album Balm In Gilead. The songs move seamlessly through its roots and R&B fabric, a ‘western noir’, cinematic in scope, expansive in detail. At 54, with her deeply ingrained vaudevillian heritage well intact, from the heights of popular music to the deepest respect of her peers and appreciative fans, Rickie Lee Jones was, and remains, a unique artist of undeniable influence on singers and songwriters today. She writes albums, not songs, a rare art indeed these days. Celebrating her 30th anniversary making music, Balm in Gilead promises to be one of the top recordings of the year.