March 17, 2007
Huh. Funky is how the legendary underground singer-songwriter started her set, waxing all stream-of-conscious-like about her distortion box, rednecks and being on DirecTV (the showcase is at SXSW Live and being broadcast on the satellite network) as her band warmed up with a rumbling, bluesy swamp thang.
Whem the broadcast started, she dived into a continuation of that rhythm. She mumbles like Dylan, but stays in a pocket like Neil Young; seemingly barely there, but actually totally immersed in the poetic or musical moment.
Her new album ("The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard"; it's been awhile) is her most rock-centric yet, and that's showing here. She can still hit some shivery high notes, and that patented flower-child warble lives. She's not a dynamo by any means - her ragtag-looking band is far more visually compelling - but the nature of her performance style needs few physical tools.
Her sense of vocal timing is faultless ... though the forearm-out tambourine technique she attempted was, uh, strange. So was "Nobody Knows My Name," a new freestyle vocal jam over three chords that rolled forth like crashing lake waves. But then she hit one of those high notes ... oooh, yeah.
Posted by Mike Daniel 
at 4:22 PM (E-mail this entry)
this is the most compelling performance i have ever seen take place in front of a camera. She is a beautiful woman and the audience was spell bound for this performance, was the camera watching? I hope it caught it, because there were few there who were not caught by it. from the first note of 'tried to be a man ' (described by one reveiwer as a blues shuffle, it certianly is not a shuffle) to the 'lamp of the body 'into 'i was there,' this was a once in a life time performance. Like her interview, which the south by southewest newspaper described as the hippest interveiw at the festival, requesting the entire transcript be put on line.. her club appearance, her shows were great. Rikcie is the Jones in Jones, and seems to needs young audiences to do her best. She should be introduced to them, they would love her. Jones plays electric guitar like Danny Whitman meets Curtis Mayfield and jams with the acid rock thing. from her guitar playing to her singing she was absolutely on. at south by southwest. her once in a life time appearance there should have been much better attended. It was reasonably full.. but what does it take to bring this woman into the main stream? I notice that hipper and less intersting acts get alot more audience for alot less work. This performance for direct tv was incredible.
Posted by: Charlotte Nabet at March 20, 2007 2:45 AM