This week, we bring you a very special edition of the show, featuring a SHERO of SHEROES. Also known as the Duchess of Coolsville, she is an unparalleled, Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, musician, interpreter of songs, and author. She is the one and only Rickie Lee Jones, and she’s just put out her 15th studio album, Pieces of Treasure. The album is her first devoted entirely to the Great American Songbook, and while this seven-time Grammy nominated artist has always woven jazz and pop sounds and covers into her work, one could say this album is nearly a lifetime in the making. Several of the songs on Pieces of Treasure harken back to Rickie Lee Jones’ childhood and songs she learned from her father. It also sees Rickie reuniting with producer Russ Titelman who co-produced her 1979 landmark platinum-selling self-titled debut, which garnered Rickie her first four Grammy nominations and first win as Best New Artist in 1980, and her 1981 critically hailed follow up, Pirates, which went gold, and ranked 49th on NPR’s 2017 list of the 150 Greatest Albums Made by Women. Pieces of Treasure captures this full circle moment, encompassing four decades of friendship, the culmination of Rickie Lee Jones’ trailblazing career thus far, and is the perfect follow up to her acclaimed 2021 memoir, Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of An American Troubadour. Just like life, the album holds both humor and deep emotion, and a sense of ever present love of all kinds. There can be no doubt that Rickie Lee Jones is an icon, and her voice and her timing is as astonishing as ever. And as you’ll hear in this interview, recorded back in April just days before Pieces of Treasure was released, she is still paving the way for us all.
