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Evi HnBBHHBIKnAll/MK - < 7 Tom Robinson, The Shirts. . 8 Jacksons, Sister Sledge, Foj 1 0 Eddie Rabbitt 16 Patti LaBelle 22 Journey, Sweet 22 Kiss 23 Kenny Rogers 24 Kiss 25 Yes 26 Kiss 29 Aretha Franklin, Ashford c S Bar-Kays, Peabo Bryson, Ric 30 (ifinrop Rflncnn Honico Willi Chic, Rose Royce, B. B. Kin$ 2 Waylon Jennings 4 Peaches and Herb 7 Crystal Gayle 20 Kinks 2 1 Kinks 29 Bay City Rollers c i r -A-. J LUII uorrczu 18 Dolly Parton 27 Steve Martin ALSO COMING: Blondi ... a non-pr ventune c Social C Ca&o LiVI veqetaK/'an menu fme^ fie&rz <$c a twosphexALs HtaCii }Q BLujj fiv" Thursday W fMUIC nil < CAROL Bl BROWN zryone's ?;v J"'"' ?V- ?*"s"i r-";""'"'vr ";g|U* : - nss JUNE Agora Ballroom, Atlanta <y Charlotte Coliseum Ovens Auditorium, Charlotte Fox Theatre, Atlanta Greensboro Coliseum Carolina Coliseum Carowinds P rvlioni i rv> IUI IVJllti V>ui IOUUI I I Omni, Atlanta Greenville Memorial Auditorium impson, :k James Atlanta Stadium ams, 3 Atlanta Stadium JULY Carowinds Carowinds Carowinds Fox Theatre, Atlanta Fox Theatre, Atlanta Carowinds AUGUST Carowinds Carowinds Carowinds e, Pattie Smith Group, The Bee Gees 10fit, coopeRat i ve >epicatep to kantfe in 5outh <x . . . us c VHALEY sr. ^ Is i> I > u / C/\ -v. J >K ^ v* ca -s 771-9999 Friday Saturday V (J4L (UK rMliu1 OIII nuiir t/m .UEGRASS DRINK NIGHT SMALL I in love wit By Lehman Stiles Asst. Entertainment Editor Sometimes an album comes seemingly from out of the blue, totally devoid of musical precedents. Who could have predicted Costello's My Aim is True or George Thorogood's Move It On Over? These sudden breaks in the course of musical evolution are always intriguing and attention-getting, and Rickie Lee Jones on her debut has created just such an album, full of charm and mystery. Jones doesn't sound like any other popular music performer, but some comparisons are appropriate. She has the tricky lyric snap of Randy Newman (who plays synthesizer on one cut) and the brooding, highly detailed descriptiveness of Dire Straits' Mark Knopf ler. But Jones' performing style is all her own, with a voice that ranges from a playful, bluesy ad-libbing to an almost classical style in the upper register. She uses the styles interchangeably, adding to the delightful ambiguity that permeates the album. Thrnnah all this .Innpc manacfpc tn punlrp an almnct v ...wv.fjx.u "V v"^ M"?VUV religious aura; she conforms to every accepted standard of humanity while she plays dangerously close to the slums and back streets.Through Jones a voice that ranges from classical stv/e..." w - the hot jazz licks and long, empty highways gain redemption, and she testifies to their overpowering reality. And it is impossible to ignore Jones' innocence in songs like "On Saturday Afternoons in 1963": "So hold on to your special friend; here you'll need CAmafhinrt f a l/nnrv Imr iri " lannp' rf Anr ?c* nr?r* nf ounivviiiiig iv iiv-i in uunto oiui y is uuc ui images shattered and dreams deferred; she sets herself up to knock herself down, creating in the process an allegory for all of human life. The street people who live in her songs are basically all echoes of each other, of a lost virginity that is doomed and blessed to remain ambiguous: "City will make you dirty, but you look alright; you feel real pretty when he's holding you tight." This startling mix of innocence and experience infuses these songs with a static energy that Jones evokes perfectly with her singing. The images, highly personal and vague, are sung with such intimate freedom that we accept them although we can't share Fitnn cq A IW W % 9 W w W W W* | For M< 901 HrtRDCN ST. (N rfR OLD c ^ | PH. 799-8385 v u ii ciuiicd them. We hear the currents of basic human existence flowing beneath the songs; we feel that, somewhere, we have encountered the images before. The album opens with "Chuck E.'s in Love," the successful single that is the album's most ap proachable cut. The description of Chuck's change in behavior ("He sure is acquired a cool and inspired sorta jazz when he walk") is both touchingly funny and universally recognizable. "Easy Money" is a typical example of Jones' ability to match subject and style; a story about a blackmail setup that falls through is sung as if it were being told by one hooker to another on some dark street corner and ends with a street-wise observation: "There ain't no man who got the money in his hand who got any of that bread bein' slow in the head; there ain't no such thing as Easy Money.'' Side one closes with "Last Chance Texaco," an allegory that would be almost sophomoric were it not done in Jones' tender, innocent, searrhiny stvle Its image of life as a constant string of last chances, a neverending highway on which each mile is a calculated risk, strikes a deep and responsive note for a generation that has consigned itself to being continually on the road. Jones proves that she is no stranger to classic blues bluesy ad-libbing to an almost style on the side two opener, "Danny's All-Star Joint," the imagery of which is delightfully familiar and honest: "Downstairs at Danny's All-Star Joint they gotta juke box that goes doyt-doyt." Following is "Coolsville," a moody, impressionist piece that conveys a haunting sense of social decay. The album closes, in "After Hours'' (Twelve Bars Past Goodnight)," with the lines "and all the gang has gone home, and I'm standing on the corner - all alone." Jones has captured something essential about America here, the fact that it both worships and brutally destroys innocence at the same time. We are left on lonely corners; our only hope is that we can choose which street to take. We take to the road again and again, leaving all the Coolsvilles and Texaco stations behind, and we search. Rickie I^ee Jones helps light the way and makes it a little more pleasant with her debut album, a roadsign pointing lowara a irigntlully unknown but constantly hopeful future. ? g MeroDic Clinic hw en and Women I C,C- INTOKeCTION C NT R (N rtR MM 90L0PMN) PH. 77Q-9607