I never thought much about Rickie Lee Jones. I enjoyed Chuck E’s in Love. I just never

really intersected with her music.

A few years back we went to see Steely Dan at the Beacon Theater in New York (they were great).

The warmup act was Rickie Lee. Things weren’t warm from the start. She seemed disconnected and the audience wasn’t helping. We were up in the balcony so we didn’t hear the interplay but it must have been ugly. It was a horrible set, zero chemistry, lots of hostility.

Flash forward. Rickie Lee was coming to this great small venue in Fort Collins, The Armory. We were not interested.

But friends bought extra tickets and thought we would enjoy going with them. Oh well, what the hell, maybe she had a bad night and we could socialize with friends in a really good venue.

Rickie comes out and it isn’t bad. She did Chuck E early. She did a nice version of an old Lee Hazelwood tune, Houston.

She seemed odd as always but not unfriendly.

Then she unfurled a few quiet unknown songs that just got polite applause. Fort Collins audiences are never rude. But Rickie must have created some offense in the response, mumbled something about us not wanting to hear her, and she walked out the back door.

The polite audience and staff just kind of looked at each other. After some time passed, we left shaking our heads.

Later, we learned she wandered back in and did a few more songs.

I did not regret the departure.

No more Rickie Lee, not even with free tickets.