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Rock the pulpit

Rickie Lee Jones album puts 'Words of Christ' to music

Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 28, 2006 at midnight

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When Rickie Lee Jones read The Words of Christ, it shook her world.

The book by her friend, Lee Cantelon, was an attempt to take the words of Jesus from scripture and apply them to life today.

She was particularly struck how, in her opinion, there was a contrast between his words and the things being done in his name.

So when the opportunity came to make a new album with Cantelon, Jones leapt at the chance to bring those words into modern times and contrast them with her own life and those around her.

The result is The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard, due out in February.

She'll perform some of those songs as well as her classics at a taping tonight of the etown radio show.

Just because the subject matter is sometimes spiritual, that doesn't mean the record doesn't kick butt, she warns.

"They're talking about Jesus and the Christian right and the misaligning of the intentions of Christ," Jones said in a recent phone interview.

"That's really great, but I'm happy to have the subject return to what a good record it is, period," she said.

She added: "The main thing is to let people know it's a great rock 'n' roll record on so many levels. While it's inspired by my friend's book on the words of Christ, Jesus isn't mentioned very much. I'm not apologizing to anybody. I just wanna be sure the conversation stays focused on the music."

She has long been outspoken.

Besides recording Tell Somebody (Repeal the Patriot Acts Now) on her 2003 album The Evening of My Best Day, Jones began blogging about politics with a sense of urgency soon after the 2000 presidential election.

"I thought that (George Bush's) presidency was a farce, that he had not been elected. What he represented just seemed unprecedented to our times.

"I read one blog that said 'It doesn't really matter, he'll be gone in four years.' And I was thinking 'Well, it does matter, the amount of damage he can do in four years.' It was exactly as I feared."

The new album isn't in any sense a Christian rock record - for one thing, both Elvis and Janis Joplin pop up in song lyrics.

Jones writes about emotions everyone has, such as the pain of separation in It Hurts, with its chorus of "It hurts to be here when you're gone."

"All these are my life juxtaposed against the life of Christ and the disciples. I was thinking of being a disciple and now the deity is gone and how that feels," Jones said, and she realized that same feeling can apply to people in your life.

"We look back - remember those times when you caught me and saved me from my own life? I remember those golden times . . . It hurts when you're not here. It hurts to be without you, whatever it is you are."

Seventh Day and Elvis Cadillac were "really inspired by a troubled streak with my daughter. I began to reflect on not just her story but her generation's story, what they have to trudge through and what got handed to them.

"She's just 18. I was thinking what it was like to turn 18. We forget. There were things that were precious and golden when I turned 18. Every generation somehow lives this same story, always returning to the text. It's the same story Christ lived. Every generation of youth goes out there fighting the good fight."



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