Album: Ricky Lee Jones, The Devil You Know (Concord/Decca)

She has genius, in the Shakespearean sense.

But whether that spiritedness benefits from this kind of raw exposure is moot. What is sure is that Rickie Lee has been one of the great contemporary interpreters. Here she tackles “Sympathy for the Devil”, “The Weight”, “Catch the Wind” and other standards of the rock canon, barely supported by a scratchy figleaf of accompaniment courtesy of Ben Harper. The results have a tendency to make you look at the ceiling.