Listen to almost any slightly left-of-centre female singer-songwriter of the past 25 years – be they Suzanne Vega, Edie Brickell, Norah Jones or Corinne Bailey Rae – and the chances are you’ll hear an echo of Rickie Lee Jones somewhere in there.
The 55-year-old American singer-songwriter first emerged in the late 1970s when, in her words, the “choice was new wave, disco or Linda Ronstadt”. With her finger snaps, jazzy jive talk and boho chic, Jones carried the promised of a beguiling new approach.
