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The Chautauqua was an institution in rural America during the 19th and 20th centuries where communities came together for religion, education, and entertainment. Musicians, teachers, speakers, preachers, and other entertainers from outside were brought inside for the community’s elucidation. The original Chautauqua, the New York Chautauqua Assembly, continues today as the Chautauqua Institute.

From the original Chautauqua, on the shores of Lake Chautauqua, spawned independent and tent Chautauquas. Tent Chautauquas were traveling shows that would set up outside of town for a few days, present their programs, and then move on to the next town.

While the Chautauqua began as a religious experience, music was always a very important, central, part of the Chautauqua.

The Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua is a modern interpretation of the original. Housed in a series of semi-permanent tents and permanent buildings on the foot of Mt. Ashwabay Ski Hill, just outside of Bayfield, WI, the Big Top celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. With a capacity of 900, it’s an intimate concert venue. Its radio show, Tent Show Radio, airs each week on public radio stations across the US.

This past Saturday, 30 July, Rickie Lee Jones offered up a very special performance in the Big Top. Billed as “Rickie Lee Jones: Old School,” she was to perform her first two albums, the self-titled Rickie Lee Jones (1979) and the follow-up Pirates (1981), back-to-back, in their entirety, with the original arrangements.

Jones wrote “Easy Money” sometime in the mid-1970s. Lowell George heard the song in 1977 and recorded it for his Thanks I’ll Eat It Here release in 1979, shortly before his death. Warner Brothers heard that and quickly signed Jones. Her Warners debut, the self-titled Rickie Lee Jones was released in 1979 and was nominated for a slew of grammies: Best Record, Best Pop Vocal, Best Rock Vocal, Best Song (for “Last Chance Texaco”) and Best New Artist (which she won). Two years later, Warner released Pirates, partially an account of her breakup with Tom Waits. It was even more melancholy and, like the release before it, required close listening; meaning comes not just from the lyrics and melody but also from the pure sound of her voice.

Rickie Lee Jones is the most fearless performer I’ve ever seen—while at the same time the most vulnerable—and her Big Top show was no exception. While she didn’t play the albums back-to-back, or in the exact original arrangements, I’m pretty sure they were all there and it was a spectacular performance. After more than 30 years, Jones’s voice is remarkably solid and she was in as fine a form as I’ve ever seen.

Highlights of Saturday’s show were “We Belong Together,” “Traces of the Western Slopes,” “The Last Chance Texaco,” “Coolsville,” and an absolutely stunning “Weasel and the White Boys Cool.” Those are my highlights—ask anyone else there and they’ll probably rattle off others. There were no stinkers.

Closing her Saturday night show with “The Moon is Made of Gold,” a lullaby written for her by her father, Richard Loris Jones, was a special treat. I haven’t heard Jones perform this tune in a live setting for a very long time; it has to be more than 25 years and she used to do it regularly. Jones recorded the song with Rob Wasserman for his 1985 release, Duets, so I still hear it often.