Jenny Lewis brought some classic country flare to Jimmy Kimmel Live Thursday, performing two new songs “Red Bull and Hennessy” and “Wasted Youth.”
Strapped with an acoustic guitar painted pink and blue, Lewis moved through the smoldering “Red Bull and Hennessy,” which captures the peaks of desire in a new relationship, then the ways they slowly disintegrate. “I’m on fire, c’mon and get next to me/I wanna ride with you,” Lewis sang before her guitarist launched into a mesmerizing closing solo.
Lewis then hopped behind an equally well-decorated piano for “Wasted Youth,” injecting the performance with clever flourishes, like when she and her band came to a saucy full stop after the lyrical quip, “Why are you lying?/The bourbon’s gone/Mercury hasn’t been in retrograde for that long, oh no.”
Both “Red Bull and Hennessy” and “Wasted Youth” appear Lewis’ new album, On the Line, which is out today, March 22nd. The album features an all-star collection of musicians including Ringo Starr, bassist Don Was, drummer Jim Keltner and organ player Benmont Tench.
Lewis will kick off a North American tour in support of On the Line March 26th in Bloomington, Illinois.