Norah Jones: Feels Like Home

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * * * *)

Almost two years ago you heard about Jones' extraordinary debut album, Come Away With Me, right here. At that time she was an unknown singer who had been heard only in bit parts on guitarist Charlie Hunter's albums.

But outside of that - and let's be honest, how many people knew of Hunter, let alone remembered his guest? - Jones was just another young singer/pianist with a debut album on the Blue Note jazz label.

She'd played jazz although wasn't a jazz singer - but what she did with a muted voice and downbeat selection of songs was something special.

The review, which also filled in her background as sitar player Ravi Shankar's daughter who grew up with her mum in Texas, concluded with this: "Come Away With Me, with its subtle amalgam of jazz, country, pop chanteuse and soul might not push the boundaries, but in its simplicity, ease and elegance it is one tempting invitation that Jones makes."

People steadily picked up Jones' intimate invitation and the album has now sold a whopping 172,000 copies in this small country. It's been on our charts 91 weeks and is still in the top 40.

But along the way Come Away With Me suffered from overkill. It seemed every damned restaurant and hairdresser had it on high rotate.

You can't say we didn't warn you, though. It gives me no pleasure to note what I also said in that review: "It is stressless listening and I suspect it will become popular on patios, in sophisticated bars and late at night when one hand is reaching for the dimmer. It's seductive and seduction music."

The unfortunate side-effect of that over-exposure was the album ceased to sound as fresh as it was - which of course is hardly Jones' fault.

In fact when she spoke to the Herald for her first New Zealand interview, in April 2002, she said she wasn't trying to sell zillions of records and that's why she had signed to Blue Note. It was a jazz label and they weren't trying to turn her into some big pop act.

Well, she became one regardless and her new album will answer that question which has floated around: could she do it again?

The answer is an emphatic yes.

She takes her music into a kind of polished roots style and rides even closer to country than before, as she duets with Dolly Parton and covers Townes Van Zandt's Be Here to Love Me with keen understanding.

This sounds a stronger, more musically engaging album than that arresting debut.

Songwriter Jesse Harris (who penned her Grammy-grabbing hit Don't Know Why) is no longer in the ranks but Jones - who has here written or co-written six of the 13 tracks (including the bitter sweet lyrics for a Duke Ellington melody on Don't Miss You At All) - is admirably democratic.

Her bassist/partner Lee Alexander writes or co-writes a few again; guitarist Adam Levy contributes In the Morning; another guitarist, Kevin Breit, offers Humble Me; drummer and vocalist Andrew Borger and Daru Oda present Above Ground.

The rest is filled by a new Tom Waits/Kathleen Brennan tune The Long Way Home (an immediately familiar piece of pure country over a Johnny Cash-lite bassline) and that Townes Van Zandt cover.

Yet despite this diversity of contributors the flavour is identifiably Jones.

This is a subtle and clever collection where the arrangements gently push in different directions - and that makes it a more interesting (and you suspect a more long-lasting album) than it's predecessor.

Her original What Am I To You?, where she plays Wurlitzer, slips discreetly towards southern funky soul (with Levon Helm and Garth Hudson from the Band, and Tony Scherr on brittle electric guitar).

On the elegantly simple Carnival Town, with its barely discernable string arrangement, there are hints of Cole Porter, and Jones delivers an understated but entirely appropriate piano solo.

In the Morning has a slightly humid swamp-funk feel and Jones sings like she's been listening to Bobbie Gentry before letting go a slinky jazz-funk solo on Wurlitzer.

The country-pickin' Creepin' In sounds written for Parton - Dolly repaying Jones for her sensitive treatment of The Grass is Blue on the recent nod-to-Dolly album Just Because I'm a Woman - and they duet like they were separated at birth.

Throughout there are only the barest hints of those various styles - soul, country, bluegrass and swamp - but they are enough to give this more musical depth than Come Away With Me.

Add that to the upward trajectory of energy the tracklisting offers - it hits an uptempo, foot-tapping peak with Dolly at the midpoint before winding slowly back down to the minor blues ballad of The Prettiest Thing and the Ellington ballad - and you have an album that is as smart as it sounds.

So yes, this too will be played at dinner parties, in art galleries, hairdressers and the like. But you won't tire of it quite as quickly, and even if you do, remember this: it isn't Norah Jones' fault people thrash her albums because they like them. She has more than kept her end of the contract here.

* Norah Jones is interviewed in today's Canvas, and there are copies of Feels Like Home to be won.

Label: Blue Note