I have to admit something. I’m in love with another woman. Her name is Norah Jones and this has been going on for several years.
I have always loved female singers. It doesn’t matter what they are singing but there is some sort of primal sexiness about a woman who can sing with passion. Billy Holiday, Joan Osborn, Juliana Hatfield, Dolly Parton, Sarah Vaughn, Robinella, Ella, Ju Ju and many more just do something to me and have for as long as I can remember.
This is not a physical romance or attraction but something beyond the touch of skin and the conjoined oneness of carnal exploration. It’s like gravity; its force is unmistakable and invisible in the same instant. It’s inescapable and embracing, free and restricting bound together.
We’ve dumped our cable for the summer so in the morning we’ll put on some tune while the kids are still sleeping and Jules always puts on Robinella (formerly as Robinella and the CC String band) or the luscious Miss Jones and it’s wonderful.
On the Come Away With Me album there is a song which is performed more as a growl than anything else called appropriately, Turn Me On. There is something raw about this song and its backing of simple, smooth, organ, snare, high hat, piano and resonate bass riffs. It doesn’t stop there like any good relationship there is humor and levity paired like a fine wine with the slow and the sad all while book ended with romance, silliness, sultriness and sincerity.
Her 2nd album is more effervescent but still resonates with passion this time geared for more daylight than dusky occupations. In both records the voice is soft and soothing without the demeaning exercise of over dubs, re-tracks and post production fine tuning. Like Dolly, Billy, Ella and Robinella their voice, their instrument is expertly tuned and personalized to their own stylized world view. Dolly speaks her songs into existence, Billy aches, Ella soars, Robinella reminisces and Norah romances slow and bouncy tunes with the same care.
There are others like EmmyLou Harris, Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Matraca Berg, Eva Cassidy that are concubines in my enraptured sonic harem but I have to say that the Norah is one of the gold standards. Early mornings, mid day drives, star lit rendezvous all seem to reverberate and echo her velvety crooning into the deep places of my soul.
22 comments:
I think Norah is cheating on you with Brewster. Sorry!
She is amazing!
Thanks KellieJ, you just gave me my weekend fantasy.
I wrote a review of a Norah bootleg. You can read it here.
I love a good voice, male or female. Sometimes it doesn't even have to be a perfect voice. Jerry Garcia can move me to tears and his voice was very weak.
Female voices have the addes sex appeal and Norah has that in spades. "Turn me on" gets my insides a tingling like nothing else.
And why is it that in every other post you find some dumb image to post with it, but when talking about the goddess you include none?
BTW I too highly reccomend Robinella.
BTW2 How is life without cable? I just upped my blockbuster by mail subscription and will be cancelling my movie channels, but I'm afraid I'll have to keep the basic cable.
I have to say... iw as talking to my wife about this yesterday... Norah Jones.. her music, all sounds the same. And when she came out, I knew she was destined to be forgotten when her 15 minutes was up. SO me, I am not impressed with her. Good singer, peaceful music... but not ground breaking I must say.
I will say that I saw Mullins becaome attracted to his wife for the first time. It was at FU. (I've told this story before). Me, him, Brew, Stubbs perhaps, and another guy or two were huddle in the doorway of the box office, watching people audition by the piano. Julianna got up to sing. I heard Mullins say, under his breath when he heard her sing "Oh wow..." and it was then I saw him get turned on to her...
Speaking of music, I just discovered the "Old and in the way" album, with Garcia... good stuff. Oh, and I play "Morning Dew" on the mandolin when I want to chill. My posin' days may be over afterall.
Norah is great...
You might like Alicia Keys, too.
Billie is the queen.
I think Alison Krauss is pretty good, too.
Here you go, Brew.
Norah's my bring-one-CD/stuck-on-a-desert-island fave. I can't listen without singing along either.
I admit I can't really listen to an entire Norah album. It's great for the background of an intimate dinner, or waking up, but somewhere towards the end I always get bored if I'm paying attention.
But there are several songs on both albums that are divine.
She really isn't original. She's got a great voice, but whats shes doing has been done for ages. It's kind of like when the OBrother soundtrack hit and everybody thought it was new...when most of the songs were 50 years old or more.
Old and In the Way is great.
I must say, Rachel sings Norah very well...
She can turn me on anytime!
I needed to change my comment...
Mat loves Norah and I thought the clown should know!
For the Matses
ok, now that the pic is up, i like her...
Oh, was listening to an old "Cafe" favorite this morning coming to work after having read this post.
I popped in a Cheryl Crow single CD. It was the "Strong Enough" single. Not the best song on earth, but this single had a B side called "Leaving Las Vegas" which was played int eh cafe in the past, thanks to Chuck.
I bought the single for the B side alone. Cheryl Corw was pretty cool back then and is a chick and isnt the best singer but yeah, it was cool and I could listen to that song a few times over and over and it still almost bring me to tears due to the emotion in her voice.
Sheryl Crow...shudder...
I remember David O., one of my old, stinky roomates, had a huge poster of her on his wall.
She has copious upper lip hair....ew!
I don't care to listen to her.
Sarah MacLaughlin, though...very pretty voice.
Celine Dion too...j/k
She sounds like a chicken...
"The power of lurrrrr..."
For the record the freakin’ blog wouldn’t let me post a pic. I had a really hot B&W, low angle of her at the piano.
Her music isn’t new, rather the style isn’t new. It’s been done like this since the 30’s by someone. She’s the latest in a long line of singers to take the mantle and I’m happy she has. I love jazz of all kinds and I really love jazz vocals and her bleeding and soulful style is great.
She’s been good for bringing that style of music back to the forefront for better or worse.
For me she’s just enough of background ambient noise to adjust the mood of a room with little effort. There will be others that will become wistful muses to my imagination but most recently she’s the one for me.
Brew mentioned Robinella. Her voice is not perfect but she is I think one of the best new artists around today and she’s a local native to this area. If Jules and I could find a baby sitter on Sunday evenings we could go see her perform all the time. She has a song about maturing as a woman and the men in her life that could almost make me wish I had a daughter. To beat it all she has a high and haunting southern sound that’s like no other. I’m cheating on Norah with Robinella, shhh.
Jamison you saw a rare moment. There were few people who I have known who have impressed me with their talent at first sight and Jules was one of them. She was pretty hot too. See fell for me so there is some obvious question about her judgment but otherwise I was blown away.
Brew, to your question about living without cable, it’s wonderful! The evenings are spent with the kids outside and me watching them play. Instead of gazing into the tube I read in the evenings or go to bed at a decent hour. I’m not constantly bombarded with graphic images of war and sex and I feel better about my place in the world. When I was watching TV I would flip the channels every five minutes getting nothing in return but filling the vacuum in my head.
For news I check the web at work and what doesn’t come up on the three or four sites I look at doesn’t bother me. The kids have some videos they like to watch and I’ll get a movie from work some evenings and I’m almost to the point of not missing it. I almost want to redo the living room so that the whole thing isn’t centered around the huge black hole against the wall.
Kellie that video link is awesome, thank you so much!
Talk about vocal power. You can see Dolly is holding back. If she didn’t poor Norah would be on the floor. The fact they changed keys is really cool because dolly is able to sing those really high accompaniments without flinching. Norah is awesome and very talented but Dolly does have her beat on power and strength.
I met Dolly a few years ago and in real life she looks like a cartoon character, very odd but one of the nicest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.
That woman is Botoxed to Gehena and back.
I have never cared for Dolly's voice or performance. Too weird and warbly.
Norah has a refined, controlled sound. She really has her music together and knows who she is.
I think that's what I like about Alicia Keys, too. She is herself and knows what she's doing.
Don't know a thing about Robinella. Might check out her music...
Sipper Robinella’s new music has taken on a slight change from her first couple of releases but her voice I think would fit in at your family music makings like a hand in a glove. East Tennessee country twang with silken delivery. Her first album was like a bluegrass, 40’s swing jazz mix. Number two was a bit more poppy with the same under girding sound. The track from her website is a bit to contemporary overdubbed but still gives the vocal performance its place.
Are you guys near Opp, AL? She’ll be there Oct, 21. You should check her out if you can.
http://www.highwiremusic.net/Members/signup.aspx?firstLoad=true&step=1&memberId=&bandId=Y7mxH0RHBvM=
Go to the “Step 2: Listen” page and try a few tracks.
Dolly's always joked that "it takes a lot of people to make me look this trashy." Freaky should be more like. Still, she was very cool.
Dude!
Opp is right down the road from Luverne! That's cool!
Oct 21st might be doable, but it's around Rachel's bday and she's not the BG fan I am.
But, it's way cool she's playing that venue.
Hey, let me hear this lady sing before you say I don't like her! ;)
I shall look her up and see how she sounds.
I sort of like Norah Jones, but I couldn't listen to a whole CD nonstop. I need a lot more energy. John Mayer's another one that I sort of like, but I get all ADD when I listen to him.
Ya’ll gotta learn how to chill properly.
Miss. Jones is a great sound for background noise and filling a space. Just when the music almost disappears you remember it because she’s pulled you back in.
Sometimes you've gotta hear without needing to listen.
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