MUSIC REVIEW
On a balmy night, Jones casts mellow magic spell
By Steve Morse, Globe Staff, 6/30/2003
o put it mildly, Norah Jones has her own style. That style can take just about any song, whether it's by Hoagy Carmichael, Hank Williams, or even AC/DC (yes, she did a surprise AC/DC number at the FleetBoston Pavilion on Saturday) and make it uniquely her own. It's a gift that the greatest singers have -- and, make no mistake, Jones is in that company. She didn't have to sweep the Grammys this year to prove that.
Jones, whose ''Come Away With Me'' has sold nearly 7 million copies (besides winning the Grammy for album of the year), came, saw, and conquered on Saturday before a sold-out crowd of 5,000 fans. She played to an adult, suburban crowd that the record industry has often forgotten but that every few years coronates an artist such as Jones. It's an audience that doesn't care whether Jones is pop, jazz, country, or folk (she's really all of these), but appreciates the honesty of her music and the fact that it transcends labels, corporate or otherwise.
Jones, who is only 24, was stunning on Saturday. She was occasionally too mellow (the biggest complaint that critics who call her ''Snorah Jones'' have against her), but that mellowness is also part of her gift. She does not just sing music. She turns it into therapy. And her soothingly romantic songs were just the right touch for a balmy night on the harbor, as snuggling couples (some of whom probably hadn't been to a concert in a while) got even closer as she wove her sultry, surprisingly sexy spell.
Fronting a six-piece band, Jones was a picture of casualness in jeans and a sleeveless shirt, yet she sang with a sophistication that made her seem like the new generation's Nina Simone. Appropriately, she cited Simone when she did J. D. Loudermilk's ''Turn Me On,'' saying that she had learned it from a Simone album. It was the first of many hints that the young Jones had done her musical homework.
Jones opened with the Hank Williams classic ''Cold Cold Heart,'' bringing refreshing warmth to it. She proceeded to hit the ''Come Away With Me'' album hard (after all, this was a victory-lap tour for her Grammys), but also shared several new tunes -- the sweetly intoned ''Moon Song'' (which she co-wrote with bandmates Adam Levy and Lee Alexander) and ''Morning,'' as well as ''My Toes Just Touch the Water.'' It was a generous gesture, and the crowd loved it.
Almost more striking, though, were Jones's added cover songs for this tour. She pulled out Gram Parson's aching country ballad ''She'' (Jones's sound engineer said it was the first time the group had played it in concert), plus the Band's ''Bessie Smith'' and for a final encore, AC/DC's ''Ride On,'' given the chilled-out treatment that is her signature. She joked, ''We're stuck in the '70s for our cover songs, I guess.'' And her band laid back on most of them, layering the music with acoustic bass and often drums with brushes, not sticks.
Jones's sense of humor was endearing. She joked so often about the pavilion's hot dogs that a fan finally gave her one, and she had a bite of it. She also graciously allowed a young boy hoisted up by his parent to sit on her piano stool (''How cute is he?'' she quipped). And she capped this feel-good show by mimicking the arm motions of a dancer in a front row, adding that dancing ''rarely happens with us because we're so mellow.'' Indeed, rather than act like a remote Grammy goddess, she seemed like a breezy neighbor happy to be among friends.
Opener Gillian Welch had a tougher time because the crowd was busy chatting loudly. The audience missed much of her subtly wonderful mix of old-timey country and gospel, though frankly, Welch and guitarist/partner David Rawlings would have been better served in a coffeehouse setting.
This story ran on page D11 of the Boston Globe on 6/30/2003.
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