Norah Jones. All photos by KEVIN PYLE
Pop and jazz chanteuse
Norah Jones opened up her Tuesday night concert at Brady Theater with a seat at the piano, and broke into a Hank Williams cover. It was the first of two during the night.
Her four-piece backing band included a rotating cast of instruments: stand-up bass, bass guitars, guitars, keyboards, organ, drums and Jones at times on piano and others with guitar -- her sultry vocals effervesced over it all, intoxicating like champagne.
Jones laughed sweetly, and told the crowd, “You were the best audience on my last tour” before she turned to her band and added, “See, I told you guys they’d be awesome!”
“You’re definitely living up to the title tonight,” she said to cheers.
She dressed in a simple purple shift, as a monochromatic stage set blinked lavenders and reds that took on multi-faceted hues on oversized origami paper cranes that floated above the stage on strings of lights.
Jones blended elements of jazz, blues, swing, indie rock, rockabilly, pop, country, soul, elements of roadhouse-like piano blues — it was intimate, ultimate Americana in every sense.
The singer-songwriter exudes a sort of rare ease and confidence that comes with humility. She has nothing to prove, only music to share, her tunes textured with subtlety and spirit.
Cory and
Adrien Chisel opened the evening. They are an easy, smooth-singing duo of straightforward storytellers that shared folky, intimate songs about loving the right people at the wrong time. Acoustic guitar and keyboard and man and woman, they sang heir hearts out to a full house.
Cory Chisel has a son-of-Dylan-meets-Simon-&-Garfunkel purity to it, an inchoate harmony that settled like fog on a cool morning. He led audience spiritual-like clap-alongs in the vein of front-porch family gatherings, and sang about the simplest pleasures of rural life.
SETLIST:
-- Cold Cold Heart (Hank Williams cover)
-- Out on the Road
-- All a Dream
-- She’s 22
-- Say Goodbye
-- Take It Back
-- Chasing Pirates
-- Little Broken Hearts
-- Rosie’s Lullaby
-- Creepin’ In
-- Love Me (a cover of a song Elvis made famous)
-- My Dear Country
-- Don’t Know Why
-- Sinkin’ Soon
-- Miriam
-- Happy Pills
-- Stuck
-- Hickory Wind (Gram Parsons cover) (with Cory and Adrien Chisel)
Encore: (acoustic)
-- How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart? (Hank Williams cover)
-- Sunrise
-- Come Away With Me
(PS: If I missed a song on the setlist, please let me know!)
