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The Fall

• Norah Jones
• Blue Note/EMI

Norah Jones got famous in New York, but she grew up in Texas. Her Lone Star colours have been on subtle display since her debut disc, but they really show through on this free-range tour of all the kinds of music you might hear on a Saturday night in Austin. Light as a Feather, written with Ryan Adams, is a gliding blues in a key of amber; Tell Yer Mama saunters over a slow boom-chicka-boom; and Back to Manhattan has the inflections of a Bonnie Raitt tune, in spite of its title and tick-tock rhythm. Jones trades her concert grand for a bone-dry rhythm guitar, and only the artfully displaced vocal rhythm of Chasing Pirates tells you she has sung jazz. Like k.d. lang, Jones has a voice with a naturally mellow character. When this disc falters, as on It’s Gonna Be, it’s because the instrumentals seem to ask for something harder and more dangerous than she can provide.