At 06:40 PM 2/24/2003 -0500, Stewart Mason wrote:

>Pity that the anti-Norah backlash is already underway.  I feel about her
>pretty as I did when COME AWAY WITH ME came out nearly a year ago: great
>voice, the mixture of jazz and country influences is satisfyingly odd (has
>anyone but me noticed how much her piano part in "Don't Know Why" owes to
>Floyd Cramer?), and even despite the too-slick production, her talent
>shines through.  She'll never be a top-rank fave of mine, but I dig her.
>
>Know why I bought her album in the first place, well ahead of the tidal
>wave of hype?  Newbury Comics was selling it for $6.  Record companies take
>note.

Those cheap introductory prices are a good idea.  They make it much more 
likely for me to try something that I'm curious about.  I can think of 
several albums I bought because of that in the past year or so--Norah 
Jones, Queens of the Stone Age, the Donnas, Rhett Miller, OK Go, the Vines, 
Phantom Planet . . . I eventually sold my copies of the last three, but the 
point is that I probably wouldn't have jumped so fast at most of these if 
not for the lower prices.  I'd like to see more of that.

As for Norah, my feelings are similar to Stewart's.  She's not going to set 
my world on fire, but I like her and her album.  I first heard her on 
Charlie Hunter's SONGS FROM THE ANALOG PLAYGROUND, singing covers of "More 
Than This" (Roxy Music) and "Day Is Done" (Nick Drake), and those piqued my 
interest.

Randy