Don't Know Why (Norah Jones) w Jesse Harris - Episode 1013

[00:00:00] Turn up the radio and sing all along. It's time for another great song. This is The Great Song Podcast Season's Greetings and welcome once again to the Great Song Podcast. I'm Rob Alley cause I am J.P Moser. And we're here to celebrate the greatest songs in modern music history. We're gonna tell you what makes some great, why we think they're awesome, and why you should too J.P.

How you doing today, man? Man, I am doing fantastic, dude. It looks like you were having a blast earlier at the Fun House. Absolutely. And I don't know why I didn't come. I mean, I left you by the House of Fun. Can't believe it. I don't know why I didn't come. And we established earlier this season that you don't really even like standing, so I couldn't lean heavily into the something that had to make you run.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. . So I went with the house of Fun. Yeah. Rob Rob Rob. Tell them what banger of a song we are covering today. This absolute behemoth of a hit is Don't Know Why, by Norah Jones.[00:01:00]

We did all that yelling, and then it's like . Everybody's like, Yeah, let's go. Right? Wait until I saw the sun. I don't know. Somehow my candles in my house just lit themselves,

I

a bubble bath is for me. The lots just dimmed on.

You'll be my for.

Yeah. Oh man, what a jam that is. Don't know Why by Norah Jones [00:02:00] from the 2002 album. Come Away with me. Written by our guest today, Jesse Harris. There we go. We're gonna learn a lot about Jesse today. He has a brand new album out called Silver Balloon. It's awesome. It just came out and we got to hear some of it before, and let me tell you, it's gonna be really interesting.

Very cool. From the very beginning. Very interesting and we'll, we'll probably play you a clip or two here in a little bit, but we're gonna talk to Jesse here in a little while. He has several cuts off of this monstrosity album. And so we get to talk to him about a lot of that. So stick around for that.

At the end, we're gonna talk to Jesse Harris, but first we're gonna talk about this song. Hit song is not even the word you. That's right. And, and, and in fact, that whole album hit is not even we're gonna, it, it's seriously off the charts. It's almost literally off the charts . So don't know why from the 2002 album come away with me went only to number 30 on the hot 100, which is shocking.

Yeah, I found that [00:03:00] very strange. It's Norah Jones'. Only top 40 hit on the hot 100, but it only went to number 30. It felt like it was everywhere. I can't believe it was like the rest of the metrics bear out that it was everywhere. So I don't know why on the hot 100 it didn't, It must have had other, I'm thinking 2002 we're still in the like, In the early not well, yeah, in the first few years of the, like, Britney, Christina that era in sync kind of, you know, pop.

And so maybe that was dominating the, maybe it's a little too jazz, a little too soft to maybe that it didn't, Yeah. That it had like a lot of other stuff to compete with. Mm-hmm. stylistically. But, but anyway, we're gonna find out. It went to number four on the us AC chart number eight in the adult top 40.

Number five, adult alternative number 32 in mainstream top 40. It was number five in Australia, Number 24 in New Zealand, number 59 in the uk. It was the number seven US adult contemporary song of [00:04:00] 2003. So like the AC chart is numerically where the single shined. Yeah. and I think what happened is the way it released and there was kind of a slow burn with the album taking off.

Yeah. And then it was just everybody was buying the whole album. Yeah. I, I think that's kind of what happened. This is a great, I mean the, I don't wanna jump still thunder, but like this album as a collection, like you wanna listen to the whole thing together? Yeah. Like it's, it's all perfect together. It's massive and I've got some good stuff coming up on the album.

The song itself was the number 97 Song of Billboard for 2003. Okay. So like, it stayed on the chart, it just didn't peak as high as you might have thought, As high as I thought anyway. For sure. It is certified two times platinum in the US It's platinum in Australia and Italy as well. The song itself, we're gonna talk a lot about Grammys today because , this is like Grammy machine.

This song and this album the song won three Grammys. It won for record of the. for which it beat Dilemma by Nelly. How? You remind me by [00:05:00] Nickelback. Thank goodness. Say what You will. But that is a good song. , How you remind me is a cool song lyric is how you remind me. It's that was their first breakout single.

Was it? I can't, I didn't know where it fit in the order. Yeah. And it sounds cool. It's before you realize Chad Kroeger's a dirt bag, . It's like, you know. And then let's see, other others. His hair's not quite as greasy in that ve That's right. He was still showering. Yeah, it was all good. A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton.

Okay. Now see those? I can see those competing head to head for sure. Because it's female piano player. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then without Me by m and m was the other one up for record of the year. A record of the year is different from Song of the Year. Record of the year is sort of inclusive of the whole.

S the combination of song and sound and production. Yeah. All that is record of the year. And then it also won for, yeah, it also won for Song of the Year, so technically that's it won [00:06:00] two. That's Jesse's Grammy. Mm-hmm. It won Song of the year 2003. Jesse Harris. The other songs up for that were a thousand miles above Vanessa Carlton Avra Levine, Complic.

Which I did not realize was up for Song of the Year, Bruce Springsteen, The Rising, and Alan Jackson for Where were you when the world stopped Turning? Oh my goodness. Yeah. How about that? Wow. In 2002, dropping that one like it's hot. Drop it like it's hot there. There you go. The song also won the Grammy four Best Female pop vocal performance.

It beat Soak Up the Sun by Sheryl Crow, Complicated by Avril Lavigne, Get the Party started by Pink and Overprotected by Britney Spears. Which in hindsight, maybe we should've paid more attention to that song. . So here's something, here's something I found interesting in another random case of, I guess I just don't get it.

Okay. We've had a few of these recently and they've kind of revolved around the same person. Do you know who the most nominated person for best female pop vocal performance of all time is? Barbara Streisand. Oh yeah, man, I get it. She's been around, I guess. I guess I just don't get it. Oh, we just don't.

Yeah, I she's been nominated 12 [00:07:00] times. Okay. That's four more than Mariah Carey, Linda Ronstadt and Peggy Lee, who all have eight. Okay. Peggy Lee. Yeah. Does Fever released that many times? ? Well, you know, it's like it comes around every year, you know, it's like cold and flu seasons , like that's right.

Yeah. So anyway, Barbara Streisand, who knew? I certainly not me. I didn't, whatever. Okay, let's get into some listening notes on the song. First of all, let's talk again. We've talked a few times about Chromaticism but I wanna talk about it again. So, Chromaticism is the use of half steps. So in a scale, you have a major scale.

Do Ray Me Fazo do. But in a chromatic scale, there are 12 steps. Okay? And it's do, do sharp ray, ray sharp, me, fa, fa sharp. I don't even know if I'm doing that right. I can't, I can't process all that. But it's every, you know, there are 12 steps instead of eight. And it uses, it uses half steps. The use of half steps is, is called Chromaticism.

And this is one of the [00:08:00] greatest examples. Of chromaticism leading your ear through the cord progression. Okay, so what we're gonna hear at the very beginning is A, we're in B flat. Okay? Okay. So we're gonna start on a B flat major seven cord. Okay, so that's B flat. Here's our, here's our root. Okay, here's our B flat and we're gonna get root three, five, major seven.

Okay, so functionally we're talking about a B flat chord, but the, but the, the guitar is actually playing that major seven at the beginning. Okay? Then what we're gonna hear is that major seven, dun, dun, dun. We're gonna hear that note go down a half step with each chord and every time it tells your ear what's coming next.

Okay? Yeah, that was good. I enjoyed that. Listen, listen, listen to that one, that one note, and we're just gonna follow it all the way down and it's gonna be the note that your ear follows through these chords, okay? Hmm[00:09:00]

Oh, well that time it doesn't go to the one. Wait, wait. I sun. I don't what it, So you're just, Okay. I left you by, and so here's what, what else is. it that after that initial intro line, the guitar isn't playing that major seven note, it's just playing a B flat or, you know, a b flat chord. Mm-hmm. . But the, the first note of the vocal melody is the major seven waited till.

Right. So the vocal is actually hitting that note and then your ears just already trained. This is where I'm going. Yep. So it just feels like a, a loop. Yeah. It's cool. It's, it's like entrancing kind of. Mm-hmm. . It's like you can't not follow that. Your, your ear can't miss those changes, you know? Mm-hmm. . Yeah.

And it's not like a, it's not a circle of fifths progression part. Some of it is, but it's, it's one [00:10:00] than a, like a one seven, like A one, one dominant, like B flat, B flat seven. Then it's E flat D seven. So, Okay, so you're going 1, 1, 7, 4, 4, 3, 3. Major seven Uhhuh . Okay. Three major dominant, then a six. 2, 5, 1. Okay.

Okay. So that's, so that's not going, The chords aren't chromatic, just the Right, just the note above that's being played. Okay. That's cool. So the chords are moving around in different ways. Some of it is like led by fifths, but, but some of it's not. But the, but the, that chromatic melodies, that's neat.

Eight chromatics half steps down, leading your ear perfectly, beautifully and pleasantly through those chords. Okay. The melody on the, I guess we'll call it the chorus Maha,

right? It's just climbing down to be flat scale [00:11:00] harness white.

But that second note, So we're going, that's a six chord. Okay. My heart is drenched. Drenched. It's a two major chord. So the six chord would be a G minor uhhuh G minor. Yep. And then your two chord is a C major major, but it really becomes a C 13. The melody is actually singing the 13, which is an a natural.

Okay. So it's, Which is okay if you're playing, like if you're walking down the baseline. Well, if you're starting on a G you'd be walking it up. Yeah. But the G but the, But the A is the note, not a Right. A the melody note. Yeah. So the base is going G, C, C, F. Right. It's just a, That's a fifth, which is a five thing.

Yeah. But the, but the melody is so simple. Harness is drenched in white and you don't think about that. It's actually adding these colors to the chords underneath it. That's all I'm saying. Yeah. It's, it's so simple, but it's giving this super pleasant touch and turning that c chord into a C 13[00:12:00] which is, which is really nice and more complicated than it sounds, but that's kind of what it's, you know, it's such a lovely color.

Really, And that's the melody is, that's it. Right. There's really only two. There's not like a bridge or some key change or whatever. It's the duh. Right. Which is just a B flat major. Seven arpeggio, seven 7, 5, 5, 3, 3, 1, 1. Right. And then 1, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3. So it's not like he's like, I just wrote the best melody ever.

Yeah, exactly. But it's, it's, it's, it's soothing. It's perfect. Yeah. Yeah. It is. It's soothing. It's, it draws you in. It's, you know, whatever intercourse. Of course her delivery is part of that as well. Yeah, yeah. Like the way she, the way she brings you in it's just really, it's really interesting. The whole song is so tender.

Yeah. Everything about this song is like, like we were listening through it first and I was like, Is the base even in? But it's, cuz it's just sitting back until kind of about halfway through that second verse and it leans in a little. But it's like you know, the snare drum is barely [00:13:00] happening. Uhhuh. I mean, it's just like, and you know, and then with that same kind of like delicacy, she delivers her vocals in spots, especially the high notes.

It is, it's like she eases into it so much. So tenderly, you know, everything about this song is is just very tender, is the best word I can come up with for you. It's just, Yeah. She's not a powerhouse vocalist, but she's a great singer. Yeah. Like she has great, great range. Great. She's the anti Christina aia.

Yeah, exactly. Christina Aguilar's voice enters the room six minutes before she does. She's like, Put me back in the bottle. Yeah. . Yes. Would you please stop rubbing me? That's right. And please put me back in that bottle. Yeah, like . That's hilarious. Okay. Let's see. How about lyrical content? It's. kind of an unusual kind of apology song.

It is an apology song, but it's not your typical it's not baby comeback, you know? Right. [00:14:00] It's not it's, it's a statement of regret really is what it is. Like I'm, I was supposed to meet you and I left you hanging. It doesn't even really say that the meeting was supposed to be romantic uhhuh. Just that it didn't happen.

Right. Yeah. So like, what else could it have been? What else? You know, I was by the fun house. We were supposed to go gamble or like we were, Dude, we were supposed to play pickup ball. We, we were about to Rob the fun house. . That's right. Yeah. Sorry. I left you hanging and you're in jail. This could have been about a drug deal.

It could have been. That's right. You know, I'm left here holding this bag. Yeah. You didn't show what's your problem? Yeah. . Let's destroy, Don't know . . But I think that's part of the appeal. You know, there's, for some reason it seems to me to have a pretty simple interpretation. Yeah. But if you go on like websites that talk about song meanings and stuff like that, people get wild with these interpretations.

You know, Somebody always says it's about Jesus somebody, you know? It's true. Somebody always says it's about sex and somebody always says it's about [00:15:00] drugs. That's that's so funny. It's good. Yeah. Song from her to her pastor. I know you were at the altar. Sorry. I didn't go. That's funny. But it's like, No, come on.

It's funny. This is just, this is just an apology. That's right. You know, and it's like, I don't, Everybody's had that moment though. That's what I think the thing makes it so relatable is it's applicable to a lot of different feelings that people have had. Everybody has felt this thing where you just, you freeze up and you back out of something.

Or you, or you, you know, just go, I, I just can't do that. And I, I couldn't, Could not enumerate for you the reasons why. Yeah. I just know I froze. I, I bailed, you know, whatever. And so, I'm sorry. We've all felt that don't, there's no need to overcomplicate it. But, you know, I don't know, maybe there's a drug dealer out there who's like, this is for me, this hits home.

Jesse Harris wrote my heart right here. You know I guess there's an implication that the, the protagonist that Norah was supposed to like maybe sail away with somebody. Right. You've got the second verse. That has out across the endless c I would die in [00:16:00] ecstasy, but I'll be a bag of bones driving down the road alone.

You've got the first time, or for the longest time when I heard it, I didn't hear bag of bones. I heard vagabond. I'm so glad you said that. Really? Yes. Is that somebody? Talk about that. We're gonna talk about that actually in a, if we haven't talked about it already, we're gonna talk about it in a future episode.

Really? Yeah. Okay. That very line. Yeah. Okay. Alright. Well table that. Yeah. . So for, for the longest time, I sang vagabond. Yeah. I think it's, Well, okay, let's listen to it because let's listen to her delivery of the word. Bag of bones because that B is a V. Yeah. In bag. She, she says bag of bones, . She does listen, but I'll be bag of bones.

I mean, that's, Hey, that's a, that's a very, very casual bee. That's like her lips barely touched. There's like, it's that thing of where, I don't know if I can even explain this, but I know you know what I'm talking about. You ever had that thing happen where like just the very tip of your lip sticks together.

There's like a piece of [00:17:00] flesh somehow that connects between your two lips and it won't, it doesn't open fully. I'm, I got it now. It's like you, it's like you passed air through that feeling and called it a be right. Like you, you wrote a bee, but you sang that good. So it's good. That's awesome. That's how bag of bones comes out right there.

That's, that's so funny you said that. . But I do love that juxtaposition of, you know, it, it's kind of the implication seems to be like maybe we were supposed to sail off together Yeah. Or something, because you get that we were supposed to be out on the endless sea mm-hmm. and I would've been so happy.

Yeah. You know, but instead I'm going down the road by my myself. Yeah. You know, So that's kind of the only real indicator of any sort of specificity to the story. It's a good word. Ity, specificity and then the sequel specificity too which is superior. Okay. Now this makes me want to go unless you have, unless you wanna interject something here.

I'm good. I'll with it. I'll keep steering for a second. There is an [00:18:00] original version by Jesse Harris and the Fernandos from, I can't remember the year, but it was a couple years prior to this. And so why don't we play a little bit of that. You'll hear a lot of similarities, but you, you know, you definitely hear the kind of the, the magic from the North Jones version

course. We're in a different key,

but the elements are there. Wait until last I saw the sun. I don't know why I didn't come. Left you by the House of Fun. I don't know why I didn't come. I don't know why I didn't come. When I saw the break a day, it's like it's still chill [00:19:00] and it's, I Where's that? I could, Weird, weird comparison analogy here.

She's singing that from her either apartment or house, thinking about him elsewhere. Okay. He's singing that outside by the ship. Okay. Like his sound sounds more outside and her sounds more, I get that inside, if that makes any sense. Yeah. Maybe it's the piano versus guitar. It's maybe it's the vocal delivery.

It's just the sound. I don't know. Piano, you think, Well, you don't just have a piano sitting beside you. That's right. You're inside somewhere. You didn't carry your piano down to the ship house. Exactly. But you could have carried your guitar down to the pier. Yeah. Or whatever. Yeah. That's true. And I, and you're not looking at this, but I'm looking at the cover and they're all like they're like dressed in like kind of winter, winter gear.

Okay. Like out, you know, outer coats, you know, that kind of stuff. And so it makes me think gloves, you know, it's like you're cold, you're outside. Like, for sure. So that's funny. She has, so she did a Norah did a [00:20:00] live version in 2020 from kind of like from her living room or whatever, with some different cord colors.

I just wanna point this out for some, this is a very not on a click version, right? Yeah. It's very casual. It's, Is she, are you watching her play it on piano? Mm-hmm. . Is it like a box piano in her couch? Okay. I'm, Wait. I saw that's a great chord. Mm-hmm. , I. Didn't come, if she'd just slow it down a bit. left you by the of fun.

Yeah. Come on. I

don't, It's like the, it's like she's playing the inside notes of the chords without really playing all the base notes and kind of giving it away. You know what I mean? I I love that. It's gorgeous. [00:21:00] She's so good. Mm-hmm. like as a, as a, just as a pianist, Like she is phenomenal, you know, And she has, so one of the whole things about her was that she was on, she, she got signed to Blue Note Records through this song.

This is the song that got her signed. Blue Note Records is like the jazz label, you know? And she has those chops. She has legit, You know, jazz chops, but she channeled it for the purposes of her artistry. Mm-hmm. Into more of a folky jazz infused sound. Yeah. You know what I mean? That might, it's more relatable to a lot more ears than if she just gets on and shows that she can play cool chords and Yes.

Yeah. And so we'll see that in a few minutes more when we talk about the album itself. But I just wanna go ahead and point that out here that she is on a jazz label and she is a jazz legit, you know, jazz musician. And of course that will come out to bear later in her career as she then gets into that, you know what I mean?

And starts collaborating and all that stuff. [00:22:00] Let's meet the band real quick and then we're gonna talk some more about the song. Okay. Hey, let's meet the band. It's time to meet the band. Hey mama, let's meet the band. Let's all meet the band,

right? We're gonna meet the band that played on Don't know why. Here we go. I'm gonna, well, I'll go ahead and say Jesse's name, but we're gonna talk all things Jesse Harris. Yeah. Here in a little bit. So hang around. You guys are really gonna like him on bass guitar. Lee Alexander. Let's talk about how Lee produced one of my very favorite albums ever.

The Amos Lee Self-titled first album. Okay, I love it. So not only is he a stellar bass player and he's obviously playing upright here He's really good. But he's a wonderful producer as well. On drums, Dan Riser, he also played drums on that aforementioned aims Lee album and was also in Marcy's Playground.

Really? Yeah. The Sex and Candy Marcy's playground. He was the drummer. Okay. I didn't playground for a while. And that's basically your rhythm section and then No on piano. Not a [00:23:00] ton of instrumentation going on, but there's a lot of production and engineer work. Well, I say a lot, three or four that we'll talk about.

So AIF Martin did some production in mixing. He did stuff with Holland Oats, Beta Flack, Anita Baker, Aretha. So pretty, pretty legendary producer. He did the mixing on that. Jay Newland did production and engineering and mixing as well. 12 time Grammy winner, winner, winner, winner. He, he worked with Clapton.

He won a Grammy recently with John Scofield. So he's got Grammy pedigree in the jazz world as you, as you mentioned. Assistant engineering, Mark Burkey, mastering Ted Jensen. We've talked about him a lot. He did Eagles Hotel California. He also did American Idiot for Green Day. So like he's, and this, so he's, he's touched a little bit of everything.

And then on vocals, piano production Norah Jones. I didn't write down a lot of stuff about Norah. Did you do stuff? Oh yeah, I've got some Norah stuff. I'll let you talk on her if you want to now a little bit. Yeah, let's hit. So Norah Jones, aka. So I'm hoping, I, so I'm hoping I may have bit of research that's gonna astound you.

Like it astounded me cuz I learned something [00:24:00] about Norah Jones that I definitely did not know that was like earth chattering Norah Jones, AKA Geeta Norah Jones Shekar. Born in Grapevine, Texas, the child of concert promoter Sue Jones and Indian Music legend Ravi Shankar. No, I did not know that. Rav Shankar is Norah Jones' dad.

I never knew that. Good. Who? Good find Ravi Shankar. If you don't know the name, is the guy who, among a million other things indirectly and directly popularized the use of Indian music, specifically the sitar sitar in Western music. Yeah. He taught George Harrison of the Beatles and, and is kind of the gateway for George into a whole other area of artistry and philosophy.

Ravish. Shekar won untold awards in areas of art, academia, government, even faith and religion. He fathered at least two other children who are musicians. And Norah's. These would be Norah's half siblings, Anushka, Shankar, and sh Hendra Shankar. Norah was 16. She removed her first and last names with permission of her both parents and simply became Norah Jones.[00:25:00]

But I was like, What? That makes me like her even more, cuz she could have leaned into that. Sure. Oh yeah. And she could have like been, Hey dad, can you get George to play on my next project? For sure. But she went with Jesse Harris. Right. Which makes Jesse a legend. That's right. He should brag about that. He replaced George Harrison on the Norah Jones project.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it, it just, that name of wound could've unlocked a lot of doors. You know what I mean? And I'm, and I'm, and I'm sure, you know, I don't know that she tried to like hide it or anything, but it's, you know, it's not like I don't, I don't, well, I don't know because, you know, Jacob, Dylan, like from Wallflowers was basically like, Don't, don't say the name Bob.

That's the wallflowers. You can use the, with wallflowers. . Right, right. You know, he was like, basically, don't say the name Bob around me for a while, you know, But so I don't, I don't know if she went either way or if she just like, for artistic purposes, wanted to set herself apart and not lean on that.

So she just became Norelle. I was like, What? Yeah. Are you serious? I had to go verify that. I was like, [00:26:00] That's one of those things you're doing research, and you go, There's no way. That's true. That's not weird. Al that's somebody else. Yeah, that's exactly. Yeah. That, yeah. That's, that's, that's another parity.

Yeah. But yeah, so that's Mark Lowry. That's right. . Let's see. Norah grew up singing in the Methodist Church and graduated from Booker t Washington High School for the Performing Arts in Dallas. She had a particular love of Bill Evans and Billy Holiday, which you can really hear her voice. I can hear that.

Once you say Billy Holiday, you're like, Oh, I get her voice. More. Mm-hmm. , you know, may like I hear kind of, you know, where you grew out of a little more on the song. This is from song facts.com. Jesse Harris played guitar on the original demo, which ended up being used on the final recording. He almost stopped the take because he didn't like the mix in his headphones.

But he kept going and was glad he did. Since that ended up being the Keeper, Jones and her band were willing to do another take. But the engineer, Jay Newland thought it was perfect and wouldn't let him, so that's awesome. Right? Like, just keep rocking and we've got other takes. We're in [00:27:00] the digital age now.

Yeah. We can do it again if we need to, but if it's feeling good, don't stop. Apparently now I searched for this. Maybe somebody out there can help me find this, but apparently there's an alternate mix out there that Emi had done to try and distribute to radio with a more modern sound that was in keeping more with the pop music of the day.

So like drum dance loops, processed vocals, what that, But Norah wasn't having it and she made him distribute the real version cuz she's like, you know, part of the whole point is I'm not Britney Spears. Yeah. You know, and so but I, I desperately tried to find that. I don't know if it ever like, made it out or if it's something that they just kept internal, you know?

Yeah. But I would love to hear that. Yeah, that'd be so interested to hear. I can just hear that. Like, Overprocessed Oh yeah. You know, like that kind of thing. Like like Hand in My Pocket by Lon more set, you know, or something like that. That's good. Okay. You're at the house and I'm running[00:28:00] . Okay.

It had a slow burn to the top 40. Like I said, it was the longest of all time by a female artist. It was 24 weeks on the chart before hitting the top 40. Oh, wow. How see? It was, So that's still, so that's relevant for a while, but just not super relevant. Yeah, exactly. It was like, it just kept gaining steam, gaining steam, gaining steam.

Let's talk a little bit about the album. Let's get into the album cuz there's, there's a lot to unpack on the album itself. So the album itself has sold 10 million sales in the US alone. That's Diamond if you're out there listening, so you know. Silver, gold, Platinum is a million, diamond is 10 million, and that distinction is held by a very few albums.

It has sold 27 million copies worldwide, the most ever for a jazz influenced album. Though as I mentioned, like I suppose that distinction is arguable a little bit subjective to the listener. For example, it's been called the most un jazz album, Blue Note Records has ever released by notable critic Robert Crisco.

But just for reference, somebody somewhere is Yellow Night [00:29:00] Coltrane, right? Eight Miles Davis. Exactly. Okay, so let's put that against Miles Davis. These top sellings, just straight jazz album of all time is kind of blue by Miles Davis. Yeah. Which has sold 4 million copies. Yeah. Okay. , if you are willing to admit that there is any sort of jazz influence in this, which I think you have to admit mm-hmm.

then you have to say it is the most ever, you know, jazz influenced album by far, By a long shot. Yeah. Times three plus some. Yeah. It went to number one on the top 200 and so many other charts. I literally, basically worldwide, the album was top five I and I. Like I say that a lot. You know, this album went to number one in a bunch of different countries.

I mean, almost literally, like across the un you go into the UN and everybody's blasting this in their iPod . Like, that's awesome. It's literally on, I kid you not, it's on like year end charts. You know, where it was, the number whatever album of the year, Top 100. It's on year end charts from 2002 through [00:30:00] 2021.

Holy cow. Almost every year. It was the number one US contemporary jazz album for 2020 and 2021. That's crazy. And there are only about three years over that span where it wasn't a year end charting album somewhere. The charts are so ridiculous on this album. I literally can't start naming them off.

And Rob loves lists. That's impossible. But it would, it would bring the, the episode to it. Just a screeching hole. like it ridiculous. But it does. This is noteworthy. , it does land at number 26 on a list that we have never talked about. Okay. The billboard all time. Top 100 albums list. How have we not talked about this?

We, I've never, it's never come up. It's, Wow. We've talked about albums that are on it. Yeah. But I've never seen it come up as a list before. Okay. Obviously we've beat to death the joke about the billboard all time. 600 singles. Yeah. We've, we've never talked about the albums gotten into this album. So this is the billboard all time top 100 albums list.

I think it was updated [00:31:00] last maybe in like 26. You wanna just tell me what it's sandwiched between? Yeah. I'll tell you what it's sandwiched between. It is number 26. Come away with Me. It is between Number 25 Hysteria by Def Leppard. And here's our, here's our first here's our first what, what number?

27 is Dory By Dory. No, no, no. This, these list are so funny. Oh, no, no. Listen, I, I get that. There's a whole no . I get that. There's a whole Dory army out there. I get it. I understand that. He's more popular than I realize. Okay, I get, I get that. But the number 27 Billboard album of all time you're gonna tell me is Dory.

It's not over. That's wild Punt. Let's, No, thank you. Let's back that up a little bit. Number. Okay. Okay. Let's. At least tell me what's 28? So 28 is Hybrid Theory by Lincoln Park. Okay. I could see that makes a lot more sense. That seems to make a lot more sense. Let's just [00:32:00] go down, Somebody slipped Dory's name in this list.

It's like Tina Dory works for Billboard and it's putting together That's right. She's like, I could put my sons with the number here. 27. Nobody will ever know. Tina Dre is William Board's cousin . Okay, let's, let me just start there and go down just the next five or six cuz it's, it's gonna be funny.

Okay, so number, number 26 has come away with me. Number 27 is Dory. Number 28 is hybrid theory number 29 is No Fences by Garth Brooks. Okay. Is that the best Garth Brooks album? No, I think Roping the Wind is in the top 10. Okay. I think roping the wind is like top five or six. But so then, okay, so, but what we're saying now is that none of these albums.

Got as high as Dory's debut. I know. Okay. I know. This is what we're saying. So that means that number 30, cracked rear view by Huie in the Blowfish what? Come on, Can't compete there. The next time we talk with Sony, we'll be like, Man, you're good, but you're no doctor. You're . You're Nory. How about a little dark side of the moon at number 31?

No, this [00:33:00] is heresy. Okay. And then you get into, Then there's a couple more question marks here. Number 32 is fallen by Evan Essence. I mean that, that was big. I I, That makes more sense than Dory to me to be. Yes. That makes, at least there's two songs off there that are good. Then you got Slippery and Wet Bonjovi.

Yeah, I got no problem with, That's gotta be there. And number four's, Human Clay by cre. Is that human clay? Okay. Human clay. That's the second ones. Yeah. Arms wide open. Open. Yeah. Yeah. So I get that was a huge, it just seems what if is a bad, what if is the sum cover ourselves with it's, Yeah. So anyway, it's a, it's an interesting list.

False harmonics. Yeah. But anyway, so it, it does seem more reasonable to me mostly than the all time 600 Ken gracious. But there are definitely a few like eyebrow razors on Alto. Millie Vanni is on this list really? Millie Vanni is in this top one 100 as is Hannah Montana. Not Miley Cyrus. Not Miley Cyrus a Hannah Montana album is in the top.

But you know, I mean, kids have a lot of buying power. They do. You know, there are kids, kids with parents who have money to buy themselves, [00:34:00] Right. You know, command a lot of attention. So, but anyway, it's an interesting list to check out. I'm so glad we talked about that. That was good. If you can find it, you kind of have to backend it.

If you go on billboards like official thing, it's a thing where you have to be like a Billboard Pro member that you pay for. But some blessed soul on the internet, just compile the list and there we go. Tina Dory wanted to make sure that everybody could see her son. Yeah. Look what my son did. . Alright.

The album we are still talking about Norah Jones, by the way. Yes. We're talking about Come away with me at one Grammy's, four. Album of the Year where it beat the m and m show Home by Dixie Chicks Nellyville, and The Rising by Springsteen best engineered album, non-classical. It won for Best Pop Vocal album Beating Ave Levine Let it Go.

No doubt, Rock Steady Pinks misunderstood. And Britney Spears, Britney all females in that category that year, that wasn't the like Best Pop female album that was just Best Pop Vocal album. And Norah also won a Grammy that year for Best New Artist, it is number 54 on the Rolling Stone Best albums [00:35:00] of the decade between number 55, Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Allison Krause, and number 53 Kings of Leon's, Only by the night.

Jesse Harris wrote four of the songs and co-wrote another one on this album. So like he is all over that first album. Yeah. Should we hit a couple of other tracks please? Maybe off of this place Shoot the moon. For sure. I love that one.

Gosh, I love this song.

She just drops in those little, Oh, I know

me. And you'd be sitting there banging away every quarter , and it'd be sounded like, Let it be , right? She's like, No, I'll wait for my spot. How about I love this, this next track you and I used to play. This is Turn Me On. Mm-hmm. . There [00:36:00] are few to your verses. We used to play this song, by the way. Me and Rob didn't used to play Turn Me On.

We used to play the song Turned me on in a band. We were in

like a light bulb in a die. I got a little space. Yeah, man. I'm just sitting here waiting for you to come on home. Getting hot in here. I'm sweating a little bit. Man, so many great songs. One flight Down.

Oh my. On, ah, there we go.

Oh, the cord . Geez. Or it almost made me call on the name of the Lord.[00:37:00] Geez. It's just so good, dude. So seven years long. Day is over. Yeah. Long. It's so slow, man. Yeah. No kidding. Another Jesse Harris song. Yeah. So anyway, Jesse, congratulations on your extravagant wealth, dude. I know. All right,

I don't know how the math works. Writing or writing for co-writing? A fifth on 27 million, it probably made about 10 Grand Accord . Oh man. He's like B flat major. Seven. Seven grand . Yeah, dude, this, this album is, is as the kids say, a whole mood. It's, I mean, it's very focused, right? It never deviates from what it is.

Yeah. The whole album is like, this is what Norah Jones sounds like, you know? Yeah. It's, there's no like you know, Who was it? I heard, I was reading about recently and somebody we were researching, they were like, We're gonna keep this song off this [00:38:00] album because it just doesn't feel thematically like it fits.

There are none of those on this. It's like if they did a hidden track, it would be her at a piano with a, you know, upright base. Yeah. And light drums. Exactly. It's not gonna be like, Yeah, it's not gonna be bullet butterfly wings, the house remix. Is that what you're about to say? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Let's see.

This, this album was re-released in 2022 for the 20th anniversary with some demos and additional outtakes that, you know, hadn't been heard before. Her follow-up albums have all debuted in the top three on the billboard. Top one 200 except for 2020s. Pick me up off the floor. 2020 was such a weird year.

Who knows what it would it, what would it have even been like? Yeah. You know. But she has been nominated for 44 awards and won 25. That's awesome. Including Billboard Music Awards, Brit Awards, nine Grammys World Music Awards and tons more. She literally has a, normally if you go to somebody's like Wikipedia page, you know, it [00:39:00]has, as part of that article, here's the awards that they've been nominated for and won for, and it's a little chart, you know, blah, blah, blah.

Norah Jones literally has a separate Wikipedia page, , just to list all the awards that she's won. That's awesome because she's done so much and, and she like it. It essentially, , she lives in a space that she owns. Yeah. You know? Yeah. It's like Norah Jones occupies that space. Yeah. She, in, in the, in the world of like, music for Starbucks, Norah Jones owns, She's the mayor.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, like, it's, it's it, That's it. Yeah. You could branch out maybe to some like Diana Crawl, which is a little more straightforward, jazz or, you know mm-hmm. , which Norah Jones could have also done, but like, Diana Crawl came and won a Grammy for, I think, album of the year for, for basically just a straight jazz, you know, project.

But like, as far as this, like folk jazz influenced folk she own. She is it? Yeah. You know, you could make it a style like the face. Yeah. [00:40:00] Like you could have, Oh, there's jazz. Oh, there's blues. Oh, there's pop. This style is called Norah Jones. Exactly. Like it's a style. If you, Yes. If you are in a, like a, a writing or production session and you go.

Maybe we take it in kind of a Norah Jones section. Yes. Norah Jones feel. Yeah. Everybody knows exactly what you mean. Yeah. You know, because this album was huge. This was one of those you know, there's a few albums early two thousands before the big switch into digital when people were still buying CDs in mass.

This was one of those that everybody just had, This was one of the, you know, there's something, there's something special in my heart about those last few CDs that were just universally owned. You know? Same. It's like there are vinyls, Jagged little pill. Yeah. Right. Yeah. It, and it's a little earlier, but I know what you mean.

Like that. Yeah. This is on the very tail end before iTunes totally took over. Yeah. And so, you know, it's like this Switch Foot, Beautiful Letdown was one. Mm-hmm. . You know, there's just a, a few of those that came out in like those early two thousands. Yeah, that's good. That was just like [00:41:00] this, everybody has this cd and then, and then after that, there really haven't been CDs that just everybody had.

There have been albums, but not CDs. So, yeah. And this of all, like, this is a weird comparison, but like you could probably always find this CD at a used CD store. Yeah. Because everybody was buying the cd. Yeah. Putting it on their computer. Yeah. And so like a McKay's, you could always find copies of this album.

Sure. It's not, Cause people didn't wanna keep the album, but that was at the era where everybody would buy the whole album. Yep. Put the whole album on the computer and then go get half their music, half their money back. Yeah, exactly. Yes. Okay, I think I got a couple more notes, but why don't we go stop the genius.

Let's, And we'll come back. Stop the genius. Stop the genius. Stop the genius. It's time to the genius. Come and take your part. I said your part. All right, so we're gonna stop the genius. Okay, so we've talked a lot about 2002. 2002 is an interesting year. This album one we talked about the Grammy for the album of the year.

It's perfect. This year Dick Cheney served as president for like two hours [00:42:00] when President George Bush had his medical procedure. Oh, I forgot about that. If that ever happened, nine coal miners were rescued after 77 hours. I do remember that AOL was the most popular website, . So this is where we are.

Think about that. So stumped the genius. Five major sports. Okay, I'm gonna give you the five major sports, Major League, Baseball, nfl, nba. Nhl. NHL and I broke golf. Hockey. So we'll do that. No, NHL is hockey. Soccer. We'll, we The World Cup cause The World Cup for that year. Okay. So I'm gonna give you two words, or basically one player, and you're gonna name me the team that won that year.

Okay? So this team won. Okay. One at all. Their sport and their sport, Okay? And I think, I'm hoping you'll go five for five, right? This is one where I'm cheering for you. Okay. So I'm trying to pick iconic players from the team. All right, go ahead and grab that bell. Got it. Number one, Kobe Bryant. La Lakers. La Lakers.

Ring that bell. Boom. RP number two. Kobe Bryant saved Mr. Peanut. Never forget. That's it. Kobe Bryants. Kobe. No wait, no. Kobe Bryant. Almost saved. Almost saved. Kobe Bryant's death Almost saved Mr. [00:43:00] Peanut. If you need, That's from the I just died in your arm episode you'll never forget. Number two, Tom Brady Patriots, New England Patriots.

Good. Okay. These are gonna get a little trickier. Okay, so number three. Mike Soha, Mike Soha, Los Angeles, Angels of Anaheim. Anahi of Angels. Yes. Very good. Okay. Steve Eman. Steve Eiserman. Okay. All right. Okay. I feel like I'm almost there. This is 2002. Steve Eiserman. Oh gosh. Okay. Right. One shot. Come on.

Come on, mom. Spaghetti. Let's, I'm gonna go. Oh, man. I feel like it's obvious and I'm gonna miss it. I'm gonna go Boston Bruins, Detroit. Wed wing. I have a hard time saying that word, Wew. The Detroit. Wed w Okay, you gotta get this to get the 80%. Okay. Since I get two words, I get to use two first or two. One named athletes.

Okay. . Ronaldo. Okay. And [00:44:00] Pelee is soccer fans are gonna murder me. It's okay if I get this wrong, so I'm down. I'm, I'm trying to decide between, It's the World Cup. Yes. If you had just said Ronaldo, I know what I would've said. But then Pelee makes me think a different country for some reason. So, I don't know.

I'm just gonna go with my gut. Argentina. Brazil. Brazil is Brazil. Stop doing it. , he accidentally regs on. I was gonna 60%. So close. Who's Argentina? Who's the, who's like the, Is there a Diego? Me, Donna, me, Donna? Or I've been the big one from there. Dang it. Yes. I rang the anger. Anger Bell. 60%. That's okay, right?

He's pretty close to 80 all the year. How did you guys do at home? It was 2002 stuff. The genius. All right couple more notes on Norah Jones and this song. Before we head out and talk to Jesse Harris In the Goodbye Toby episode of The Office. Darrell Sings Don't Know Why At The Goodbye Party.

That's right. I forgot about that. Remember that. Norah Jones also appeared in one of my favorite episodes of the show, 30 Rock. There's, there's a great like maybe three episode arc where Alan [00:45:00] Alda, the guy from like Mash and all that stuff is a guest star. And he needs a kidney and they decide to do this fundraiser in the style of like, we are the world called Kidney Now.

And their whole thing is they're gonna put on this whole production to get this one guy a kidney. And Norah Jones is among the, you know, they put together this whole song, Michael McDonald. Mary j Blige, Beastie Boys. That's awesome. Robert Randolph. It's like, I mean, it's this huge thing. What's it? Adam Levine, Cheryl Crow.

It's massive. And Norah Jones is, Norah Jones is part of that crew that sings, they sing. Just Give a Kidney . Anyway and then and what is it? Michael McDonald has this great line about, there's a part where they sort of break it down and everybody starts just talking into the camera and they're like, Look, when somebody starts talking into the camera, you know, it's serious, you know?

And Michael McDonald says something about basically, you know this guy needs a kidney. Like, I need my beard. Seriously, You don't wanna see what's under here. Like it's Craig. Okay. And this is something interesting I would not have expected from Norah Jones, but, and this is in that [00:46:00] same era. This is like maybe 2002 or 2003.

Okay. Norah Jones provided uncredited vocals on outcasts. Landmark double album speaker box, the love below on the track, take off your cool. Check it out. And of course now if you're listening on streaming, it's lit, it's listed as take off Your Cool featuring Norah Jones. But at time it was uncredited.

Hey,

let's her, the back,

her voice and Andres fit really good together.

And so what year was that? Was that 2003 speaker box live below?

Well, that's obviously her. Yeah. Yeah. It's 2003. They so cool. Oh yeah. How about that? I did not [00:47:00] know. That's, I'm not, like, I don't, I've never owned an outcast album, you know? Okay. I know the big hits. Mm-hmm. , But I've, I've not owned any outcasts, so I was not aware of that. But I may be the only one in the world.

I don't know. All right. Let's play a little bit of the new project from Jesse Harris. And then we're gonna talk about it with him in just a moment. This album just came out October 21st, I think it was. This is. From Silver Balloon, check out some of this first track. This is called the Hanged Man, and this will give you a pretty good indicator of where you're headed.

It's kind of a trip.

Get the hanger

upside down, flowers and upside down.[00:48:00]

It's a little bit like where's one the

S

by on a mountain, The clear across the sky.

That's the hang man. That's the opening. That's the opening track.

Then this is, that's followed up by Yankee. This is track two

and really good stuff going on in your ears. If you're listening in headphones,

Yankee, and, But[00:49:00]

can tell me what you mother before you gone. Why flying? A little bit more of a definite groove here, you know, . Yeah. A little more pocket. Yeah, a little just cold. Why Northern Moon Yankee? Yeah. All. Anyway, good stuff coming from Jesse. Let's go a little bit more on him before we while as we play this.

This is Hummingbird, this is track. There's that there's that chord. There's that 6 2 13.

He's had songs performed by Willie Nelson, Em, Lou Harris recently. He's worked with Maya Hawk and Lana Del Ray.

Really smart guy. He's [00:50:00] one of these smart guys that we like talk to and go, Alright, you read a lot of books, you know, like, and we don't, And so there's certain things that we just, you just have over us, you know, whatever. There is one project that we talk about with him that was one of his first called Once Blue.

I want y'all to, I want you to play a track cuz I made an analogy that I play the song haven't been Me by Once Blue. Cause I think I said it sounds like her voice sounds like if you took Amy Grant and all the girls from California Dreams and combined their vocals into one human, this is it. I love this song.

I love her stuff with him. And this is Jesse on guitar doing all the most of the music.

It's so right. It's, it's perfect. It's every California dream vocal character with Amy Grant, Plus Amy Grant[00:51:00]

Oh my, That lot the way it ends. That is such an uncanny description.

Dude, . That's the best thing I've ever That is so funny. That's deadly accurate. Deadly accurate. So pick up once Blue as well too. That's an older project that Jesse was a part of. I I really, I dug deep on that. Yeah. So let's go talk to Jesse right now, but first I need you to do one more thing. You've come so far, you're almost there.

I need one more thing of you and that is to go on social media. Give us a follow at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, all at Great Song Podcast. If you want to dig deep into the Great Song Podcast community, you can join the Facebook group. It is called Great Songs and the great people who love them greatly.

And if you want to be a producer of the show, like a few of our most close friends and most long time hardcore listeners have dared to do, you can do that by going to patreon.com/ Great Song Podcast. And when you support us on [00:52:00]Patreon, you get bonus goodies, early release ad free. Extended shows, exclusive shows.

You get a, our whole second podcast, the catch up with Rob J.P every weekend during the season. And so yeah, you can do all that stuff if you throw us any kind of support@allatpatreon.com slash Great Song Podcast. All right, we're gonna go talk to Jesse Harris. We'll be back at the end to tuck you in.

This is the Great Song Podcast. Ladies and gentlemen, as promise, we are here with Jesse Harris, writer, guitarist, extraordinaire artist with really cool stuff coming out. And I gotta tell you just straight away, as far as like when I started listening to your solo stuff I just went, This guy's way smarter than me.

like just immediately. Jesse's on another level, musically, from what I can comprehend and rob's smarter than me. We play a weekly game called Stump the Genius, and Rob is genius in that equation. So, man, your leaps and bounds above, above this part of the room. , I'll say I, I've really, I've, I've [00:53:00] enjoyed digging into your, your solo stuff.

A lot of your like a lot of your more like jazz influence stuff really gives me the same feelings that I get when I listen to the old, like, gets and Gilberto albums. I get the same like love in my heart from your, from your like jazz influence stuff as those. So tell, why don't we start there? Why don't we talk a little bit about your background?

What's your, musically, where did you come from? You know, it's funny, like I didn't go to jazz school or anything like that, but I, you know, I grew up in a household where my father was listening to a lot of jazz and, and not only jazz, but jazz influence pop. Okay. So that was definitely part of my, you know, musical world growing up.

And so I, I grew up in New York City, going to jazz clubs and going to rock clubs. And so from a young age, I was, I was exposed to all that music when I started to play the guitar. I aspired towards harmony that was a little more sophisticated than just like, you know, the regular open 1, 4, 5, you know, guitar chords.

[00:54:00] And I never took it far enough to become like a bonafide jazz guitar player, but I studied a lot, you know with jazz musicians and, and surrounded myself with jazz musicians when I was young. And some, you know, my first band was, was all jazz musicians, guys who, you know, are still playing all over the world today.

And anytime I had questions I would ask them. And so that informed a lot of what I did. As opposed to like growing up with Mel Bay books like we did, Like, we were like , , the So speaking of growing up, you're a twin, so Yeah. Who? That's right. I am. Who was the better swimmer growing up? And I asked Swimmer because you went to to Riverdale Country School and Boys.

Yeah. And girls were Ivy League champions in swimming. 62. 63. 76 through 77. 2002 to 2002 both. And girls Freaking domination. So who's the better swimmer? You or your twin? Okay. I have to say I'm a much, much [00:55:00] better swimmer than my sister. But, but that happened after high school. Like, okay, 10, 15 years ago I started swimming Master Swim, you know, like I joined a Master Swim team.

Yeah. There you go. Well, I, I accidentally landed into your area of I know, I know. I can't believe you. You did that. Okay. Now, but I never, I didn't swim in high school. Okay. I thought all my friends who swim in high school were just out of their minds. They were throwing up, you know, like they'd get out the pool looking like they had just been tortured.

Now that's a that's a pretty, pretty renowned high school. I mean, Chevy Chase went there. Jfk, rfk, and Carly Simon. Carly Simon. That's what, Okay. Favorite. Carly Simon. That was the one I was saving for the end. Favorite Carly Simon Song? Oh man. Well, look, my favorite Carly Simon song was not written by her.

Oh, okay. It was the theme to the Spy Who Loved Me. Oh. But he does it better, which was written by Marvin Hamish, not Austin Powers The Spy Who Shagged Me, The Spy Who Loved Me. Different song. Yeah. Marvin Hamish wrote the song, Carly Simon [00:56:00] sang. That's my favorite Carly song after that, I'd say, You're so vain.

The so veins, the, the No Brain. Yeah. I'm a classic. Yeah, absolutely. I'm a nobody Does It Better Guy. That's my, my Carly Simon Take But on. I love that song on Yeah. . I guess we'll, can we jump into Once Blue for just a minute because like Yeah. I've been binging on Once Blue here lately to be Oh my God.

Wow. Was not super familiar with the, with you guys till I started doing research and I love everything you and Rebecca did. I saw y'all do Save me on Conan from 96. Oh my God. Solid vision with the upright bass. I love that. It's super hot in the studio mix, but it sounds great. But my favorite song by y'all is I Haven't Been Me.

It's kind of like if you took. Amy Grant and all the girls from California dreams into one voice and combined that voice with, That's how I hear it. So. Wow. That's, it's wonderful. My second favorite is, that's est thing you did there when the Lil's Bloom. Oh, The deep the box keeps the song going, really moving [00:57:00] in the headphones.

The shaker that woodblock sound and click or whatever it is, I'm like, Whoa. Yeah, that's a Boston Nova kind of vibe. And the way she sings. First Glimpse of Spring, I'm like, pow. It's good stuff. So, Wow. That's my watch Blue Take. I really like it. All right. Oh, and I have one more thing that I'm so impressed.

I have one more thing that times into a question. So she grew up on Gershwin and Cold Porter. You mentioned that you played harmonica right, until you saw John Popper. Is that right? . So favorite Blues Traveler song run around or hook. , neither of those. That was a trick question. Give me a different one. , To be totally honest, by the time they hit that super stardom, I had moved on in life.

You know what I mean? Like, you know, at a certain age, like, you know, certain bands like you listen to them a lot and then, and then you're like, I'm done with that, you know? Okay. But, but I was really into them, like in the, in the years before they even made their first record, when they would do gigs at little [00:58:00] clubs downtown in New York, they would play this place called Mondo Conne and another place called Nightingale.

And they were just small bars and they would play like two or three sets a night and you know, just go with friends and just like, Really drunk. Me and Rob have interviewed multiple people that are friends with John Popper most recently, Chris Baron. And we confirmed that he has many swords. Right? That's nice.

Oh, every, He has swords and guns everywhere. Tannon, , everything. Yeah. Oh my God. Well, my favorite is mountains Went again. That was where I was gonna land, but solid. Oh, okay. Yeah, I was, I was really into their early songs, you know, like, you know, they had this song called, But anyway, that a song called A hundred Years, you know, and they were on this cassette, they were selling cassettes at the time, so I bought their cassette and those, and they were early versions of those songs on the cassette.

And I really loved, for our listeners that don't know what cassettes are, , our demographic is well versed. The area we're cassettes. Yeah, for sure. [00:59:00] Okay, I, for I have to ask this before we, before we get into more serious things here, I have to ask this for my, for my kids. Am I right in seeing that you wrote the theme song to Dragon Tales?

I, I did, I was one of the writers of that song. Yeah. Wow. All right. Let me tell you just how many times that song has played in the background of my house. I mean, just stuck in my head so many times as I raised four children at home. So I have no children. I don't even really know what Dragon Tails is, but if it's anything like Ducktails, I'm sold

I'll show you an episode later. I'll show you an episode. We can vibe on it. Okay, let's, we're gonna, let's talk a little Norah Jones and then we're gonna talk about your latest project. Absolutely. Okay. Right. So first, gimme the full story. I, I wanna know how you got connected with Norah Jones, cuz I know you had a lot to do with that first record.

You're playing guitar. Yeah. You wrote like five of those tracks on that, on that Come away with me. Record. So how did all that happen? I, I [01:00:00] met her by chance my friend Richard Julian, who's a songwriter too. And he was driving across country from New York to Los Angeles and asked me if I wanted to join.

And we had some friends, one of whom is Kenny Wallace, who co-produced my new record with me. Oh, awesome. Performing. He was with Mark Johnson, performing at the University of North Texas, Denton with Kurt Rosenwinkel, Steve Carness, and Mark Johnson. And. So we made it a point to to stop at Denton and see these guys play.

And Norah was a student there and came to pick up the band at the hotel cuz she had this big old Cadillac . And, and so we all met like that, ended up spending the whole day together in Denton and all of us jammed that night and she sang and we were all impressed with her singing. And not only that, but like her knowledge of music.

And she was only 19 years old. To make a long story short, she moved to New York and she and I just were hanging out a lot. And one day she sang a [01:01:00] song of mine actually like as a joke, She did it in this Billy Holiday voice, but I said, That sounds incredible. . And, and then, and then, you know, she started learning a whole bunch of my songs and I said, Well, let's do a gig and, you know, why don't we make a little demo and then, you know, the rest is history.

That's awesome. Such a chance meet. Like I love that the variables that all had to fall into y'alls favor to make that, if that's a mercury, we're not having this story. But it's a Cadillac if she's driving a Ford tempo, if she's in a

Yeah, that's true. So yeah, that album is obviously packed full of bangers and obvious don't know why is, you know, the banger of the whole world knows that song. Yeah. Do you, I, it'd be interesting, like one. In heaven. If you get to know like the number of babies that got made to that album, , you know, Cause I mean, it's a lot, you know?

It's a lot. That's [01:02:00] awesome. . That's good. I hope so. Well insert a PG 13 joke here later. That's really good. The well that's not my favorite song on the album, sorry to tell you. But Shoot the Moon is, which you also wrote. Oh, okay. So, and me and me and Rob were talking before about how slow the long day is over is.

It is so slow. And we were about to tap it out and count it. You probably know off the top of your head what bpm what's the BPM on that? What's the BPM on the long day is over? Well, I don't think we used to click track anywhere on that. There we go. And . That's good. That's fantastic. So what was, when what was the first song of yours that Norah decided to cut for the.

Probably there were, there were a bunch because we, we made a demo and one, and we did several songs on a demo of mine. Don't Know Why Something is Calling You. And another one that was called the only time the Latter two didn't make the record, but they're now on this [01:03:00] reissue, this 20th anniversary.

Oh, looks, yeah. Oh, and maybe one other one called Just Like A Dream Today. So like four. But then later we did the others. We added those others. Okay. So the first one was, I think the first song we recorded at the demo was, was Don't Why? And it was like one Take Bam. And Vocal was live and everything. Yeah.

She overdub maybe the like went back in and just redid the piano part, but like in one take and then later on added some harmonies and I added another track of guitar and that was it. So that was a demo actually. That's amazing. So was Lee playing bass on that Lee Alexander Yes. Was. Okay, let me tell you what I love about Lee is he produced one of my favorite albums all time, which was Amos Lee's first album.

Yeah, I love that album. And I didn't make that connection that that was the same guy till I was doing this. Holy cow. Super cool. And I mean, Dan's a legend too. Marcy's playground. Come on. That's right. And [01:04:00] that's like Prime Marcy's playground. That's like they're that he was in it. So when, when you, you know, when this ball starts rolling with this album and you start hearing, you know, Norah's cuts of these and, and you, and you're playing guitar on, on most, if not all of them, you know, do you get the feeling at that point that like, this is something pretty special?

I mean, obviously you, you felt something before you even made the demo or you wouldn't have done it. Right? But then even as the, as the album begins to unfold, are you thinking like, we've really got something here? I mean, I felt that way, as you said before the album came out. I, I thought that there was something really special about what we were doing.

And about Norah. At the same time, I think I, I was maybe a little bit skeptical just based on my own experience with a major label, you know, like expecting it to do something and then having it not work out, which was the one's blue record. And so I just didn't. Expect ever that it could do what it did.

That was [01:05:00] beyond my imagination. I did think that, I thought, Okay, like she's on Blue Note, I think it's gonna do great. Like, I think this could sell a couple hundred thousand records. That's what I thought. Yeah. Those were my expectations, which at the time we're, we're high expectations based on my experience.

You know, I never would've thought the record would sell, you know, what is it, 20, 20, 20 5 million records. Let's see. And, and that was one of, that was one of the last like physical records that I remember that everybody bought. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, that was right on that cusp of the digital age taking over where everybody had a CD of come away with everybody.

It was like, you know, you couldn't get away with it. Congratulations on all that. That's, Can we borrow $5? That's awesome. Nice job. That's great. That's amazing. Did, so do you think the fact that you had Jay and Ted and AIF on that, does that, did that make a difference having that [01:06:00] production team put that together?

Yeah. Was that a difference maker you think that helps? Yeah. I mean, yeah, Jay, Jay Newland's you know, his, just the way he recorded the mixed the music, it just sounds timeless. And, and aif, Martin AIF came in after we did those initial demos, but I learned so much just from working with aif about producing.

I just, you know, observing how he worked and how he kept the ball rolling and, and, and his general demeanor and his ability to work quickly in the studio and also stay completely relaxed. He had a lot of things that he did that. So impressive. AIF was really, you know, and he was, he was such a veteran.

So it's, it's, it's a rare opportunity to get to work with somebody like that and watch them, you know, offer. For our listeners, Ari, they, they may not be as familiar. I mean, he's on stuff with Hollow Oats, Roberta Flack, Anita Baker, Aretha, like he's a legend. And Jay is, Jay's even done more recent Grammy's with like John Scofield in 2016.

He got one, he's done [01:07:00] stuff with Clap. Like, So that's, it's a powerhouse of production team. Yeah. Okay. I, I love it in people's bios or like their Wikipedia pages or whatever when it says something, Jesse Harris signed as a songwriter with Sony in 1998, and that's it. Right. But as a songwriter, I know there's so much more to that single line that gets glossed over in a bio like that.

Right. So like, I mean, that's a whole life story for a lot of people. So how was it that you came to sign with Sony initially? I was performing a, a weekly gig at a club called The Living Room with my band every Monday night. And and as you know, most things that have happened in my life that came from performing live.

And so there was a guy who was showing up to the gigs and his name was Nate Crinkle and he was a new a and r guy at Sony Publishing, and he introduced himself and, and said that he'd like to meet with me. And so I went up there and he had [01:08:00] just become an a and r person there at Sony. And offered me a publishing deal.

It was a perfect moment for me. I was working it as a legal proof reader. You know, it was, it was just at this point, after, once Blue Hood broken up and, and whatever money I had ran out, and I was starting to work as a legal proof reader, you know, and then, and I, and I remember they were gonna offer me a deal and I thought, Okay, even no matter what, I'm gonna keep working as a legal proof reader and be really smart about the money.

And then as soon as they, I, I saw the offer, I was, I forget it. I'm never legal proofing again,

But, but to be honest, I ran out of that money too. . So, , . But, but yeah, so that's how that happened. And it, it, it, Sony became a great resource for me, not just because of the money, but they had this, they had a studio, and this is before like people had home studios. And so for me to be able to go there, make [01:09:00] demos, I even mixed an album there.

I did the first demos with Norah there, and it was really useful. And then for those reasons, and also I just met a and r people from, from offices all around the world who ended up helping me get record deals in France, Japan, Brazil, you know. So it was, it was a really great resource. And so when you're, when you're you know, when you're doing music that is kind of getting globally like that, is it a thing where you have to work out separate deals in all these different regions?

No, No. If you sign a, so it's for the world, you know, Unless you make a deal. Unless, I mean, I'm, I'm sure some people make deals that are from North America or just for Europe, you know, those deals exist. Yeah. Okay. Mine, mine. Just for the world. The I have one other Norah, before we go, go too far away from, nor I got one other kind of deep cut that I wanted to get some clarity on.

I love, even though from the Fall album which you also wrote Oh yeah. The base is nice and punchy. Is that Dave Wilder on base? I was having, do [01:10:00] you remember, were you in the, if you don't play on that right. Cause Peterik, I didn't play on that record guitar. I forget who the basis was. I did visit the studio when they were recording, but I don't remember.

Yeah, I was just curious as somebody who is a, you know, an obviously established solid studio musician and you hand your song that's written how involved you were in the actual studio production of that. But cuz you're not listening on that particular song, I had nothing to do. You just give him the song and you're like, roll with it.

That one, Norah and I wrote that song that was like a real co-write. And then I know that whatever I had done, they took it and they, they did something completely different. Okay. They kind of, the band rearranged it Yeah. Turned into something else. Okay. I like it. I like the MLO guitar and everything. I think it sounds good.

So, yeah, you may be a little, but you may be like, They they tweaked my masterpiece, . No, no. It's nice how, I know some people struggle with kind of releasing a song to, you know, to other artists. It's like, you know, this is my baby, this is my, you know, my opus. And to hear [01:11:00] something else, to hear somebody else do it can, can sometimes be a little difficult for people.

Do you struggle with that at all? You know? No. I love when people do versions of my songs. The only thing that bothers me to be honest is, is when people aren't faithful to the melody. You know, when. Because I figure, you know, my, you know, if you listen to any of the great singers, when they sing a song, they sing the song and you can interpret, you can change little parts to the melody, but it's still that song.

And so it's the only thing that's ever bothered me is if I is, if the song becomes unrecognizable and I think, Well, then why didn't you just write one? You know, Yeah. You've got a great melody on your own. Watch I get with this song. That's funny, right? . But, but otherwise, no, I'm delighted when people sing my song.

It's, it's a, it's, that's, that's kind of the point of writing songs in a way, is I always use this example of the, the liner notes of Bob Dylan's album, Bringing It All Back Home. He says as song, as anything that can walk by [01:12:00] itself, and. And I like that idea that, that you, in writing a song, you're creating something that has a life of its own and that can exist without you.

And I think that for me at least, the, the goal of of good songwriting is to write songs that can exist without you. And part of that is melody. You know, like, is it, is it, If you whistled it, would you recognize the song? And I, and I think that a lot of great, you know, singers who, who write songs sometimes forget that cuz they're such good singers that they can just like, sing anything and it sounds good.

But then forget about a melody. I don't know. I, I find that in some, you know, music today that the melody gets forgotten. It's like, it's almost like, yes, it's like in some cases the production and like the cool sounds of whatever ends up overtaking, like this is the song is kind of the important part.

Like, you know, you can hook, you can hook people for, for a little bit with a production, but if there's a song, if there's not a real [01:13:00] song present, it's not gonna last super long. That's good. Yeah. With a few notable exceptions I suppose. I don't know. Yeah, we can we can talk about one of James Gordon's favorite songs, The which you worked on with another pretty famous songwriter with Connor.

First Day Of My Life by Bright Eye. Oh. So how was it being on that side, whereas he's, you know, predominantly the writer and you're in as a Yeah. As a guitar player. It's just you and him and Tim. What's that experience like working with Bright Eyes? Cuz I mean, at that time, 2008, I mean, you know, I think that project came out in oh five, but you know, that's kind of when they're blowing.

Yeah, totally. We went to to to Lincoln, Nebraska, which is where Mike Moss's studio was at the time. And it was like negative five degrees and we were there. Tough on a guitar player. . Yeah. And for that song in particular, we just, Connor had made all these records where they were very meticulously produced and he wanted to do something that was more flaky [01:14:00] that showed off, you know, his more intimate live side.

And so for that song, we just stood in a circle in the same room with each of us with a mic in front of us. Love that. And just gotta take of the song. So that's just a live take of that song. That's cool. No overdubs, nothing changed. We were actually just talking about, we just did an episode on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and how they did their Willow Circle be on Broken Album and they just went straight to tape, you know, like it was just, Here we go.

And they did, they recorded everything straight to tape from one or two takes and it was like 30 something songs on it. It wasn't like a unbelievable that, that's the kind of stuff that never gets done anymore. I mean, that was 50 years ago, you know? So nobody's ever doing that now. Yeah. But so I love it when, so I like to hear that you did a, your version of that with three people makes us happy.

We love it. So that's, yeah. , So you also had some music in the smash hit film, The hottest state. Just I've never seen that. I'm just kidding. But Michelle, I fan, which is surprising cuz I'm a fan of [01:15:00] Michelle Williams since she was Jen Linley on DSS Creek. But what a superstar soundtrack. I mean, Willy Black Keys Fe, I mean, it's huge.

Yeah, I know. I love Dear Dorothy off of there. I mean that piano solo in that is really nice. So that's, that's really nice in there. So thank you. Well, you know, we just, we just released that album. We reissued it on vinyl. Oh, okay. That'll sound good on vinyl. That'll sound good on vinyl. It sounds amazing.

So anybody who was interested should buy the record on vinyl. There you go. Yeah. Go to my Instagram. There's a link in there. You can, you can get it. And it's, and there's not a lot of copies left and it sounds so good. And that pianist that you're talking about is the guy named John Dryden. And he and Dan Reer and a basis named Chris Light Cap just made a, a trio jazz record that I produced which we recorded in my apartment is John Dryden's [01:16:00] record.

Okay. And it's great, great jazz trio record. Okay. It's, it's, it's just called Trio John Dry. D r y d e n. Yeah, you should check it out. Okay, excellent. We will do. All right. Let's talk about, I'm ready to get into Silver Balloon if you're, Yeah, I got one. I got two other questions and then we'll jump in or I can hit 'em later.

All right. I can need these quick. So saw you got Credit on Tails, the album by Lisa Loeb. Oh yeah. I love Taffy and Hurricane Off that and I Did you play guitar on you or meant For Me by? I play now, Like the radio single? I did, yes. There was a Verve, a single that was released, like a new version that was recorded of that song.

It wasn't the one that became the big hit. Okay. But there was, for some reason, she did another version of the song that was released. Okay. And yeah, I played on that one. Interesting. So let's just stop for a minute and talk about the three people that I just talked to. Norah Jones, Lisa Loeb, and. Or hanging out with this is freaking cool.

Right. Okay. I'm good. Let's, let's jump into some, let's jump into silver. So [01:17:00] if you, if you as a female want to have a hugely successful career That's right. Contract. You called Jesse Harris. That's right. in some capacity. You need Jesse in your life. That's right. . Let's talk about your latest and, and as we record, it's, it's not fully released.

It's silver balloon, but there's a couple tracks out now and I gotta say the, the, the opening track, The Hanged Man is really kind of other, like I listened to. It's trippy kind. It's some trippy guitar. Yeah. Spell by you. You know. So tell me what goes into kind of your thought process in writing and production?

Like when you're writing it, are you going, this is how it's gonna sound, This is the kind of effect I want? Or does that come later? It came neither later or before, to be honest. Okay. It was a lot of this record was just discovery. It was me and, and Kenny Wallace together in my studio. And we would pretty much record a whole song between about one or two o'clock and 7:00 PM and [01:18:00] that particular song, we recorded it and then Kenny dialed in a preset on a harmonizer and we put, and he said, Why don't we put the guitar through this?

And I put the guitar into it and we were listening back as it was recording, hearing that sound as I was playing it. And we were just looking at each other like, This sounds so cool. You know? And, and I, I only, I just did two takes of it and then I just kind of cut together my favorite parts from the two takes.

All I can tell you is that that was just a discovery. That was just something that happened spontaneously as we were hanging out. And I'd never heard anything like that. People think, you know, that we, like I played it and then we put it in reverse. Yeah, that's what I thought it like that at all. That's what I thought it was.

It was played, No, it was live. It was just live to, to tape like that. So yeah, I was, as I was playing, that's what I was hearing. So that's, that's cool. I was responding to [01:19:00] that effect and playing kind of into that effect. And yeah, I've never done that before. And then we did use that same effect on a couple other songs on the record, which you'll hear later when those songs come out.

But not. As much as it as not as present as on that one particular song, The Hangman. It's definitely a, it's definitely a grabber for a first track. It's a great way to go. Hello? Yeah. Like, you know, listen to this. Yeah. So that's very cool. And then the, the other single that you've got released as we record, is one in a million.

You wanna tell us a little bit about one a million? Yeah. Like, Okay. So the, there were two songs that I did just acoustic. As I said, Kenny and I would record from about one o'clock until seven, and then we'd go out to dinner together, come back and keep working on the record. Two songs I recorded in the morning solo acoustic.

And then when Ken Kenny came in, we would add a little bit of stuff to it and then that would be, And so there's like two kind of acoustic songs on the record, one of [01:20:00] which is one in a Million. And Kenny just added some keyboard stuff to that. And again, put my vocals to the Harmonizer. And that's a song that I wrote maybe like, just like the day or two before we recorded it.

Cuz I was really excited by the sound that we were getting, like with the hangman. And there was another song called Hummingbird, which you'll hear soon. And I, and I, and Kenny was available, and Kenny's never available , and so I wanted to take advantage of the fact that he was around and excited.

And so I wrote a bunch of songs that week that we recorded, and The Hangman was one of the ones that I wrote. And then, I mean, I'm sorry one in a Million was one of the ones that I wrote. And then it almost immediately, well, it may, it may sound a little less adventurous compared to the Hangman, but don't sleep on those chord changes, man.

That's freaking, that's nuts. Oh, it, it's more of like, that's sort of like an old tin pan Alley kind of song. Yeah. Yeah. . Yeah. It's real, like old fashioned, even in the lyrics. Yeah. Wonderful. World wondrous [01:21:00] people is definitely, That's definitely old school phrasing. Yeah. It's good stuff. So Yeah, go ahead.

No, after you. Yeah, no, but that was, that song's kind of more old school, but we still wanted it to have like that weird spaced out sound. And you know, so it was like we wanted it to be old sounding but also at the same time kind of like science fiction. Yeah. You know, or something. And I think just, just based off what I've heard and kind of what you're you know what you're saying, it feels to me like you've done very well with the cover of this album as well.

Like it feels like it very much fits match the vibe that you're trying to go with, you know? I like that, that. You mean with the, me holding the balloon out on the Yeah. I mean it's, it's pretty literal with an album called Silver Balloon, you know, But, but the look of it, the vibe that it gives off very much fits, you know what it sounds like you're going so, Totally.

I think it, I think you never, Okay, so, Oh, thanks. So you're gonna have a listener go out and listen to like your introduction to Jesse Harris. What song do you pick? I'll tell you what I suggest. I [01:22:00] suggest Rocking Chairs, which head faked me out completely at 2 48, where it sounds like it's ending and Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Folks, there's more and there's like a minute 12 more. And that, that Tasty Worz or a clav or whatever it is, you probably know underneath. Really nice. What song do you say Meet Jesse Harris. Here's my. Well, I mean, rocking Church is a nice one. I did that. I recorded that in Rio de Janeiro with, with almost all Brazilian musicians except for the drummer and the drummer, Bill Dobra.

He, we did end the song when we did that, that take, and then he played that fill and then we kept going. It's, that wasn't, That's cool. I like that story. That's good. But I mean, there's a, there's a song of mine called Watching the Sky, which is the title track of an album called Watching the Sky. That, I don't know, it's, it's one of the only songs of my own that I like to listen to sometimes.

Okay. That's, that's a good answer. That's my second favorite would be, which I was a bird. [01:23:00] That would be, that would be number two. That would be number two, which is different. Yeah. So that's, You can hear this side of Jesse or a little bit more of this, so there you go. Yeah. And then for me, I was like the new stuff.

So I would say listen to the Hangman, and I'd also say, check out a song called Alchemist from my instrumental project. Cosmo. Yeah, the Cosmo record is very cool. And it's got so many people involved with it, but it's a really neat one. So check that out for sure. And that just came, that came earlier this year, right?

Too. Came out July one. Yeah. Yeah. So you're very busy . Do you have, are you, are you planning on touring on Silver Balloon in Cosmo? Cosmo. It's hard because the guys, all the guys in that band are so busy and Silver Balloon. I can do gigs, like, I'm gonna go to Paris and I've got a band in Paris who I play with.

Okay. I'm gonna go to LA and playing with different guys in la, New York, different guys, you know, different guys. That's right. We'll be your national guys, guys. We'll yeah, we'll throw, I got, Yeah, I gotta get my Nashville band together. After we [01:24:00] told him how much smarter he is, then you're brilliant.

Let's, Those chords are amazing. We got you . He's like, No, one, five. We're like, crap. . I know. Nationally do those charts where you just put the, the number of the six's, minor's. There you go. It's all over the place here. I don't even, we don't even know how to spell chords anymore. That's alright. . Yeah. But, but yes, I'm doing some gigs, you know, I'm doing not like a major tour, like just a few gigs around.

I may do some more Brazil gigs. I'm gonna go to Mexico in January and then in New York I'm also doing a night. Cuz Kenny and I have been making all these sort of avant garde films, which are music videos, but like more like avant garde films. Okay. They're. conventional music videos and we're gonna do a night screening them at Roxy Cinema, which is a really cool Art House Cinema in New York.

And we're gonna do that October 13. But, but [01:25:00] yeah, that's it for now. I mean, I may get into some more shows after the new year. I'm just taking it as it. Awesome. Very cool. Well, yeah, you've been a lot of fun. We appreciate your time today. Hope you've had a good time. We've loved chatting with you. Oh yeah.

This has been a blast. And thanks. I really appreciate you guys, you know, doing such thorough listening. I'll do it. I'm really impressed. We love it. We love it. We have, we have, oh, have one, one question that we ask everybody so everybody gets this question. Okay. So you're on, let's say you were on tour either with Norah Jones or Solo project or whatever, and you go into a gas station.

What is your gas station snack? Food of choice. And while you thinking of it, I'll tell you mine. So I get a three Musketeers bar. When I was growing up, my mom would say, You could have any candy bar you want, and it's the most ounces. So I get a three Musketeers bar. What is your gas station snack food of.

I'm really boring cuz I don't like any of that food. And if I have to eat something, I'm probably gonna find like some unsalted raw almonds. I knew you were an almonds guy. I knew it. Oh man. . [01:26:00] Hence the swimmer better shape. We get it. I took, Or banana. I don't know. Keep it simple. He hops on the zone. It's like almond's.

Almond's we go. I took one look and said this guy does almonds. Well check out Jesse Almond's Harris on on tour near you in Paris? Yes. That's cool, man. Dude, this has been fun. Seriously. Let's let's keep in touch. Right. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Can't wait to hear the rest of it. Talk to you soon.

Bye. This is the Great Song Podcast. And that was Jesse Harris Rob. Rob is not able to be found right now, so I'm bringing us back in. I know. He's normally the one that brings us out of these. So I'm a little out a kilter here. Don't, Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Here he comes. Oh, there he is. Oh, well, man.

Okay. I listen. I feel like owe you an apology, . You're good. I was just wondering where you were. I well, I waited till I saw the sun . There it is. And I, I just, I don't know. I don't [01:27:00] know why. I don't know why it didn't come. I left you . There it is. Guys. We have leaned into that joke as heavily as possible.

That's right. We started with it with the fantastic. And we're sending you out with it in different form. Thank you guys so much. I'll let Rob take it from here back in his comfort zone. All right, gang, hang out with us online at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Great Song Podcast. Be become a producer@patreon.com slash Great Song Podcast.

And we will continue on here. We'll try and find some better jokes for next week. But we'll be back. Next promises. No. A lot of the same. That's right. . We just, What if we just milked that joke, that joke, forever rest of the season, no matter the guest or like House of Fun. Here we go. Here we go. We'll see you guys.

We're gonna be covering Life House, Fun house next week. House of Fun. All right. We'll see y'all next week with another great song. Until then, I'm Rob Rob. J.P, Go listen to some music.