Pit5 Music News Cache

By Mikael Wood 44 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Billboard) - New York-based singer-songwriter Jesse Harris insists he has no problem with the fact that the majority of folks who recognize his name know him as the guy who wrote "Don't Know Why," the Grammy Award-winning smash from Norah Jones' 2002 debut.

"The only time I'm not comfortable with it," Harris says, "is when I'm performing somewhere and I see people walk in and I get the sense that they're expecting to have some Norah Jones-type experience, which isn't really what I do," he says with a laugh. "It's like being on a weird blind date and I'm not the guy they expected."

Harris might overestimate the difference between Jones' experience and his own. Like the queen of Starbucks soul, he specializes in lightly jazzy, soft-focus folk-pop ballads that exercise an old-school devotion to the nuts and bolts of the songwriter's craft. But it's easy to see why Harris keeps trumping listeners' expectations: He has made a career out of refusing to stay in one place for long, complementing his own records with a long list of writing, producing and playing credits with acts as diverse as Bright Eyes and Lizz Wright.

This summer Harris makes two additions to his resume. On July 10, he released his latest solo disc, "Feel," the follow-up to his self-released 2006 effort, "Mineral." On August 7, Hickory Records will issue the soundtrack to Ethan Hawke's film "The Hottest State," for which such singers as Jones, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris and Feist recorded new versions of Harris' songs.

CROSS-GENERATIONAL APPEAL

The release of "Feel" introduces Harris' new relationship with Velour Recordings, the New York indie that's also home to acoustic guitar whiz Kaki King and organ-jazz group Soulive. Sean Hoess, who founded the label with Jeff Krasno, says the album reminds him of Paul Simon's early solo work.

"This is a pop record," Hoess says, "a little more mainstream than what Jesse's done in the past. I think it's one of those records that could appeal to college-age kids all the way up to people in their 50s and 60s."

What's harder, Hoess says, is providing people an opportunity to connect with it. (To date, "Mineral" has sold only 2,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan; its Verve-released predecessor, 2004's "While the Music Lasts," has sold 6,000.) Converting Harris' behind-the-scenes bona fides into front-and-center star power, Hoess says, is one of Velour's principal goals for "Feel."

Harris' manager, Bob Andrews, says that his client could benefit from touring. "But Jesse's so busy with other stuff that it's kind of a challenge to get him out on the road," Andrews says, adding that Harris "hardly toured 'Mineral' at all because he was so busy working on 'The Hottest State."' Still, he feels the soundtrack to Hawke's film -- which Harris compares to the scrappy Irish musical "Once" -- could end up as one of the most effective tools in his plan to break Harris out of the land of liner notes.

Harris says his idea is "to try every possible avenue" when it comes to raising his profile. But he also says that in the current music industry atmosphere, his dabbler's approach seems to offer the highest degree of job security.

"The competition is stiffer than it's ever been, and the business is in the worst slump it's ever been in," he says. "The combination of those two things is kind of bleak. I think if I were John Mayer, it'd make sense for me to focus on my own thing as much as possible. But in lieu of a situation like that, it's better and more gratifying to do a little of everything."

Reuters/Billboard