(31 January 2004)Grammy winner Norah Jones is back with a followup to her best winning album of last year. Feels Like Home maintains the beautiful clarity of her vocals with a touch of jazz, blues, and enticing ballads. One can almost imagine sitting in the coffeehouse, listening to themellow and rich vocals of this captivating vocalist.

The disc begins with the smoky, sultry "Sunrise", "What Am I To You"and "Those Sweet Words."Norah has a laid back quality to her music and bringing in the bluesy guitar instrumentals adds to the lounging melodies. Her lovely vocals possess a warmth and languid quality.

"Carnival Town" has a jazzy tone, accompanied by soft piano that gives the listener the feelingof sitting around the piano bar. More upbeat jazz follows with "In The Morning" while piano,soothing electric (Adam Levy) and acoustic (Kevin Breit) guitar change the mood to a morebluesy feel in "Be Here To Love Me."

Dolly Parton joins Norah in "Creepin' In," where their two voices blend in a more bubblybluegrass duet. Dolly's distinctive vocals make these lyrics stand out along with the fun melody.This one was certainly a toe-tapper.

The CD continues with enjoyable material, but after a few songs, there is not a great deal ofdiversity. Some instrumentals stand out, such as Adam Levy's electric guitar in "Toes" and KevinBreit's resonator guitar in "Humble Me." There are elements of jazz, blues, country and folk/popmusic throughout this album.

In conjunction with Blue Note Music we have the pleasure of pointing visitors to streaming audio of new material (click here!) from Norah Jones (website). Read further reviews, listen to soundbites and order the album from amazon.com here. It certainly will attract many of Norah's fans, and is worth thelisten.--Audrey Elliot in New York