Customer Reviews

Crooked Lines

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of the best records I bought this year. Great songs, beautiful melodies, and strong vocals. Do yourself a favor and check out this amazing artist.

Jesse Harris is an extremely talented NYC based singer-songwriter. He has recent success performing and writing with Norah Jones including the hit "Don't know why". Jesse is also a great guitarist with a real neat fingerpicking technique. I first heard of him when he was one half of the jazz-pop-folk duo Once Blue with Rebecca Martin. They recorded and released a wonderful self-titled debut album in 1995 but broke up before the release of their second record(I hope that album is someday released in some form. I heard the songs live in concert and they were incredible). This album is packed with great songs--check out "I'm alright", "Poor old dog" and "Do you ever dance...". My favorite is "Save you breath for the crowd" (incidentally a song he used to play as part of Once Blue). Buy this album---this guys deserves to be heard!!!!

one of the best artists you don't hear enough about.... wonderful writing, amazing feel, and a voice you won't forget.

I'm very sorry to say I didn't much like this album, because I really wanted to. After becoming addicted to Norah Jones' first album & realizing that all of the best songs on it were written by Jesse Harris, I thought I would look into more of his music. Unfortunately, this album doesn't have nearly the same charm and warmth as Norah's, despite the fact that he wrote all of the songs. In addition, I'm afraid I find Jesse's voice whiny and not always in tune, and that the overall sound of this band is just not very polished -- much more garage band than professional.

In summary, don't buy this unless you want a much "rougher" sound and style to the music than the "Norah/Jesse" style of her first album -- even though Norah sings backup on this album, the style is completely different than her albums. If anyone is out there looking for more of the Norah/Jesse sound, I have an older album of Jesse's with his duo "Almost Blue" that I very much prefer. I think you have to buy it used, but it can be found.