FOUNDERS’ KEEPERS: Norah Jones, Sheryl Crow, Shane Smith, and More

About a year ago, celebrating Willie Nelson’s 90th birthday at the Hollywood Bowl with an all-star cast of dozens, I was reminded how much Norah Jones and Sheryl Crow have contributed to popular music over the past few decades. Both have new albums out in March, which seemed like a good place to start this month’s column. Also in the mix are a couple of Texas troubadours: Bruce Robison has been an influential songwriter since the 1990s, while Shane Smith is a rising star with his band the Saints. I’ll wrap things up with two personal favorites, from Poi Dog Pondering — an archival release documenting their early days in Hawaii — and Charley Ramsay, who (full disclosure) was in a band I briefly managed when I had no idea what I was doing. Perhaps I still don’t! But I’m glad all of these folks are still making music today.

Norah Jones — Visions

In the official bio that Blue Note Records sent out with the album, label president Don Was focuses on how Visions struck him as more hopeful and upbeat than Jones’s 2020 release Pick Me Up Off the Floor. The song titles bear that out: Instead of “How I Weep,” “Hurts to Be Alone” and “Heartbroken, Day After,” we have “Paradise,” “Queen of the Sea” and “I Just Wanna Dance.” The lyrical content follows the musical groove: It’s the sound and vibe of these tracks, most of which feature only Jones and producer Leon Michels, that divine the joy at the heart of Visions. Known for his work with Lee Fields, Sharon Jones, Dan Auerbach, and others, Michels, an accomplished saxophonist, mostly plays drums here, providing texture that complements Jones’ guitar and keyboard colorings. As always, Jones’ smoothly soulful voice is at the center as she draws upon elements of jazz, folk, soul, blues, country, and more to create something that transcends genre tags. Jones was barely old enough to drink when her 2002 debut album swept the major Grammy categories; this week she turns 45, the age her friend Willie Nelson had reached when he made his timeless classic Stardust. Turned out Willie still had another five decades of records in him; here’s hoping we’re still hearing new music from Norah in the year 2070.

Sheryl Crow — Evolution (out March 29)

As epic as Crow’s 2019 album Threads was — 75 minutes of music with special guests including Willie Nelson, Keith Richards, James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, and Mavis Staples — her statement at the time that it would be her final album seemed premature. The idea apparently was that she’d focus more on singles than albums in a streaming era that has been pushing artists in that direction for a while now. But Crow has always seemed to be an artist well-suited to making full-length records, so we’re glad she reconsidered. Eclectic producer Mike Elizondo (Fiona Apple, Nickel Creek, Gary Clark Jr.) helped push Crow in new directions on Evolution. While the lead single “Alarm Clock” recalls the pop snap of Crow’s mid-’90s hits, Elizondo brings it into the 21st century with just the right touch of sonic dissonance. Elsewhere, guitarist Tom Morello leaves an indelible mark on the title track, a rumination on looming concerns about AI; and there’s magic in the vocal harmonies of Crow and Peter Gabriel on her keen cover of Gabriel’s 1992 hit “Digging in the Dirt.” An antidote of sorts is “Don’t Walk Away,” a gentle piano ballad that seeks hope in the face of hard realities.

Bruce Robison — In the Woods

From upstart recording artist to chart-topping country songwriter to 21st-century music industry maverick, Texas troubadour Robison has evolved considerably since he first made waves out of Austin in the 1990s. Lately his focus has been on releasing music by other artists through his innovative Next Waltz label (ND story), and on managing the meteoric rise of Charley Crockett’s career. So it was nice to see this seven-song set appear in February, to remind us that it all started for Robison with his own records. Perhaps because he’s paid his bills mostly with other artists’ covers of his own songs (The Chicks, Tim McGraw & Faith Hill, George Strait), Robison pays it forward with In the Woods, recording songs by other writers he admires: Miles Zuniga’s “Never Say Never,” Harlan White’s “Cup o’Tea,” and an update of the late Blaze Foley’s “Livin’ in the Woods in a Tree.” He’s all-in on Adam Wright, who gets three cuts here. Maybe the most fun, though, is when Robison goes all Asleep at the Wheel on us for a swingin’ cover of the 1930s gem “Exactly Like You” from Dorothy Fields & Jimmy McHugh. While we hope Robison keeps writing songs, there’s a lot of joy in hearing his takes on these tracks.

Shane Smith & the Saints — Norther

Austin’s music scene is so deep, particularly when it comes to Americana troubadours, that I was only slightly aware of Smith’s gradual rise during my recent decade on the music beat there. Norther is his fifth album with the Saints, which also features fiddler Bennett Brown, guitarist Dustin Schaefer, bassist Chase Satterwhite, and drummer Zach Stover. Appearances in the TV series Yellowstone have heightened the group’s profile in recent years, and it’s a good fit: The Saints’ songs often have an Old West feel both musically and lyrically, while Smith’s dramatic vocal style has a cinematic quality. Though the Saints’ music remains grounded in the moody roadhouse honky-tonk of numbers such as “Adeline” and “Navajo Norther,” Smith seems increasingly willing to shift gears for a more direct connection, as he does on the piano-centric ballad “All the Way.”

Poi Dog Pondering — The Best of the Hawai’i Years

Mid-1980s college days at the University of Texas introduced me to bandleader Frank Orrall and this ragtag band of Hawaiian gypsies, who headed for adventure across the United States and ended up settling in Austin for a few years. They’d pull into college towns and start busking on campus, inevitably winning over new fans because they had great songs and an irrepressible joie de vivre. Before they left Hawaii, they made a few DIY cassettes to sell along the way. I bought a couple that I still treasure to this day. Much of what was on those tapes now exists on this CD-and-Bandcamp-only collection. Many of the 19 tracks — including “Fall Upon Me,” “Pulling Touch,” “Everybody’s Trying,” and “Living With the Dreaming Body” — surfaced with fuller arrangements on Poi Dog’s early releases for Texas Hotel and Columbia. While those later versions fleshed out Orrall’s grand ambitions, there’s a fresh innocence and magic in these songs’ earliest recorded forms. Orrall now lives in the Bay Area, but he and many of his bandmates across the decades will gather in Poi Dog’s longtime home base of Chicago for a 40th-anniversary concert in August.

Charley Ramsay — Dirt Floor Camelot

College years also brought me the music of Charley Ramsay, who partnered with my roommate Rob Thomas as the music-and-lyrics songwriting team for Public Bulletin (later known as Hey Zeus and then Black Irish). It was hard for me to separate the friendship from the music, but it was obvious that Ramsay had a real gift for melody and harmony. Our post-college years took us all in different directions: Thomas created the TV show Veronica Mars in Los Angeles and I started No Depression in Seattle, while Ramsay stayed in Austin, got a real job, and raised a family. But music always tugged at his sleeve, and I was quite happy when he released the album Catalyst in 2008. Now comes Dirt Floor Camelot, which supplements newer material with a couple of nods to those 1980s halcyon days. Ramsay was rarely the lead singer of his bands back then, but perhaps he should have been, as his distinctive baritone is rich with character and humanity: You believe the guy singing these songs. Highlights include the be-grateful-for-what-you-have title track and “Helicopters & Horses,” which opens with Ramsay’s lyrical acoustic picking. A sweet cover of The Call’s 1989 hit “Let the Day Begin” concludes the album, but I’m most partial to a new recording of Public Bulletin’s “Norman Rockwell,” perhaps Thomas/Ramsay’s finest moment as a songwriting team.