Norah Jones Enlists Ryan Adams, Tom Waits' Band For New Album

Norah Jones has recruited Ryan Adams, Okkervil River's Will Sheff and some of the vital members of Tom Waits' Mule Variations band for her upcoming fourth studio album, due out in November. The LP will be Jones' first since 2007's Not Too Late. Both Adams and Sheff are listed among the songwriter collaborators, as well as Jessie Harris, who penned Jones' Grammy-winning 2002 hit "Don't Know Why." Jones' upcoming album also finds the songstress teaming with producer Jacquire King, who previously worked with Modest Mouse, Kings of Leon and Ryan Adams.

"I knew I wanted to try some different things on this album," Jones said. "I'd been playing with the same musicians for a long time. We're all still friendly and I hope we play together again, but it felt like a good time to work with new people and experiment with different sounds." Jones said she opted to collaborate with Jacquire King because he was the engineer on one of Jones' favorite albums, Tom Waits' Mule Variations. King arranged for Jones to share the studio with musicians like Joey Waronker (Beck's frequent drummer), but the big names among Jones' new band are guitarists Marc Ribot and Smokey Hormel, both of whom featured on Waits' Mule Variations.

Unlike previous albums, Jones wrote the songs for her upcoming album on an acoustic guitar instead of a piano. "It just felt more natural for me to play it on these songs," Jones said of the change. "I knew I wanted to play with grooves more than I have on previous albums. Some of these new songs lent themselves to having driving rhythms underneath." More info regarding Jones' latest LP is expected soon.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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