Norah LIVE

Last night we dropped the kids off with some friends and headed down to Music Hall at Fair Park in Dallas to see Norah Jones in concert. I was so excited about this as she is my favorite artist. (see last post). On the way down we were a little pushed for time, so we just swung through the drive thru at Arby's. I do love my curly fries!

The venue was superb. I had never been to Music Hall before. I loved the elegant, aged atmosphere of the building. Entering I could almost hear the echoes of decades filled with spectacular music and productions. I enjoyed browsing the building and seeing the fountain and huge chandelier. Even though the seats and the carpet were a little worn, there was something about the elegance of the building that filled that same niche in my soul that enjoys a nice hotel and dinner at a restaurant where the waiter sweeps away my bread crumbs.

The opening act was Sarah Jaffe. Shawn really enjoyed this guitar driven vocalist more than I did. She was talented, but I was anxious to get on to the real reason I was there. I spent this portion of the concert checking out the people around me. Sitting behind me was an Elvis impersonator. He had on the white disco suit, the scarf, the big sunglasses, the blinged out rings, and the huge sideburns and greased black hair. I found it very challenging not to stare and giggle. The rest of the crowd was very mixed. There were lots of couples there, and the age range was interesting. I saw old couples shuffling down the aisle and teen couples gripping hands tightly. I was surprised by the strong Lesbian presence at the concert. I didn't realize that Norah would draw in that many same sex couples. Shawn used that as an opportunity to tease me a bit about my musical tastes.

I absolutely enjoyed every moment of Norah on stage. It was interesting seeing her play to her hometown crowd. She pointed out where her family had season seats at the Music Hall when she was a kid. Then she apologized to all of her piano teachers in the audience that she would primarily being playing guitar in the show. She also did a shout out to students from the art magnet school she graduated from.

Norah primarily did songs from her latest album, "The Fall." It was very interesting to see all the instrumentation involved in the songs. Running with her music on the earbuds, I have often tried to figure out what instruments were playing and been very confused. Instruments were swapped often last night. I saw a huge variety of guitars, 4 different keyboard/synthesizers, a xylophone, two different sets of drums, a large tin can and a wooden box that were used in percussion, an accordion, a cello, and of course the piano. The piano was of special interest to me. It was an upright, tuned to sound just a bit tinny - reminded me of the pianos in the little churches I grew up in - or maybe like a piano in a honky tonk.

I had assumed that Norah played the piano for her songs, but most of the night she stuck with the electric guitar and her keyboard player did most of the piano work. I love that bluesy jazz sound that he played under her sultry vocals. I would love to be able to play those chords. I know Shawn expected me to be all turned on and snuggled up against him, but actually from our 7th row seats, I had a great view of the piano keys. I had to lean slightly to the left (away from Shawn) to be able to watch the keys closely. Of course I was carried away in the music and fascinated by the chord progressions on the piano. All too soon the music ended, and the magic was gone. I was disappointed that Norah did not do my all time favorite, "Turn me On." But she did cycle back through several of her other hits.

I had a great evening. I appreciated my husband knowing that this concert was something that I would enjoy and making the effort to secure excellent tickets. It was amazing for a couple of hours to be held in the spell of amazing music.