The “previous manner” labored. Come Away With Me is tender and low-lit, a cocktail of tuneful mid-tempo blues balladry and country-soul that soars with the simple, weightless willpower of a gull. For each assured cowl track, like Jones’ hip-swinging model of Hank Williams’ “Chilly Chilly Coronary heart” or her late-night, besotted tackle Hoagy Charmichael’s “The Nearness of You,” she points a slight nudge in one other, sudden route. “Feelin’ the Similar Method” ambles together with a buoyant bluegrass gait, whereas an accordion sneaks in behind her on the dreamy “Painter Tune.” “Lonestar,” probably the most overtly Texan track on the document, provides a soupçon of slide guitar, which strikes round her luminous, multi-tracked voice like a dance companion. Later, on the attractive “The Lengthy Day Is Over,” a downy-soft brushed snare, piano, and low-slung guitar performed by the good Invoice Frisell information Jones’ zigzagging vocals. Her voice swirls into maze-like melodies, rambling from a low whisper to a throaty name. And “Don’t Know Why,” Jones’ hottest track, captures the impulsivity she sought; the model included on the album makes use of her first vocal take. It arcs and strikes with calming readability, like an particularly stunning dawn filtering via the bushes.
Come Away With Me isn’t all unfussy simple listening. “I’ve Received to See You Once more,” written by Harris, has lyrics that recommend an unhealthy attachment to an erotic dancer: “Strains in your face don’t hassle me/Down in my chair once you dance over me,” Jones murmurs over a Fiona Apple-esque combination of leisurely piano and a keening, unsettling violin. “I may nearly go there/Simply to observe you be seen.” She leaned additional into sensuality on the title observe, dashed off in “10 or quarter-hour” on an acoustic guitar she’d despatched for from again house in Texas. Its opening verses sound as if she’s whispering to you from beneath the sheets: “Come away with me within the night time/Come away with me and I’ll write you a track,” she provides. With its gently rising refrain, the tune stays among the finest showcases for the earthy luxurious of Jones’ voice.
Upon the album’s launch in February 2002, Blue Word marketed Come Away With Me with a blitz of press. They shipped hundreds of copies to be bought at espresso retailers, spas, and vineyards, aiming straight on the over-21 crowd. “Time, Newsweek, getting it performed in Starbucks—folks want to listen to a couple of document,” Blue Word advertising and marketing director Zach Hochkeppel famous on the time. “They might not purchase numerous albums, however after they do, they turn into a massively devoted fanbase…. It was turbo phrase of mouth.” Critiques had been optimistic, with a number of critics drawing comparisons to Diana Krall and Rickie Lee Jones, artists who equally balanced jazzy inspirations with soul, Americana, and pop. The album debuted at No. 139 however solely climbed from there: Jones’ music carried out nicely on small-town radio, showing on jazz and faculty stations and NPR. It helped considerably that she arrived within the wake of one other piano prodigy, Alicia Keys, whose debut had shifted many thousands and thousands of items only a 12 months earlier (and who would current Jones along with her Finest New Artist trophy on the Grammys). However Jones’ smoky, gentle rock strategy took gradual, nearly uncontrollable maintain over listeners. By August, the album had gone platinum.
