Posted 6:33 AM by Paul
Sitar Jazz Blues?

I love the new Nora Jones album. Glad it swept the Grammies A return to unhyped great American music. It is even on the the legendary Blue Note - a label revered by all young men in the North of England who grew chin beards, played bad sax and dreamed of what it would be like to hang out with Bird, Chet and Kerouac in the Village in ' 52. It also reminded me of the massive debt that contemporary music owes to that great American (OK Canadian) Joni Mitchell and of course her soul sister and Nora's mother - the magnificent Ricki Lee Jones. Except she isn't - Nora's mother that is. I just assumed it because of their shared surname, vocal styles and lyrical brilliance. We now discover that Nora's dad is the equally legendary Indian sitar meister and friend of George Harrison Ravi Shankar. And mum? A Texan music promoter.

Only in America as they say. Which got me to thinking. Maybe America is not really a country at all. It's a state of mind.