Jesse Harris

It was the songwriting and guitar playing on Norah Jones' colossal break out record ("Don't Know Why," anyone?) that brought Jesse Harris into the national eye, even if he'd been working in New York's songwriter scene for nearly a decade. His work as a songwriter/sideman won its first success with the short-lived group Once Blue, which signed to EMI for a cup of coffee, and his better-fated group, the Ferdinandos, which has enjoyed critical acclaim and remains the primary vehicle for his songs. His first marquee solo record, Jesse Harris and the Ferdinandos, appeared in 1999, and, even though he's taken time out for Jones and a number of other projects, he's issued regular solo releases since, eventually developing a relationship with the Verve label that yielded 2004's While the Music Lasts. A second career as soundtrack curator and label owner have added plumes to his well-feathered cap, as has his most popular self-released LP to date, 2006's Mineral. In 2007 Feel appeared under the songwriter's own name.