July 7, 2026 • 39 mins
GRAMMY-nominated harpist and composer Brandee Younger joins Norah to talk about finding her voice on an instrument with deep history. They talk about the artists who opened the door for her sound and her serendipitous musical path. Brandee and Norah take on songs that feel intimate, soulful, and deeply connected. Recorded 9/19/25.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode is also available as video on YouTube. You
can visit Nora Jones channel and be sure to subscribe
while you're there. Hey, I'm Nora Jones and today I'm
playing along with Brandy Younger. I'm just playing long Weuy,
I'm just playing lone Weezy. Hi, I'm Nora. This is Sarah. Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to my show.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
It's our show.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Good God didn't feel right when I said it. Today
we have an incredible episode with Grammy nominated groundbreaking harpist
composer redefining the role of the harp in contemporary music,
Brandy Younger. She honors a legacy of Dorothy Ashby and
Alice Coltrane while carving out her own distinct voice. She's
(00:52):
performed with artists across genres and having her in this
room was amazing.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
And her harp, Yeah, I loved her. Yeah, she's so cool.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Look at her album's over there in the corner. It
was so beautiful to hear the harp like that. And
she's such a cool person. And really enjoyed hanging with
her and playing and we did some of her beautiful songs.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
You're going to hear about how she found the harp
or more, how the harp found her. You're gonna hear
about touring versus staying home, what she prefers, and beautiful
piano harp duets.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
And it was just incredible.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah, it was so beautiful. I'm glad she can't. Yeah,
thanks Brandy, thanks for listening. And I think you're gonna
love this episode with Brandy Younger.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
That's so pretty.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Oh my goodness, it's a harp in my midst.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Thank you, Brandy, Thank you so much. That was the
first time I think I've actually uh played that really, Yes,
and then with piano and then with you so cool.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I feel like piano and harp have a little bit
of a sisterhood. Well is that my imagination.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
There, We're like a dysfunctional piano, lots of insecurities. When
the harp is next to the piano, you have all
this bottom, this space, You've got all the all the
notes in front of you.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
I hear a lot of bottom on the harp. Actually,
how low can you go.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
On a concert? Grand You can go all the way
down on to the low C. And I think it's
the same range. Really, it's like the same I'm pretty
sure this is a not a concert grand. It's a
I guess we call it a grand petite. So it
has forty four strings, and I'm too afraid to play
the lowest because maybe I didn't tune it.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Oh, let me hear it.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
It's a D something.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
I have a hard time hearing. Pitch really low.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
It's a D flat. I can't tell it's a D flat.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Wow, this is very exciting. It sounds so beautiful in
the room.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
I can't wait for you to get a harp in
your studio.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
I think it's going to happen now. You can just
help me pick one out and then you can go
over any time. You don't have to bring the careful No,
it's beautiful. Tell me about your harp specifically. Do you
have several?
Speaker 3 (06:05):
I have a few, Yeah, I have. Well, okay, so
this one that we have today, this was actually a
gift from a wonderful harpist who's passed away, but she
wanted to make sure that her harps were in the
hands of people that she wanted them to bet with.
That's really beautiful and it's small, so I actually use
this for smaller spaces, places with stairs, rehearsals. And it's
(06:30):
a line in heel. It's an American company based in Chicago.
So I have this one. It's called an eighty five.
That's the name Style number eighty five. And then I
have a Style number twenty three, same brand's larger, larger
concert grant. It's probably the most popular in the States.
And then I have a French company called KAMAC and
(06:54):
that's my acoustic electric So you see me playing that
when I'm with my band in town a lot, and
it's really cute bronze and ebony. So it was my
twenty three. It's ebony and bron but they're very, very
different instruments. And then I have Alice Coltrane's Style eleven
at home with me, which is eighteen carrot gold. Oh,
really beautiful, doesn't leave the house? How beautiful?
Speaker 5 (07:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Is that smaller or is that Nope? Those are all
concert grants. So this is the only small one that
I have.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Okay, I'm so excited that you brought it.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Oh, I'm so excited.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yeah, well, welcome. This is incredible and you're going through
an amp I am.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Right before leaving, I was like, should I bring my
delay pedal?
Speaker 6 (07:37):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
She has amps in there, and I was looking on
the videos of the other one. So I knew you
had amps. Yeah, yep, that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
I figured why I was hearing in the room was
both yeah, okay, cool because they felt I kind of
got a little disoriented for a second because it sounded
like it was coming from behind me.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
But that's because it is. It is, it is, and
with a very slight, slight delay. I love the delays beautiful.
I wasn't sure if we should just do acoustic acoustic,
and then.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I was like, wow, matters not, she's got piano, I
got a little delight whatever, whatever is fun. You know,
can we try another song?
Speaker 7 (08:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Would that be okay?
Speaker 1 (08:13):
What about I was thinking we could do so wait,
just really quick. So that song we did was called
Dreamful Love Story, Yes, and it was sort of a meditation.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Yeah, yeah, sort of like a people like the vibe things,
they sure do, and I do vibe things in real life,
but never thought to sit down and actually record the
vibe thing. Gotcha?
Speaker 1 (08:39):
So is the whole Is that whole album just sort
of you sitting down just playing around?
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yeah, oh that's beautiful. Well, there are a couple songs
on there that I actually wrote for a children's harp competition.
Oh actually, yeah, so there's a mix up of those
on that. That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
And so this next song We're Gonna Do is from
Is this your newest album, gat About Seasons?
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yes, this is my newest album, Get About Seasons. It's great.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
This is the title track.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
I had to google the word get about I know,
I feel like I've heard it before, but I'm like,
I have no idea what that means.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
It was the word of the day email and that's
when I learned.
Speaker 6 (09:14):
What the word was.
Speaker 8 (09:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
I love that. But basically with the album, I'm just
really the concept is just finding joy regardless of what's
going on, because sometimes.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Life starts to life, Oh boy does it?
Speaker 5 (09:26):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
It takes a little bit more effort to try to
find joy. Yeah, well that's good. That's what this is about.
So great. It's about fun and being your quirky self. Yeah.
I like that.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Okay, serious quirky sel.
Speaker 6 (10:01):
It music and buc.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
Buc buc bus.
Speaker 9 (14:04):
It's weak.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I didn't even plan to end it there, but I
looked up and I was like her hand, I loved it.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Yeah, that one's so fun.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
That was fun.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
It's playful.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Get about that's that's the whole, that's the theme.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
So how did the harp choose you?
Speaker 3 (14:19):
It chose me?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah, I figured it did.
Speaker 6 (14:23):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Well, I started playing the harp because there was a
woman at my dad's job who played for fun as
a hobby. And my parents are like, our daughter's musical?
Speaker 6 (14:31):
Can we over?
Speaker 1 (14:33):
How old are you?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Like eleven ish? And I was playing flute, so we
did some little flute and harp duos and the woman
was like, if she takes lessons then gets good, she
can get a scholarship. And parents were like bet. So
I really just went to school for.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
The scholarship because there are so few heart players that
it was issue in.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
I think it's called like an endangered instrument, so there
was often scholarship money aside. Make sense, Yeah, but really
that's how it came to be. And I didn't anticipate
really playing after school.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Are you talking school college school college school?
Speaker 4 (15:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:10):
So, you know, I had my own little obsessions, so
at home I would always play like pop tunes at
home on the side on the harp. Yeah, you know,
I was learning what I was supposed to learn, my
normal hearp repertoire. But then I play for these community events,
and my mom was like, you have to play things
people now. I know you've spent six months on that
one piece, but you know. So the negotiation was all right,
(15:33):
I do like something people know and what I was
working on. That's kind of perfect.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
And then also I didn't want to seem too much
like a weirdo of my own friends, so I would
learn like what's on the radio? Yeah, So I always
sort of had this dual life of playing the harp
rep and then playing what I wanted to play.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Now is that are you talking about classical?
Speaker 5 (15:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Okay, Yeah, basically most hearp rep is a lot of
it is French. Okay, you know, like the Romantic period.
We eat that. That's the whole thing. I didn't know
about that. I mean, of course the Baroque repertoire as well,
but really French Romantic period we have it on lock. Okay.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
I don't know anything about the heart Oh so.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Cool, reveled and you see all this stuff beautiful.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
I mean I know all that music. Yeah, Okay, I
see what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
It works out well, and they wrote for us, so
I didn't know that or we just stole it. Stole
most of it with some of the piano stuff. Okay,
yeah wow, But that's really how it happened. And as
a kid, as a teenager, my dad like gave me
this Alice Coltrane CD and I was like, what's going
on here? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (16:38):
And I really liked it.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
And I was this is before Google existed, way to
sound on old and you couldn't just find people like
you can find people today. So I would just I
went to college and Jackie MacLean was still around, and
I said, how can I how can I meet Alice
cold training. I got my little dismant Molese Cold Traine CD.
But the way that stars aligned, when she passed away,
(17:00):
Robbie called me to play for her memorial. So that's
how that That was like the beginning of a long, long,
to this day relationship, friendship, mentorship you know that I've had.
And then on the other end, not the other end,
this is just my other harp hero, Dorothy Ashby. Of course,
the way things come together is just crazy. A very
(17:24):
dear friend, family friend from home who actually plays harp.
I don't want to bore you, like, where did you
grow up? I was gonna say, so I was gonna say,
growing up, no one played harp. People would always say, oh,
there was this black woman named Sarah Lawrence who played harp.
And I'm like, okay, And my grandmother said, I know
someone who plays harp. But I'm like, Manna, what do
(17:45):
you know? And then she brought over the house one day.
Apparently my grandmother lived in her house when she came
up north. She was like part of the great migration.
She lived with this family who had a little girl
that played harp. That's so cool. So yeah, she I'm
from Hempstead, Long Island and she grew up there, but
she lives in California now. But guess whose harp she has?
Dorothy Ashby's no way. Yeah, I mean just I have
(18:07):
so many of these stories that I'll spare your time.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
But this is the interesting You realize that, like, okay, if.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
I wasn't sure what was meant to be, it's the stars,
just a line.
Speaker 10 (18:18):
And a line in the line.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
It was truly chows you.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Yeah, that's why whenever you read anything about me there,
I was like Alic's culture and Dorothy Ashby it's everywhere.
It's like, well, people are like, are you sick of that?
I was like it seems to be the thing.
Speaker 9 (18:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Also what a great association. Yeah, yeah, it's not easy
in these harp streets, especially when you're playing music that's
not orchestral repertoire.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Yeah you know.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Yeah, and you you tour, Yeah, I tour. I do
not bring the harp on tour.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
You go to places that have a harp where you
rent one.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
We rent and a lot of times you get the
frantic call from the promoter we can't find a harp,
and so I usually reach out to colleagues or members
of the harp society nerd alert know, can anyone help
me out with harp? So, yeah, you got to make
sure you keep your friends.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Yeah, you don't go to a small town where you
don't know any one in the society.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Right, or you just reach out to that society at
end of time. Yes, yeah, there's always at least one,
even in the smallest places.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
And as harps go, do they run the gamut or
are they all pretty solid? Like do you ever get
a lemon when you're touring.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
I'll answer this question one way, but if you ask
my bandmates, like my bass player, he's going to say,
at least you know, even if you get like something
that's really old or really bad or really poorly taken
care of, there's the standard. You're going to end up
with this line and healy harp, and I have to
play this piece of junk, you know. Yeah, yeah, so
if you ask him, he'll give you a mouthful. But
(19:50):
sometimes you do get in certain places there is one harp,
and that harp hasn't been serviced in a century, you know.
And you just like pianos there wooden instruments, they expand,
they contract exactly. Yeah, it's a thing.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
So they have a hard time holding their tuning sometimes absolutely, okay,
just like any instrument.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
I live with this tuning exactly. Actually, just playing Gadabout,
I was like, oh, lock, how long does it take
to tune? And if in silence, just a few minutes? Okay,
in silence.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Are you sick of all these harp questions? I'm just
so curious about it?
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Well, no, because you're actually not asking the how did
you start? Is basic? But everything else people usually don't
get into. So no, this is great. It's very interesting
to me.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Should we do another song?
Speaker 5 (20:38):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (20:38):
What about unswept corners? All right?
Speaker 3 (20:41):
All right?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
How old is this song.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
This is on Gadabout Season. It's from the new.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Album Okay, yes, so this is a positive light and
someone sang on this.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Yeah, my friend Naya. She's over in La. She left
us for La.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Oh yes.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
But I was like, can you sing on this? And
then she wrote all these songs and I mean words,
and I was like, you know what, just nix them.
You just like the let's do vibes. Yeah, the album
so it's so vibey. So in order to make everything connect,
just just make noise. Yeah, yeah, okay, I'm going to
make some noise. Then the idea behind this though, we
(21:16):
wanted it to. I wanted it to sound like an
R and B slow jam. Oh cool, a medium slow jam.
Yeah yeah, and we it sounded too R and B ish,
so we took we went from sticks to brushes on
the record to kind of like, you know, make it
fit with the rest of the album.
Speaker 9 (21:33):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Do you did a song with my friend Tank from
Tank in the Bang.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Oh my gosh, Yeah, I love her.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Isn't she great?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
She's incredible. Yeah, they're my favorite band. They're so yeah incredible.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
And that's also on this album.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
No, that's on my last's two albums ago. Oh wow,
yeah we're different. I got to bring you all the albums.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I know you should have just brought amy. We have
your album sitting here on the pump organ with the puppets.
Thanks for bringing it, thank you for taking alright, let's
do Unswept Corners one two.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
Noee.
Speaker 10 (23:18):
Ay and the Good.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
And do B the B.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
That was fun? Yeah it was.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah, you got that Issley Brothers Cordon there I did.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
I did make it sex soulful.
Speaker 6 (26:36):
That one?
Speaker 4 (26:37):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Cool?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
I was like, or was it this one? I loved it?
Speaker 4 (26:44):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
That's a great one.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
You're gonna sneak. I'm in there, you know, I know.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Are you going on tour this year?
Speaker 6 (26:51):
I am?
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Are you just in a constant state of playing?
Speaker 3 (26:54):
And you well, yeah, because I don't do like six
month tours cut out for that. So I do runs
and I come home and do runs and I come home.
So yeah, it's not like, Okay, I'm about six months
on the road and no I can't. I'm just not
built that way. I feed the cat. I also am
a homebody. Yeah, but I have to work, and so
(27:16):
here we go. Do you also teach I do I do.
I teach harp at NYU and at the new school.
That's cool.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
How long have you been doing that?
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Five years now at these two schools. Okay, that's very awesome.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
I mean that's very it's very impressive to me.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Well, thank you. Yes, yes, it's lots of balance. But
I actually like teaching. That's good. And I realized having
like older students, especially with what I do I can
especially teaching has taught me now that I'm older, because
I've always taught kids. But now I see, like, okay,
I need developed artists, you know.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Develop musicians, someone who's interested in what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Yeah, and becoming an artist and not just a musician
to do a job. Yes, I'm noticing that now in
my age. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah, And I feel like artists ever evolving for you,
for me, you know, for all.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
It's so it's a weird business, but it's it's a
weird business, a weird business, but it's fun to just
discover yourself and rediscover yourself and rediscover yourself.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Over and over and over, like oh this, oh wow,
who knew I liked that?
Speaker 6 (28:33):
I know, or I'm just.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Accepting this, yeah exactly, Yes, all right, Well, this has
been so fun, And I wanted to ask you selfishly
because I've never played with a harp or a harpist
on anything, and I wanted to ask if you would
do a song of mine with me?
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Oh my gosh, I would love that.
Speaker 6 (28:52):
Would that be okay?
Speaker 10 (28:54):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (28:54):
All right, I have this song.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
It's very easy. I thought this might be the easiest one.
I also wanted to ask you, is the keys that
you play in specific or you just have access to everything,
because I'm just thinking of my sister plays the sitar and.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
You know, and then we're stuck one. Yeah, so we
can move from key to key with the pedals, and
that's what the is, changing key mid situation. That's a problem. Okay,
all right, that's that's what makes the harp not cute.
Make sure that you play the heart before we leave here,
because you keep looking over here.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
I want to see. I'm just gonna go look how
many petals do you actually have?
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Seven?
Speaker 4 (29:31):
Come?
Speaker 9 (29:31):
Come, come, oh my god, it's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Ahead, go ahead, seriously.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Yeah, So you're an unstopped corners key, so you've got
three flats on, so the reds are seas. Go ahead,
lean it back on your your shoulder and your supported
I'm gonna let go. Okay, so you got C and F,
so this would be C D right now E flat
F G A flat B flat.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
C see and see A F is a good key
for you.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
No, it just happened to be what key that song
was in the pedals are down. Yeah, so that's how
you know what key you're in those season f's. Yeah,
that's what everybody wants to do. That's the funnest thing
in the world.
Speaker 6 (30:17):
Do more than that. I'm in heaven.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
No, I know you can do.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
That is so beautiful.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Thank you. That just made my day anytime.
Speaker 9 (30:30):
I've always seen those little tiny harps in stories.
Speaker 6 (30:33):
Yeah, and then it just goes down.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Thank you, beauty.
Speaker 9 (30:39):
This is Ruby Ruby.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Yeah, she has the name. That's great. Do they all
have names?
Speaker 1 (30:47):
No?
Speaker 3 (30:48):
This is the only This one was special because it
was a gift. So she asked, what do you name it?
I said, Ruby, that's great.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Yeah. This is a song I wrote with Jeff Tweety
and it's on album from like maybe twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
I put out a cool cover. It did have a
cool cover.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
It's like almost like a shorty album, like an EP
called Begin Again and This is called a song with
no name because I guess we didn't want to give
it a name.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
I guess that's a cop out.
Speaker 9 (31:17):
Maybe too much?
Speaker 10 (31:58):
Do you too tied? Have you had enough?
Speaker 8 (32:15):
Shake me off?
Speaker 6 (32:17):
And night? If I I had a gun, if I
(33:09):
had a.
Speaker 11 (33:10):
Knife, if I had you loved, if I was wife,
(33:34):
if I go on my.
Speaker 6 (33:43):
And I see and looked, and I.
Speaker 8 (33:52):
Hold it lookin, I will sigh at least escape.
Speaker 7 (34:10):
If I had a gun, if I had a life,
if I you love, if I was away.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
Mm hmmm, that's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
That's so fun, such a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Yeah, I just leave the harp heer and we'll do
like this session tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Oh yeah, so now I know what you're so well.
I could bring the bigger one here, might cry with
the electric one. Really, I'm not so precious with the electric.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Okay, but even the bigger one would fit down that stairs.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
We did get the world piano down there. It would fit. Okay.
This is very exciting.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
Yeah, now I'm silently scheming.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
I love you.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
You're awesome.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
I love you, you're awesome. Thanks for doing this, Thank
you for having me. Yeah, I wanted to do I
don't really do podcasts. At all, like I'm trying to
start to listen to that, oh yeah and everything. So
I really wanted to do more podcasts. So when they
were like Norah Jones podcast, I was like, well, oh yes, yeah,
ask me twice.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
We were on a gig together a few years ago.
I was like, twenty twenty one. Not it was at
the winery Sary, No, No, it was that city winery
down here.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Was it for the Jazz Foundation of America. Ah, yes,
I remember that very well.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Yeah, that's where I first saw you.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Oh wow, you're paying attention. I was trying.
Speaker 6 (36:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Yeah, that was actually fun. Yeah yeah yeah, So thanks
for doing this. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yeah yeah, let's play again.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
I would love to in your studio. Is awesome, Thank you,
thank you. I just want to come back, yeah, come back, yeah,
thank you.
Speaker 4 (37:10):
Yay.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
That was beautiful, amazing. I loved hearing her on my
song too. Selfishly, I didn't want it to stop.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
More harp please, Yeah that was cool.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
It's okay.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
It's just a little tiny thing that you just, you know,
put in your purse, right.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Yeah, Oh my god. I was like, can you get
the harp down the stairs? Yes, she's used to it,
I felt like I asked a lot of dorky harp questions.
It wasn't too many.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
No, there's so many questions.
Speaker 4 (37:39):
Yes, I know.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
It was beautiful. Thanks to Brandy Younger for joining us today.
If you want to know about the songs we played,
the first song was Dreamful Love Story I just love
that title from her EP called Serenity, a collection of
Mindful Meditations released in twenty twenty four. The second song
was Gadabout Season from the album titled Gadabout Season twenty
(38:04):
twenty five, and the third song is from that same
album and it's called Unswept Corners. The fourth song we
played was a song on Mine from begin Again, released
in twenty nineteen, and the song is called a Song
with No Name.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
I think that's the one.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
I wrote that song with Jeff Tweety. Special thanks to
Brandy Younger for joining us today. We'll be back next
week with Alison Russell. Norah Jones is playing along as
a production of iHeart Podcasts. Visit Nora Jones channel and
be sure to subscribe while you're there. I'm your host,
Norah Jones. This episode was recorded by Matt Marinelli mixed
by Jamie Landry. Audio post production and mastering by Greg Tobler,
(38:45):
artwork by Eliza Fry, Photography by Shervin Linez. Produced by
Nora Jones and Sarah Oda. Executive producers Aaron wan Kaufman
and Jordan Runtagg. Marketing lead Alison Kantra Graber.
Speaker 4 (38:57):
Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
See you the next time. I'm see yeah next time.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Mm hmmmm mmm
This episode is also available as video on YouTube. You
can visit Nora Jones channel and be sure to subscribe
while you're there. Hey, I'm Nora Jones and today I'm
playing along with Brandy Younger. I'm just playing long Weuy,
I'm just playing lone Weezy. Hi, I'm Nora. This is Sarah. Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to my show.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
It's our show.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Good God didn't feel right when I said it. Today
we have an incredible episode with Grammy nominated groundbreaking harpist
composer redefining the role of the harp in contemporary music,
Brandy Younger. She honors a legacy of Dorothy Ashby and
Alice Coltrane while carving out her own distinct voice. She's
(00:52):
performed with artists across genres and having her in this
room was amazing.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
And her harp, Yeah, I loved her. Yeah, she's so cool.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Look at her album's over there in the corner. It
was so beautiful to hear the harp like that. And
she's such a cool person. And really enjoyed hanging with
her and playing and we did some of her beautiful songs.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
You're going to hear about how she found the harp
or more, how the harp found her. You're gonna hear
about touring versus staying home, what she prefers, and beautiful
piano harp duets.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
And it was just incredible.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah, it was so beautiful. I'm glad she can't. Yeah,
thanks Brandy, thanks for listening. And I think you're gonna
love this episode with Brandy Younger.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
That's so pretty.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Oh my goodness, it's a harp in my midst.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Thank you, Brandy, Thank you so much. That was the
first time I think I've actually uh played that really, Yes,
and then with piano and then with you so cool.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I feel like piano and harp have a little bit
of a sisterhood. Well is that my imagination.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
There, We're like a dysfunctional piano, lots of insecurities. When
the harp is next to the piano, you have all
this bottom, this space, You've got all the all the
notes in front of you.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
I hear a lot of bottom on the harp. Actually,
how low can you go.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
On a concert? Grand You can go all the way
down on to the low C. And I think it's
the same range. Really, it's like the same I'm pretty
sure this is a not a concert grand. It's a
I guess we call it a grand petite. So it
has forty four strings, and I'm too afraid to play
the lowest because maybe I didn't tune it.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Oh, let me hear it.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
It's a D something.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
I have a hard time hearing. Pitch really low.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
It's a D flat. I can't tell it's a D flat.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Wow, this is very exciting. It sounds so beautiful in
the room.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
I can't wait for you to get a harp in
your studio.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
I think it's going to happen now. You can just
help me pick one out and then you can go
over any time. You don't have to bring the careful No,
it's beautiful. Tell me about your harp specifically. Do you
have several?
Speaker 3 (06:05):
I have a few, Yeah, I have. Well, okay, so
this one that we have today, this was actually a
gift from a wonderful harpist who's passed away, but she
wanted to make sure that her harps were in the
hands of people that she wanted them to bet with.
That's really beautiful and it's small, so I actually use
this for smaller spaces, places with stairs, rehearsals. And it's
(06:30):
a line in heel. It's an American company based in Chicago.
So I have this one. It's called an eighty five.
That's the name Style number eighty five. And then I
have a Style number twenty three, same brand's larger, larger
concert grant. It's probably the most popular in the States.
And then I have a French company called KAMAC and
(06:54):
that's my acoustic electric So you see me playing that
when I'm with my band in town a lot, and
it's really cute bronze and ebony. So it was my
twenty three. It's ebony and bron but they're very, very
different instruments. And then I have Alice Coltrane's Style eleven
at home with me, which is eighteen carrot gold. Oh,
really beautiful, doesn't leave the house? How beautiful?
Speaker 5 (07:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Is that smaller or is that Nope? Those are all
concert grants. So this is the only small one that
I have.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Okay, I'm so excited that you brought it.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Oh, I'm so excited.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yeah, well, welcome. This is incredible and you're going through
an amp I am.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Right before leaving, I was like, should I bring my
delay pedal?
Speaker 6 (07:37):
Sure?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
She has amps in there, and I was looking on
the videos of the other one. So I knew you
had amps. Yeah, yep, that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
I figured why I was hearing in the room was
both yeah, okay, cool because they felt I kind of
got a little disoriented for a second because it sounded
like it was coming from behind me.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
But that's because it is. It is, it is, and
with a very slight, slight delay. I love the delays beautiful.
I wasn't sure if we should just do acoustic acoustic,
and then.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I was like, wow, matters not, she's got piano, I
got a little delight whatever, whatever is fun. You know,
can we try another song?
Speaker 7 (08:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Would that be okay?
Speaker 1 (08:13):
What about I was thinking we could do so wait,
just really quick. So that song we did was called
Dreamful Love Story, Yes, and it was sort of a meditation.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Yeah, yeah, sort of like a people like the vibe things,
they sure do, and I do vibe things in real life,
but never thought to sit down and actually record the
vibe thing. Gotcha?
Speaker 1 (08:39):
So is the whole Is that whole album just sort
of you sitting down just playing around?
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yeah, oh that's beautiful. Well, there are a couple songs
on there that I actually wrote for a children's harp competition.
Oh actually, yeah, so there's a mix up of those
on that. That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
And so this next song We're Gonna Do is from
Is this your newest album, gat About Seasons?
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yes, this is my newest album, Get About Seasons. It's great.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
This is the title track.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
I had to google the word get about I know,
I feel like I've heard it before, but I'm like,
I have no idea what that means.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
It was the word of the day email and that's
when I learned.
Speaker 6 (09:14):
What the word was.
Speaker 8 (09:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
I love that. But basically with the album, I'm just
really the concept is just finding joy regardless of what's
going on, because sometimes.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Life starts to life, Oh boy does it?
Speaker 5 (09:26):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
It takes a little bit more effort to try to
find joy. Yeah, well that's good. That's what this is about.
So great. It's about fun and being your quirky self. Yeah.
I like that.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Okay, serious quirky sel.
Speaker 6 (10:01):
It music and buc.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
Buc buc bus.
Speaker 9 (14:04):
It's weak.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I didn't even plan to end it there, but I
looked up and I was like her hand, I loved it.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Yeah, that one's so fun.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
That was fun.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
It's playful.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Get about that's that's the whole, that's the theme.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
So how did the harp choose you?
Speaker 3 (14:19):
It chose me?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah, I figured it did.
Speaker 6 (14:23):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Well, I started playing the harp because there was a
woman at my dad's job who played for fun as
a hobby. And my parents are like, our daughter's musical?
Speaker 6 (14:31):
Can we over?
Speaker 1 (14:33):
How old are you?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Like eleven ish? And I was playing flute, so we
did some little flute and harp duos and the woman
was like, if she takes lessons then gets good, she
can get a scholarship. And parents were like bet. So
I really just went to school for.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
The scholarship because there are so few heart players that
it was issue in.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
I think it's called like an endangered instrument, so there
was often scholarship money aside. Make sense, Yeah, but really
that's how it came to be. And I didn't anticipate
really playing after school.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Are you talking school college school college school?
Speaker 4 (15:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:10):
So, you know, I had my own little obsessions, so
at home I would always play like pop tunes at
home on the side on the harp. Yeah, you know,
I was learning what I was supposed to learn, my
normal hearp repertoire. But then I play for these community events,
and my mom was like, you have to play things
people now. I know you've spent six months on that
one piece, but you know. So the negotiation was all right,
(15:33):
I do like something people know and what I was
working on. That's kind of perfect.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
And then also I didn't want to seem too much
like a weirdo of my own friends, so I would
learn like what's on the radio? Yeah, So I always
sort of had this dual life of playing the harp
rep and then playing what I wanted to play.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Now is that are you talking about classical?
Speaker 5 (15:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Okay, Yeah, basically most hearp rep is a lot of
it is French. Okay, you know, like the Romantic period.
We eat that. That's the whole thing. I didn't know
about that. I mean, of course the Baroque repertoire as well,
but really French Romantic period we have it on lock. Okay.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
I don't know anything about the heart Oh so.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Cool, reveled and you see all this stuff beautiful.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
I mean I know all that music. Yeah, Okay, I
see what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
It works out well, and they wrote for us, so
I didn't know that or we just stole it. Stole
most of it with some of the piano stuff. Okay,
yeah wow, But that's really how it happened. And as
a kid, as a teenager, my dad like gave me
this Alice Coltrane CD and I was like, what's going
on here? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (16:38):
And I really liked it.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
And I was this is before Google existed, way to
sound on old and you couldn't just find people like
you can find people today. So I would just I
went to college and Jackie MacLean was still around, and
I said, how can I how can I meet Alice
cold training. I got my little dismant Molese Cold Traine CD.
But the way that stars aligned, when she passed away,
(17:00):
Robbie called me to play for her memorial. So that's
how that That was like the beginning of a long, long,
to this day relationship, friendship, mentorship you know that I've had.
And then on the other end, not the other end,
this is just my other harp hero, Dorothy Ashby. Of course,
the way things come together is just crazy. A very
(17:24):
dear friend, family friend from home who actually plays harp.
I don't want to bore you, like, where did you
grow up? I was gonna say, so I was gonna say,
growing up, no one played harp. People would always say, oh,
there was this black woman named Sarah Lawrence who played harp.
And I'm like, okay, And my grandmother said, I know
someone who plays harp. But I'm like, Manna, what do
(17:45):
you know? And then she brought over the house one day.
Apparently my grandmother lived in her house when she came
up north. She was like part of the great migration.
She lived with this family who had a little girl
that played harp. That's so cool. So yeah, she I'm
from Hempstead, Long Island and she grew up there, but
she lives in California now. But guess whose harp she has?
Dorothy Ashby's no way. Yeah, I mean just I have
(18:07):
so many of these stories that I'll spare your time.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
But this is the interesting You realize that, like, okay, if.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
I wasn't sure what was meant to be, it's the stars,
just a line.
Speaker 10 (18:18):
And a line in the line.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
It was truly chows you.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Yeah, that's why whenever you read anything about me there,
I was like Alic's culture and Dorothy Ashby it's everywhere.
It's like, well, people are like, are you sick of that?
I was like it seems to be the thing.
Speaker 9 (18:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Also what a great association. Yeah, yeah, it's not easy
in these harp streets, especially when you're playing music that's
not orchestral repertoire.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Yeah you know.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Yeah, and you you tour, Yeah, I tour. I do
not bring the harp on tour.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
You go to places that have a harp where you
rent one.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
We rent and a lot of times you get the
frantic call from the promoter we can't find a harp,
and so I usually reach out to colleagues or members
of the harp society nerd alert know, can anyone help
me out with harp? So, yeah, you got to make
sure you keep your friends.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Yeah, you don't go to a small town where you
don't know any one in the society.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Right, or you just reach out to that society at
end of time. Yes, yeah, there's always at least one,
even in the smallest places.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
And as harps go, do they run the gamut or
are they all pretty solid? Like do you ever get
a lemon when you're touring.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
I'll answer this question one way, but if you ask
my bandmates, like my bass player, he's going to say,
at least you know, even if you get like something
that's really old or really bad or really poorly taken
care of, there's the standard. You're going to end up
with this line and healy harp, and I have to
play this piece of junk, you know. Yeah, yeah, so
if you ask him, he'll give you a mouthful. But
(19:50):
sometimes you do get in certain places there is one harp,
and that harp hasn't been serviced in a century, you know.
And you just like pianos there wooden instruments, they expand,
they contract exactly. Yeah, it's a thing.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
So they have a hard time holding their tuning sometimes absolutely, okay,
just like any instrument.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
I live with this tuning exactly. Actually, just playing Gadabout,
I was like, oh, lock, how long does it take
to tune? And if in silence, just a few minutes? Okay,
in silence.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Are you sick of all these harp questions? I'm just
so curious about it?
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Well, no, because you're actually not asking the how did
you start? Is basic? But everything else people usually don't
get into. So no, this is great. It's very interesting
to me.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Should we do another song?
Speaker 5 (20:38):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (20:38):
What about unswept corners? All right?
Speaker 3 (20:41):
All right?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
How old is this song.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
This is on Gadabout Season. It's from the new.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Album Okay, yes, so this is a positive light and
someone sang on this.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Yeah, my friend Naya. She's over in La. She left
us for La.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Oh yes.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
But I was like, can you sing on this? And
then she wrote all these songs and I mean words,
and I was like, you know what, just nix them.
You just like the let's do vibes. Yeah, the album
so it's so vibey. So in order to make everything connect,
just just make noise. Yeah, yeah, okay, I'm going to
make some noise. Then the idea behind this though, we
(21:16):
wanted it to. I wanted it to sound like an
R and B slow jam. Oh cool, a medium slow jam.
Yeah yeah, and we it sounded too R and B ish,
so we took we went from sticks to brushes on
the record to kind of like, you know, make it
fit with the rest of the album.
Speaker 9 (21:33):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Do you did a song with my friend Tank from
Tank in the Bang.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Oh my gosh, Yeah, I love her.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Isn't she great?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
She's incredible. Yeah, they're my favorite band. They're so yeah incredible.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
And that's also on this album.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
No, that's on my last's two albums ago. Oh wow,
yeah we're different. I got to bring you all the albums.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I know you should have just brought amy. We have
your album sitting here on the pump organ with the puppets.
Thanks for bringing it, thank you for taking alright, let's
do Unswept Corners one two.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
Noee.
Speaker 10 (23:18):
Ay and the Good.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
And do B the B.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
That was fun? Yeah it was.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah, you got that Issley Brothers Cordon there I did.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
I did make it sex soulful.
Speaker 6 (26:36):
That one?
Speaker 4 (26:37):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Cool?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
I was like, or was it this one? I loved it?
Speaker 4 (26:44):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
That's a great one.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
You're gonna sneak. I'm in there, you know, I know.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Are you going on tour this year?
Speaker 6 (26:51):
I am?
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Are you just in a constant state of playing?
Speaker 3 (26:54):
And you well, yeah, because I don't do like six
month tours cut out for that. So I do runs
and I come home and do runs and I come home.
So yeah, it's not like, Okay, I'm about six months
on the road and no I can't. I'm just not
built that way. I feed the cat. I also am
a homebody. Yeah, but I have to work, and so
(27:16):
here we go. Do you also teach I do I do.
I teach harp at NYU and at the new school.
That's cool.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
How long have you been doing that?
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Five years now at these two schools. Okay, that's very awesome.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
I mean that's very it's very impressive to me.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Well, thank you. Yes, yes, it's lots of balance. But
I actually like teaching. That's good. And I realized having
like older students, especially with what I do I can
especially teaching has taught me now that I'm older, because
I've always taught kids. But now I see, like, okay,
I need developed artists, you know.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Develop musicians, someone who's interested in what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Yeah, and becoming an artist and not just a musician
to do a job. Yes, I'm noticing that now in
my age. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah, And I feel like artists ever evolving for you,
for me, you know, for all.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
It's so it's a weird business, but it's it's a
weird business, a weird business, but it's fun to just
discover yourself and rediscover yourself and rediscover yourself.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Over and over and over, like oh this, oh wow,
who knew I liked that?
Speaker 6 (28:33):
I know, or I'm just.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Accepting this, yeah exactly, Yes, all right, Well, this has
been so fun, And I wanted to ask you selfishly
because I've never played with a harp or a harpist
on anything, and I wanted to ask if you would
do a song of mine with me?
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Oh my gosh, I would love that.
Speaker 6 (28:52):
Would that be okay?
Speaker 10 (28:54):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (28:54):
All right, I have this song.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
It's very easy. I thought this might be the easiest one.
I also wanted to ask you, is the keys that
you play in specific or you just have access to everything,
because I'm just thinking of my sister plays the sitar and.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
You know, and then we're stuck one. Yeah, so we
can move from key to key with the pedals, and
that's what the is, changing key mid situation. That's a problem. Okay,
all right, that's that's what makes the harp not cute.
Make sure that you play the heart before we leave here,
because you keep looking over here.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
I want to see. I'm just gonna go look how
many petals do you actually have?
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Seven?
Speaker 4 (29:31):
Come?
Speaker 9 (29:31):
Come, come, oh my god, it's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Ahead, go ahead, seriously.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Yeah, So you're an unstopped corners key, so you've got
three flats on, so the reds are seas. Go ahead,
lean it back on your your shoulder and your supported
I'm gonna let go. Okay, so you got C and F,
so this would be C D right now E flat
F G A flat B flat.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
C see and see A F is a good key
for you.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
No, it just happened to be what key that song
was in the pedals are down. Yeah, so that's how
you know what key you're in those season f's. Yeah,
that's what everybody wants to do. That's the funnest thing
in the world.
Speaker 6 (30:17):
Do more than that. I'm in heaven.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
No, I know you can do.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
That is so beautiful.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Thank you. That just made my day anytime.
Speaker 9 (30:30):
I've always seen those little tiny harps in stories.
Speaker 6 (30:33):
Yeah, and then it just goes down.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Thank you, beauty.
Speaker 9 (30:39):
This is Ruby Ruby.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Yeah, she has the name. That's great. Do they all
have names?
Speaker 1 (30:47):
No?
Speaker 3 (30:48):
This is the only This one was special because it
was a gift. So she asked, what do you name it?
I said, Ruby, that's great.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Yeah. This is a song I wrote with Jeff Tweety
and it's on album from like maybe twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
I put out a cool cover. It did have a
cool cover.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
It's like almost like a shorty album, like an EP
called Begin Again and This is called a song with
no name because I guess we didn't want to give
it a name.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
I guess that's a cop out.
Speaker 9 (31:17):
Maybe too much?
Speaker 10 (31:58):
Do you too tied? Have you had enough?
Speaker 8 (32:15):
Shake me off?
Speaker 6 (32:17):
And night? If I I had a gun, if I
(33:09):
had a.
Speaker 11 (33:10):
Knife, if I had you loved, if I was wife,
(33:34):
if I go on my.
Speaker 6 (33:43):
And I see and looked, and I.
Speaker 8 (33:52):
Hold it lookin, I will sigh at least escape.
Speaker 7 (34:10):
If I had a gun, if I had a life,
if I you love, if I was away.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
Mm hmmm, that's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
That's so fun, such a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Yeah, I just leave the harp heer and we'll do
like this session tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Oh yeah, so now I know what you're so well.
I could bring the bigger one here, might cry with
the electric one. Really, I'm not so precious with the electric.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Okay, but even the bigger one would fit down that stairs.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
We did get the world piano down there. It would fit. Okay.
This is very exciting.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
Yeah, now I'm silently scheming.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
I love you.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
You're awesome.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
I love you, you're awesome. Thanks for doing this, Thank
you for having me. Yeah, I wanted to do I
don't really do podcasts. At all, like I'm trying to
start to listen to that, oh yeah and everything. So
I really wanted to do more podcasts. So when they
were like Norah Jones podcast, I was like, well, oh yes, yeah,
ask me twice.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
We were on a gig together a few years ago.
I was like, twenty twenty one. Not it was at
the winery Sary, No, No, it was that city winery
down here.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Was it for the Jazz Foundation of America. Ah, yes,
I remember that very well.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Yeah, that's where I first saw you.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Oh wow, you're paying attention. I was trying.
Speaker 6 (36:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Yeah, that was actually fun. Yeah yeah yeah, So thanks
for doing this. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yeah yeah, let's play again.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
I would love to in your studio. Is awesome, Thank you,
thank you. I just want to come back, yeah, come back, yeah,
thank you.
Speaker 4 (37:10):
Yay.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
That was beautiful, amazing. I loved hearing her on my
song too. Selfishly, I didn't want it to stop.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
More harp please, Yeah that was cool.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
It's okay.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
It's just a little tiny thing that you just, you know,
put in your purse, right.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Yeah, Oh my god. I was like, can you get
the harp down the stairs? Yes, she's used to it,
I felt like I asked a lot of dorky harp questions.
It wasn't too many.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
No, there's so many questions.
Speaker 4 (37:39):
Yes, I know.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
It was beautiful. Thanks to Brandy Younger for joining us today.
If you want to know about the songs we played,
the first song was Dreamful Love Story I just love
that title from her EP called Serenity, a collection of
Mindful Meditations released in twenty twenty four. The second song
was Gadabout Season from the album titled Gadabout Season twenty
(38:04):
twenty five, and the third song is from that same
album and it's called Unswept Corners. The fourth song we
played was a song on Mine from begin Again, released
in twenty nineteen, and the song is called a Song
with No Name.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
I think that's the one.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
I wrote that song with Jeff Tweety. Special thanks to
Brandy Younger for joining us today. We'll be back next
week with Alison Russell. Norah Jones is playing along as
a production of iHeart Podcasts. Visit Nora Jones channel and
be sure to subscribe while you're there. I'm your host,
Norah Jones. This episode was recorded by Matt Marinelli mixed
by Jamie Landry. Audio post production and mastering by Greg Tobler,
(38:45):
artwork by Eliza Fry, Photography by Shervin Linez. Produced by
Nora Jones and Sarah Oda. Executive producers Aaron wan Kaufman
and Jordan Runtagg. Marketing lead Alison Kantra Graber.
Speaker 4 (38:57):
Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
See you the next time. I'm see yeah next time.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Mm hmmmm mmm
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