NY Bloger

New York-based singer-songwriter Jesse Harris insists he has no problem with the fact that the majority of folks who recognize his name know him as the guy who wrote “Don’t Know Why,” the Grammy Award-winning smash from Norah Jones’ 2002 debut.

“The only time I’m not comfortable with it,” Harris says, “is when I’m performing somewhere and I see people walk in and I get the sense that they’re expecting to have some Norah Jones-type experience, which isn’t really what I do,” he says with a laugh. “It’s like being on a weird blind date and I’m not the guy they expected.”

Harris might overestimate the difference between Jones’ experience and his own. Like the queen of Starbucks soul, he specializes in lightly jazzy, soft-focus folk-pop ballads that exercise an old-school devotion to the nuts and bolts of the songwriter’s craft. But it’s easy to see why Harris keeps trumping listeners’ expectations: He has made a career out of refusing to stay in one place for long, complementing his own records with a long list of writing, producing and playing credits with acts as diverse as Bright Eyes and Lizz Wright.

This summer Harris makes two additions to his resume. On July 10, he released his latest solo disc, “Feel,” the follow-up to his self-released 2006 effort, “Mineral.” On August 7, Hickory Records will issue the soundtrack to Ethan Hawke’s film “The Hottest State,” for which such singers as Jones, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris and Feist recorded new versions of Harris’ songs.