#Norah Jones new album is a ‘Pick Me Up’ for troubling times

When Norah Jones released her blockbuster debut, “Come Away With Me,” in February 2002, it was just five months after 9/11.

Now — 18 years, nine Grammys and two kids later — the Brooklyn-based piano woman is back torching the ivories with “Pick Me Up Off the Floor,” her new studio LP, which arrives Friday in the wake of a global pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests that have rocked the world.

“I remember back then not making the connection of people being comforted by music after 9/11,” Jones, 41, tells The Post. “I didn’t think about it as it was happening. But people have mentioned it to me later. And it makes a lot of sense. Music is comforting.”

Indeed, Jones works her own healing powers on “Pick Me Up Off the Floor.” Capturing the intimacy we’ve all been missing in our quarantine lives, the album is like a warm hug from an old friend — one whose voice, oozing smoky sensuality, is never a note too much.

Reflecting on her music’s ability to pick others up off the floor in trying times, Jones says, “I’m always so shocked and pleasantly surprised to hear stuff like that … I kind of stay within my own little borders of it, and I don’t think about how other people are thinking of it usually. Once you release it, you kind of release any expectations for how they experience it.”

Still, even Jones has to admit that dropping her latest album right now is a tricky proposition. “I wasn’t sure, but I think music is never gonna hurt anybody,” she says. “It’s kinda funny how the album sort of fits with this moment. A lot of the songs — even though they were written before all of this stuff — feel like they were written for this.”

Certainly, songs such as “This Life” — part of a cycle of tunes about life, also including “To Live” and “I’m Alive,” that occurs midway through “Pick Me Up” — feel eerily prescient. “This life as we know it is over,” she sings, blurring the lines between jazz, pop, gospel and blues in her seamless style.

“These songs are really about just being human and feeling sadness and loneliness and longing and ultimately, you know, picking yourself up, which is why I titled it that,” says Jones. “I think these are things that humans go through, always … It’s just that we’re all really going through it right now.”

To keep her musical mojo going during quarantine, Jones has been performing livestream shows on her Facebook page. “I’ve been doing those webcasts during lockdown, which is something kind of new for me, because I haven’t been super present on social media in general, but this has been a nice way for me to connect with people,” she says. “To hear people say that I’m making their day brighter when they’ve had a hard day, I mean, gosh, that really does make my heart very happy. And it goes both ways, I gotta say.”

It has also given the notoriously private star — who has a 6-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter with a musician husband whose identity has not been revealed — a break from playing Mommy. “The kids are little, so for me, it’s almost a reason to be able to go and play and have a moment for myself,” she says.

Jones has had another musical ritual that has given her quarantine comfort. “I listen to this Ali Farka Touré [and Toumani Diabaté] album ‘In the Heart of the Moon.’ I’ve listened to this album almost every day for maybe 10 years,” she says. “It’s like a morning prayer. And I listen to it to do yoga to … Even my kids started to feel comforted by it. It makes them just sort of feel grounded.”

As to whether her kids will carry on the musical legacy of their mom and her father, the late Indian artist Ravi Shankar, Jones says, “I’m not sure yet. They loved ‘Trolls World Tour,’ which is funny ’cause now they keep asking about genres. That movie made them think so hard: ‘Is this country or is this K-pop or is this techno?’ ”

Jones’ own career has defied genres, as she has collaborated with everyone from Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and Ray Charles to André 3000, Billie Joe Armstrong and, on her new album, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. “I don’t feel like it’s been challenging for me — maybe for marketing people, but that’s OK,” she says. “For me, it’s been completely freeing.”

In February, Jones released another album, “Sister,” with her country-tinged trio Puss N Boots, sliding over from piano to guitar. “Yeah, I was really busy last year,” she says. “My brain was fired up to make music.”

Born in Manhattan — mom is former concert promoter Sue Jones — the “Don’t Know Why” singer grew up in Grapevine, Texas, before returning to New York City when she was 20. And she hasn’t left since: “I just never knew where else to go. All my friends are in New York. And I love that I can play gigs at Sunny’s [Bar] or the 55 Bar … to keep the music going.”

Even now, while some have fled from New York City during this challenging time, Jones has remained rooted in the concrete jungle. “I mean, I struggle with the same thoughts,” she says. “Everybody has their own reasons for staying, for leaving, for everything … I really think the city will bounce back. This is New York City — and it’s gonna do it.”