2 'VETERANS' GET THE BLUES.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

When the song was over, raven-haired songstress Norah Jones girlishly stuck out her tongue at and then gave a thumbs up to singer-songwriter John Mayer, who had added some tasty guitar licks to her version of the Band's ``Bessie Smith'' at the House of Blues on Wednesday night.

The gesture reminds one of the youthfulness of the pair, who recently were named part of music's ``next wave'' by Rolling Stone. Jones, who was the subject of a New York Times Sunday Magazine piece the week her first album came out in February, just turned 23. Mayer, who has been a Napster favorite for a while, is an old man at 24.

Jones opened the evening, seated facing the audience behind an electric piano accompanied by a stand-up bassist and guitarist, with the J.D. Loudermilk song ``Turn Me On.'' She delivered the song with an almost lazy seductiveness.

``So relaxed,'' a woman in the audience marveled.

That ``easygoing intimacy,'' as it's been described, is precisely why Jones and her debut album, ``Come Away With Me,'' have been drawing raves. Everytime she sang the phrase, ``I'm just sitting here waiting for you to come home and turn me on,'' she seemed to empathize a different word. Not that you'd notice, as you luxuriate in her sound.

Phrases like that have been sung a billion times. It's how you sing it that gives it meaning, and Jones, at her young age, knows how to give it meaning.

Moving then to another cover, a slightly jazzy version of Hank Williams' ``Cold Cold Heart,'' she took the mournfulness out of the song and replaced it with earthy yearning.

She followed with the tracks from her album, including ``I've Got to See You Again,'' which has a smoldering tango-esque sensuality to it, and her own ``Come Away With Me.''

There's nothing flashy about the Texas girl Jones, the daughter of Ravi Shankar, who was schooled in jazz but has moved to a more blues, country and pop sound while still maintaining a distinctive vocal style.

By the time she finished up with Dylan's ``I'll Be Your Baby Tonight,'' the crowd at the House of Blues who had come for Mayer was in rapt attention.

While Jones seemed relaxed, she was not overly talkative on stage. Mayer, on the other hand, was effusive. Remember when rock acts had personalities, before they were either angst-ridden into catatonia or choreographed to the point of deleting anything real? Meet Mayer, who has Josh Hartnett good looks and a youthful enthusiasm that spills over into his music and stage presence.

Musically, the comparisons have been toward Dave Matthews and David Gray, but Mayer is more upbeat than Gray. He announced that his new album, ``Room for Squares,'' went gold (half-million copies sold) on Wednesday and then joked that he's been gold on Napster for quite a while, referring to the Internet's free music-downloading service. He then added that he was selling T-shirts with his name on them because he found that computers couldn't copy them and he wanted to give his audience ``clean laundry.''

Mayer was a hit with the audience before he began. As he rode high with his single ``No Such Thing,'' young women in the audience, predominantly made up of those in their 20s, were shrieking. Beginning with ``3 Times 5'' from the album, Mayer got everyone jumping, but the sound from him and his three-piece backup band was a bit muddy - too much bass distortion, which overshadowed the vocal.

But Mayer was engaging to watch, making faces as he played a note on the guitar or sang one of his high, airy notes. That combination of a floating melody over rhythmic guitar riffs is what leads to the comparisons to Matthews. When the rest of the band left the stage and Mayer did ``Back to You,'' accompanying himself on electric guitar, it was easier to focus on his talents - a knack for infectious hooks. After that, the rest of his nearly 90-minute performance jelled, and the screams from the audience seemed justified.

Mayer took a moment to thank Jones for opening for him, saying how nervous he was playing with someone as immensely talented as her. ``She's proof that you don't have to buy reissues to hear the good (stuff),'' he said.

Based on their performances Wednesday, he's right - about both of them.