Norah Jones has been on Austin City Limits twice before, including recording a show before the release of her gazillion-selling debut Come Away With Me. But tonight’s taping was different than what she’s done before. Armed with a gamechanging new record and more self-confident stage presence than ever before, the Texas-born singer/songwriter dazzled the Moody Theater with a performance full of texture, groove and soul.

It’s no secret that Little Broken Hearts, her latest LP produced and co-written by acclaimed polymath Danger Mouse, was inspired by a relationship gone down the tubes. But while failed romance may be bad for Jones’ personal life, it’s great for her music. The acid-tinged pop of “Happy Pills” and assertive rock of “Say Goodbye” well support the kiss-off lyrics. Indeed, psychedelia seems to be a new touchstone for Jones, as it is for Danger Mouse – the moody atmospheres of “All A Dream” (on which she took the first guitar solo) and “Little Broken Hearts” and the distorted rock of “Take It Back,” aided and abetted by Jason Roberts on extra spacey guitar, put her music on a new plane, onto which the audience was happy to follow her.

This new sound is no radical break from her past, however. Jones blended it with songs in her more familiar style and nothing sounded out of place. She performed the whimsical “Man of the Hour,” a tribute to the superior companionship of a dog over a boyfriend, solo at the piano, while “She’s 22” was just as subdued, even as the lyrics wavered between bitter and dismissive. She combine her new and old approaches on “Miriam,” a brilliant song whose pretty melody and arrangement belie the lyrics’ depiction of a murder in progress.

Jones closed the show with “Lonestar,” “an old Texas song from my first album,” as the crowd went wild. But she had a special treat for the encore. She and her band returned to the stage with unplugged acoustic instruments, giving the unreleased Hank Williams song “How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart” a gorgeous read around a single microphone. She closed the evening with “Come Away With Me” in the same style, reinventing her standard to the delight of her loyal ACL fans.

The Norah Jones episode will air in early winter – details forthcoming. Don’t miss it!

“You’ll have to forgive me, I’m finding myself a little bit speechless tonight,” commented Kat Edmonson. She may have been at a loss for words when it came to talking, but when it came to singing, she had no hesitation. Owner of both a soulful tone — somewhere between Billie Holiday and Blossom Dearie — and a sterling set of songs, Edmonson lit up the stage for her Austin City Limits debut.

The singer/songwriter has the amazing ability to produce fresh material that sounds, shall we say, experienced – the jaunty jazz tune “Long Way Home,” for example, or the lullaby-like waltz “I’m Not In Love,” which could have come from a 60-year old Disney film. “What else can I do,” she crooned over a samba rhythm, “I’m still in love with you” from “What Can I Do?” sounded like an old standard, but is, in fact, an Edmonson original.  Even the blues-tinged ballad “Hopelessly Blue,” written by Miles Zuniga of the Austin rock band Fastball, came across as a great tune rediscovered.

Edmonson sang several of her tried and true songs including the sly “Champagne,” the slinky cha-cha “This Was the One” and the string-driven “Lucky.”  Her lauded skills as an interpreter were also on display as she mesmerized the crowd with a pair of gorgeous, melancholy ballads drawn from different decades: the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds classic “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times” and the 1940-vintage Ink Spots slow dancer “Whispering Grass.” She closed the set with the straightforward folk/pop of “I Don’t Know,” a Willie Bobo-associated song written by Sonny Henry, the author of Santana’s “Evil Ways.”

By the end of the show, Edmonson had led the audience back to the start, opening and closing the evening with the same song. She gave her tune “Nobody Knows That” a frothy jazz/pop reading at the beginning, then stripped it down to piano and voice for the encore. It was a perfect way to bookend a stellar evening that celebrated song and voice in equal measure. We can’t wait for you to see and hear the remarkable Kat Edmonson – this fall on PBS.