Showing Norah Jones's roots

The sight of Norah Jones letting her hair down would probably surprise the millions of fans who bought her 2002 debut Come Away With Me and, in doing so, bought into the soothing notion of the sultry young Texan as a romantic but reserved jazz diva.

But when Ms Jones decides to let go, she does so in style.

She did it four years ago when she launched her own bar-band called, ahem, The Little Willies.

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Jazz diva: The elegant Norah Jones

And she did it again in 2005 when collaborating with wild-man-of-rock Dave Grohl on The Foo Fighters song Virginia Moon.

Earlier this year, she was at it again.

This time, she donned a blonde wig, fishnet stockings and a miniskirt - "stuff I'd normally never feel comfortable wearing" - and took to the New York stage fronting part-time country-punk band El Madmo under the pseudonym "Maddie".

"There's something about putting on a blonde wig," she laughs.

"It makes you feel like a different person. We formed El Madmo as a joke. I dressed up so that nobody knew it was me. We had some good songs, but it was all about being silly."

There is more to Norah than initially meets the eye. Chatting in her London hotel the evening after a sold-out solo concert at the Hammersmith Apollo, the petite (5ft 1in) singer could easily pass as an indie rock chick in her jeans, red trainers and plunging dark blue top.

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Alter ego: Norah on stage with El Madmo

Jones is revealing more depth as a musician, too.

Along with long-term boyfriend Lee Alexander, also her bassist and producer, she wrote all the songs on her recent album Not Too Late, a dark yet subtle record which hasn't replicated the success of her jazzy debut or 2004's countrified Feels Like Home, but still topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

And far from the doe-eyed, melancholy figure of songs such as Don't Know Why or Feelin' The Same Way from her debut album, the 28-year-old is endearingly goofy.

Wary of sounding too pompous, she will often check herself mid-sentence to ask: "Does that make sense?"

But Jones, the daughter of sitar superstar Ravi Shankar, has moved on in leaps and bounds from the success that engulfed Come Away With Me, which sold more than 20 million copies, swept the board at the 2003 Grammy Awards and even led the singer's mother, Sue, to describe her daughter as "Snorah" because her songs were on the radio so much.

When she made Come Away With Me, Jones had been in New York for only three years, having moved to The Big Apple from the Dallas suburb of Grapevine to rent a small apartment in Greenwich Village, discover herself as a live performer and make ends meet by waiting tables.

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Now, five years on, she is able to put her success into perspective - and get back to the girl she was before fame struck.

"Given the kind of music I play, I simply didn't envisage success on that scale," she says.

"It wasn't awful. It was fine, and I am better for going through that period. But my success probably stunted my growth.

"When I moved to New York, I felt like I was on the verge of doing something cool. I was going to try to get into the jazz scene, but I got side-tracked into the singer-songwriting scene.

"It was exciting. I'd somehow found something that I wasn't looking for.

"But then we did Come Away With Me and all that stuff stopped. Success took away my freedom, and now I'm returning to the place I was before I made that album."

The shift towards her own songs was a departure from those two previous releases, dominated by covers from the likes of Hank Williams, Townes Van Zandt and Tom Waits.

The process was daunting, though, and Norah had to beat writer's block with a little help from fellow songsmith Ryan Adams.

"He was in my neighbourhood and called me out of the blue.

"I was frustrated because I couldn't write. So he came over and we wrote a song together that night.

"He said that songwriting was like fishing - you might catch a stinky fish you have to throw back, but you have to catch the stinky ones in order to get to the good ones."

Lee Alexander's input was also crucial.

The couple met shortly after Jones arrived in New York eight years ago and they made Not Too Late in their own home studio. Norah's record label didn't even know about the new album until the finished masters were delivered.

In addition to his musical skills, Lee also brings some much-needed stability to the singer's life.

"We are opposites," she says.

"On the surface, I'm the bossy one and Lee is more laid-back. But he is older and he gives me so much advice that I'm not really so dominant.

"I couldn't have gone through the Come Away With Me period without him. I'd have gone nuts!"

Having proved that her pop fame was no flash-in-the-pan, Norah is now embarking on a film career, too.

She makes her acting debut later this year in My Blueberry Nights, a road movie by Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai.

Given her reputation as a subdued live performer, she says she was shocked to be offered the lead part in a film that also stars Jude Law and Rachel Weisz.

Typically, though, she took to her role with gusto. It was, she says, like putting on that blonde wig.

"I wasn't sure whether I could act, but the director had this weird confidence in me, so I tried to push the nerves right out of my system.

"In my live shows, I can't pretend to be excited. If I'm not having a good night, I won't talk a lot to the audience. If I'm feeling good, I can say some quite funny things.

"But when I'm playing somebody else, I can do anything.

"Making the movie, and singing with El Madmo, taught me that I can fake it if I'm playing somebody else.

"I just can't fake it as me."

• Norah Jones's new single, Be My Somebody, is out now.