Norah Jones and the Handsome Band at Aotea Centre

There were two types of Norah Jones fans at this show, which marked a return New Zealand visit for the American queen of low-key candlelit balladry.

There were those who were pregnant with expectation and those, or so it seemed from 10 minutes of people-watching in the foyer, who were just plain pregnant.

Yes, if there had been a rush on evening maternity wear in Auckland of late, here was the reason why. Jones' mellow tone, it seems, is the midwife's friend, and her pleasant, unfussy 90-minute set was just the thing for shaking a newly crocheted booty to.

But the show didn't do much more than put Jones' two much-purchased, much-Grammy-ed albums on shuffle. Though it did accentuate the stylistic nuances in Jones and her band's mix of country jangle, jazz elegance and mellow blues.

And it didn't lack for instrumental fire. Long-time guitarist and sometimes songwriter Adam Levy's solos married the usual rounded jazz tones to something abstract, brittle and kickin' up desert dust.

While relative newcomer to Jones' Handsome Band, veteran English session guitarist Robbie McIntosh (who has done stadium service with the Pretenders and Paul McCartney), looked to be enjoying the opportunity his new employers gave him to stretch out in the slide-blues department.

Jones herself sang gorgeously and seems a more confident figure on stage than the shy early twenty-something star who stepped reluctantly into the spotlight after 2002 debut Come Away With Me became a phenomenon.

She departed her piano stool to sing standing for a third or so of the set, and shared a few quips with the audience, including one about playing Sesame Street - it seems she's got the post-natal market covered as well.

But still something felt lost in the translation. With the velvet drapes and hanging lamps, the set attempted nightclub intimacy. But Jones' voice only felt up close and personal on a few numbers where she was on stage otherwise unaccompanied, as on torch tune The Nearness of You.

Elsewhere, the set did do a good line in offering its own take on the Great American Songbook - mostly the rustic chapters. There was a woozy sway through Gram Parsons' She, as well as her infectious takes - both on second album Feels Like Home - on Tom Waits' The Long Way Home and The Band's Carnival Town delivered last before the single three-song encore.

It was all quite lovely but less than memorable.

Still, you get the feeling that Jones, early runaway success or not, is taking her own good time to build a body of work and style to call her own. And that she'll still be around when certain mums are thanking their kids for Mother's Day CDs by telling them: "I took you to see her before you were born".