Joe Henry

Joe Henry is best known for his two country-influenced albums, 1992's Short Man's Room, and 1993's Kindness of the World, both of which feature members of the country-rock band the Jayhawks, but his musical direction has actually changed several times over the course of his recording career, reflecting his restless, adventurous spirit. Henry was born in North Carolina, grew up in Michigan, spent the early part of his music career in New York City, and finally settled in Los Angeles in 1990 with his wife and son. After his little-heard 1986 debut, Talk of Heaven, Henry debuted on A&M in 1989 with the rock & roll album Murder of Crows, which was produced by Anton Fier and featured Mick Taylor on guitar.

From there he pared down to the quiet, entirely acoustic moods of Shuffletown (1990) before shifting into the country- and folk-influenced territory of Short Man's Room and Kindness of the World. The latter two albums earned him an excellent reputation among fans of alternative rock and country as a superb singer and songwriter. He followed Kindness with the five-song EP Fireman's Wedding a year later. Henry's lyrics are a central focus of his songwriting, but even though he often writes in the first person, his songs are not "personal" in the manner of musicians who are often called singer/songwriters (a genre he doesn't like to be associated with). He's recorded some excellent country covers, but he's equally interested in soul, funk, and rock & roll.

On Trampoline, released in 1996, Henry veered in an edgier, more rhythm-oriented direction. While he still employs acoustic instruments and even a pedal-steel guitar on several songs, Trampoline (much of which Henry recorded at a studio he set up in his garage) is more clearly defined by its drum loops, loud electric guitars, mysterious voices, and curious sonic textures. For this album, Henry recruited guitarist Page Hamilton from the band Helmet and drummer Carla Azar from the band Edna Swap.

Fuse -- mixed with the aid of Daniel Lanois and T-Bone Burnett -- followed in 1999. Two years later, Henry returned with the enigmatic stunner Scar. This particular release marked his last with Mammoth. He opted for a deal with Epitaph's Anti and entered the studio in December 2002 to record his ninth album, Tiny Voices, his most intricate album to date. A second album on Anti, Civilians, followed in 2007, while a third from the label, Blood from Stars, appeared at the end of the summer in 2009. Henry was wildly busy as a producer for the next two years, helming projects from Allen Toussaint, Salif Keita, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Mose Allison, Hugh Laurie, Over the Rhine, Lisa Hannigan, and Me'Shell Ndegéocello, as well as participating in others. He finally got around to recording again in 2011, with his most eclectic collection of songs -- all recorded acoustically -- entitled Reverie, which was released on Anti in October of 2011.

from Wikipedia:

Joseph Lee "Joe" Henry (born 1960) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Henry's musical style spans several genres, including alt. country, rock, jazz and folk.

Biography

Early years

Joe Henry was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, grew up in the Detroit, Michigan area and graduated from the University of Michigan. He moved to Brooklyn, NY in 1985 with then-girlfriend Melanie Ciccone, the sister of recording star Madonna. In New York he began playing in small clubs and recording music, releasing "Talk of Heaven" in 1986. The album earned him a recording contract with A&M, which released "Murder of Crows" in 1989 and "Shuffletown" in 1990.

"Shuffletown," produced by T-Bone Burnett, was the first to represent a shift in musical direction, and included a group of mostly acoustic players recorded live, directly to two-track master tape. His sound veered toward what was then emerging as "alt country". "Short Man's Room" (1992) and "Kindness of the World" (1993), shared members of the country-rock band the Jayhawks. These two albums were specifically written with the Jayhawks as backing band, as Joe was sharing a tour with them during the same period. The murder ballad "King's Highway," from "Short Man's Room," has been covered by Joan Baez.

Musical transition

1996's Trampoline, his sixth LP, employed metal guitarist Page Hamilton, with a style one reviewer called "idiosyncratic broadmindedness". [1]

Fuse (1999) continued Henry's experimentalism with its trip hop shadings. One review of the album states that Fuse has "real weight, emotion and beauty that is both unmistakable and unforgettable". [2]

Early 2000s

Scar, released in 2001, consisted mainly of jazz musicians (Marc Ribot, Brian Blade and Brad Mehldau among others), including an appearance by saxophonist Ornette Coleman on "Richard Pryor Addresses A Tearful Nation."

Scar was reviewed including one by Allmusic's Thom Jurek, "has moved into a space that only he and Tom Waits inhabit in that they are songwriters who have created deep archetypal characters that are composites—metaphorical, allegorical, and 'real'—of the world around them and have created new sonic universes for them to both explore and express themselves in. Scar is a triumph not only for Henry—who has set a new watermark for himself—but for American popular music, which so desperately needed something else to make it sing again." [3]

In 2001, Henry sang on the song "Alleluia" from Julia Fordham's album, Concrete Love.

2003's self-produced Tiny Voices, was his first on Epitaph's Anti label. Reviewer Jurek described the album as "the sound of Hemingway contemplating the Cuban Revolution with William Gaddis, the sound of Buddy DeFranco and Jimmy Giuffre trying to talk to Miles Davis about electric guitars in an abandoned yet fully furnished Tiki bar in Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles." [4]

In the early 2000s, Henry was also an inaugural member of the Independent Music Awards' judging panel to support independent artists.

Production work

Henry produced Teddy Thompson's 2000 album Teddy Thompson. Henry produced Solomon Burke's 2002 album Don't Give Up On Me, which won Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 2003 Grammy Awards. 2005 releases produced by Henry include Ani DiFranco's Knuckle Down, Aimee Mann's 1970s concept album The Forgotten Arm, and Bettye LaVette's I've Got My Own Hell to Raise.

He produced the multi-artist album I Believe to My Soul, which featured Allen Toussaint, Mavis Staples, Ann Peebles, Irma Thomas and Billy Preston.

In 2006, Henry teamed with Toussaint, producing his collaborative album with Elvis Costello, The River in Reverse.

In September 2006, Joe Henry and his longtime hero Loudon Wainwright III began composing the music for the Judd Apatow movie Knocked Up. Snippets of instrumentals were used as background score for the film, but the full versions of the songs make up Wainwright's 2007 album Strange Weirdos. Henry produced Mary Gauthier's 2007 album Between Daylight and Dark.

In 2009, Henry convinced Mose Allison to record another studio album after a 12 year break. The Way of the World appeared 2010 on the ANTI- label and was produced by Joe Henry.

Henry produced the 2010 album Genuine Negro Jig by the Carolina Chocolate Drops. The album won a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album.

In 2010, Henry produced Over the Rhine's album "The Long Surrender" and co-wrote two songs. He also played a weekend's worth of live concerts in OTR's home town of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Return to the studio

Joe Henry's tenth LP, Civilians, was released in 2007 on the ANTI- label. The album achieved an average score of 77 on Metacritic. Pop Matters described the album as "powerful and exquisite." The song "God Only Knows," the final track on the album, was used in a "TCM Remembers 2008" TV spot, a video memoriam of actors who have died in 2008.

2009: Blood From Stars

Henry began 2009 with a tour of Australia, playing shows in Melbourne and Sydney with bassist David Piltch in January. On May 8, 2009, Henry's record label, Anti, announced via an official press release that a new album ""Blood From Stars"" would be released on August 18. The record has more blues influences than Henry's previous work, while retaining his trademark production sound. Critical reception was positive, with the record scoring an average score of 77 on Metacritic. [5]

2011: Reverie

In May 2011, Henry announced a new album for release on October 11 titled Reverie. Described by Henry as "raw, noisy and scruffy work", the album is said to be acoustic but will consist of some overdubs and has been recorded with his band. Reverie is self-produced and will be Henry's twelfth studio album.

Personal life

Henry is married, since 1987, to Melanie Ciccone, sister of Madonna. [1] Henry's wife talked him into letting her send Madonna a demo of his song "Stop", which was reworked and recorded as "Don't Tell Me" (from Madonna's 2000 album Music). Henry's own tango-tinged version of the song appeared on Scar and was featured in an episode of "The Sopranos". Henry and his sister-in-law recorded a duet, "Guilty By Association", on the charity album Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation, and collaborated on the songs "Jump" on Confessions on a Dance Floor and "Devil Wouldn't Recognize You" on Hard Candy.