Joe Henry is an intensely perceptive American singer-songwriter whose records are like black-and-white films with bright characters.
The subtitles are composed from the colors around us.
On the side he has produced and mentored important American artists, who, in many cases, have slipped beneath the starry shadows of pop culture: Solomon Burke, Betty LaVette’s breakthrough album, the Carolina Chocolate Drops (their 2010 Grammy winning “Genuine Negro Jig”), Mavis Staples (the “I Believe in My Soul” compilation) and many others.
Henry, 51, carries the sound of an heirloom metronome in a modern high-rise. He is inspired by his position between time and place, which is why his visit to Chicago to promote his latest album “Reverie” (ANTI) should not be missed. Henry and his studio band launch a three-city tour at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 27 at the Old Town School of Folk Music.
“Reverie” is an all-acoustic project Henry recorded about a year ago in his basement studio. The bass, drums, piano and Henry’s voice and guitar touch on the longing tones of folk-gospel in “Odetta,” and blues-tango in “Sticks and Stones,” reminiscent of “Stop,” his ballad that his wife Melanie Ciccone passed along to her sister Madonna — which she re-did in 2000 as “Don’t Tell Me.” But time waits
The subtitles are composed from the colors around us.
On the side he has produced and mentored important American artists, who, in many cases, have slipped beneath the starry shadows of pop culture: Solomon Burke, Betty LaVette’s breakthrough album, the Carolina Chocolate Drops (their 2010 Grammy winning “Genuine Negro Jig”), Mavis Staples (the “I Believe in My Soul” compilation) and many others.
Henry, 51, carries the sound of an heirloom metronome in a modern high-rise. He is inspired by his position between time and place, which is why his visit to Chicago to promote his latest album “Reverie” (ANTI) should not be missed. Henry and his studio band launch a three-city tour at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 27 at the Old Town School of Folk Music.
“Reverie” is an all-acoustic project Henry recorded about a year ago in his basement studio. The bass, drums, piano and Henry’s voice and guitar touch on the longing tones of folk-gospel in “Odetta,” and blues-tango in “Sticks and Stones,” reminiscent of “Stop,” his ballad that his wife Melanie Ciccone passed along to her sister Madonna — which she re-did in 2000 as “Don’t Tell Me.” But time waits
Thanks : http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/weekend
