Chely Wright's album announced for september.

American Country singer Chely Wright announced the release of her new record, produced by Joe Henry. 

The album will be titled 'I am the Rain', and will be released in september 2016.
"I am still in awe of having worked with him"   she explained in a video message on her facebookpage.

...Working with Joe is kinda terrifying. He has a really high bar for the songs and for the performances, and for the performances the musicians bring to the table.  And he's just got this way of getting everyone to bring their A-game every day. Really hard to do, and he does it with such grace, and such intuition....

According to this article, recordings happened in September.

...I was in LA for 12 days as we tracked it in September and right now we are in the mixing process...

Ryan Freeland Podcast

The Henhouse studio has a podcast with Ryan Freeland.


Ryan Freeland, man behind the desk, 1 of the closest coöperators of Joe.

Enjoy

Releasedate set for Allen Toussaint's final recordings

Last November Allen Toussaint unexpectadly died while on tour in Europe.

He had just finished a recordingsession for a new album, produced by Joe. Today we received more info on that album.

The album, entitled American Tunes, will be released on June 10.



from the pressrelease :

Recording took place at two sets of sessions with producer Joe Henry: solo piano at Toussaint's New Orleans home studio in 2013, and with the rhythm section of Jay Bellerose and David Piltch—joined by guests Bill Frisell, Charles Lloyd, Greg Leisz, Rhiannon Giddens, and Van Dyke Parks—in Los Angeles in October 2015. The album comprises solo performances of Professor Longhair tunes and band arrangements of songs by Toussaint, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Paul Simon, and others.

Let us all keep the memory of him and his music alive.

Joe Henry & Marc Ribot @ Big Ears festival 2016

Last week Joe performed at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, together with none other than Marc Ribot.  Besides Marc Ribot : Levon Henry joined them on stage for a few songs on saxophone.

Marc Ribot is one of my favorite guitarplayers. He appears on Joe's albums 'Reverie' and 'Blood from the Stars'.

I've seen Marc perform some of his own projects, I've seen him perform in John Zorn's ensembles, and I had the privilege to see him perform with some worldfamous musical artists. But together with Joe, no that remains on the bucketlist......
So a warm appeal to extend this concert into a tour passing through Europe...

There is not a lot to be found about this concert.   But the info that is out there, will give you a wonderful insight in that evening.

Josh Hurst, someone who has the biggest appreciation of Joe's work, was there and wrote a review. Read it on the joehenryblog.

"...and personally, I stand by my conviction that Joe’s set was worth the Big Ears admission price all on its own."

Some Picture can be found on the Big Ears FB page.
Here is one :

Photo by Bill Foster

You can find some audience video recordings on the net, with pretty good quality. Watching them I saw a breathtaking version of 'After the war', and that was only the 3th song of the evening. What it must have been later on the evening.....

It's difficult for me to assemble a setlist, with the small amount of info out there. From what I did found I can puzzle the following : edit : Thank you Josh for updates.

-Trampoline (Joe Solo)
-Odetta
-After the War
-Sparrow
-Eyes out for you (+ Levon Henry)
-All Blues Hail Mary (+ Levon Henry)
-Civil War

(from here on I don't know the order)
-Parker's mood
-Sold
-Bellwether
-Like she was a hammer
...

last songs :
-Plainspeak
-Slide (+ Levon Henry)

If you were fortunate enough to see this concert, and would like to share your experience, feel free to leave a comment, or a message.

...For the sake of the song...

'For the sake of the song' is an absolute wonderful song from Carll Hayes's upcoming album Lovers and leavers. It will be released on April 8, but you can pre-listen the album at Rolling Stone, together with an interview with Carll.

For the sake of the song, is maybe also in 1 sentence Joe's approach to the producing work he does. He spoke about that part in an interview with the Bluegrass Situation's series 'The producers'.






 It struck me last week that everything that is coming to the surface for the audience these days, is actually the outcome of a period full of change a year ago. A year ago, Joe moved away from 'the garfield house', something he speaks about in this interview. My previous entry was a review of 'Real Midnight', Birds of Chicago's latest record. That was the last one recorded in Joe's studio at the Garfield house. 'Lovers and Leavers', on the other end, is the first album Joe produced after moving I think. Correct me if I'm wrong in that, because I don't know, but if so, it would make my observation I just wrote down, completely misjudged. But it's alright, it is not that important. The wonderful music we are receiving is what it's about. And Lovers and leavers is absolutely wonderful.

Edit : this seems incorrect. According to this article, Recordings for Chely Wright's album happened in september. The liner notes of Carll Hayes's 'Lovers and Leavers' state that that album was recorded in October.  

Other topics Joe addresses in the interview is his approach to producing, and he talks about a few projects from the past.
And then there is Carll Hayes's 'Lovers and Leavers', of which, off course, Carll himself, but also Joe talk about in their featured interview.

 There is a gap of 5 years between this one, and Carll's previous album. In a sense it is an album about moving on. "My life changed, and I'm changing" Hayes says in the interview, but also the way he wanted it produced heads in that direction : "He didn't want to keep making the same record over and over." Joe explains about early talks with Carll. (A lot of Moving in this post, I know.)

 I Listened to the album, and await now my copy at home. Like the Bluegrass Situation writes :

Joe's latest project is a slight reinvention of the Texas troubadour Hayes Carll, whose new album, Lovers and Leavers, chucks the full-band sound of his last two efforts. In its place is a quieter sound -- introverted and melancholic -- more akin to the low-key ruminations of Mickey Newbury than the wild romps of Ray Wylie Hubbard. That it succeeds is a testament not only to Carll’s vivid songwriting, but to the intimate setting Henry creates for these songs.

I leave you with this introduction to 2 wonderful interviews, and a great album. 

Read Joe's Interview with the Bluegrass Situation.
Read Carll Hayes's interview and pre listen 'Lovers and Leavers'.
Pre-order 'Lovers and Leavers'.