Joe and Billy nominated for the Americana Awards 2017

Joe Henry and Billy Bragg, have been nominated for a 2017, Americana Music Award.

Alongside Drive-By Truckers, Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives and The Lumineers they are nominated for duo of the year.

Already Congratulions on that.

The Award show takes place in Nashville, on September 13, 2017.

Grace, by Lizz Wright

A lot of details concerning Lizz Wright's upcoming album have been released. The album will be entitled 'Grace', and releasedate is set for September 15, 2017.

There are 2 covers on the album, where Joe also produced the original versions. First there is 'Barley' from Birds of Chicago. And then there is the titletrack by Rose Cousins.

I give you some excerpts from the press release.

Grace was tracked live on Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles alongside a standout cast of musicians at United Recording Studios – the sessions feature her nearly 20-year collaboration with Atlanta-based pianist and choir director Kenny Banks Sr., special guest guitarist Marc Ribot, bassist David Piltch, guitarists Chris Bruce and Marvin Sewell, drummer Jay Bellerose, and keyboardist Patrick Warren. An expansive collection of 10 songs and an original co-write with Maia Sharp (“All the Way Here”), Grace is Wright’s testament of devotion to speaking and embodying the fullness of her humanity through music. Her most clear statement to date, Grace finds Wright standing center stage in the complex dialogues of coexistence and interdependence between all walks of life.

The vast landscapes portrayed on Grace are brimming with Wright’s singular translations of music by Ray Charles, Allen Toussaint, Nina Simone, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, k.d. lang, Bob Dylan, Frank Perkins and Mitchell Parish, as well as emerging artists Rose Cousins and Birds of Chicago. From a body of about 70 covers collected primarily by Joe Henry, 10 works were selected that mirror Wright’s rural upbringing and the trail of stories and songs that have brought her to the world stage. Having a strong sense of intention to speak of grace from the inception of the project, Wright forwent writing the title track after hearing “Grace” by Rose Cousins – the first title track Wright didn’t compose from her catalogue of six studio recordings. 

Grace opens with “Barley,” a song penned by Birds of Chicago based on the traditional blues format of word repetition. With its sweeping march and repeating phrases, “Barley” has Wright churning an ancestral force of affirmation and encouragement.

Joe Henry’s years of friendship and collaboration with Allen Toussaint brought “Southern Nights” to the pre-studio listening session. Allen’s spirited trail of rural imagery made “Southern Nights” the song that felt like home.

“Lizz Wright and I have been friends for nearly fifteen years; I’ve hungered for the chance to stand in service to her as she sang, so powerful do I find the expression of her humanity. It was and remains an honor to have been Lizz’s scout along the journey of Grace. And in such dark times, we are all as musicians called to answer brutality with wild and inclusive beauty. When Lizz now sings, I am allowed to feel by extension that I am doing something of my part. What a gift that has been to me; what a gift she offers all.”
Joe Henry


Pre-listen to excerpts of this album.