If you had Carte Blanche...

Last month, Belgian online magazine enola, had an interview with Joe. He was at the time touring with his album Thrum in Europe.

They asked him who he would like to produce, if he had Carte Blanche.

"Sonny Rollins, or Bill Withers. I even think I already wrote both of them, or talked to them.

Sonny has retired, and I don't think he'll make another record. I believe around 8 years ago, I wrote him a letter to say it was a dream for me to work with him. He was verry friendly and he wrote me back, saying he was verry busy. His wife passed away recently at the time, so my dream had to wait. 


They also asked him for which album he would like to be remembered.

"Tough choice. For more than 1 reason it could be Allen Toussaint's The Bright Mississippi. I am verry proud of the way we worked on that one, and I really loved him. 
Another one I'm verry proud of, is Don't Give up on Me (Solomon Burke). Maybe because it came so early in my producing career. I'd only produced two other artists at the time, so the fact that I got the job was not a safe gamble for him. It was an important album for both of us."

(freely translated. Original interview by Bjorn Weynants for Enola)

coincidentally, on twitter, someone suggested a collaboration with Bob Dylan, and if time travelling existed : Edith Piaff.

I'm all for it.