Joe performing with Tony Trundle & Frank Kilkelly

When Joe was in Ireland last year he did a few shows.
I found 2 clips from then, together with Tony Trundle & Frank Kilkelly.

Enjoy !

Mavis Staples & Friends (in L.A.)

In May there will be 3 special shows to celebrate Mavis Staples'  80th Birthday.

3 Shows : 1 in New York, 1 in Nashville and 1 in L.A.

Joe has announced that he will join the stage in L.A. (May 22nd.)

Joe performed as an opening act for Mavis last August.

A salute to John Prine

Photo : Patrick T. Fallon

At the pre-Grammy gathering at the Troubadour in L.A., several artists paid salute to John Prine. (And there were a lot of them)

Joe Henry was one them, he performed 'Hello in there'.

From the L.A. times

The always articulate Henry quoted another Americana world musician-producer in his song introduction, “T Bone Burnett has said the hallmark of a great artist is generosity. John Prine is a great artist, and I love him,”

From Billboard.com

"Picture this," echoed Joe Henry, "John Prine has been a mountain before me. He’s a masterful songwriter who inspired my first young attempt to try it out. He’s a great artist and I love him."

To end the evening, every artist participated in performing "Paradise"

Dit bericht bekijken op Instagram

Een bericht gedeeld door Molly Jenson (@mollyjay) op 10 Feb 2019 om 1:28 (PST)

 

Americana Fest Award show

AmericanaFest has confirmed the artists who will perform during the awardshow.

Joe Henry & Billy Bragg are among them. They are nominated as 'duo of the year' for their project 'Shine a Light'.

Salute to Loretta Lynn

The Americana Music Association will bring a Salute to Loretta Lynn on sat. Feb. 11th In West Hollywood.

Joe Henry is 1 of the confirmed acts.

source and more info

Tickets go on sale on Febr. 10th at this site. .

Update l3 Februari 2017 : Joe Played 'The Whispering Sea' (source)



JH on this event : (From the LA Times)

“I am honored beyond measure to be invited to participate; as she occupies a singular place in the hearts of those of us who strive to be singular as songwriters, while also staying joined to the root system of American folk tradition."

“Loretta emerged with a do-it-yourself ethos that anticipated the emancipation of the songwriter in the ‘60s and beyond --deftly writing her own material when few of her contemporaries tended to, and owning a sharp and very personal point of view"

“When you heard her, you couldn’t miss that she was mining her own life for the stories her songs amplified; and they were as cunning and brazen as they were charming and seductive; as funny as they were heartbreaking,” he continued. “She was elegant and soulful, yet invariably as folksy as the hollow from which she sprang.”

“It’s no small thing that she still stands here in our midst: reverent of her times, yet clearly open to all else they might invite going forward,”

Anthony Wilson concert + special guests

On Sept. 18, 2016 Anthony Wilson will perform together with his band 'The Curators'. at Largo at the Coronet, L.A..  The Curators on duty are : Jim Keltner, Mike Elizondo, Petra Haden, and Patrick Warren.
 2 Special guests are announced : Gaby Moreno and Joe Henry.

Anthony Wilson is a guitarist, composer and arranger known for a nuanced body of work that moves fluidly across moods and genres.
With ten wide-ranging solo albums to his credit, Wilson's first recording -- the eponymous Anthony Wilson (1997) -- garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Large Ensemble Jazz Recording. His fourth, Power of Nine (2006) featuring his nonet, was included in the New Yorker's roundup of that year's top-ten jazz albums.
While his home is jazz, Wilson has performed live and recorded with a diverse roster of artists including Diana Krall, Paul McCartney, Leon Russell, Willie Nelson, and Aaron Neville.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Wilson is the son of the late jazz trumpeter and bandleader, Gerald Wilson.

For tickets, visit the 'Largo at the Coronet' Website.

Anthony Wilson has a new album out called Frogtown. It was produced by Mike Elizondo and featured Mike Elizondo on bass & moog bass; Petra Haden on violin; Patrick Warren on keyboards; Jim Keltner & Matt Chamberlain on drums and percussion.
On top of them : Guestmusicians  Charles Lloyd on tenor saxophone; Josh Nelson on piano; Jesse Harris on harmonica ; Bob Reynolds on tenor saxophone; Dan Rosenboom on trumpet and Adam Schroeder on baritone saxophone & bass clarinet. 




What to expect from Anthony an joe ?
 

Rosanne Cash and Joe Henry, June 20 in LA

On June 20, 2016 Rosanne Cash and Joe Henry will be in LA for an evening entitled 'Composed : The intersection of Poetry and Song.'

The event takes place at the central library and is organised by ALOUD in LA. (ALOUD is the Library Foundation of Los Angeles’ celebrated literary series of conversations, readings and performances at the downtown Central Library.)


An evening of  conversation and performance.

Like dreams, poetry and song enter our lives by way of a mystery—unrecognized and often uninvited. Both represent the speaking of the otherwise unspeakable: the place where real truth is unencumbered by fact, time is made elastic, and narrative emerges from the abstract to tell us something of who we are. Listen in for a special evening of music and conversation with two leading voices as songwriters and authors Rosanne Cash and Joe Henry (both multi-GRAMMY Award winners) reflect on the transcendence of language through poetry and song.

It's a free event, but they recommend you make a reservation.


Update September 2nd, 2016
You can listen to this conversation on this podcast. enjoy !

Available on Vimeo

Rosanne Cash and Joe Henry from ALOUDla on Vimeo.

Concert News (27-29 May)

Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler of Over The Rhine are hosting their first edition of 'the Music and Arts Festival'.

Joe Henry Will be 1 of the artists performing there. He will be performing solo, but also with band. Aside from that he will be talking about his work, and experiences.

For extended info, visit David's Joe henry Blog. 

Greetings,
Stefan

And enjoy, what will probably be a wonderful weekend.

Joe to perform on AMA's spring celebration

John Prine, Lee Ann Womack and Joe Henry will perform on the 6th anual Americana spring celebration.

This event will take place between March 31 and april 3, 2016  at Blackberry farm. The event is organised by the Americana Music Association.

The AMA is a professional non-profit trade organization whose mission is to advocate for the authentic voice of American roots music around the world.

Reservations are available by calling 1-800-557-8864 or visiting Blackberry farm. 



Several Critics call John Prine one of Joe's big influences. And Lee Ann Womack was f.e. a guest artist on the album album KIN, songs by Rodney Crowell and Marry Karr, wich Joe Produced.   

Looking back : Calexico, featuring Joe Henry

On November 2007 the 'I'm not there' concert took place.
It was a concert, at the Beacon theater, to honour Bob Dylan. The evening tied in with Todd Haynes' movie : I'm not there.

View image | gettyimages.com

Joe Henry sang Senor(Tales of Yankee Power) backed up by Calexico.

Paste has an audio clip online. It was the first time I heard it. It's amazing how Joe and Calexico work together!


Listen and enjoy over here.

Some notes on Joe's part of the show :

On the scene :
Fast-forward just a bit further to Joe Henry, ..., acting almost as event maestro, rarely leaving the stage, whether as guitarist or singer on songs like “Senor (Tales of Yankee Power).”

Jambase
Jim James was definitely a tough act to follow, but Joe Henry, backed by Calexico, was up to the challenge, admirably performing "Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)."


Joe produced also some tracks for the soundtrack of the movie 'I'm not there'.
As a bonustrack on that album he performed 'too many mornings'

Info on last weeks Aarhus performances

Last week Joe performed twice at the aarhus festival .

For 2 nights he was a member of an event called 'Draw at trio concerts'. 3 artists being backed up by a trio.

1th night : August 30 : Rhiannon Giddens, Joe Henry and Annika Norlin.

Reviews :

Stiften.dk  (Danish)
gaffa.dk  (Danish)

2nd night September 1 : Billy Bragg, Joe Henry and Grant-Lee Phillips.

Apparently they all cheated a little bit on September 1th. (Just kidding off course). On the second night Rhiannon Giddens joined on stage, so technically there were not 3 artists,  but 4. (Or they got backed up by a quartet).  But, to say it with the words of Hissyfit blogspot : "Who's counting ?". It's the music that counts. 

Here is a clip of Rhiannon Giddens, (Joe Henry on guitar) doing a poweful version of 'she's got you'.)


 


stiften.dk writes about this : (freely translated)

"...The three this evening; Billy Bragg, Grant Lee Phillips and Joe Henry got strong company. Rhiannon Giddens was in fact so enthusiastic about Trio concept, after its performance on Sunday that she extended her visit to include Tuesday's event.
It would prove to be one of the year probably best ideas at the festival week.Wonderful interplay..."

That second night they ended together singing Woody Guthrie's "Ramblin 'Round'.

Reviews :

stiften.dk (Danish)
gaffa.dk (Danish)

Blogger Hissyfit visited the festival, and had the opportunity to see the concerts, and spend some time with the musicians. Read his story on his blog. (posts : Aarhus 1,2 and 3)

Joe Henry to Perform at the Aarhus festival Denmark.

Exciting news if you live in Denmark.

If I understood it correctly, (I have only 'online-translate-knowledge' of the Danish language) The Aarhus festival organises some special evenings wich they name : Draw at trio concertseries.

The idea is that there is a trio backing up 3 solo artists. Joe will be an artist on 2 of such evenings.

The backing band consists of The Argentinian pianist Diego Schissi, Tony Garnier on Bass and also   Swedish multi-instrumentalist Gustaf Ljunggren . 

On August 30 and September 1th, Joe will be on stage over there together with  each day 2 other marvellous artists.

Here are the full line ups
August 30 : Rhiannon Giddens, Joe Henry and Annika Norlin.

September 1 : Billy Bragg, Joe Henry and Grant-Lee Phillips. 

As you can see, these people are no strangers to one and another. So it could be 2 wonderful shows. 

get you tickets over here.  

If I'm mistaken in some info over here, please contact me.  

Unfortunatly I will not be able to make the trip. The combination of distance and timing doesn't work for me this time. So I can only hope he isn't just making the trip for these 2 shows. 

Greetings,
Stefan.    

(Read about how it was) 

Celebrate Brooklyn performance.

Hello everyone,

I just got back from our holiday. In the meantime Joe played as an opening act for Rhiannon Giddens at the 'Celebrate Brooklyn' Event on July 18th.

Al Pereira made some great pictures of that evening. you find them all on gettyimages. 

View image | gettyimages.com

For the rest, not much to be found on this event. So feel free to share your story, or mail me.

Extensive interview : Joe Henry discusses songwriting.

Last week, Joe was interviewed by Paul Zollo for 'songwriters on songwriting LIVE!', a program hosted by  the songwritingschool in L.A.

Paul Zollo on Joe Henry :

If Kurt Weill worked with Willie Dixon, what you’d get might be close to songs Joe Henry writes. Although the songs of songwriters who become producers for hire sometimes suffer, his haven’t. His time in the trenches making miraculous albums with artists such as Mose Allison, Aimee Mann, Elvis Costello, Solomon Burke, Madonna and Ornette Coleman seems only to have emboldened and enriched his own music.

Many of his songs marry emblematic T.S. Eliot-tinged poetry with the organic soul of Son House. These are songs alive with finely etched human details, revolving around mythic, Biblical elegance, the spacious cadences of Beat poetry, and the reverent rhythms of American folk and blues. His tracks are dimensional; engaging our aural depth perception by mixing close-up, clean sounds with mysteries in the distance, like Lightnin’ Hopkins playing “Lonesome Road” a capella at a truckstop as a poker game transpires nearby. Lyrically, his work’s as solid as a Muddy Waters classic, where no words are wasted, like folk songs smoothed and polished for decades like stones in the sea.

In over 2 hours Joe speaks about songwriting, and performs a few songs. The event is online, and divided into 8 parts.
There are some hick ups, in the recordings, but dont let that spoil your listening pleasure. It is worth your time.I have summarised for each part what to expect.

Part 1 : intro
 
Part 2 : look under the 'Joe Henry' section
Joe speaks about being genre free, how the audience and industry deals with that. His first musical experiences.
Personal writing versus writing in character
Knowing in advance about what you write versus discovering it in the proces
Writing alone or together,
Creative thinking versus analytic thinking,
His own writing proces,

Part 3 : (technical error)

Part 4 : to quote John Cage
On the mystery of what music you like or don't.

Part 5 : Working like a blind man in a dark room
On expanding his capabilities in musicmaking and working with musicians,

Part 6 : You're giving away the whole store
Find out what a recordproducer does in 1 sentence .
He talks about Richard Pryor

PERFORMANCE : Odetta

Part 7 : Winter or December ?
On Poems versus songs, referencing other songs for songmaking, or not ?
Songwriting the way we understand it now, and can it evolve ?
Recording the bright mississippi part 1

PERFORMANCE : After the war

Part 8 : What is going to happen tomorrow ?
Recording the bright mississippi part 2
Writing 'the man I keep hid'.
Madonna, The History of 'Stop'.
Choosing projects, and his recordingproces,    

PERFORMANCE : The man I keep hid, Stop, Trampoline

The entire interview is to be found here. (EDIT : interview off line)

'American Originals' recordings to be released.

'American Originals'  was a concert by cincinnati pops featuring several artists (including Joe) on 23,24 and 25 January 2015.

More info on the concerts over here.

These concerts were recorded, and will be released on  september 11, 2015 .
Joe's renditions of 'Oh Susannah', and 'Aura Lee' are featured on it. He also contributed vocals on the finishing track 'Campton Races'.


Pre-Listen Rosanne Cash's version of Old Kentucky Home on SoundCloud.



This is the track list of the album :

1) Oh Susannah (Joe Henry)
2) Jeanie with the light brow hair (Aoife O'Donovan & Karin Berquist)
3) My Old Kentucky Home (Rosanne Cash)
4) Amazing Grace (Aoife O'Donovan & the Comet Bluegrass All-stars)
5) Rolling river : Sketches on Shenandoah
6) Why, no one to love ? (Over The Rhine)
7) Old Folks at Home (Dom Flemons)
8) Kumbaya (Timothy Lees, Kathryn Wooley, Gabriel Pegis, Scott Mozlin & Richard Jenssen)
9) Slumber my darling (Aoife O'Donovan)
10) Aura Lee (Joe Henry & Ed Cunningham)
11) Foster's Folly
12) Ring, Ring the Banjo (Dom Flemons)
13) Red River Valley (Comet Bluegrass All-stars)
14) The Battle Cry of Freedom
15) Beautiful Dreamer (Rosanne Cash)
16) Hard times come again no more (Over the Rhine)
17) Campton Races (all featured artists)

Source

Hugh's Room July 19

Hugh's Room announced a Joe Henry concert on July 19th, 2015.

Hugh’s Room is a “live entertainment” venue based in Toronto, Canada, with full restaurant and bar facilities. You can make reservations for dinner and performance or for the performance only.

(address : 2261 Dundas St W. at Roncesvalles Ave)

“…a Canadian version of Austin City Limits…”  – Toronto Life
“…one of the best venues in Canada to see live music.” - BlogTo.com



visit the event's page  for dinner and performance reservations.

Update June 5th
Joe will be joined on stage by Jay Bellerose and Levon Henry.

Update August 2nd.
This event was cancelled. 

Parks Van Dyke's final performance

Joe Henry was a guest on Parks Van Dyke's last piano/vocal performance in L.A.'s Largo at the coronet.The show took place on Friday and saturday, May 8 and 9, 2015.

Joe has worked on many occasions together with Parks Van Dyke. Not only on Joe's own albums,  but also on albums he produced.  (I should take the time to list their entire coöperations.)

I don't know what Joe's contribution was to the show, so feel free to fill me in on the details.

Edit : (Thank you JH for this info) 
i sang the song "death don't have no mercy" (from country blues master erv. gary davis), and van dyke's request. he was in the studio ensemble when i produced ramblin' jack elliot's version of that heroic song, and van dyke has loved it ever since. we performed this song both nights --and second of which also had guitarist joe walsh (of the eagles) sitting in on it.

i also sang backing vocals with gaby moreno and inara george on VDP's take on allen toussaint's seminal "river boat."


In an interview with the LA Times,  Parks Van Dyke explains he had an unsuccesful handsurgery, wich makes it impossible to play piano for too long.

I had unsuccessful hand surgery last year, and all it takes is about 40 minutes — just when it matters — for a hand to freeze. Rather than go out decrepit, I'm taking Randy Newman's advice when he sang, "I have nothing to say, but I'm going to say it anyway." Knowing when to quit is the moral to that song, and I do think that is important.

Read the entire interview.

He encouraged pics at the end. Van Dyke Parks, Gaby Moreno, Inara George, Ed Droste, Joe Henry. And R Newman. Sheesh. pic.twitter.com/PPbay758oK

— Russian Nesting Face (@amalialevari) May 9, 2015

Review

american songwriter
....Joe Henry, who is now not only a legendary songwriter-singer but also a producer of great achievement, came on to sing “Death Don’t Have No Mercy,” by the Rev. Gary Davis. He sang it beautifully, with deep respect for the man at the keys, and a delivery of quiet, simmering soul.  In the heart of the song, Van Dyke played a piano solo. But rather than a single note solo, as expected, he performed a chordal solo, all big extended  chords ascending and overlapping, echoing and pulsating with shades of Ellington and Evans, a cubist painting fleetly created in the middle of the “American Gothic.” It was awesome, even mystical, in its fluid gravity....


.....May Van Dyke hold back time forever. Thank you maestro for a magic night.