In a little more than a month 'This too shall light', the new album by Amy Helm will be released. The album features musicians Doyle Bramhall II, Tyler Chester, Jen Condos, and Jay Bellerose, as well as a background vocal section consisting of Allison Russell, JT Nero, and Adam Minkoff.(source)
Amy Helm did an interview with Chronogram and naturally, one of the Subjects was this new album and working with Joe. But the article brings you up to date with her entire career. Make sure to read it !
Apparently Joe almost mixed an album for Levon Henry ! Well how about that.
...Recorded quickly and with a minimum of fuss with Grammy-winning producer
and musician Joe Henry in Los Angeles, it has a looser, palpably
spontaneous feel that fits its artist well. "Making this record felt
liberating," Amy enthuses. "I'd already met Joe and I was a big fan of
the productions he'd done for Bettye LaVette, Allen Toussaint, Susan
Tedeschi, and other people, and I really wanted to work with him—when
Larry Campbell and I were coproducing Dirt Farmer for my dad,
we'd actually talked about having Joe mix it, but that didn't work out.
So I was more than happy to surrender to his direction, and we did the
new album totally live in the studio in four days, without belaboring
anything. My band just threw our shit in the room and started playing,
Joe set the compass from there, and it was amazing. I pulled in some
songs we'd been doing, and he chose some really good ones for us to do,
too."
Besides the reflective title track, which was written by MC Taylor of
Hiss Golden Messenger and Josh Kaufman (Bob Weir, Josh Ritter), This Too Shall Light's
standout cuts include covers of the Milk Carton Kids' "Michigan" and,
interestingly, "The Stones That I Throw (Will Free All Men)," a lost,
gospel-tinged single recorded in 1965 by Levon and the Hawks during the
brief period between their leaving rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins and
hooking up with Bob Dylan en route to becoming the Band. "I've always
really loved the whole vibe of that song," Amy says. "It's just a great,
straight-up rock 'n' roll dance tune."(Chronogram)
Not mentioned in this interview is a cover of Joe's Odetta.
Well, did I almost choke in my coffee this morning....
I was reading an interview in Hot Press with Gavin Glass, And there I read : The studio he’s talking about is the rightly-famed Orphan Recordings, where he’s steered a myriad of Irish and international acts. “The Eskies, The Young Folk, The Sprockets, anyone and everyone. My favourite is probably Billy Bragg and Joe Henry. They toured America doingfield recordings, Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly songs,but they couldn’t use it so they re-did the whole thing in one day in Orphan, facing each other over two microphones.
Have we all been fooled ?... I couldn't believe it !
What is it, that we are actually hearing on that album? Real field recordings? or a manipulated studio recording? 3 People can answer that question, and I asked 2 of them : Joe himself and Ryan Freeland.
I can now say, that the words in that interview are (not a little bit) misleading. Joe and Billy did indeed record all those songs again in a studio, but the versions on the 'shine a light' album are all really recorded during the trainride.
In fact, the recording in the studio happened near the end of the U.K. leg of the 'shine a light' tour. That implies that : While Joe and Billy were recording these songs in the studio; the 'shine a light' album was already on sale for months.
So, why make these studiorecordings ?
JH :
It was recorded in case a use presents itself for the songs without the travel noise. If and only if....
Today, there are no specific plans on the horizon for those versions.
Well, now I can close my eyes, finish my coffee, and imagine I'm at a railroad station. Don't you just love that background noise ?
Greetings,
Stefan
Edit August 2nd :
Today, apologies have been made towards the artists, and a promise for necessary changes has been done. As for now, the article is not anymore available to everyone, only to subscribed readers.
A few weeks ago Steve Lippman released his short movie : Life Saving, a Short Film in 4 Chapters with Joe Henry.
Steve Lippman also directed some videoclips, which where used as promotion for 'Thrum'. It looks like this new Short Film has also come out of these sessions.
In this wonderful poetic film, you'll find Joe, together with Levon, playing some songs from 'Thrum' plus a narrative spoken by Joe. All these combined with the wonderful images. I usually seek words to describe what art does to me, but I'm going to limit it this time to explaining that this film blends in perfectly with everything I have already thought about, experienced around, and heard from 'Thrum'.
Steve Lippman accompanies the release of this clip with some musings on the time that has passed since he met Joe. A 'Mosaic of his memory' he calls it. Make sure to read that.
I first met and collaborated with Joe Henry in the autumn of 2003, directing a short experimental film, Tiny Voices, featuring music from his album of the same name and fragments of hard-boiled monologues Joe wrote and spoke....continue reading.
Circling around this clip we discover two things to look forward to : In his musings, Steve Lippman writes : "He(Joe) became part of the creative team of an ambitious project of mine not yet made."
And also : Joe's son, Levon. informs us that "Joe will be more publicly poem-ing in the near future..."(source : Facebook)
Ireland Performances
In the beginning of the month, I already discovered that Joe was performing a show in Ireland. That turned out to be just 1 date out of 5. Info and tickets about these dates you'll find on Joe's official pages.
I remain tempted to cross the waters over there, but it's a period for me that looks like it will not offer any time for such a luxury. But I'll keep that door open.
Apart from these 2 items there is not a lot of news to tell. The only thing that you can discover regarding possible productional projects, is a reply from Ryan Freeland to Joe on FB saying : "I'm all yours in 2 weeks".
Veteran promoter Tom Stapleton sends this message to all patrons of his shows at Leap Castle (above), Co. Offaly, between Birr and Roscrea, Co. Tipperary:
Lucy and myself thank you for support and interest in Leap Castle gigs
and hope you continue to enjoy them. We are taking a break for the
summer and will return with the great Joe Henry 15 Sept. Have a lovely summer.
Enjoy the Holidays,
I'll be back in a few weeks.
Greetings,
Stefan.
