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)

JH to produce Chely Wright

American Country singer Chely Wright is working on a new album which will be produced by Joe Henry.

The 2 of them have also co-written some songs, Joe let us know in a tweet.

@stefan77 @chelywright --i'll be producing, mr. 77. and we have co-written a few, i am pleased to say.

— Joe Henry (@JoeHenryMusic) August 27, 2015

Joe has already worked with Chely in 2012 on the album KIN, songs by Mary Karr and Rodney Crowell.
Chely did backing vocals for the song 'Sister, Oh Sister' performed by Rosanne Cash.

This new album seems to be the result of a crowdfunding campaign from last year. The goal was reached, and it seems the album is about to be recorded now.

This is the second anouncement of a new production assignement for Joe since moving to a new place.  Previously we also learned he will be producing Carll Hayes.
I guess all is in place, and ready for music again....

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.

Carll Hayes hopes Joe Henry Produces his next album.

In an interview with the Boston Globe, singer songwriter Carll Hayes expressed his wish to have Joe Henry produce his next album.

For his next album, then, he’d like to revisit his roots as a songwriting craftsman, and to put some sincere thought into what he wants to say. To that end, he expects to work with the producer and fellow songwriter Joe Henry.

“We’ve never actually met,” Carll explained. They first talked on the phone about eight years ago, when Carll was conducting a series of “speed-dating” interviews with various producers for what would become his third album, “Trouble in Mind.”

“I’ve always been aware of him. I wrote a song with Mary Gauthier that was the lead track on a record he produced. Then I heard a song that really struck me.” It was Henry’s spare acoustic, nearly-nine-minute storyteller “Sign,” from his recent album “Invisible Hour.” Carll was drawn to “the intentional way he communicated, the way he thought . . . created. It struck me as where I wanted to be.”

 

And it seems this is going to happen. ;-)

@stefan77 @hayescarll @BostonGlobe -and i believe i shall.

— Joe Henry (@JoeHenryMusic) July 3, 2015

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)

WFUV will air the 'Celebrate Brooklyn' concert

On July 18, Joe will be the opening act for Rhiannon Giddens during the event Celebrate Brooklyn .

For those who can not attend it, no worries. WFUV will air this event live.

check their page for listening options.