Joe Henry

Joe Henry – Civilians

As a producer, Joe Henry has polished some of the finest albums from the likes of soul legend Solomon Burke, Elvis Costello companion recording with New Orleans treasure Allen Toussaint, and singer/songwriter Aimee Mann. Now Joe Henry has put his ear to heart of the American saga. With a backing ensemble featuring Loudon Wainwright, pianist/songwriter Van Dyke Parks, jazz guitarist Bill Frisell and the touring band for Frisell’s album Good Dog, Happy Man, musically you’re unlikely to hear another album so tightly executed as well as well as unpretentiously straight forward. On Civilians, Henry constructs songs that are welded with the histrionics of America’s history: be it the bruised nature of “Our Song” which imagines Willie Mays within the aisles of a Home Depot reflecting on his tangled tenure within our twisted country, or the stoic isolation and rallying point that occurs in the tragedy of a civil war. An amazing accomplishment; Joe Henry may have just knocked one out of the park.