Lovesong: Joe Henry: Our Song/Civil War

"Everything I learned about playing I learned from listening to records"

I've been absent; not really engaged with this blog for a while.
Strangely disconnected...
Coming up to 100,000 hits on this site somehow...
How did that happen?
I notice that folk are still checking in with nowt new to read;
So, apologies about my lack of activity; it's like friends are knocking on my door and I've got no coffee to offer them.
I must remedy that...

It's 3am and I'm trying to love music again.
To re-engage, always go back to the source of your inspiration...
Never a better place to start than with one of the most innovative, yet reverential writers I know.
Joe Henry is steeped in the half light of musical history (blues/jazz/tin pan alley), his values seem virtuous, traditional, and yet he is always reaching towards a new light.
Have a listen to this fantastic interview in which he talks about his recording methods and ideology, in particular reference to his latest album 'Reverie'. 
Henry talks about music that:

"feels orchestral, and then comes off the rails a bit... That was the intention, to push songs to the point both as writing and as recordings, where you would have the impression as a listener that it was literally pushing the seams, and that the song was so full of itself and so full of its life that it was threatening to come apart. I find that invariably romantic as a listener, to hear songs that are threatening to come off the rails and fall into pieces. I was very enamored with all of the songwriters who were writing in a narrative voice in character."

"I knew that Randy Newman was not writing about himself, that Bob was not writing his own story. He was making up a character and following it. I never got seduced by the idea, in the '70s, that the singer/songwriter was offering you pages from his diary set to music. It wasn't about how much of your life you were willing to expose — it was about how wild a character you were willing to inhabit."

Bathe in these older beauties: 'Our Song' and 'Civil War' are both taken from one of my all time favorite albums 'Civilians'. Have a listen and then invest in his back catalogue. I'd unreservedly recommend that you go back as far as 'Kindness to the World' before worrying about your investment...