Joe Henry - Reverie

Joe Henry - Twelfth album from the critically acclaimed songwriter, musician and producer may be an acoustic effort, but don't let that color your preconception: this is a self-described "raw and raucous and messy affair" with a swift, measured and powerful punch...“I knew it should be stripped and lean but not demur, sonically speaking; in black and white, but not without red blood in its veins," says Henry // Release: Reverie (October 11, ANTI-) // Sounds like: a traveling roadhouse band of whisky-and-sweat-soaked players, conjuring deep soul and slurred blues in a controlled but careening fevered folk dream...a stylistic sibling to early Tom Waits-ian shouts, growls and rimshot backbeats thanks, in part, to Reverie guests and Waits veterans Marc Ribot on guitar and Patrick Warren on a wicked pump organ...

Quote: "I am not convinced that any song exists without some knowing nod in its direction. And so with Reverie I am nodding, then –to time, but also to all the love, hope, despair, and revelation that stands naked inside its weather.” // What we like: the loose, sprawling energy of Reverie is exemplified in songs "Sticks and Stones", a New-Orleans-styled ramble that jumps and dives around the vocals from Henry and Jean McClain...the intense, high-strung rocker "Strung"...the subdued, hidden-in-shadows ballad "Piano Furnace" featuring vocals from Lisa Hannigan, who worked with Henry on her latest Passenger...

Joe Henry - "Sticks and Stones" (from Reverie)

Joe Henry - "Odetta" (from Reverie)