God Is In The Details

Mose Allison album due in early 2010

Mose Allison's Anti- Records debut The Way of the World will be released on March 23.  It was, of course, produced by Joe Henry, who prodded Allison back into the studio after a lengthy retirement from recording.

More info here.

Tift Merritt interviews Marc Ribot

As you probably know, Marc Ribot's guitar work plays an integral role in Joe Henry's Blood From Stars (not to mention Scar).  He's as brilliant as any guitarist working today.

What you may not know is that I am a pretty huge Tift Merritt fan.  So it's a great pleasure to hear her interview with this guitar wizard.

JOE HENRY CD GIVEAWAY

UPDATE:  The contest is now closed, and I'll be notifying the winners shortly.  Thanks for entering!

Well, I'm on vacation all this week, but while I'm out I thought maybe it was time to give away a couple of Joe Henry-related CD's. Simply drop me an email with your name and email address. First prize will be two of the three following albums:

• Joe Henry - Blood From Stars 
• Allen Toussaint - The Bright Mississippi 
• Various Artists - I Believe To My Soul 

The winner will choose two of those CD's, and the runner-up will receive the third. Deadline for entry is Sunday, November 1. I'll draw the winners at random shortly thereafter. Good luck!

Joe Henry solo performance in Louisville (tomorrow, Oct. 23)

JH will appear - for free! - at the 930 Art Center in Louisville tomorrow night.  The 9pm solo performance will follow photographer Michael Wilson's opening of his new exhibit Whatever Happened To Martha. 

Admission is first come, first served.  Details here.

(Photo by Michael Wilson)

UPDATE:  The Louisville Courier-Journal has a really nice article by Jeffrey Lee Puckett.

Morning Becomes Eclectic (in case you missed it)

Here ya go...

JH on Sam Phillips' Phonebooth

Well, you have to be a subscriber to Sam Phillips' The LP (and why aren't you?), but JH recently joined Sam Phillips in the studio to work on her upcoming EP.  "Silent Night" was the title mentioned so I assume we can anticipate some holiday-themed tracks pretty soon.

In addition, they discuss a number of topics in her latest Phonebooth feature, and Joe performs an acapella version of Leadbelly's "You Must Have That True Religion".

JH on Peter Himmelman's Furious World

A couple of weeks ago, Joe Henry appeared on Peter Himmelman's webcast Furious World.  You can watch the show by clicking here, then scrolling down the left side to the 9/29 show. 

Joe's appearnce kicks in at about 21:30, but I gotta say I really enjoyed the rest of Himmelman's show (which I'd never seen before).  In addition to Jay Bellerose on drums and Jennifer Condos on bass, Eric Heywood sits in on pedal steel guitar (he also joined JH for his recent KCRW performance).  Heywood's steel guitar really fits nicely into the mix -- here's hoping he joins him on the road in the spring (assuming Marc Ribot is otherwise occupied).

Interesting story about "The Man I Keep Hid," incidentally.

Update from JH

A quick update from JH at his official site mentions his latest projects with Mose Allison (completed) and Harry Belefonte (in progress and sounding very exciting).

Best news of all: a tour is in the works for March of 2010!

And yes, there's a link to this blog on Joe's homepage.  So if you've found your way here from there, welcome and thanks for dropping by.

JH on Morning Becomes Eclectic

Joe appeared on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic this morning.  The audio stream is up here (hopefully, the video stream will be available later today).

UPDATE:  Video available now as well.

Audiophile Audition review

Audiophile Audition's Doug Simpson calls Blood From Stars the year's best blues album that isn't blues and the best jazz album that isn't jazz.