ARTiST: Joe Henry
ALBUM: Blood From Stars
BiTRATE: 166kbps avg
QUALiTY: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.97 Final / -V2 --vbr-new / 44.100Khz
LABEL: Anti
GENRE: Indie
SiZE: 72.11 megs
PLAYTiME: 0h 57min 08sec total
RiP DATE: 2009-08-22
STORE DATE: 2009-08-21
Track List:
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01. Prelude: Light No Lamp 2:14
02. The Man I Keep Hid 5:05
03. Channel 5:19
04. This Is My Favorite Cage 4:08
05. Death To The Storm 4:58
06. All Blues Hail Mary 5:33
07. Bellwether 4:02
08. Progress Of Love 4:27
09. Over Her Shoulder 3:26
10. Suit On A Frame 6:22
11. Truce 3:46
12. Scars 5:13
13. Coda: Light No Lamp 2:35
Release Notes:
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Beginning with 1996Æs Trampoline, Joe Henry began leaving behind his workÆs more
overt country influences in favor of a sound that wasùno matter what touchstones
you might hear on a given albumùdistinctly Joe Henry. He could write a simple
love song, or craft a metaphoric account of seeing an elderly Willy Mays at Home
Depot, or coax Ornette Coleman into the studio for a masterful ôRichard Pryor
Addresses a Tearful Nationö. But no matter what he was doingùeven if it meant
bringing in jazz musicians like Brian Blade, Brad Mehldau, and Marc Ribot as he
did for 2001Æs ScarùHenry was always homing in on this sound he heard in his
head.
The resulting pursuit has given us a five-album run thatÆs seen each record
surpassing the one that came before, and you couldnÆt help but wonder if Henry
wasnÆt approaching that lofty place where heÆd perfected his sound to such a
fine-grained degree that there were no surprises left. Thankfully, Blood from
Stars offers comfort in that itÆs not only perhaps the best Joe Henry record
yet, but also one that takes us to yet another place we didnÆt expect to go.
Perhaps due to his recent work producing RamblinÆ Jack ElliottÆs A Stranger Here
and Allen ToussaintÆs The Bright Mississippi, Henry finds himself using the
blues as a starting point on Blood from Stars. This being a Joe Henry record,
though, itÆs important to note the ôstarting pointö part. Many of Bloodæs songs
start off with traditional blues patterns, but itÆs not long until participants
like Ribot, pianist Jason Moran, and even HenryÆs 17-year-old saxophonist son
Levon Henry take things off in uncharted directions.
But while Blood teems with exploration, itÆs also a record with one foot in the
past. ôThe Man I Keep Hidö owes a clear debt to the Fats Waller/Randy Newman
school of sly piano melodies, while Chet Baker wouldnÆt sound out of place
singing over the delicate acoustic guitar and saxophone of ôOver Her Shoulderö.
ôDeath to the Stormö, with its woozy lurch, and ôProgress of Love (Dark
Ground)ö, with its nighttime carnival feel, tread in the same sepia-toned lands
as Tom WaitsÆs more sentimental efforts.
In fact, Waits is an excellent reference point for Blood from Stars (and not
just because Marc RibotÆs mind-boggling guitar work and little-known abilities
on coronet are plentiful). The ambient nature of the instruments, the way you
can feel the sound moving around in the room, are cut from the same cloth as
WaitsÆs Weimar revivalism and Tin Pan Alley tearjerkers. But IÆd argue that
Waits rarely had compositions that built upon themselves, and spiraled upwards
and outwards, like the most ambitious songs on Blood from Stars.
Lyrically, thereÆs heart to match HenryÆs mixture of organic bluesiness and
off-the-cuff improvisation. ôAll the blues sing of love and death and you as
chances yet to takeö, he sings on ôAll Blues Hail Maryö. ôProgress of Love (Dark
Ground)ö finds him musing, ôOur every word now is a talking blues / A hymn to
the life weÆre all bound to loseö. As the album goes on, it takes on a
thoughtful nighttime feel. And itÆs that self-reflection, in addition to HenryÆs
already well-established storytelling abilities, that lifts Blood from Stars to
a new place, showing us that just because HenryÆs found his sound, heÆs not
going to stop looking for surprises.