The Unheard Music (Volume LIV)

This Sunday, me and my lovely wife Carla will celebrate our 6th Wedding Anniversary.  Marrying her was the best decision I ever made.  You won't find us agreeing about many early details of our courtship but one thing we both will confirm was that our first 'date' was seeing Joe Henry at Schuba's in March of 1999.  Who's Joe Henry you ask? The name may not be familiar and perhaps some of his music won't be either but the mercurial performer did co-write a song that I would imagine 98% of you would know but let's not get ahead of ourselves, more on that later.

I first became acquainted with Joe Henry's music through a college friend who worked at BJ Records in Iowa City.  She knew I was a big Jayhawks fan and told me that The Jayhawks were the backing band on Joe's then-new record Short Man's Room.  Sold.  I bought the album on that fact alone.  As you might expect, the record sounds like a lost Jayhawks record with somebody else replacing the familiar Gary Louris/Mark Olsen vocals.  The album's full of solid songs that have aged well, the best of the bunch is "Reckless Child".  Joe would record two more country-tinged records (one EP and one LP) that have some great moments but lacked the spark of  Short Man's Room.

Then in 2006,  Joe completely ditched the alt country sound for his next record, Trampoline in favor of groove-oriented material featuring loops and electronic textures.  The song "Ohio Air Show Plane Crash" is so lyrically detailed and soncially compelling that I had to ask him what it was like witnessing a plane crash.  He explained that the song is actually a work of fiction.  Joe was still finding his way with this new sound, so not everything on the album gels but it's a solid step in a completely different direction. Next up was 1999's Fuse, which had Joe firing on all cylinders and gave us the lovely "Skin and Teeth" (which made it onto our wedding compilation CD) and more atmospherics with "Great Lake".  Why this record wasn't bigger is beyond me but I guess that's why I do these features.

This being Joe Henry, he took another sonic detour with 2001's Scar.  I'll admit, it took a bit longer for me to get into this record, it's a grower.  Perhaps the most notable track on Scar was "Stop " which was a stripped down version of a song Joe wrote for his sister-in-law.  She had a big hit with the song a year earlier, you may have heard "this song" back in 2000. With the steady stream of royalties from that song to pay the mortgage for a long time, it gave Joe the freedom to focus on producing which he's done for the likes of Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint, Aimee Mann and Ani DiFranco as well as occasionally recording his own sporatic albums like 2007's Civilians.

Have a great weekend, enjoy the music.

Comments

[jean b]

Aw, a nice memory for this BJ Records girl. I haven't heard much of Joe's later stuff, so I'm glad you picked him as your Unheard Music topic for this week. Hey, I saw a review in Uncut (UK) of the new Gary Louris/Mark Olson record... apparently not out in the U.S. The review was very positive (although how could it not be?) Have you heard the record?

[freakgirl]

"Trampoline" is one of my most favorite songs in the world.

Happy Anniversary!

[Betty Rocker]

All I have to say regarding the muddied recollection of our first date is HE KISSED ME FIRST.

And Happy Anniversary, Bear:) XOXO U

[Mike]

So, who is the famous sister-in-law? I didn't recognize the song or voice. I suppose I could Google it, but I won't.

[ken]

In the vein of Seth Meyers & Amy Poehler (on SNL's Weekend Update):

REALLY? REALLY MIKE?

Madonna!

[Mike]

I ended up looking it up (Madonna, if I'm not mistaken). I was not familiar with that song at all.

[ken]

Well Mike, that puts you in that 2% of people I said wouldn't know the song.