HOME

The new issue of Image is out! Order yours today.

In the meantime, you can get a preview online… (more…)

NPR First Listen is streaming one of my favorite 2011 records.

And…  (more…)

My Fourth of July song is… (more…)

I had the privilege of chatting with one of my musical heroes this morning – singer/songwriter/producer-extraordinaire Joe Henry.

I mentioned that I’d been particularly inspired during a day of heavy writing yesterday after spending time with one of my favorite volumes of poetry, Rilke’s Book of Hours. One of the poems there seemed inspired by Joe’s own work, specifically the song “Light No Lamp When the Sun Come Down” (although I know that this is chronologically impossible).

Lo and behold, it turns out Professor Joe treasures that volume of poems as well.

Anyway, during our conversation, he happened to share some rather exciting news, and with his permission, I’m quoting him here: (more…)

I’m still a beginner when it comes to iMovie. But I’m learning a little every time I work with it.

This episode, in which I learn that ten minutes is too long for this sort of thing, covers some of my favorite recent music. And it has a couple of surprises for you.

Enjoy.

And when you’re finished, go visit samphillips.com and lucishaw.com, where you’ll find information about two worlds abundant in poetry and insight.

The Browser: News & links to raise your eyebrows & furrow your brow. New headlines may be added as the day goes on. Stay tuned.

Hi ho, Jeffrey the Recovering Storyteller here.

It’s my first real day off since completing Raven’s Ladder. I plan to rest. Write reviews. And see movies. 500 Days of Summer and District 9, to be specific. My friend, painter Laura Lasworth, loved the first one, and blogger Mark Shea, who I encountered in the grocery store parking lot yesterday, was very impressed by the second. Can’t wait to see them both.

But first, some notes… (more…)

You may have read my first impression of Joe Henry’s Blood from Stars, which I typed with trembling hands a while back. This music seized my attention and has refused to let go. I’m reminded of how Bob Dylan’s Oh Mercy took over my life when it was released.

Well, now you can listen to the album in its entirety thanks to NPR.

Please put on your seatbelts and helmets: I’m reduced to blathering in the very superlatives that have been beaten senseless and slapped upon lesser albums, and I’m gonna throw them around. (Then, no doubt, I’ll come crawling back to revise this, feeling rather embarrassed at my presumptuous claims and flamboyant outbursts.)

* * *

Joe Henry’s Blood from Stars is a strong candidate for my Favorite Album of the… hmmm, yes, I’ll say it… Decade. Right up there with Bob Dylan’s Love and Theft. It’s as raw and raucous and rowdy and raggedly beautiful as Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs, and as stirring in its reverence for the gospel as anything I’ve heard since Dylan’s Oh Mercy. Listening to it all the way through, I’m exhausted.

And speaking of Dylan: As a lyricist, Henry joins Tom Waits as one of the only American songwriters I know who really deserves comparison to the Master. His metaphors speak to powerfully to me that I’ve come to anticipate his work with the same kind of trembling eagerness that I feel when I earn about new albums from Sam Phillips or Over the Rhine. I don’t like to use the word “masterpiece” anymore, as I don’t think any work of art deserves such a label until we’ve had at least ten years to think it over… but Henry’s last two albums — Tiny Voices and Civilians — strike me as strong candidates for the term.

Yes, Blood from Stars lives up to that cover art, and “Death to the Storm” playing into “All Blues Hail Mary” is a knockout combination. Henry’s assembled an extraordinary band, featuring Mark Ribot (who is all over this, in top form, digging deep into the same magical toolbox that makes the best of his work with Tom Waits so memorable) and the great Jay Bellerose, whose percussion has blessed the last several Sam Phillips albums.

Bono talks about working hard with the band and waiting for those moments when God walks through the room; well, after listening to The Bright Mississippi and Blood from Stars, I think I’ve found one of God’s favorite rooms.

I’ll be saying more about this one eventually, no doubt. I’ve fallen head over heels in love, and I’m running out to buy several dozen roses.

Thanks to Andy Whitman for passing along this press release for the new album from Joe Henry:

Here’s the press release.
(more…)