Joe Henry

Joe Henry

Recording artist on Mammoth records. He has a discography of 8 albums including his first, “Talk of Heaven” (1986), Murder of Crows (1990), Shuffletown (1990), Short Man's Room (1992), Kindness of the World (1993), (The Jayhawks appear on both of those albums), Fireman's Wedding (1995) and Trampoline (1996). His latest release Fuse (1999) features backing vocals by Jakob Dylan on "Skin and Teeth" as well as Rami Jaffee and Greg Richling on the track, "Fat". Henry spoke of his admiration of Rami Jaffee's work and his connection to The Wallflowers as he worked on Fuse:

“I've had a few offers to tour with [The Wallflowers], none of which I've been able to take advantage of unfortunately. But I did a few shows last summer, strictly for laughs – one in L.A. and two in San Francisco – using three of the five Wallflowers in my band. When I was working on the record in my garage, I would take a song as far as I could alone and usually just move on. But at some point I was working on one song and I could see where it needed to go and I needed to get it there before I could leave it alone. So I called Rami [Jaffe] and Greg [Richling] and they came over that day. I told Rami I need a kind of Ray Charles electric piano thing on this track And there it was.” (Wall of Sound 3.99)

According to Newsweek.com, Henry has “attracted a noticeably hip following (like Billy Bob Thornton and Jakob Dylan).” Despite his following and his prolific writing/recording, Henry says, “being overexposed has never been my problem.” Jakob is a longtime friend and fan of Joe Henry's music. In theWall of Sound interview, Henry spoke fondly of Jakob Dylan:

“I've known the Wallflowers for years. I met them when they were making their last record and T-Bone Burnett was working with them. They knew T-Bone knew me, and they invited me down to the studio one night. Jakob and I just kind of hit it off – both being fathers, we have sons roughly the same age who go to the same school at the moment. That was our point of departure and our friendship grew out of that. He knew my records. He's a delightful man, and we just stayed in touch.”

Henry was thanked in the liner notes on Bringing Down the Horse.

"20 To Watch: Joe Henry" (Austin City Search 1999)