JOE HENRY ~ The Gospel According to Water
![[Image: R-14403680-1573884842-2320.jpeg.jpg]](https://img.discogs.com/_hNYNZbAvl3snQAU-xNUY0WS9QQ=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-14403680-1573884842-2320.jpeg.jpg)
Not the John Denver lyricist – this is another Joe Henry, with whom I am not familiar. Seems I ought to be! He sounds a bit Randy Newmanish on this release which was somewhat off the cuff; he’d gone into the studio to record demos for the planned album, all of which were rattled off with consummate ease and brevity. It sounded great so he decided to keep the core material and this is the result. Just prior to all of this he’d been diagnosed with prostate cancer which may have lent some urgency and determination to his efforts (prognosis good). In addition to being a recording artist, he also appears to be held in high regard as a producer.
I like this album – very nicely executed and I can hear the lyrics clearly which is fairly unusual, possibly because of advancing years (dammit), but usually, I suspect, because they are often incidental, or the vocal is not mixed properly, or something along those lines.
Singer/songwriter stuff with folk leanings - of a similar ilk to Marc Cohn. Easy peasy … good Sunday music … a Dylan kinda thing here occasionally …
![[Image: R-14403680-1573884842-2320.jpeg.jpg]](https://img.discogs.com/_hNYNZbAvl3snQAU-xNUY0WS9QQ=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-14403680-1573884842-2320.jpeg.jpg)
Not the John Denver lyricist – this is another Joe Henry, with whom I am not familiar. Seems I ought to be! He sounds a bit Randy Newmanish on this release which was somewhat off the cuff; he’d gone into the studio to record demos for the planned album, all of which were rattled off with consummate ease and brevity. It sounded great so he decided to keep the core material and this is the result. Just prior to all of this he’d been diagnosed with prostate cancer which may have lent some urgency and determination to his efforts (prognosis good). In addition to being a recording artist, he also appears to be held in high regard as a producer.
I like this album – very nicely executed and I can hear the lyrics clearly which is fairly unusual, possibly because of advancing years (dammit), but usually, I suspect, because they are often incidental, or the vocal is not mixed properly, or something along those lines.
Singer/songwriter stuff with folk leanings - of a similar ilk to Marc Cohn. Easy peasy … good Sunday music … a Dylan kinda thing here occasionally …
"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." ~ Bill Watterson

