Joe Henry recruits Milk Carton Kids, Lisa Hannigan for next CD

Grammy winning/singer/songwriter and producer Joe Henry has confirmed the June 3 release of his 13th album Invisible Hour. It was self-produced by Henry and will be released on his own Work Song label.

The album features The Milk Carton Kids as well as Lisa Hannigan, who co-wrote the title track along with Henry and best-selling novelist Colum McCann.

These are all, perhaps, “songs about marriage;” says Henry of the album. "But I should hasten to add that that is a personal observance, and recognized much after the fact. That thread —of commitment, surrender, and hair-raising mystical alignment— does indeed snake through the whole in ways both overt and peripheral, literal and metaphoric. But though marriage as a notion moves like significant weather through its rooms, it is really the redemptive power of love in the face of fear upon which this house is built. Love is the story; and the characters paw lustfully after it –formal pairings notwithstanding."

Recorded over four days in July 2013 at Henry's own Pasadena studio, The Garfield House, the album features Henry on vocals and acoustic guitar along with Greg Leisz on guitar and other stringed instruments; John Smith on guitar, mandola and backing vocals; Jay Bellerose on drums; Jennifer Condos on electric bass; David Piltch on upright bass; and his son Levon Henry providing all of the woodwinds.

Additionally, Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan of the Milk Carton Kids lend backing vocals throughout the album and Lisa Hannigan contributes vocals on "Lead Me On."

The album follows a busy period for Henry who produced songs for Bonnie Raitt's Grammy-winning 2012 album Slipstream (including covers of two of his own), and produced Billy Bragg's acclaimed 2013 album Tooth & Nail.

Henry also produced albums for Rodney Crowell and Mary Karr, Natalie Duncan, Hugh Laurie and Over the Rhine. In 2013 Henry released Furious Cool, his book about Richard Pryor's life and work, co-written with his brother, David Henry.

On April 12 and 13 Henry will perform a one-of-a-kind event with Over the Rhine and the Milk Carton Kids as part of a unique program at Duke University in Durham, NC.

This all-star group will compose, perform and record an album of all-new songs engaging the Great American Songbook broadly and creatively. More information here: http://bit.ly/1jn21mo.

Later this summer, (after a two-week European run,) Henry will tour the U.S., kicking things off in June. See below for a full list of U.S. tour dates.

Track listing:

1. Sparrow
2. Grave Angels
3. Sign
4. Invisible Hour
5. Swayed
6. Plainspeak
7. Lead Me On
8. Alice
9. Every Sorrow
10. Water Between Us
11. Slide

Tour Dates:

4/11-12 – Durham, NC - Hayti Heritage Center / Duke University
6/20 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall (with Dan Wilson)
6/21 - Los Angeles, CA - Largo (Solo Early / Full Band Late Night)
6/24 - Washington DC - The Birchmere
6/25 - New York, NY - City Winery
6/26 – Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live
6/27 – Boston, MA - Brighton Music Hall

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