Civilians Joe Henry

• 1 Civilians 04:36
• 2 Parker's Mood 04:16
• 3 Civil War 04:41
• 4 Time Is a Lion 03:54
• 5 You Can't Fail Me Now 04:12
• 6 Scare Me to Death 04:54
• 7 Our Song 06:19
• 8 Wave 04:29
• 9 Love Is Enough 04:49
• 10 I Will Write My Book 04:11
• 11 Shut Me Up 06:15
• 12 God Only Knows 05:05
• 13 Time Is a Lion (Demo) 03:56
• 14 I Will Write My Book (Demo) 03:26
• 15 God Only Knows (Demo) 04:47
• 16 Bread & Flowers (Demo) 04:36
• Total Runtime 01:14:26

Info for Civilians

Joe Henry is one of the artists who have shaped the sound of modern American folk and blues music like hardly anyone else. Civilians, his 10th studio album, was originally released in 2007. It takes the listener on an intimate journey into Henry’s poetic lyricism and is heavily influenced and inspired by the more melancholic sounds of folk and jazz music. Recorded in Henry’s home studio at the time, the Garfield House in Pasadena, the album has a raw and stripped-back feel, with several of Henry’s close friends and collaborators, like Loudon Wainwright III, Bill Frisell, Greg Leisz, and Van Dyke Parks, joining him in the studio to bring these songs to life. Now available on 180g black double vinyl for the first time ever, the 2024 reissue edition of Civilians features not only the 12 songs of the original release, but also previously unheard bonus material, including intimate demo versions of several songs on the album, as well as the all-new bonus track “Bread and Flowers”.

Joe Henry

Joe Henry
In a career spanning more than 25 years, Joe Henry has left an indelible and unique imprint on American popular music. As a songwriter and artist, Henry is celebrated for his exploration of the human experience. A hyper-literate storyteller, by turns dark, devastating, and hopeful, he draws an author’s eye for the overlooked detail across a broad swath of American musical styles — rock, jazz and blues — rendering genre modifiers useless.

Henry has collaborated with many notable American artists on his own body of work, from T Bone Burnett, Daniel Lanois, and Van Dyke Parks on one side of the spectrum, to Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, Brad Mehldau, and Bill Frisell on the other. A three-time-Grammy-winning producer, Henry has made records for Bonnie Raitt, Hugh Laurie, Lisa Hannigan, Elvis Costello, and Solomon Burke among many others.

Additionally, Henry has taken his musical talents to film and television. He has scored music for the films Jesus’ Son, Knocked Up, and Motherhood, as well as produced tracks for the film I’m Not There. His song “Stars” was featured in the closing credits in the fourth season of HBO’s Six Feet Under.

In 2013, Algonquin Press published, “Furious Cool: Richard Pryor and the World that Made Him,” a book co-written by Joe and his brother Dave Henry.

In 2016, Henry teamed up with Billy Bragg on the collaborative album Shine A Light: Field Recordings From The Great American Railroad. The pair were subsequently nominated as “Duo/Group of the Year” by the Americana Music Association.

As a solo artist and a producer alike, Henry’s records are marked with a consistent sonic depth, attention to narrative, and emphasis on the beauty of spontaneity.

This album contains no booklet.