Cincinnati Pops Orchestra Announces Addition Of Joe Henry To Line-Up For American Originals Concert & Live Recording

The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra announces another exciting addition to the line-up for its American Originals concert and live recording January 23-25, 2015. Singer-songwriter and multiple Grammy Award-winning producer Joe Henry will lend his talent to the program which honors the legacy of Stephen Foster.

Mr. Henry joins an all-star cast of performers, which also includes Rosanne Cash, Over The Rhine, Dom Flemons, Aoife O’Donovan, and the Comet Bluegrass All-Stars. He has written songs for Rosanne Cash, and produced albums for both Over The Rhine and Carolina Chocolate Drops, of which Dom Flemons is a founding member. Other collaborators include Madonna, Hugh Laurie, Blind Boys of Alabama, Spinal Tap, Allen Toussaint, Rodney Crowell, Solomon Burke and many more. In addition to his production collaborations, he has released thirteen of his own studio albums. An artist who draws from a broad swath of American musical influences ranging from blues, jazz and country, Mr. Henry has also scored music and written songs for various films and television shows.

The Cincinnati Pops has always paid homage to “The Great American Songbook,” and the American Originals concert and recording continues this legacy with this Stephen Foster tribute. The first king of American popular music, Foster helped shape the country’s unique musical soundscape that integrates folk, spiritual and blues traditions. In this program, the Pops welcomes some of the most well-respected and popular artists of Americana today. This program, along with the audience, will be recorded live for later release around the world on the Orchestra’s Fanfare Cincinnati label. Pops Conductor John Morris Russell leads the Orchestra and this one-of-a-kind ensemble of guest performers.

Joe Henry
In a career spanning more than 20 years, Joe Henry has left an indelible and unique imprint on American popular music. As a songwriter and artist, Mr. 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. He is a perennial worldwide song-writing poll-
topper.

Mr. Henry has collaborated with many notable American artists on his own body of work, including Don Cherry and T Bone Burnett (Shuffletown, 1990), Victoria Williams and the Jawhawks’ Gary Louris and Marc Perlman (Kindness of the World, 1993), guitarists Page Hamilton (Trampoline, 1996), Daniel Lanois and Jakob Dylan (Fuse, 1999), Ornette Coleman, Brad Mehldau, Marc Ribot, Brian Blade, and Meshell Ndegeocello (Scar, 2001), Bill Frisell and Van Dyke Parks (Civilians, 2007), Jason Moran (Blood From Stars, 2009). He has scored music and written songs for various films: Jesus’ Son, Knocked Up, Motherhood, and produced tracks for the film I’m Not There. He also wrote the song “Stars” for the closing credits of HBO’s Six Feet Under.

http://cincinnatipops.org/