{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"299: Joe Henry","description":"For Joe Henry, truth in songwriting doesn\u2019t come from confession or fact. It comes from presence, from listening, from surrender, from giving shape to the ineffable. As he puts it: \u201cTotal presence\u2014that is the code of my road.\u201d Henry\u2019s road has taken him across both the literal and metaphorical map of American music. Born in North Carolina, raised in Georgia and Ohio, and coming of age in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he grew up suspended between North and South, white and Black, rural and urban. This early sense of duality, of living between poles, helped shape his identity and fed a lifelong curiosity. Alongside his brother Dave, he immersed himself in records, films, and books that would later form the bedrock of his creative work. Over the past four decades, Henry has become one of the most respected songwriters and producers in American music. His solo albums, beginning in the late 1980s, blend literary songwriting with genre-bending arrangements. As a producer, he\u2019s worked with artists like Allen Toussaint, Mavis Staples, Solomon Burke, Bonnie Raitt, Rodney Crowell, Joan Baez, and Meshell Ndegeocello. He co-wrote Madonna\u2019s hit \u201cDon\u2019t Tell Me,\u201d (she also happens to be his sister in law) and more recently, he\u2019s been collaborating with Jon Batiste. This year he is releasing three of his classic albums on vinyl for the first time.  In this wide-ranging conversation, Henry discusses his love of character-driven songwriting\u2014an approach influenced early on by Randy Newman and Bob Dylan\u2014and his rejection of the notion that autobiography equals authenticity. \u201cYour factual experience can be disruptive to the truth you're trying to allow to move through you,\u201d he says. www.third-story.com www.leosidran.substack.com www.wbgo.org\/podcast\/the-third-story ","author_name":"The Third Story Podcast with Leo Sidran","author_url":"http:\/\/thirdstorypodcast.libsyn.com\/podcast","html":"