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Album Details

• Artist: Joe Henry
• Album: Tiny Voices
• Label: Anti
• Year of Release: 2003
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2004-01-12

Joe Henry has been a staple in many people's musical diet for well over a decade. It was his country influenced albums, Shuffletown and Short Man's Room that got him on so many people's radar and most of those people have remained with Joe for his entire career. The latter of the two featured many of the Jayhawks as well as his next album, Kindness Of The World. A lot has happened since those days. Henry, after his entire recording career, has moved away from Mammoth Records over to the newer and cooler Anti, one of Epitaph's subsidiaries. Tiny Voices is a bit of a strange album. Oh it's good but strange just the same. I can't help but think that this would be a Tom Waits album if Tom's voice was more than a croak. Voices is a jazzier and much smokier album than Joe and his fans are used to. Tiny Voices is anything but an Americana album. Instead, Joe goes for more of a lounge feel. There is so much going on and as always, he utilizes some very able musicians. This time around it's in the form of Don Byron, Dave Palmer, Chris Bruce, Jennifer Condos and Ron Miles. Instruments that he normally doesn't have on his albums start to make appearances and it is an interesting twist. Sure, he hinted at his potential when Ornette Coleman started making appearances with him along with the multi-talented Marc Ribot but Tiny Voices seems to have taken it all the way. One of my favorite tracks on the album is the title track. The whole album doesn't do it for me but there are select songs and with only a couple at a time really sound impressive.

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