Shuffletown http://www.fishpond.com.au/Music/Shuffletown-Joe-Henry/0035498009525

Artist: Joe Henry

• Personnel includes: Joe Henry (vocals, guitar); Don Cherry (trumpet); Cecil McBee (upright bass).
  
• Personnel: Joe Henry (vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar); Michael Blair (vocals, vibraphone, percussion); David Mansfield (guitar, mandolin, violin); T-Bone Burnett (guitar, snare drum, percussion); Charlie Giordano (accordion, organ); Don Cherry (trumpet, Jew's harp); Phil Kelly (piano, organ); Cecil McBee (upright bass).
  
• Recording information: Clinton Recording Studio, New York, NY.
  
• Photographers: Bob Witkowski; Sharon Guynup.
  
• Reader: David Henry .
  
• Unknown Contributor Role: David Henry .
  
• This follow-up to Henry's debut, A MURDER OF CROWS, is the artist's most overlooked, most unique, and arguably finest effort. Distinguished by phenomenal songwriting, SHUFFLETOWN finds Henry already in full command of his craft. Though this is only his second album, he is able to imbue almost everything he touches with strikingly powerful emotional depth. There isn't a single weak track here. Some, such as "Date For Church," "Spent It All," "Land," and "Drowning In The River Half Laughing," are haunting and evocative enough to break one's heart on a first listen.
  
• SHUFFLETOWN bears repeated listening, however, thanks in part to T-Bone Burnett's production and to spare, gorgeously articulated arrangements in which mandolins, accordions, and trumpets help to color the album's atmosphere of wistful melancholy. A dark, intimate, and deeply moving disc, SHUFFLETOWN shows Henry doing what he does best: making honest, personal, and genuinely beautiful music.
  

Spin (12/90) - "The release again proves Henry to be a fine songwriter. He's almost as cutting a chronicler of the war in the bedroom as is Elvis Costello. Musically, the entire effort has a melancholy, sometimes sentimental feel, with tinkling piano melodies and touches of country, jazz and folk."

Alternative Press (3/01, p.104) - Included in A.P.'s "10 Essential Alt-Country Albums" - "...A first-rate songwriter, he recorded these down-an-out character sketches on acoustic guitar, live to 2-track."

Stereophile (2/93, p.113) - "...a dozen dark, brooding songs written with awesome intelligence and deep feeling, and sung entirely without pretension...if ever a set of folk/rock, singer/songwriter lyrics could survive being from their music's womb untimely ripp'd, these be them..."

Producer:	T-Bone Burnett
Country:	USA
Studio/Live:	Studio
Release Date:	31 August, 1999
Guest Artist:	Don Cherry; Cecil McBee