Joe Henry
Shuffletown (A&M) (STAR)(STAR)
When Joe Henry set out to record his second album, he persuaded T Bone Burnett to produce, but the busy Burnett had one condition: The album would be recorded live to two-track tape. That took all of four days, and some of the songs on ”Shuffletown” are even first takes-it shows. The stark and spare framework of the songs, coupled with too many dirgelike tempos, is downright drowsy after a while. Henry is a decent songwriter (the wistful ”Spent It All” and the simple ”Date for Church” are especially strong) with a voice bearing debts to Dylan and phrasing from Van Morrison. All that would seemingly make him a candidate for some type of cult appeal a la John Hiatt, but it`s wasted here.
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