A year ago, Joe Henry learned he had prostate cancer that had metastasized to his bones. That experience colors the songs on "The Gospel According to Water," his beautiful and understated 15th album. Henry wrote the songs quickly last spring and recorded them soon after, and while their pace is leisurely and calm, they possess an immediacy and vibrancy - not an urgency, but a deliberate and earnest thoughtfulness, a wisdom, even, something akin to early Leonard Cohen or recent Nick Cave songs.
Like Cohen and Cave, Henry writes lyrics that foreground their prayer-like cadence and patterns of imagery. "There's little we can leave behind/ will truly mark this earth,/ but treachery and love are ours/ to keep for all they're worth," he sings in "Bloom." References to water and prayer, passing time and lasting love link these songs, as do Henry's gentle acoustic guitar picking and his son Levon's woodwinds. The songs are affirmations of mortality, full of gratitude and grace. Thankfully, Henry's cancer is currently in remission. That's a gift, as is this album.