Some fun facts you may not know about prolific singer/songwriter Joe Henry: he had Alt-Country band The Jayhawks be his recording session group in his early days. He's Madonna's brother-in-law. He's done album production ranging from everyone to the likes of Soul king Solomon Burke to feminist-folkie Ani Difranco and he recently just did the score to the mega-hit film Knocked Up. Something you may not also know about Joe Henry is that he makes some of the most underrated albums you'd ever come upon. Five years ago his album Tiny Voices was one of the best albums of 2002 and, half a decade later, Civilians is every bit its equal.

Civilians starts out with the snarling strut of the title track with Henry spouting "Life is short, but by the grace of God, the night is long." With that line it's easy to mentally picture the poorly lit dive and the smell of the stale cigarette smoke that surely graced the nightlife of the song's creation. "Civil War," one of Henry's most clever tracks in recent memory, tells the tale of a couple in marital strife. With the opening lines of "I don't know you to wear a hat, but I came home late and there it sat. You rose to show what hats are for, we're living through a civil war" Henry paints a masterful portrait of a wife leaving her domain ever so unhappily.

"Time Is A Lion" is one of Henry's more rollicking tunes full of typically clever Henry tidbits like "If you fear the angels above while you sleep, then I'll be the blood you paint on your door." Civilians is yet another notch in Joe Henry's belt of excellence and if you're someone who enjoys troubadours like Tom Waits, Nick Cave or T-Bone Burnett and you've yet to discover him, do yourself the biggest favor you could possibly do and discover him now.