Joe Henry is much more than a serial collaborator

Joe Henry is a low-key renaissance man. The respected singer-songwriter, author and Grammy-winning producer has steadily built a multifaceted career of enviable scope. His 13th solo album, “Invisible Hour,” was self-produced and released in June on his own Work Song label.

Henry performs at City Winery on Monday. As a record producer, he’s worked with an impressive and diverse range of artists, including Bonnie Raitt, Aimee Mann, Ornette Coleman, Elvis Costello, Mavis Staples, Hugh Laurie and Solomon Burke. He was co-author with his brother David Henry of the Richard Pryor biography “Furious Cool.”

Earlier in his career, Henry was produced by T Bone Burnett, the revered record producer whose long list of plaudits includes a Grammy for the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack.

“T Bone Burnett has been my professional godfather my entire working life,” he says. “I’ve been in touch with him since the very first demos I ever made in 1983. We’ve worked together and still do in different ways. What I really learned from T Bone and continue to have ratified every time I’m in his company is a commitment to your authentic voice and clearing away anything that doesn’t illuminate the song. You find the strength of the song at any moment and amplify that.”

Over time, Henry grew into a sought-after producer in his own right. His studio philosophy includes cutting out the distractions caused by too many choices.

“Whether I’m working for myself or with someone else, my thing is to acknowledge that there are many ways a song might be successful,” he says. “Our job is to pick one of them and be fully committed to it. Many things can be right if you’re fully committed to them.”

He has worked with artists who span a wide stylistic range, and he explains that genre is not a consideration in the studio.

“I don’t care anything about genre,” he says. “I know that sounds coy, and I don’t mean it to be, but I don’t think in terms of ‘this is jazz music, this is folk music, this is pop music.’ I’m a songwriter. I want a song that moves me. I don’t care how anyone describes it. It makes no difference to me in that regard. I don’t make choices based on genre assumptions.”

Henry says that working as a music producer is analogous to the role of a director on a film.

“Different artists need producers in entirely different ways,” he says. “Some artists need a producer to imagine the entire landscape for them and tell them where to stand and when to speak musically. Other artists have such advanced visions of their own. They need a producer to facilitate their walk on the landscape. You’re a spotter. You’re an encourager. You’re holding a light on the road, but you didn’t create the road. Every artist or situation asks something different of you as a producer.”

Henry has released a string of his own well-received albums, dating to his 1986 debut “Talk of Heaven.” Known for their growth and experimentation, his records have incorporated folk, blues, country and jazz. His current release, “Invisible Hour,” is a darkly shaded acoustic song cycle filled with numbers that are alternately hopeful, sorrowful and searching.

“I’m always writing, and the songs go into a pile somewhere,” he says of his artistic process. “But invariably I start to notice that several songs start to relate to each other and share a certain commonality. In some way I feel a thread connecting them. I start to see a body taking shape. Once I start to see how this group of songs is working together, then it’s easier to know what pieces are missing. Making a record is like making a movie. I start to fill in the missing chapters once I see the story.”

The darkly poetic lyrics on “Invisible Hour” touch on the joys and burdens that come with love. Whether one of Henry’s song characters is in a relationship or bereft of one, the emotions run deep.

“If these songs are sharing something in common, I think it might be an attempt to understand the power of commitment in all its forms,” Henry says. “And not just legally recognized marital commitment, but what it means truly to align your heart with someone else’s.”

Recorded at Henry’s home studio in California, “Invisible Hour” features as guests the Irish vocalist Lisa Hannigan and roots duo The Milk Carton Kids. Henry’s son Levon Henry contributes reeds to the production, playing clarinet and saxophone.

Father and son are close and share similar interests in literature, film and music. Levon will accompany his father onstage at the City Winery gig.

Henry has come a long way from his beginnings. Born in North Carolina, he moved a lot as a youngster, including stints in Georgia and Ohio. Right before high school, he landed just north of Detroit. He made his first record in Ann Arbor, Mich., then lit out for New York.

His list of influences sheds light on Henry’s expansive sound. By the time he was 7, he was enamored with musical giants Johnny Cash, Ray Charles and Louis Armstrong. The work of Bob Dylan and Randy Newman showed him a relatable songwriting path. Henry was further inspired by idiosyncratic songwriters Loudon Wainwright III, John Prine and Tom Waits, and revered blues performers Robert Johnson, Lead Belly and Mississippi John Hurt.

The Great American Songbook that included Cole Porter and George and Ira Gershwin also figured heavily into the musical equation. “I loved all of them,” Henry says.

For as long as he can remember, he wanted to be a songwriter. “I never thought about anything else,” Henry recalls. “I imagined myself a songwriter before I wrote a single song. That was my identity before anyone told me I had to decide what my identity was.”

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