When you listen to John Henry and Friends, you listen to a story. The mood is set by the folksy sounds of Henry’s voice and twangy string instruments, while the scene is described by soulful lyrics.

“… These hands build cities, these hands build walls … the same hands that build churches also build bombs, to drop on those cities and tear down those walls. These hands, you claim they came from God … We are not so different you and I …”

John Henry and Friends are putting their talents into a new album, Songs of These Hands, with a collection of new and old songs that would impress the most veteran folk music listener. The sound varies in each of the seven songs, and Henry said that’s because with this new group he’s been allowed to free his inner songwriter, and let the music flow.

Terrah Baker of The Fayetteville Free Weekly