Dear Heather is Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...

's eleventh studio album, released in 2004.

It shows a further departure from Ten New Songs

Ten New Songs

Ten New Songs is Leonard Cohen's tenth studio album, released in 2001. It was co-written and produced by Sharon Robinson. She played all the instruments except Bob Metzger's guitar on 'In My Secret Life'...

, with more female lead singing and a marked increase in read poetry over sung lyrics, two of these being poems by other writers.

The album was set to appear under the title Old Ideas, but Cohen changed the title as he was assured it would mislead people to believe that it was a compilation or Best Of. Again, Cohen recorded it digitally in his and Sharon Robinson's home studios in Los Angeles, as he did with his previous album, Ten New Songs

Ten New Songs

Ten New Songs is Leonard Cohen's tenth studio album, released in 2001. It was co-written and produced by Sharon Robinson. She played all the instruments except Bob Metzger's guitar on 'In My Secret Life'...

..

The album reached #131 on the Billboard 200

Billboard 200

The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

 and Internet Album charts and #5 on the Canadian Album charts. It was Cohen's highest charting album in America since 1969's Songs from a Room

Songs from a Room

Songs from a Room is the second album of Canadian musician Leonard Cohen, released in 1969. It reached #63 on the Billboard list and #2 at UK charts....

.

Track listing

All songs were written by Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...

, except where noted.

1. "Go No More A-Roving" (words by Lord Byron, poem "So, we'll go no more a roving
   So, we'll go no more a roving
   "So, we'll go no more a roving" is a poem, written by Lord Byron , and included in a letter to Thomas Moore on 28 February 1817. Moore published the poem in 1830 as part of Letters and Journals of Lord Byron....
   
   ") – 3:40
2. "Because Of" – 3:00
3. "The Letters" (Cohen, Sharon Robinson) – 4:44
4. "Undertow" – 4:20
5. "Morning Glory" – 3:28
6. "On That Day" (Cohen, Anjani Thomas) – 2:04
7. "Villanelle for Our Time" (words by F. R. Scott) – 5:55
8. "There for You" (Cohen, Robinson) – 4:36
9. "Dear Heather" – 3:41
10. "Nightingale" (Cohen, Thomas) – 2:27
11. "To a Teacher" – 2:32
12. "The Faith" (music based on a Quebec
    Quebec
    Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
    
     folk song, see "Un Canadien errant
    Un Canadien errant
    "Un Canadien errant" is a song written in 1842 by Antoine Gérin-Lajoie after the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837-1838. Some of the rebels were condemned to death, others exiled to the United States . Gérin-Lajoie wrote the song, about the pain of exile, while taking his classical exams at the...
    
    ") – 4:17
13. "Tennessee Waltz
    The Tennessee Waltz
    "Tennessee Waltz" is a popular/country music song with lyrics by Redd Stewart and music by Pee Wee King written in 1946 and first released in December 1947 as a single by Cowboy Copas that same year...
    
    " (Redd Stewart
    Redd Stewart
    Henry Ellis Stewart , better known as Redd Stewart, was an American country music songwriter and recording artist who co-wrote "The Tennessee Waltz" with Pee Wee King in 1948.-Biography:...
    
    , Pee Wee King
    Pee Wee King
    Julius Frank Anthony Kuczynski , known professionally as Pee Wee King, was an American country music songwriter and recording artist best known for co-writing "The Tennessee Waltz"....
    
    , additional verse by Cohen) – 4:05

Tracks 1, 3 and 8 were produced by Sharon Robinson. Tracks 2, 4–5, 7, 9 and 11 were produced by Leanne Ungar. Track 6 was produced by Anjani Thomas. Track 10 was produced by Anjani Thomas and Ed Sanders. Track 12 was produced by Leanne Ungar and Henry Lewy. Track 13 was produced by Leonard Cohen in 1985.

Track notes

• "On That Day" is a song about the September 11, 2001 attacks
  September 11, 2001 attacks
  The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
  
   in New York City
  New York City
  New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
  
  .
• "Villanelle for Our Time" was recorded 6 May 1999, shortly after Cohen's return from Mount Baldy
  Mount San Antonio
  Mount San Antonio, commonly known as Old Baldy or Mt Baldy, at , is the highest peak in the San Gabriel Mountains, and the highest point in Los Angeles County...
  
   Zen Center. It is an improvised jazz recitation of F.R. Scott's poem.
• "To a Teacher" is a spoken-word track based on Cohen's poem from his 1961 book of poetry The Spice-Box of Earth
  The Spice-Box of Earth
  The Spice-Box of Earth is Canadian poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen's second collection of poetry. It was first published in 1961 by McClelland and Stewart. The book brought the then 27 year-old poet a measure of early literary acclaim...
  
  , dedicated to the Canadian poet A.M. Klein.
• Music track for "The Faith" is actually an outtake
  Outtake
  An outtake is a portion of a work that is removed in the editing process and not included in the work's final, publicly released version. In the digital era, significant outtakes have been appended to CD and DVD reissues of many albums and films as bonus tracks or features, in film often, but not...
  
   from Recent Songs
  Recent Songs
  Recent Songs was the sixth studio album by Leonard Cohen, released in 1979. Produced by Henry Lewy and the artist himself, the album was a return to Cohen's acoustic folk music after the Phil Spector experimentation of Death of a Ladies' Man, but now with many jazz and Oriental influences.The album...
  
  , with completely new lyrics, re-mix
  Audio mixing (recorded music)
  In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
  
  ed and with new vocals added (thus the production was co-credited to Recent Songs producer Henry Lewy).
• The last track is a live performance of "Tennessee Waltz", recorded 9 July 1985 at the Montreux Jazz Festival
  Montreux Jazz Festival
  The Montreux Jazz Festival is the best-known music festival in Switzerland and one of the most prestigious in Europe; it is held annually in early July in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva...
  
  . It was taken from the radio recording and cleaned up digitally.
• The track 'Nightingale' is dedicated to the late R&B singer Carl Anderson
  Carl Anderson (singer)
  Carl Anderson was an American singer, film and theatre actor best known for his portrayal of Judas Iscariot in the Broadway and film versions of the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.-Early life:Born in Lynchburg, Virginia, Anderson was one of 12 children of...
  
  .