Bio
“Big, bold electric and slide guitar playing, some rustic harmonica flavorings and, of course, the lap steel playing that is quickly defining the man as a force to be reckoned with. Son's vocal style is earthy and relaxed, the perfect vehicle to deliver his tales of love both won and lost.”
- Southwest Blues Magazine
About
Son Henry is an award-winning singer/songwriter and lap steel guitarist based in New York State. If Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton, and Robert Johnson met in a bar and decided to have a monster jam, you’d get a sound like Son Henry's. His raw yet melodic storytelling style reflects his love of Roots, Blues, and Vintage Country music. Son sings and performs covers and original material on the guitar, lap steel, dobro, and slide guitar as either a solo artist or as a lead in bands with long-term collaborators in the UK, US, and Eastern Europe.
Over his 30-year career, his style has evolved from pure Blues to Country Blues, to a more nuanced combination of Roots, Blues, and Americana. He has received two British Blues Awards, released four albums, and has played in multiple venues and festivals across the US and Europe.
History
Son is a native Rochesterian who spent his teens playing the guitar in the basement and making weekly pilgrimages on the bus to House of Guitars and the Record Archives. Life and work took him to Dallas, Texas, where he found himself playing alongside Texas Blues legends Mike Morgan, Tyrone Starks, Buddy Miles, and Sam Meyers. In the late 90’s, he moved north to Alaska and spent the next 10 years playing the rough-and-tumble bars and festivals across the last frontier, releasing his first two albums, Glenn Highway Blues and Heartache and Trouble, and learning to play the lap steel and dobro, perfecting his fingerpicking style, and honing his vocals. It’s cold. And dark. And there’s not a lot to do…
In 2005, Son moved to Scotland and quickly became a favorite at the Roots music clubs, bars, and festivals across the UK and Europe - places like the Crawdaddy, Redcar and the Red Lion in the UK and Festivals including the Orkney, Arbroath, Dundee, and Burnley Mechanics Festivals (UK), Gaastroblues (Hungary), Augustibluus (Estonia), Blues on the Green (US) and the Ft. Worth Blues Festival (US). He also released his third album, Long Way Home, won two British Blues Awards, and had two original tracks “Ribbon of Tar” and “Second Glance”, featured on the BBC.
A move back to Texas, this time to Houston, in 2012 led to a strong infusion of honky-tonk, twang, and red dirt swing into his music with the happy result of a truly unique and original sound. During his Houston years, he backed off from fronting a band, focusing instead on raising a family and songwriting, while performing as lead guitarist and string instrumentalist for Nashville recording artists Jon Stork and Blake Harlow.
Upcoming Projects
Now come full circle back to Rochester, New York, Son is retaking center stage, developing an East Coast audience, reconnecting with European collaborators, writing songs, and getting back to recording. 2023 saw the release of Thrift Store Sorcerer, a poetic collection of solo acoustic lap steel and finger-style songs written in Scotland and Houston during the pandemic. Coming in 2024, Grace is an album recorded in Budapest in September 2023 with long-time Hungarian collaborators, The T-Rogers Band. In the works are also a new Alan-Lomax style roots-music album recorded on Edison wax phonograph cylinders, and a UK tour in September 2024.