Simple pleasures

There's a lot of food I like... 

...but, if pressed, I'd have to say that good bread with good cheese (and boy is the bread and cheese good here in France!) takes some beating.

And so it goes with my tastes in music - I like the complicated stuff, but sometimes it just has to be simple fare.

So, here's Mike Henderson and the Bluebloods live on "Later with Jools Holland" on BBC TV from 1997. Henderson's on slide guitar and vocals, Glen Worf on bass, Reese Wynans on keys and John Gardner on drums. OK, it's a blues with those same old 12 bars and those same three chords, but it's all down to how you play it, and they really play the crap out of it. 

Later With Jools Holland - BBC TV - 1997

Henderson's an interesting guy.

Starting off in various blues bands, the last of which - The Snakes - strayed into hard rock territory, he moved on to become a staff writer for EMI after one of his songs for The Snakes got picked up for the film "Cocktail" with Tiny Tom Cruise. Along with some success writing for acts like the Dixie Chicks and Trisha Yearwood, he also picked up a lot of session work, playing guitar, mandolin and harmonica for Emmylou Harris and John Hiatt, amongst others.

Eventually, he got signed to RCA and cut an album, "Country Music Made Me Do It", that I can only describe as "radio-friendly Country" . It's OK and Henderson's guitar playing is impressive, but there's nothing that really stands out about the whole venture.

After being dropped by RCA, Henderson formed his own record company and released an album, "Edge of Night". It was in a similar vein to his debut, apart from the first track, "Wouldn't Lay My Guitar Down". This was a slide-driven up tempo blues track - rather at odds with the rest of the album - but it hinted at good things to come. 

Along with bass player Glen Worf and drummer John Gardner from the "Edge" sessions, Henderson hooked up with  keyboard player Reese Wynans, of  Stevie Ray Vaughan fame, and formed a blues band - Mike Henderson and the Bluebloods. So now it was back to the blues.

Henderson with trusty Silvertone

The Bluebloods cut three albums - all of which contain a mixture of blues covers and originals played with a freshness and vigour that lifts them out of the "let's form a blues band" rut. Their last album was recorded with a different line up and I have to express a preference for the first two Bluebloods albums recorded with Worf and Gardner, who really drive the whole band along. Gardner's drumming, in particular, can't be praised highly enough. When it comes to providing the power in the engine room, he's up there with the late Charlie Watts - especially with his snare work. He really is that good. The band's style is very much 1950s Chicago, with plenty of emphasis on a very rootsy feel. Henderson's guitar playing and vocals are suitably rough and ready and he blows a mean harp on occasion.

Somehow, amongst all this blues-based activity, he also found time for another band, The Dead Reckoners. They were very much country rock, although not as obviously commercial compared to his earlier forays into the genre.

Henderson on tour with Knopfler

Probably through longtime Mark Knopfler sidesman and ex-Blueblood GlenWorf, Henderson then toured in the ex-Dire Straits leader's band, following which he was one of the founding members of the very successful bluegrass band, The Steeldrivers, leaving in 2011. Since then, he's continued to gig and write, scoring a Country Music Association award in 2019 for the song "Broken Halos" written with Chris Stapleton, who was also in the Spikedrivers. Another CMA award followed in 2021 for "Starting Over".

So, that's blues, blues rock, country, blues again, country again, bluegrass and then country yet again, but it's Henderson's blues albums that really do it for me - no nonsense basic blues. 

Sometimes that's all you need to have a good time.