Henry Gray - Shake A Hand (CD)

Release Date: 03/04/22

Great piano Blues by the Lousiana & Chicago Legend

Blues pianist Henry Gray was born in Kenner, Louisiana in 1925 and moved to Alsen,
near Baton Rouge in Louisiana soon after. In 1946 he headed to Chicago where he met Big Maceo Merriweather. 'Me, Otis Spann and Johnny Jones all learned to play boogie woogie from Maceo.

Henry's first studio session was backing Jimmy Rogers on Chess, in August 1952. He
also appeared on a Morris Pejoe Checker session cut in 1952, producing both sides of
Checker 766, featuring Henry Strong on harmonica. A year later he cut more sides with
Pejoe and Strong.

His Chess recordings from 1953 did not appear commercially until 1974 and his Parrot
recordings, cut with Dusty Brown in 1955 did not appear until 1989 on a Relic album.
He also recorded with Little Walter in 1953and for Atomic H in 1958.
In 1956 he joined Howlin' Wolf's band who had a regular gig at Sylvio's: 'At Sylvio's
Wolf's band could play seven nights a week. A lot of times I would stay in Chicago to
run the band if Wolf was out of town. Wolf would leave me and take Hubert Sumlin
with him. Wolf could be gone three to four weeks and
I kept it going on. I learned a lot about how to run a band doing that Henry left Wolf and
Chicago in 1968. I wanted to go back home where people were living.
Henry played at local clubs. He formed the first version of his band, Henry Gray And The Cats, in 1970 and recorded for Arhoolie,
Blues Unlimited (a fine 45) and Excello in the same year. 'I played with a lot of Louisiana
blues men, Raful Neal, Clarence Edwards and Tabby Thomas.'

Henry enjoyed a prolific recording and touring career. He cut albums for Bluebeat
in Germany in 1977 (a collectable solo set) for Storyville in 1984, Blind Pig in 1988, Hightone, Lucky Cat, Wolf, Sidetrack
and Blueswave in the 1990s and APO in 2000. In 1998 he played at Mick Jagger's 55th
birthday in Paris. He toured constantly. Despite this double health scare, Henry continued playing the blues. Henry died at the age of 95 on February 17th, 2020.