mike henderson

Mike Henderson leaps from the roles of songwriter and guitarist to that of frontman...Henderson's muscular brand of barroom music blends the best elements...Powerful stuff is an apt description.........Rolling Stone

Already well known around his native Nashville as a formidable and innovative picker, Henderson brings a bluesy edge and authenticity ..to the party with plenty of attitude and a distinctive point of view......Billboard

Nashville's Henderson enjoys a reputation as a picker's picker and blues blaster...precision machine-gun chicken pickin' and the shotgun spray of slithering slide.....Guitar Player

Heretofore, Mike Henderson has been one of the most underrated honky-tonk singers in country.  "First Blood" (Dead Reckoning) marks him as one of the most underrated white bluesmen, too.  His "Pony Blues" is so adept that Johnny Winter might envy it, and his Chicago blues evoke the spirit of Elmore James.  Plus there's "Pay Bo Diddley", on which Henderson and his band pay some dues..... Playboy

Henderson may be best known as a songwriter (Patty Loveless, Travis Tritt), but these blistering seamless blues covers prove he's a remarkable guitarist and frontman.  The Bluebloods, an impromptu band ..,are as tight as a too-small shoe.  Look for this one to show up on best-of-the-year lists...Entertainment Weekly

If an army rides on its stomach, a band rides on its rhythm section.  When the combination of piano, bass, drums and electric guitar is as neck-snappingly strong as it is on the Bluebloods' first album, you don't need other instruments, original compositions or  even many original ideas to deliver a knockout blow.  Whipping thru the blues bombshells like Hound Dog Taylor's "Give Me Back My Wig" and Elmore James' "Mean Mistreater", Henderson-a 43 year-old Missourian who is as raspingly good on harmonica as he is on slide guitar-and his Nashville cats don't even try to reinvent rocking roadhouse boogaloo.  ...the Bluebloods make the familiar trajectories of the blues glow like tracer bullets in the night....People

Henderson is as good as blues guitar players as exists right now...a tight fierce band..... Rock n Rap Confidential

Henderson comes across like a fierce combination of Junior Brown, Jimmie Vaughn and Dwight Yoakum.  Showing off his honky-tonk revelry, Henderson is a blistering guitarist...Tower Pulse

Henderson's guitar playing is exemplary, whether he's playing open tuning slide, crunchy Keith Richards' chords, or B. B. King 60's style single string solos....Dirty Linen

Mike Henderson gives us  the best white boy blues this  side  of  Stevie Ray Vaughn.    Elmore James would listen ... and so should you..... Oklahoma Gazette

..his amazing ability to grab hold of all sorts of styles and sing and play the heck out of each one.  Henderson always finds ways to make familiar riffs  sound extraordinary.....Atlanta Journal-Constitution

..bold blast of hard-rocking honky-tonk...exceptional feel for the the various roots styles he tackles and the quality of his material, and the intensity of his performances...songwriting abilities are as impressive as his taste in outside material..... Philadelphia Inquirer

..honest Nashville cat with the passions to dig deep and the brass to rock the twang.  He favors long, keening notes drenched in twisted, descending runs, cooked up in a wicked transfiguration that's equal parts Pete Anderson and Waylon Jennings...Houston Chronicle

Henderson takes you on a musical journey rich with powerful songwriting...Gavin

From his days with the Missouri blues outfit, the Bel Airs, through Nashville's hard rocking Snakes, (who recorded one of the best  Bukka White covers ever on their one and only album from the late '80's), to  his work backing up Kevin Welch, Kieran Kane and Tracy Nelson, on to his solo career as a country songwriter and performer, Mike Henderson  has consistently stood out from the pack with his amazing guitar playing (bottleneck especially), balls out harp  work and no bullshit  songs .....Real Groove

 Listen to Henderson's guitar as it twangs, slides and slithers...Sharp songs and unruly guitar work reveal Henderson as a dominator of honky-tonk blues and an honor graduate of The College of Muddy, Merle and Monroe....Edge Magazine

Mike Henderson is a standout in any crowd because of his sizzling talent and rapid-fire guitar style, and with this, his second solo effort, Henderson is even better than the  first  time around.  A real honky-tonker with a dose of Missouri blues.  Henderson  is always distinctive and always entertaining.  His covers  are original and his new material bright    and interesting.  Keep the so-called fresh horses pastured and let the wild herd run free.....Music Connection

Mike Henderson is a powerful electric and acoustic guitarist and a songwriter   and interpreter supreme. He is a name deserving of a wide audience.... Press-Atlantic City

Henderson's rebel-rocking guitar - a thick stringed cross between Sonny Landreth's slide and Pete Anderson's twang lends a distinctive edge.....Replay

Tackles with a visceral, unpolished energy unlike any  other Nashville band currently on the scene...beautifully articulated guitar work;...plays lead guitar in a single-string style much like King's 1960's technique ...        Country Music

"I was in my kind of heaven.  Here were some men I wanted to play music with...Henderson sings and plays the way a hundred blues bands can't and don't.  There really aren't that many people around who carry with them an understanding of the music, black and white, who can write, sing and play country and then deliver a cracking blues set without so much as a pause to buy a pack of Camels."   -Mark Knopfler