Biography
Although he put out only a modest number of discs, Cousin Herb Henson proved essential to the rise of the Bakersfield sound in country music. Weekday afternoons on his variety program The Trading Post, viewers caught performances by Buck Owens, Spade Cooley, and Merle Haggard, who later called Henson “the Ralph Emery of Bakersfield.”
Born in East St. Louis, Illinois, on May 17, 1925, the self-taught pianist and occasional comedian rode a Union Pacific railcar to California in the mid-1940s. After harvesting cotton in the San Joaquin Valley, he took a route selling laundry services door-to-door for a Fresno-based firm.
Bandleader Bill Woods persuaded Henson to settle in Bakersfield in 1946, where he joined radio station KERO and played occasional sets at the Clover Club and the Blackboard. In mid-1953 KERO-TV handed him his own weekday slot; The Cousin Herb Henson Trading Post TV Show debuted that September and aired each afternoon from 5:00 to 5:45. Early regulars included Woods, Billy Mize, and members of the Clover Club house band, among them Bonnie, Buck Owens’s estranged wife. Later lineups featured Al Brumley, Roy Nichols, and Dallas Frazier, while the guest roster spanned Gene Autry, Bob Wills, Johnny Cash, Ernest Tubb, Tex Ritter, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Merle Travis, and Lefty Frizzell. A ten-year-old Barbara Mandrell also made her television debut on the program.
During the show’s run Henson cut sides for Tally, Shasta, and Decca, yet his most notable work appeared on Capitol, highlighted by a 1953 version of Arlie Duff’s “Y’All Come,” which served as his theme. Other singles leaned toward novelty material such as “Hootchy Kootchy Henry,” “Board of Education,” and “Space Command,” none of which reached the charts. In 1960 Bakersfield station KIKK named Henson manager; he promptly altered its call letters to KUZZ to match his stage name. Around the same period he endured a heart attack yet maintained his television, radio, and club commitments. On September 12, 1963, roughly two dozen country artists, including Tommy Collins and Roy Clark, gathered at the Bakersfield Civic Center to mark The Trading Post’s tenth anniversary. Just two months afterward, on November 26, Henson suffered a second, fatal heart attack at age 38.
Born in East St. Louis, Illinois, on May 17, 1925, the self-taught pianist and occasional comedian rode a Union Pacific railcar to California in the mid-1940s. After harvesting cotton in the San Joaquin Valley, he took a route selling laundry services door-to-door for a Fresno-based firm.
Bandleader Bill Woods persuaded Henson to settle in Bakersfield in 1946, where he joined radio station KERO and played occasional sets at the Clover Club and the Blackboard. In mid-1953 KERO-TV handed him his own weekday slot; The Cousin Herb Henson Trading Post TV Show debuted that September and aired each afternoon from 5:00 to 5:45. Early regulars included Woods, Billy Mize, and members of the Clover Club house band, among them Bonnie, Buck Owens’s estranged wife. Later lineups featured Al Brumley, Roy Nichols, and Dallas Frazier, while the guest roster spanned Gene Autry, Bob Wills, Johnny Cash, Ernest Tubb, Tex Ritter, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Merle Travis, and Lefty Frizzell. A ten-year-old Barbara Mandrell also made her television debut on the program.
During the show’s run Henson cut sides for Tally, Shasta, and Decca, yet his most notable work appeared on Capitol, highlighted by a 1953 version of Arlie Duff’s “Y’All Come,” which served as his theme. Other singles leaned toward novelty material such as “Hootchy Kootchy Henry,” “Board of Education,” and “Space Command,” none of which reached the charts. In 1960 Bakersfield station KIKK named Henson manager; he promptly altered its call letters to KUZZ to match his stage name. Around the same period he endured a heart attack yet maintained his television, radio, and club commitments. On September 12, 1963, roughly two dozen country artists, including Tommy Collins and Roy Clark, gathered at the Bakersfield Civic Center to mark The Trading Post’s tenth anniversary. Just two months afterward, on November 26, Henson suffered a second, fatal heart attack at age 38.