Biography
Born on 13 February 1919 in Canton, Mississippi, Henley took up the harmonica during childhood and performed it at rural dances. He relocated to Chicago in 1943, where he spent time alongside John Lee ‘Sonny Boy’ Williamson and absorbed substantial technique, although his lone 1958 release draws more heavily from the other Sonny Boy, Rice Miller Williamson, whom Henley had encountered earlier in Mississippi. He maintained that he supported his regular partner Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Spires on a 1953 session, yet he never viewed himself as a professional musician. Sessions cut for Testament in the mid-1960s returned to his formative material, featuring pieces such as ‘Slidin’ Devil’, ‘Old Mule’ and ‘Two Step’, none of which were released.