Mike Henderson

Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Mike Henderson established himself over time as a go-to session player in Nashville studios before launching his own recordings with the blues outfit the Bluebloods. After starting out on mandolin and relocating from Missouri to Nashville, he applied his background as a mandolinist and flat-top guitarist to become a sought-after slide player in the city’s recording community.

Three albums appeared on the Dead Reckoning imprint: Edge of Night (1994), First Blood (1996), and Oakland Blues (1998). The middle of those releases featured Reese Wynans, Glenn Worf, and John Gardner, a lineup that helped make the record one of 1996’s strongest yet most neglected efforts. Between them, those musicians have worked onstage and in the studio with John Hiatt, Emmylou Harris, Kevin Welch, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Mark Knopfler, Lonnie Mack, Aaron Neville, Larry Carlton, Johnny Cash, Al Kooper, Tracy Nelson, Rory Block, Sonny Burgess, and Delbert McClinton.

Radio play arrived with the second album’s “Pay Bo Diddley,” a track that spotlighted unfair U.S. record royalty statutes. First Blood itself took shape during a two-day Nashville session in which nearly every track was captured live on the first attempt and without further layering. The set also reinterpreted earlier blues numbers such as Sonny Boy Williamson’s “So Sad to Be Lonesome,” J.B. Hutto’s “Hip Shakin’,” and Hound Dog Taylor’s “Give Me Back My Wig.”

In 2001 Henderson joined Mark Knopfler’s touring ensemble, and seven years later he helped launch the bluegrass band the SteelDrivers. He departed that group in 2011 yet kept writing with former member Chris Stapleton, resulting in two major successes for Stapleton: “Broken Halos” and “Starting Over.” Mike Henderson passed away on September 22, 2023, at the age of 70.