Meet Chris Henry

Chris Henry, son of bluegrass veterans Red and Murphy Henry, has been playing mandolin for 25 of his 31 years.  He grew up in Winchester, Virginia, with some of the finest bluegrass musicians around including his parents, David McLaughlin, Scott Brannon, Lynn Morris, and Marshall Wilborn, among other excellent locals including Reno-style banjo picker Dalton Brill.  Chris’ style is becoming more well known for a white-knuckle, traditional bluegrass approach, although he is known for throwing in many happy accidentals from time to time.  He has performed or recorded with contemporary national acts such as Shawn Camp, Peter Rowan, Bill Emerson, Dale Crider, Verlon Thompson, 1946, Audie Blaylock and Redline, the Lynn Morris Band, and many more.

Chris learned the chords on the mandolin from his mom, Murphy Henry, when he was four years old.  A year previous to that, he had performed at his first bluegrass festival, singing and playing the ukulele.  He got serious about playing and studying bluegrass at about 10.  He started off chopping rhythm mandolin in his parents’ band, and quickly graduated to playing guitar.  While both Chris and his sister, Casey, were living at home, the family band recorded two albums.  Chris engineered his first song, a cover of the Stanley Brothers’ “Lonely Tombs”, at the age of 11 using the ping-pong technique of two tape recorders.

At about age 12, he started to compose prolifically, not only on the mandolin, but programming MIDI on an early sequencer called “Power Chords”. This allowed him to explore the digital world of creativity in a way that would take advantage of the technical capacities that come with computer based composition.

In 1994, he got to meet one of his heroes, Bill Monroe, backstage at the Grand Old Opry. Chris played “Rawhide” on Bill’s mandolin and Bill put his hat on Chris’s head and danced around the room. Afterwords Bill said to Chris “If you ever need anything, boy, you come and let me know.” This was a real dream come true for the young aspiring mandolin picker.

Chris got a Telecaster for his 16th birthday and quickly got involved in rock music making the rounds to heavy metal, and then punk rock where he ended up playing the drums in a band called The Bends for five years. This band had a penchant for fast speeds, many over 200 bpm. After high school, he pursued his passion for recording at Full Sail in Orlando, Florida.  Here Chris was able to work on million dollar consoles and have the experience of access to some of the world’s greatest recording equipment.

Thanksgiving 2000 was a milestone in Chris’s career: the first album that he engineered, Dale Crider’s “Wild Wood Swamp”. This was a great experience combining his love of acoustic music with the digital world of recording.

Upon moving back to Virginia in 2001, he began work on his first full length mandolin album titled, “Mandolumination”. It was a combination of traditional hardcore bluegrass mandolin, mixed with his interest in eastern intervals. Half of the album also featured MIDI orchestration as well as live mandolin and guitar. 2001 also was the first year that Chris and his dad, Red, started playing folk festivals in Florida. They have become a favorite among the attendees at the Florida Folk Festival, Will McLean Memorial Festival, and the Gamble Rogers Memorial Festival.

Chris continued to expand his musical horizons by getting into rap and hip-hop music. It was a natural transition to make since he had been “making beats” through MIDI for almost ten years at that point. After a while, his interest in the rhyming side of things compelled him and he went on to record two solo rap albums as well as a group album with two friends. He produced all the music for these three albums.

It was after these three rap albums were produced that Chris became in demand as a producer. He was becoming well-known in the northern Virginia area for producing high-quality recordings as well as making great beats.

Though much of his time was spent in his forays into more urban music, he was still honing his bluegrass chops being a frontman and lead singer for Dalton Brill and the Wildcats, a favorite local bluegrass band.

While teaching private lessons in Virginia, he was receiving attention for his abilities to connect with students and was invited to be an instructor at Augusta Heritage Bluegrass Week at Davis-Elkins college in West Virginia. Here he was able to expand his network and become more widely known by many of his picking peers.

In 2003, Chris decided it was time to join his sister in Nashville with dreams to play bluegrass full time.  He was hired shortly after moving to town to pick mandolin and sing tenor with 1946, a retro-style bluegrass band. After a year with 1946, and a year with Audie Blaylock and Redline, Chris and his sister Casey formed a band called Casey and Chris and the Two-Stringers, and recorded a CD with many of Chris’s original songs. It was very difficult for Casey and Chris to find musicians who really supported their vision of mountain-style bluegrass in Nashville, so after a couple of years they decided to pursue other opportunities.

At the Station Inn one night in Nashville, Chris met Adam Olmstead, a gifted songwriter and singer.  In the following years, Chris recorded mandolin and sang on Adam’s two studio albums which led to Chris and the album’s producer, Alan O’Bryant, heading up to where Adam is from, New Brunswick, for tours of the maritimes including Nova Scotia.

Chris had the opportunity to record a mandolin album which made the long nomination list for IBMA’s Instrumental Album of the Year.  He was contacted by the late Butch Baldassarri who initiated the project’s concept.  The album features many of the best in bluegrass: Red Henry, Casey Henry, John Hedgecoth, Jason Carter, Ronnie McCoury, Alan O’Bryant, Roland White, Robert Bowlin, Adam Olmstead, Butch Baldassarri, and Charlie Cushman.

Around this time, Shawn Camp was looking for a mandolin picker to play some gigs, and upon Mike Bub’s recommendation, Chris got the job which continues to this day.  Along with teaching many lessons and camps, Chris has become one of the most respected traditional bluegrass musicians in Nashville.  Chris had the opportunity to play on the Grand Old Opry with Shawn and Billy Burnette, as they supported their Bluegrass Elvises release, on which Chris played mandolin.

The family band traveled abroad in 2007 to perform at the Scotland Bluegrass Festival.  The crowds were highly enthusiastic to hear the Henry family bring their authentic brand of bluegrass across the water.

Chris moved to Paducah, KY in spring of 2008 to join forces with the Bawn in the Mash band who was gearing up to record their album “Confluence”, which Chris engineered and produced in the summer.  The group fused bluegrass and roots music together with rock and jam band influences to create a new and interesting sound that was well received by their audiences and in the press.

In 2009 Chris had the good fortune of getting more international exposure by performing at the Calgary and Winnipeg Folk Festivals with Danny Barnes and Mike Bub.  The trio was well received by Canadian audiences.

That same year, Chris teamed up with a friend he had grown up with, Luke Johnson, to produce Luke’s debut album, “LightBringer”, a fresh fusion of different styles that incorporated sounds from bluegrass to jam-band, to solo piano, to blues-rock, and reggae.

After helping Bill Emerson record his  “Eclipse” album in early 2010, Chris spent the summer helping conceptualize and design a recording studio facility in Sterling, VA. Here, he produced many urban artists in genres form r&b to hip-hop, rock, pop, dance, and world music.

After deciding to return to Nashville in early 2011, he started working on what would become his album, Burns Station.  It is a Telecaster-based album that features 11 original songs, one original mandolin instrumental, and a Gamble Rogers cover.  This album was well received in Nashville by his peers.  His song “Walkin’ West to Memphis” was recorded by the Gibson Brothers and went on to be a top five hit and was nominated for IBMA and SPGBMA Song of the Year.

In 2012, Chris was offered an opportunity to host a weekly bluegrass night in Nashville at Bootleggers Inn. This night has become one of the favorite places for bluegrass in Nashville for musicians to congregate and perform, and for fans to listen and enjoy the atmosphere.  He debuted the first bluegrass band he has led, Chris Henry and the Hardcore Grass, and has quickly gained a supportive local following.