91 year old blues icon and WWII Veteran Henry Gray lost his home and everything he owns to historic flooding that has devasted many Louisiana communities. He is safe and in good health but stated yesterday "I have lost everything." Henry is now displaced, please help him recover.
Henry is one of the last remaining links to the formation of the postwar Chicago Blues of the late 40s and early 50s. He participated in many of the defining recordings of this genre in sessions with Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Little Walter, Jimmy Rogers and many others. He received a Grammy Award nomination for his album ‘A Tribute to Howlin' Wolf’ released on Telarc Records. That same year he played for Mick Jagger's 55th birthday celebration in Paris. During the last thirty years, Henry has performed at virtually all New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festivals and every Baton Rouge Blues Festival since its inception. Henry was featured along with Ray Charles, Dr. John, Pinetop Perkins and Dave Brubeck in Clint Eastwood's "Blues Piano" which was part of Martin Scorsese's seven part series, "The Blues.” Henry was awarded the 2006 National Heritage Fellowship Award by the National Endowment for the Arts which is the nation's top honor for a folk artist. Henry is still a vibrant performer, rocking festival stages around the globe and earning numerous recent awards and nominations. But at his core Henry is simply a musician who earnestly loves to wholeheartedly share his craft with audiences large and small. How daunting it must be for a 91 year old to have to restart his humble life. Any donations large or small will make a difference.
The Delta Groove label released Gray’s latest studio effort with Bob Corritore called ‘The Blues Won’t Let Me Take My Rest.’
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