“I tell people all the time that I know you’re supposed to stop and smell the roses as you go though life, but in my case I stopped and moved into the garden,” quips Bugs Henderson. The Tyler-raised, East Texas-based guitarist is playing the Saxon Pub on Friday but has been keeping Texas a dangerous place for the blues since the 1960s.
Back then, Henderson was part of regionally popular DFW band called Mouse & the Traps, whose “L-O-V-E Love” and “Public Execution” singles charted across the state. He later bent six strings with John Nitzinger and was a favorite at the Armadillo throughout the 1970s while playing with and opening for the likes of Freddie King, the Allman Brothers, B.B. King, and Eric Clapton. Good thing the blues is a timeless genre, for Henderson’s expertise matched peers such as Denny Freeman and Jimmie Vaughan for steel-belted muscle on the guitar neck.
Hard to believe Henderson remains a largely live phenomenon, one whose reputation far exceeds his recorded output, but there’s his guitar in the Dallas Hard Rock Café, right by Chet Atkins. Still Flyin’, a high-octane dose of premium Texas-style guitar from 1981 was reissued on CD but Blue Music is Henderson’s latest fuel-injected release. It includes a truckload of killer blue denim, black leather tracks such as “Tattoo,” “Town Pump,” and “Interview with a Vamp.” “The Cellar” pays homage to DFW’s legendary venue while “You Ain’t Nothing to Texas” is the portable neon sign reminding you this is the Lone Star State.
If news of a Bugs CD is welcome, the chance to see him is better. If you’re looking to chill after the fireworks on Friday night, Bugs Henderson at the Saxon Pub is guaranteed to continue the pyrotechnics.
This article appears in June 27 • 2008.