Alt. country rocker, Henry Wagons got the chance to live a dream by walking in the footsteps of his musical idols when he made the pilgrimage to Nashville to record his latest solo album.
A fan of classic songwriting, the best-dressed man in rock & roll turned to Sun Records greats like Elvis, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison. “When I’m wanting to get something done I look to people who have done it before who I admire and that is part of the reason I got to Nashville and am playing music in America,” Henry explains.
“It’s like a music mecca for me and the music I play, and my heroes thrived in, so there is a really exciting element to following in their footsteps and following the same process. Now I don’t pretend to be any more than shit on the show of Roy Orbison, but if I am shit on the shoe of Roy Orbison, that is fucking amazing. If I’m anywhere near Roy Orbison at all and I’m that close to his big toe I reckon that's a massive achievement; that's great music right there.”
After performing and recording extensively in Nashville with his own band Wagons, Henry decided it was the perfect place to create his new solo album, ‘After What I Did Last Night’, recruiting a small force of talented session musicians he’d come to know during his travels. “I’ve been playing with Wagons for many years and we've been signed to this label based in Nashville and it's given us the pleasure of having gone through Nashville a number of times,” he says.
“Every time we go through we find more bars we like, more music that we like and most importantly, more friends. I realised as a frontperson/ fleet commander/ war leader of a band that there was a little troop assembling, a fantasy band in my mind that I wanted to play my music.
"When Wagons all wanted to take a little break, everyone wanted to take some time away to do their own thing; I signed a new record deal with ABC and had the opportunity to go to Nashville and make this dream come true.”
Henry is hitting the road for a six-date national tour in support of ‘After What I Did Last Night’ along with his new live band, The Only Children featuring guitarist Matt Walker as well as album producer Skylar Wilson on piano and keyboards. “It’s going to be a full-force experience,” Henry says.
“There’s not going to be a Radiohead-style, synced-visual extravaganza [or] a projection but the stage is going to look great. Everyone’s going to have a solid, locked jawline, clenched teeth, sweat on their brow and tight-as-all-hell music. It’ll be worth a look that’s for sure. You can wear your most powerful earplugs and still have a good time.
“I think this tour is going to be a brief and potent extravaganza. We’re keeping it really short because Skylar, who’s coming from Nashville, he hasn’t got much time but he has an incredible amount of passion and curiosity about Australia.”
The tour will be Skylar’s first time to Australia and like a true-blue, good as gold, Aussie piss-taker, Henry’s been filling his head with tales of monstrous native wildlife that wants nothing more than to maim and devour foreign travellers. “He's never been to Australia before. He thinks it's full of spiders, kangaroos in chaotic, strange places and I haven't told him otherwise,” he laughs.
“He's going to be wide-eyed… he's prone to all that sort of stuff.” Welcome to Australia, mate.
Henry Wagons Tour Dates
Fri 6 May - Jive Bar (Adelaide)Sat 7 May - Mojos (Fremantle)
Sun 8 May - Four5Nine (Perth)
Fri 13 May - Newtown Social Club (Sydney)
Sat 14 May - Howler (Melbourne)
