For Pete's sake

Henderson continues to sing the blues

by Mark Edmonds

As first look, Peter Henderson, the day guy, doesn't fit the profile of a veteran musician. For our meet in a Westborough diner, he's clad in Salvation Army-issue jeans and a worn gray sweatshirt. With his silvery hair mussed and piled atop his head, he looks more like a building wrecker than a guy who spends his nights playing blues. Sitting at the counter amid a crush of contractor types and truck drivers, he blends in so well I almost miss him.

But, hey, I only know Henderson the night guy. The Hopkinton resident's led a number of local bands, from the R&B-oriented Bobby Watson Band to Chicago bluesers Little Ronnie and the Sloan Sharks. Now, he runs Fatwall Jack, a blues-meets-R&B-with-a-touch-of-soul project fronted by the dynamic young vocalist Erica Rodney. Like the others, they're a group who are well-worth seeing when they appear this Saturday at Upton's Wildwood, especially if you're sick to death of listening to bands selling rehashed Muddy tunes or tired resurrections of Stevie Ray.

Fatwall's act centers on blues from the female perspective. To wit, songs from the postwar canon popularized by Etta James, Koko Taylor, and a number of lesser-known ladies comprise the setlist. On stage, the comely Rodney takes these tunes, along with other standards, including Bobby Bland's "I Pity the Fool" and Howlin' Wolf's "Built for Comfort," and works them as if she's been at them for years. She's still a work-in-progress at this point (this is only the 25-year-old singer's second band) but already, her versatile style -- one that reminds me of a cross between a young Tracey Nelson and Joan Osborne -- portends a bright future.

In Worcester last summer with Henderson (characteristically dressed in creased slacks, tailored shirts, and hair combed into a sinister-looking do), the pair were no less a musical match than Ike and Tina. Rodney alternately cooed and hollered her way through the night while Henderson followed along, carefully coaxing his Strat through a set where snippets gleaned from everyone from Albert King to T-Bone Walker to Magic Sam surfaced. Behind them, bassist Steve Leivelle churned out one slippery groove after another with drummer Bob Cosman, while saxophonist Kenny Blount soloed a Charlie-meets-Maceo Parker-thing on top of everything. All in all, pretty entertaining.

But not surprising. Hendy's been studying blues and roots since his school days at Natick High in the mid-'70s. Back then, the blues scene was in Boston and Cambridge. To play, you had to get into clubs such as Cambridge's Speakeasy. For him, that proved problematic.

"It was a tight little scene then, and not everyone was invited, or even welcome -- guys like Ronnie Earl and Sugar Ray having trouble getting to play at jams. And they were there all the time," Henderson recalls. "But I was persistent."

How did he make it? "I had a friend who somehow ended up getting a weeknight gig at the 'Easy," he laughs. "He wanted me to play with him, but I had to ask the owner's permission first. That was kinda weird, but [he] let me play. Afterwards, he must have liked me, because he took me aside and bought me a beer. It was as if he was welcoming me into the family in his own way."

Soon afterward, he formed the Watsons, basing their sound first on Texas and Chicago blues (much in the same way the Fabulous Thunderbirds did -- at the time, they were temporarily camped in Cambridge). Later, the line-up expanded to include horns and songs in a rock and early R&B vein -- a mix that clicked with audiences. For more than 11 years, they were regulars on the New England club circuit.

Surprisingly, with all that he's done, Henderson's never seen himself as a professional musician. "I guess it just always seemed to me that you could never make enough to live on. So I never though much about it," he recalls. "Some weeks we did seven nights but, even then, we never made enough to say it was our job. We were in it because it was cool, and we loved to play. We didn't care if we had to work day jobs."

It was during this period that he came up with the notion to host -- and still does -- the Sunday blues jam at John Stone's Inn, in Ashland. One of the region's best from early on, it's dictated that everyone could play, regardless of ability. This not only made the jam perennially popular, but it also helped countless players gain valuable stage experience. While it's easy to credit Henderson as both an influential figure and a standard-bearer for gimmick-free roots music, you won't find him boasting. Instead, he'd rather just play.

"I guess it's been different for me," he explains. "I've always really loved getting out there, and doing what I do. Then I go home to my family and think how lucky a guy I really am."

Fatwall Jack play the Wildwood Lounge, in Upton, at 9 p.m. on December 20. Call 529-7782. Peter Henderson's blues jam begins every Sunday at 8 p.m. at John Stone's Inn, in Ashland. Call 881-1778.