Wayne Henderson is one cool cat. We met the luthier/fingerpicking master in February at Wintergrass and hit it off. My friend Eddie Greenwood's Uncle Tom let me borrow one of his guitars, a Henderson, and I loved it. Uncle Tom Sulock actually has TWO Hendersons and Leigh and I jammed on both of these exquisite guitars, smiling the whole time. After our performances at Wintergrass, Leigh and I rode with Trisha Tubbs to a nearby Grange Hall to attend a Wayne Henderson performance. His picking was wonderful as was his wit. He invited us onstage for a few numbers. I think we are musical kin. Fast forward a month and a half or so when we were touring the Southeast. We had a couple of days off in the middle of the week, so Leigh and I drove to Wayne's in Rugby, VA, Population 7. We had heard of The Crooked Road, Highway 58, but had never experienced this beautiful and treacherous stretch of blacktop. I am afraid of heights, much to the delight of my band mates. Something about sheer drop offs with no guardrails really bothers me. In fact, it makes sweat beads pop out on my forehead. I've experienced similar feelings in California and in Colorado. The ride was worth it to see Wayne's shop and to meet his daughter Elizabeth. She had my number. We were talking about Facebook, and I said that I really couldn't have the Instant Messaging function on with 5,000 friends. I said, "I'd never get any work done." Right away, she said, "Oh, that's right. You're FAMOUS." I felt my face turn red. "No, I didn't mean it that way." She and Leigh had a good laugh at my expense. We picked with Wayne and swapped stories (his stories were way better!). He let us play so many of his beautiful guitars and ended our visit by firing a small cannon off that sent the horses in the hilly field across the road running. In between, Wayne invited us to play his festival next June. We look forward to it. I like Wayne. He's talented and likes to laugh. Good combo.
Eric