Bugs Henderson & The Shuffle Kings - Blue Music (2008)

Notes: Bugs Henderson’s brand-new studio album is the most personal and by far the blue-est yet from the Texas superstar guitarist. "BLUE MUSIC", his second release for No Guru Records features Bugs and his Shuffle Kings on 14 new, hard hitting tracks that give a truthful insight into the forty plus year career of this blues/rock icon. There’s a tribute to the late Tulsa, Oklahoma disc jockey John Henry, a song about the death of his father during World War Two, plenty of the hard rockin’ Henderson style guitar that he’s famous for, some humorous items and one particular track about the drug dealers that nearly ruined his son’s lives. That track, titled “I Want The Mother****** forced us to put the first Parental Advisory warning we’ve ever had on a No Guru release rather than ask Bugs to change the lyric. If you are easily offended by truthful language you may want to avoid this recording.
Bugs Henderson is the "real deal". Check any anthology of the Texas rock and blues music scene and you will likely find his name in the very first paragraph. One of his guitars hangs in the Dallas, Texas Hard Rock Café along with instruments donated by Chet Atkins and Lee Ritenouer and he's recorded with or shared stages with some of the greatest guitar slingers of all time including Freddie King, B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Johnny Winter and Roy Buchannan to name a few.
It was blues great Freddie King who encouraged Bugs to step out on his own after playing with a myriad of bands throughout Texas and the neighboring states. In the 60's he played with his buddy Ronnie Weiss in their group Mouse and the Traps, picking up national chart action with their "Public Execution" single. In the 70's he performed and recorded with Nitzinger, and in the past two decades he's seen more than two dozen albums released under his own name on labels around the world. He's been called "A national treasure" by the press and has been described by many critics as not only one of the best guitarists in the blues/rock field, but possibly the fastest player out there today.
Bugs has a dozen or so albums available today (mostly on import labels) and they are all terrific, but his first on No Guru, STORMY LOVE (NG 2004), and this new one titled BLUE MUSIC (NG 2008), are among the best you will find anywhere.