Dorris Henderson (February 2, 1933 – March 3, 2005) was an American-born, United Kingdom-based folk music singer and

autoharp An autoharp or chord zither is a string instrument belonging to the zither family. It uses a series of bars individually configured to mute all strings other than those needed for the intended chord. The term ''autoharp'' was once a trademark of ...

player.

Early years

Born in Lakeland, Florida but raised in Los Angeles, she was the daughter of an African American clergyman and the granddaughter of a

Blackfoot The Blackfoot Confederacy, ''Niitsitapi'' or ''Siksikaitsitapi'' (ᖹᐟᒧᐧᒣᑯ, meaning "the people" or " Blackfoot-speaking real people"), is a historic collective name for linguistically related groups that make up the Blackfoot or Bla ...

Native American. The blues musician, Guitar Nubbit, was her uncle. She initially worked as a

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

but became interested in music after seeing a performance by Odetta at the famed LA folk venue the Ash Grove. She soon became a regular at Sunset Boulevard's jazz clubs and began to perform autoharp version of tunes from

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, sch ...

's ''The Folk Songs of North America''. Henderson got her break when she met

Lord Buckley Lord Richard Buckley (born Richard Myrle Buckley; April 5, 1906 – November 12, 1960) was an American stand-up comedian and recording artist, who in the 1940s and 1950s created a character that was, according to ''The New York Times'', "an unli ...

– who called her "the Lady Dorris""Lady Sang the Folk-Rock Blues", ''Record Collector'', #497, October 2019, p.72 – and joined him for a series of stage shows in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

, including an appearance singing ' Rock of Ages' on one of Buckley's live albums, ''In Concert''.

Full-time music career

Having gained some recognition from her association with Buckley, Henderson decided to devote her attentions to music full-time and moved to New York City in order to do so at a time when the city's Greenwich Village area was the centre of a boom in American folk music. Henderson quickly became a friend of leading scene figures such as Dave Van Ronk, Fred Neil,

Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor whose career has spanned six decades. He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters in popular music, both as a solo artist and as half of folk roc ...

– becoming one of the first artists to cover Simon with her version of "Leaves That are Green" – and Bob Dylan. She made a brief appearance in the latter's film '' Dont Look Back''.

Move to the UK

Henderson's brother served in England with the United States Air Force and, following encouragement from him, she travelled to London, staying at a hotel in the

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

area. Singing with her

, Henderson soon became a regular feature at The Troubadour, a centre of the folk revival, later explaining that she sang folk ballads rather than

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

because she was "a city girl". After meeting John Renbourn at The Roundhouse, she offered the young guitarist the chance to accompany her when she won a residency on the

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

television programme '' Gadzooks! It's All Happening'', appearing alongside such stars of the time as

Tom Jones Tom Jones may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Tom Jones (singer) (born 1940), Welsh singer * Tom Jones (writer) (1928–2023), American librettist and lyricist *''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'', a novel by Henry Fielding published in ...

and Sandie Shaw. The duo of Henderson and Renbourn recorded two albums together, ''There You Go'' (1965) and ''Watch the Stars'' (1967), before Renbourn left to link up with Bert Jansch. After an encounter with the Dutch folk singer Cobi Schreijer at the Roundhouse, Henderson undertook a European tour encompassing thirteen countries, and lived for some time in the Netherlands, where she also recorded.

Later years

Early in 1968, Henderson formed a rock band, Tintagel, with Ian McDonald, later of King Crimson, but the band was not well received and soon disbanded. Later in 1968, Henderson replaced Kerrilee Male as the singer with the band Eclection, performing with them at the Isle of Wight Festival 1969. Following their demise she launched Dorris Henderson's Eclection with her son Eric Jones as guitarist. After marrying Mac McGann, formerly of the Levee Breakers, Henderson settled in Twickenham and largely retired from music, bar some jingle work and a few appearances with Bob Kerr. Following a re-release of ''There You Go'' in 1999, Henderson returned to music on a more regular basis, culminating in the 2003 album ''Here I Go Again'', a work featuring Renbourn and a number of other former colleagues and described by Henderson as 'my musical autobiography'. Henderson died at Charing Cross Hospital,

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

, in London, in 2005, from cardiac failure.

Discography

*With John Renbourn: ''There You Go'' Columbia SX 6001 1965Pohle, Horst (1987) ''The Folk Record Source Book''; 2nd ed.; p. 198 *With John Renbourn: ''Watch the Stars'' Fontana TL 5385 1966Pohle, p. 198 *''Rotterdam Blues'' SHR VR 108 (EP) *''Here I Go Again'' Market Square MSMCD117 2003

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, Dorris 1933 births 2005 deaths 20th-century African-American women singers American folk singers American emigrants to England American autoharp players British autoharp players Blackfoot people Deaths from cancer in England Musicians from Lakeland, Florida People from Los Angeles 20th-century American singers 20th-century American women singers 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women