The 50 must-have New Orleans records
Henry Butler – "Homeland" – Basin Street Records – 2004
Next in the line of great New Orleans piano players, Henry Butler is the heir-apparent to the city’s great tradition of exceptional piano players, stretching from 1800s with Louis Gottschalk to the 1970s and 80s with Professor Longhair and James Booker respectively.
Recorded in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina wrecked Butler’s home and his beloved concert piano, sending him to Colorado first and now in Brooklyn where he is working on his eleventh record.
A master musician who is at ease playing blues, rhythm and blues, gospel, soul, jazz and classical, he seems at his best playing the and interpreting the funk-inspired, Caribbean and Creole sounds of New Orleans.
For this record, he returns to his roots and shines.
-Michael Luke
Henry Butler - "Henry's Boogie"
