Mike Henderson

Last Nite at the Bluebird – Live!

Yates McKendree

Need to Know

Big Shoes

King Size

Qualified Records

The latest three albums in Qualified Records’ impressive catalog of now twelve, arrive together, each offering distinctive, splendid takes on American roots and blues music. Qualified plays key roles in the careers and livelihoods of the artists they work with, offering a full range of services that include a studio with a magnificent house band, production, marketing, and a focus on the artist’s profitability and legacy. Owned and operated by celebrated roots and blues pianist Kevin McKendree and songwriter/producer John Heithaus, the company’s business plan is unique, and very admirable. But superb music remains their focus. “We always try to create music that we would want to hear,” says McKendree. In their three years of operation, that has meant albums by artists with their hearts 100% invested in real, “qualified” music.

Heart was at the center of everything Mike Henderson did. That his cardiac muscle literally gave out suddenly a year and a half ago remains shocking and sad. A musical chameleon, Henderson wrote a rich bounty of songs, wrangled the heavens and hell out of the strings of a guitar, mandolin, and fiddle, and sang with unbridled conviction. He applied it all to a mix of country, bluegrass, and the blues. Bottomless, high-octane blues, which is what Last Nite at the Bluebird – Live! is all about. This collection of highlights from Henderson’s final Monday night residency shows at the legendary Nashville songwriter’s forum display the goods for anyone not lucky enough to attend one. Like a lit match thrown into a hayloft, Henderson’s voice and guitar tones instantly set the small room aflame. Henderson’s intent with a song, whether on his own, with the SteelDrivers, or for his former bandmate in the SteelDrivers, Chris Stapleton, was to entertain with a purpose. The very idea of “Pay Bo Diddley” (molded from “Hey Bo Diddley”) and his steel rending guitar solo in it, are both thrown down firmly, the sounds of it nearly otherworldly. Throughout eight wicked songs, sequenced and unedited as if you were there, this band comprised of Henderson, Pat O’Connor on drums, Steve Mackey on bass, and Kevin McKendree on piano, takes possession of the music, and the 90 in attendance. Hopefully, there will be more to come.

Kevin McKendree’s son, Yates McKendree, follows up his highly acclaimed 2022 debut album Buchannan Lane with Need to Know, a set of five burning and charming originals and eight intuitive covers. From one end to the other, McKendree not only justifies the buzz that surrounds him, but reveals the major player inside him still in the process of bursting forth. McKendree was baptized at birth in the blues and soul music that his dad would play in their Nashville home. Not yet in his mid-20s, he plays guitar with impeccable chops and flair, and bowls listeners over in subtle, classy fashion, singing in a youthful, yet very affecting voice. But on the traditional “See See Rider,” McKendree eschews the words and lets some T-Bone Walker-inspired guitar licks do the talking, augmented by his dad’s smooth, Jimmy Smith-channeling organ. His fiery fretwork during his own runaway train-like “Good as Gone,” and the way he softens the edges of James Brown’s “I Don’t Care” while retaining every bit of the song’s defiant intensity, also stand out. Need to Know has something for all blues fans. For those likely few that are not familiar with Yates McKendree, you need to know him.

And then there’s Big Shoes. Formed initially to pay tribute to Little Feat, these seven Music City hotshots led by singer/guitarist Rick Huckaby and guitarist/singer Will McFarlane had no problem whatsoever filling those big shoes. The band, rounded out by guitarist Kenne Cramer, keyboardist/singer Mark T. Jordan, drummer Lynn Williams, bassist Tom Szell, and percussionist Bryan Brock, boasts gigs with Levon Helm, Bonnie Raitt, Van Morrison, Boz Scaggs and many more on their resumes. Ten years ago, they released the first of now three albums featuring their own songs in the veins of not only Little Feat, but other favorites from Ray Charles to B.B. King, and the Neville Brothers to the Allman Brothers. All that talent and inspiration coalesces into a new, heady brew of originals and a couple of cool covers on King Size. Snaky rhythms, slippery slide guitar, heartfelt balladry, humor, and raucous rock and roll converge in these songs. “Halfway to Memphis” opens the album as the title suggests, its delicious ride augmented by the mighty Muscle Shoals Horns. “Yvette” rollicks like Rockpile did on a Chuck Berry bender, and Jesse Ed Davis’s “She’s a Pain” rocks with brazen wit. American music, done right!

Tom Clarke for MAS

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