Henry O Henry likes to point out that even after 30 years, he is essentially “an Irishman in New York”. The key reason is that coming up with Apocrypha, his debut album at not exactly an early age, is a very personal thing. He also notes that he is “formally and informally not a musician”.
So why all these notes? Because this is all very personal to him, as it is probably to all singer-songwriters around, but the key there is: how able are they to transfer all that is personal and make it accessible to all the listeners that decide to encounter their personal stuff and make it count for them. Make that personal general.
Henry O Henry is able to that on his debut ‘Apocrypha’ completely and in full. Maybe it is all the years of personal experience, or it could be the fact that he did play a nylon-string guitar as a child but only got to be seriously involved with music until 2019, when his brother handed him a $6 charity-shop guitar with a repaired headstock and low strings that distorted unpredictably, with which he wrote most of the songs on the album.
It all made it click, though, as there is something of a special atmosphere to these muted songs with almost simple-sounding arrangements that gives Henry O Henry’s storytelling that special touch. Simple? Of course, but as the professional and seasoned chefs always say, it is always the simple things that are hardest to make right, and Henry O Henry sure makes them right here.
