Henry Gray

Louisiana-based pianist and singer Henry Gray had a career in American roots music that goes back to the 1940s. Gray was born January 19, 1925 in Kenner, Louisiana, now a suburb of New Orleans. He grew up in Alsen, a few miles north of Baton Rouge. He began playing piano as an eight-year-old, and he learned from the radio, recordings, and Mrs. White, an elderly woman in his neighborhood. As a youngster, he began playing piano and organ in the local church, and his family eventually got a piano for the house. While blues playing was not allowed in his parents' home, he was enco...