International Pagan Music Association Best Male Artist winner in 2019 and again in 2020 and again in 2024, Brian Henke composes and performs his music like a painter putting images on canvas, a kind of sonic shaman, drawing his inspiration from the world around him.
His unique guitar style has been called everything from Folk to New Age to Neo-Classical to Pastoral, or as Brian likes to call it, “a big stewpot of everything, stirred up, simmered and served to taste.”
Brian has just released his latest vocal CD To the Faire. Two more albums are written and partially recorded.
He has also released seven instrumental solo guitar and harp guitar albums, two celebrated compilation albums, one group CD, and three previous vocal albums. He currently is working on a musical play with writer and playwright Byron Ballard.
Throughout all of his music is an undercurrent of spirituality and mysticism that Brian says is very much a part of the creative process. Because of this he has received radio air play all over the world on shows as varied as WKSU’s “Folk Alley” and John Dilberto’s “Echoes.” A winner of many acoustic and electric guitar awards, he has also been a finalist in the prestigious National Fingerstyle Contest in Winfield, Kansas, the National Guitarmageddon regional finals in Boston and in New Age Reporters Top 10 for 2006 and 2010.
“Brian’s fretwork is masterful, elaborate and he makes every note count…His compositions are harmonious, sometimes complicated, but always engaging…Brian Henke’s music is organic, mesmerizing and best of all magic.” – RJ Lannon – New Age Reporter
Dance with the Fireflies, the album, is fae-magickal throughout its 12 tracks, and it’s easy to discern Henke’s most prominent spell-casting tool: his stunning virtuosity on acoustic guitar, harp guitar, and his Gibson Les Paul.
Henke is an awe-inspiring picker whose genre is known as “fingerstyle guitar,” and he’s in the same league with such giants as Alex de Grassi, Will Ackerman, Leo Kottke, and those guys. – Rick De Yampert – Wild Hunt
“She stood beneath the stars and rocks below
Her husband on his great black horse galloping behind
Was sure he had her now, she’d not be free
But like a bird she flew into the wind”
Brian Henke is very honored to have his song Like a Bird She Flew included in the 2023, 19 artist release of The Red Album: Pagan Voices for Reproductive Rights, which benefits women’s reproductive rights and autonomy of their own bodies. He says; “This song was written about our patriarchal society’s long-held assertion that a man can own a woman’s body. Although the song is set in the past, it is still unfortunately a far too common occurrence in our country today. ‘Like a bird she flew into the wind’ should never be a woman’s only choice.”
- Follow Brian Henke on FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/BrianHenke9/
- Listen to Brian’s music on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3X8cMppgltVOLZLWs2KtF8
- Visit his page on Reverbnation www.reverbnation.com/brianhenke
Brian Henke’s blog posts
The Winds of November
Moving On, Moving Out and Moving In
“There Beneath the Stars” – Album Release!
Spring – Starting Anew, Drawing from the Past
A Bridge of Darkness to a World of Light
Gratitude
Time, Space and Love
Spellcasting with Music
