Henry Gray, who played piano in the Howlin‘ Wolf band and other Chicago blues groups before returning to his native Louisiana in 1968, was rarely in the spotlight, but he steadily built an impressive resume entertaining audiences around the world with his blues-drenched piano pounding. Gray, born on January 19, 1925 in Kenner, Louisiana and raised in the Baton Rouge area, was playing both in church and in local nightspots before serving in World War II and then moving to Chicago. Gray’s style continued to develop under the influence of Big Maceo Merriweather, and he began playing with Little Walter, Little Hudson’s Red Devil Trio, guitarist Morris Pejoe, and others.
Gray’s tenure with Howlin‘ Wolf lasted 12 or more years, although he was in and out of the band. According to The Blues Discography 1943-1970, he recorded only eight songs with Wolf — four in 1955 and four in 1961, including “I Ain’t Superstitious,” although Gray recalled others. He did more sessions with Pejoe than anyone else in Chicago, and also recorded behind Billy Boy Arnold, Dusty Brown, Harold Burrage, G.L. Crockett, Little Walter, Jimmy Reed, and Jimmy Rogers, among others. Back in Louisiana, he recorded with swamp bluesmen Whispering Smith, Clarence Edwards, Silas Hogan, and others, although his blues retained its hard Chicago edge.
His first release under his own name came with a 45 for the Blues Unlimited label of Crowley, Louisiana in 1970, “You’re My Midnight Dream”/”I’m a Lucky Lucky Man.” Lucky Man was also the title of his first full U.S. LP, on Blind Pig in 1988. But Gray had been decidedly unlucky in getting his own recordings released in Chicago, as sessions in the 1950s for Chess, Parrot, and Atomic-H remained in the can, despite their quality, until they were released on vintage Chicago blues compilation albums many years later. Gray, who worked as a roofer and driver in Baton Rouge, became more musically prolific as an elder statesman, adding albums for HighTone, Delta Groove, Lucky Cat, and several European and Japanese labels while making dozens of European tours and establishing himself on the U.S. festival and blues club circuit. A 2006 National Heritage Fellowship honoree, Gray continued to hit the stages even as a nonagenarian. After several months in hospice care, Henry Gray died in Baton Rouge on February 17, 2020 at the age of 95.