HenryOden

Henry's musical career began as a teen playing in blues lounges in and around Richmond, CA. These performances would be in addition to appearance at local church revivals playing Gospel music he grew up around. It wasn't long before Oden started making a name for himself in Oakland and across the San Francisco Bay within a myriad of nightclubs and festival stages. During the 60s, Henry was the house bassist at Little Bo Peep's, a show lounge, in San Francisco and he played in any number ensembles in and around the Bay Area, even extending his playing within casinos throughout Nevada.

By the 70s Henry's attention had turned to song writing and composing. He undertook music composition studies and also enrolled in creative writing courses at Laney College in Oakland, CA. During that time, Henry met a budding and talented vocalist, Bianca Thornton a.k.a. Lady Bianca to whose career he devoted the remainder of the decade attending toward the development of her career. In the 80s, Henry's urge to perform resurfaced. He soon became a member of bands that appeared at numerous festivals and he appeared in several videos including "Percy Mayfield 'Poet Laureate of the Blues'", "John Lee Hooker/ Charlie Musselwhite", and "Lowell Fulson/ Percy Mayfield." He was a major part of a video while appearing behind Zydeco-music legend, Clifton Chenier at the San Francisco Blues Festival. Henry would make his first international tour with the San Francisco Blues Festival Revue as fans and critics began to take note of Oden as a composer in the U.S. and Europe.

In the mid-1980s, and in between international tours, Oden was part of a Bay Area blues artists in the schools program. This unique series of presentations introduced Oden's teaching blues history and demonstrating blues songwriting. Henry volunteered for this duty annually. During this time, he also became a key member of blues star Joe Louis Walker's band during Walker's rise to international prominence. In 1995, Oden headed to Arkansas as an Artist in Residence at the Wildwood Center for the Performing Arts, where his deep musical knowledge was highly prized. Oden was also hired to teach guitar and bass at the South Arkansas Cultural Center. He later toured the U.S. and Canada with blues legend, Sonny Rhodes.

In the next two decades, Oden has stayed active as a player, composer and recording artist as well as touring internationally. He's even pursued a bachelor's degree in Humanities in CA. Currently, Henry Oden is the artist-in-residence for The Golden Gate Blues Society where he teaches and performs in an impressive "Blues in the Library" program throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. "You're Wrong for That", Oden's third CD has just been released on CPTimeMusic