Join us as the studio lights up with the energy of Henry Booker, a name synonymous with the soul of music itself. On the eve of his birthday, Henry gifts us an intimate look at his vibrant life, from the stirring strings he plucks at Creative Aging to the beats he drops at the historic Peabody Hotel. As we groove through his tale, Henry's charismatic collaborations on Beale Street echo through the airwaves, and the crescendo builds with every tale of his band's lively gigs across a medley of events. But it's not just about ensemble acts; Henry's solo career is hitting all the right notes, and he's ready to serenade us with a symphony of sounds from his dynamic keyboard repertoire—a celebration from R&B to the classics.
As we settle into the rhythm of our conversation, Henry's saga unfolds like a grand opus. His first brush with music, a heartfelt act of charity granting access to a trumpet, crescendoes into a lifelong love affair with the ivories, sparked by none other than Beethoven's haunting Moonlight Sonata. From the hallowed halls of church sanctuaries to the buzz of local venues, we trace the cadence of his career, marked by the relentless pursuit of gospel mastery and the sanctity of daily practice. With the whisper of an album on the horizon, offering us original compositions and vocal tracks, Henry Booker stands as a testament to the enduring spirit of music and the relentless drive of those who create it. Tune in and be inspired by a journey that transcends the scales and strikes a chord in the heart of every listener.
If your in the music industry- singer, songwriter, composer, indie, neo singer, rapper, country artist, promoter, manager, music lawyer or blues please email me to be a guest on my show at myguest@spit2dabeat.com I would love to hear your Spit about the Music Industry.
Join us as the studio lights up with the energy of Henry Booker, a name synonymous with the soul of music itself. On the eve of his birthday, Henry gifts us an intimate look at his vibrant life, from the stirring strings he plucks at Creative Aging to the beats he drops at the historic Peabody Hotel. As we groove through his tale, Henry's charismatic collaborations on Beale Street echo through the airwaves, and the crescendo builds with every tale of his band's lively gigs across a medley of events. But it's not just about ensemble acts; Henry's solo career is hitting all the right notes, and he's ready to serenade us with a symphony of sounds from his dynamic keyboard repertoire—a celebration from R&B to the classics.
As we settle into the rhythm of our conversation, Henry's saga unfolds like a grand opus. His first brush with music, a heartfelt act of charity granting access to a trumpet, crescendoes into a lifelong love affair with the ivories, sparked by none other than Beethoven's haunting Moonlight Sonata. From the hallowed halls of church sanctuaries to the buzz of local venues, we trace the cadence of his career, marked by the relentless pursuit of gospel mastery and the sanctity of daily practice. With the whisper of an album on the horizon, offering us original compositions and vocal tracks, Henry Booker stands as a testament to the enduring spirit of music and the relentless drive of those who create it. Tune in and be inspired by a journey that transcends the scales and strikes a chord in the heart of every listener.
If your in the music industry- singer, songwriter, composer, indie, neo singer, rapper, country artist, promoter, manager, music lawyer or blues please email me to be a guest on my show at myguest@spit2dabeat.com I would love to hear your Spit about the Music Industry.
And welcome to spit to the beat park, as I'm your host. They say KB unstoppable prayer. We are live on Facebook. We are live actually on YouTube, not on Facebook, but you can definitely find me on Facebook at Stacy be unstoppable prayer or Stacy spit to the beat. I need you to go right now. We are live on YouTube at spit, the number two D, a, b, e, a, t. We are live back in the studio once again. Once again, my man is joining me. Hey, he been doing so much in the last seven, eight months that I've been watching them on Facebook and Instagram and everything like that, and he's doing so much in the music industry I had to get them back on the show a day before his birthday.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir Turner. He's ready to get started.
Speaker 2:I'm reintroducing sevens been a been a minute that you may have seen him or not, but I'm I'm so thankful and grateful that he's joining me back in the studio. I'll spit to the beat podcast and today I bring you on my guy, henry Booker.
Speaker 1:What's up? What's up? First I want to say thank you for inviting me back over, you know, especially with my baby.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm just enjoying life man. Tell us what's been going on. Man? Yeah, I mean you've been doing so much. I've been watching you and I'm just trying to figure out. You know all the things that you're doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I'm a man of many trades, you know, and I like to help people and spread my music around the nation. So I work with a lot of different agencies around town, especially one real great agency is Creative Aging and that's an agency that sent music to different senior citizens homes, rehabilitation centers, I mean any kind of hospital. They sent music, sent art and sent joy to, to different people that can't get out. And you know and enjoy music. You know, live music.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:There's one agency that's real productive in the community and a few other people that I work with, with Julia. She's a singer, she sings it the Peabody and she's singing Southland and Gold Strike.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And I also work with with the Peabody Hotel. I perform there every Friday and Sundays in the evening time.
Speaker 2:So that's a steady gig right there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's one of my steady gigs, unless I have to be out of town for something and I work with. With my guy Rockstar he's a great singer and drummer. With Joyce, she's another amazing singer. With Bryson, he played the hell out of the guitar. I'm talking about man, he shred the guitar.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, and a few other people that I work with up and down Beale Street. We perform in King Palace, in Blues Hall, in Tap Room, in Rumbug, in, so you will catch one of us somewhere. You know, and I'm also. I also have my band, the core, and we do weddings and college parties, fraternity parties, sorority parties, birthdays, bank with bar misfits, whatever you you name it. You know, do it all, we do it all, yeah.
Speaker 2:Man from A to Z.
Speaker 1:Yeah, from A to Z, and I just like work with different people that, uh, that want to involve music, live music and what they're doing in their event.
Speaker 2:You know, cool, I know the last time we uh, we talked, which was last year around the summertime, uh, it was really. You're just branching yourself more and more after doing your thing, and now you come back. You was in a group then, or were you formed a group now?
Speaker 1:Well then, I was kind of solo and performing, just doing my own thing and different other events you know, just one piano or whatever, and that's one of my other jobs. You know solo artists. People will hire me to play like background music for their birthday party or business gatherings and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:So but now, well, and then I was kind of tied up with Gold Strike as well, because I was doing a lot of gigs at Gold Strike and you know, having to help with the band come together and you know stuff like that.
Speaker 2:You work them seven days a week.
Speaker 1:right, yeah, right, you're right. Yeah, because it was kind of time. It was real big first because they just started a new music program, so they brought a whole lot of different musicians together there was, you know, from different, different backgrounds although we know the same music. Everybody played it different.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So we had to come together and kind of get to get a foundation together. So, yeah, I was working there seven days a week.
Speaker 2:Have you did some over in West Memphis over at that casino?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have. I performed with Julia a few times during the duo where it's just piano and vocal. We do like some jazz songs and stuff like that. And then I also played with a band over there in the lobby area and yeah, that was about it.
Speaker 2:Cool, cool. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I told him the next time he come back he ought to bring that keyboard. He's going to play a little song for us for this segment, before we go and break. They're going to talk a little bit more and come back. So my guy on the keys, sir Henry Booker, as they call him, sir Henry baby, here we go. The Depper now Give us a little something.
Speaker 1:I'm going to give what I want to do. I'm going to give y'all a mixture of kind of everything that I do, like a mix of everything I can do. Okay, so I'm going to start out with a few of R&B and probably go into gospel and then go into a little classical, then probably country. So just roll with me on this musical adventure.
Speaker 2:Okay, before you go in, let's take a quick break and we're going to come back and we're going to get on into it. Okay, cool, and we're back live in the studio. A spit to the beat podcast, and joining me is my very special guest. He been on the podcast before today. He came back with his baby. I told me he can't come back empty handed. You hear him in the background right now. I'm going to let him have a float.
Speaker 3:Harry Booker, the keys man music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music music music.
Speaker 2:There you have it. My guy in the studio lie here it was.
Speaker 1:So I didn't want to do too much.
Speaker 2:Man. That was a rendition of Of life.
Speaker 1:Hospital.
Speaker 2:The heart and the soul and everything. You got it right here and spin to the beat podcast live in the studio. My God, sarah keys, henry Booker in the building, baby doing the thing. That's what I'm talking about. He came back in full effect. He told me, like look, invite me back. It's going to be a different story and tonight is a different story and I'm really enjoying it. Man, let's talk just a little bit why you play softly, want to cope. Let's talk a little bit more about your, your artistry as far as your know playing the keys and everything like that. Just to reflect back was that to go to instrument or was something before that?
Speaker 1:Actually started out on trumpet when I was in the fourth grade.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Back then they used to give unfortunate kids free instruments from from this organization called Yo Memphis. So they gave us a piece of paper, told us to write down what instruments we would like to play, and so I put down saxophone first, okay. Then I said trumpet, and then I forgot what the last one was. So they gave me a trumpet.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So how did the keys come in. The keys came in a few years later, when I was in the sixth grade. Okay, I heard this piece called Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig von Beethoven, and so we were doing like a pastel drawing or whatever, and like I was bad at school, so there was no, I used to get into fights every day.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, getting into a lot of trouble, getting into trouble for no reason sometimes. So here at this piece, this piece really connected, you know, captivated me, you know, and I was like I really want to learn how to play this piece. So I found the piece at the library and unfortunately I did steal the steal the piece because I knew I'm not going to bring it back my bad money library. But yeah.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, I took the piece home and it took me a little time to learn it because I was. I knew how to read trumpet music, music for the trumpet. So I was teaching myself how to read piano music. So it took me a little while to learn. And while I was learning, my uncle saw that I was teaching myself how to play the piano, so he gave me an opportunity to play at his church. So I started playing at his church. There was Malsania and there was one of the first churches I started playing in Okay.
Speaker 1:Malsania AME church. So I started playing there and I knew how to read music. I knew how to read the hymns but I couldn't play like a real organ player could play you know, so I could.
Speaker 1:I could tell that they was kind of miserable with me playing because they were like, ah, okay, here you come again. So so I ended up quitting, but I didn't quit completely, I just quit their church and went to a smaller church where I can kind of be on my skills. So so I was playing for my mom's church, mount Piesga, and then Williams Temple, ame church and just like little, eight small AME churches where I can, you know, work on my stuff like that or whatever, and learn the fundamentals of gospel music, you know. So I started. Later on I started getting opportunities to play different church guy and Christ churches, so that helped me build it speed, you know, stuff like that we're the business.
Speaker 2:Hit that note Right.
Speaker 1:You know stuff like that. So that's where I learned that. That saved me a little bit. And then, as I was doing that, I was playing with even odds. That's a traveling band as well, what they do weddings and you know, party corporate events and stuff like that. So I was still learning music and continue to. I continue to teach myself new music as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And every day I'm waking up practicing because I said this is my career. So if this is my career, I need to work like this is my career, exactly. So I'm going to get up and practice for eight hours and I literally, you know, was practicing for eight hours.
Speaker 1:I take a break you know, a little smoke break and then, you know, come back to it. But that's how I was doing it. I will make sure I learned music. I wrote my notes down. I got pads for days, no pads for days with music. You know earth, wind and fire, shotgun and all you know just their music, the notes to the music. So I kept on teaching myself and elevating myself in my career, you know so let me ask you this what's the next level for you?
Speaker 2:I mean, you're going into. You've been playing since the last time we talked, probably about eight months ago, and I know we talked about your history, we talked about your past and talked about you know the hospitalization and stuff. You went through the gunshot and all that. But today, in 2024, what is Henry? What is, what's the plan? Are we going to try to do something very deep? I would say, like maybe release your own album or something?
Speaker 1:You like the third person, third four person that said that Well, that's confirmation. I mean, I'm yeah, I'm leaning towards that. You know, the more and more I'm performing and working with different artists, I'm always coming up with ideas and I actually do have my own music that I produce and all this stuff, but I haven't put it out yet, and a few vocal songs, you know, with singing in it as well. But yeah, I'm just waiting on. You know I go off the spirit you know.
Speaker 1:So it's like, the more and more I'm working on it, the more and more it's gonna come to me to where I gotta put something out, and then the more and more I'm gonna go on and put something out. The time is always gonna be right. You give me what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Right, right, right. It has to be right. You know you don't wanna get ahead of yourself and step out there.
Speaker 1:and then you know yeah, but it will happen. It is gonna happen. I believe it. I'm not denying it. I believe it I will have my music. Because I won't. I mean that's one reason why I work with different artists, because I want my music to be. You will forever hear my music. If you listen to the radio station, if you listen to the R&B station gospel you're gonna be like, oh, they serve Henry playing the keys or playing the organ behind you know, oh, that's me, you know. So that's how.
Speaker 2:Man, I've been seeing you everywhere, especially all over the internet, and I said, look at my guy he's, you know you performing here and there and I'm like I'm punching the like button, love yeah yeah Go go, go, go go and look, hey, we'll take another little short break, we'll come back. I want you to talk about the new band that you in and stuff like that. Now also give us a little bit more of the keys, okay, okay, cool, cool, cool.
Speaker 4:Thank you for listening to Spit to the Beat Podcast. Want to know how you can help Be a sponsor by going to our website at wwwspit2thebeatpodcastcom and click the support tab. You can also join us each and every week live at YouTube at Spit to the Beat. Don't forget to subscribe, like and follow. Thank you for your support.
Speaker 2:And we're back to Spit, to the Beat Podcast. I'm your host, stacey AKA B Unstoppable. And joining me live in the studio is my guest, sir Henry Booker on the Keys. They call him Sir Keys and he has come back and joined me after several months of our conversation. He said Stacey, I ain't coming back empty-handed. And today he is gracing the studio with his music on the Keys, so I'm gonna let him turn it over to him again. He gonna give us another rendition of the Little Dips with a little dip my guy, sir Henry Booker on the Keys, sir Keys.
Speaker 3:Anyway, with regard to temporality, magie marketed this industry music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music music.
Speaker 2:Don't hurt us, don't hurt us, don't hurt us.
Speaker 1:I just know what you're looking at just a little bit. It's kind of tight over here.
Speaker 2:That's what it is. But, man, you a hey man, man, man, man. What I can say, bruh, you did that thing.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:You did the thing, man, and I'm honored, I'm privileged and I don't know what else. I could say that I really enjoyed it, man. Appreciate it, man. It's like I'm gonna like. It was yesterday when we talked, but see the elevation in you from my standpoint, though you was already there, it's just, it's amazing, man. And what God is doing with you, man, I see it. We're gonna get that album. We might get something.
Speaker 1:We're gonna get something in 2024. I'm gonna have to put you on the album.
Speaker 2:Okay, we'll get a half of album. We're gonna get something Right. I really enjoyed it. Lou, why keep on playing while you're playing in the background?
Speaker 2:Hey, I want to thank Sarah Henry, who are coming on spit to the beat podcast, and for you tuning in and watching us live on YouTube. Don't forget to go on our YouTube channel, subscribe, like and hit that notification bell so you can keep in tune to all the latest episodes as well as all the live events podcast that we are doing now in 2024. Again, I want to thank my listeners, as well as my sponsors, people who have contributed to make this podcast possible Each and every month. I thank you so much and again, if you like to be a sponsor of spit to the beat podcast, don't hesitate to give me a call at 9013416777. Or if you like to be a guest you're a musician, artist, singer, songwriter, composer, promoter or what have you are in the music and the entertainment industry actor, actress or what have you I would love for you to be a guest on my show.
Speaker 2:You can email me at my guest at spit to the beat podcast or give me a call 9013416777. And we can make it happen on spit to the beat podcast Again. Thank you, my brother Henry, on the keys. They call them sir keys. You can find them all over Memphis. How can they get in touch with you?
Speaker 1:here. Give me up on Facebook. I don't know what's my name on Facebook Henry Booker. Look on one of the names Henry Booker or Sir Henry and you will find me Sir Henry King of Keys. And if you want a band, you need a band. You need good live entertainment, good professional live entertainment that's going to bring fun and going to make your event a better turnout than what it's going to be. Make sure you call me Sir Henry King of Keys, 901-572-5113. We do solo X where I come play the piano. We got the full band where we have guitar, drums, bass, lead singer, saxophonist.
Speaker 2:What's the name of the band again?
Speaker 1:The Core, the Core. Yeah, t-h-e-c-o-r-e the Core. So make sure y'all check us out. We got a Facebook page as well as the Core Entertainment Band. Yeah, check us out. We got videos and stuff like that. There you go. I'm glad to be here, man. I'm glad you hear me. You're a staser, you're doing good.
Speaker 2:No doubt, no doubt, thank you. Thank you again, man, for coming on Spin To the B podcast. And there you have it for this episode live. Don't forget you can catch all my live episodes. Each week we're going live. Each week we're a new guest coming in. So thank you for tuning in and joining us today, and with my special guest in the building with me, sir Henry.
Speaker 1:Let me give you a couple of shout outs.
Speaker 2:Go ahead.
Speaker 1:A couple of a few shout outs to my guy Bryson Rockstar Adria, beautiful singer Joyce, beautiful singer Julia, all my friends on Beale Street, all my friends at Goldstrike, all my guys in Southland and even Oz Band and everybody that's out there that know me. And there's, everybody Shout out shout out just for you, baby.
Speaker 2:And if we forget he didn't mean it, you know, charge it to his head.
Speaker 1:Right. Charge it to my heart. You know how it is.
Speaker 2:All right. Thank you again for joining us to the B podcast man. Thank you for watching spirit to the B podcast with your host days a KB, unstoppable prayer. Join us again next week for another live episode. Thank you.