Robin Henkel


Robin has opened shows for:
Dizzie Gillespie, John McLaughlin,
Bonnie Raitt, Dr. John,
Roy Rogers, Arlo Guthrie,
Hot Tuna, Steve Stills, Dave Mason,
Nichollette Larson,
Todd Rundgren,
Harvey Mandel, Tim Weisberg,
Don McLean, Charles Brown.

Robin has performed with:
John Hammond, Eddie Kirkland,
The San Diego Symphony,
Lowell Fulson, Johnny Almond,
Buddy Miles, Big Jay McNealy,
Jimmy Witherspoon, Sha Na Na,
Papa John Creach.

Robin Henkel is a futurist and a historian.
--LA Times

Henkel is already playing a shuffle that is neither slow
nor fast--a strut, and it is extremely seductive
...Henkel proceeds to play a fast jump progression,
much like one of Robert Johnson's fiery paced songs.
As with Johnson, it is hard to imagine, if you close your eyes,
that there is only one guitarist at work.
You can almost hear the scratches on the 78.
--San Diego Reader

Robin's live shows are
nothing short of inspirational.
There is somthing genuinely raw, base and animalistic
about his gut-wrenching, honest music.
--360 Degrees

Robin Henkel promises nothing, if not a surprise
here and there. This is just the way the San Diego
native is. He wants to shake things up,
so expect the unexpected.

As a guitar player, Robin can play blues, jazz, funk,
country swing, Hawaiian and Latin music.
He borrows from each of those styles when he performs and sometimes even surprises himself
with the musical direction his songs take.

"I like playing music", he says. It just feels good. Henkel's strength is when he picks up that sawed-off pipe fitting and puts it on his baby finger and then lays it on the strings of a resonator or Dobro.
All of a sudden the awkward kid from Serra Mesa
is transformed into the man in the
corner at the Delta house party who commands everyones attention. When Robin plays slide guitar, he steels the show. You probably haven't seen anything like this for years
and you may not see it again anytime soon.

Though he leans toward playing jazz these days,
he won Best Blues CD
at the San Diego Music Awards last year (2000)
for his "Highway" recording.
"I don't quite know how I did that," he says
"there's not much blues on it."
To make amends, Henkel has vowed to record
a blues album next. Maybe.

--Mike Kinsman

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