Wayne Henderson & Presley Barker

Wayne Henderson was born in Grayson County, Virginia, where he lives today. He is a full-time instrument builder and musician, specializing in building guitars, and playing in a unique finger-picking style. Though he has lived in Virginia all of his life, Henderson has played countless performances in Western North Carolina, been a member of Western North Carolina bands, and influenced many regional musicians, through both his music and craft. He developed a unique style of using a thumbpick and fingerpicks, making his playing sound like flatpicking, with fast, accurate, and clean notes.

ABOUT PRESLEY BARKER

Traphill, North Carolina, native Presley Barker plays country/blues music and is a singer/songwriter. Presley was particularly fond of Doc Watson, and started playing guitar at seven years old, It did not take him long to start getting the hang of the instrument and catching the attention of the local music community. Soon, Presley started taking lessons with Steve Lewis, a past winner of the prestigious Winfield National Guitar Championship. Presley also made frequent trips to Grayson County, Virginia, to meet with guitar builder and player Wayne Henderson.



MORE ABOUT PRESLEY BARKER

Presley also traveled around the region to fiddlers conventions. He started entering guitar competitions and bringing home lots of blue ribbons. In 2015, at age 10, Presley won the Old Fiddler’s Convention Adult guitar competition in Galax, Virginia and won a second time in 2017. In 2017, Presley also won the prestigious Wayne C. Henderson Guitar Championship. While Presley says that the Galax blue ribbon was one of his most prized awards, the competitions are not as important as playing music with friends.

Presley sings and plays guitar at his local church, and gives performances at concert venues and festivals around the region.

He has appeared on the NBC Today Show with Al Roker. He has played the National Folk Festival, Richmond Folk Festival, Lowell Folk Festival, Montana Folk Festival, Masters of Steel String Guitar Event in Washington, D.C., PBS Song of the Mountains Show, Doc Watson Day Celebration in Boone, NC, David Holt’s State of Music, Blue Ridge Music Center, Silver Dollar City, Dollywood, Houstonfest, Carolina In The Fall, and Merlefest. Presley also appeared on NBC’s “Little Big Shots” with Steve Harvey and “Wonderama” TV show in New York City. Most recently, Presley was invited by Country Music Hall of Fame and Bluegrass Hall of Fame member Ricky Skaggs to play the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN. Presley released his first solo album entitled “JUST-TEN” in the fall of 2015 and is now working with Dolly Parton’s producer and Grammy Nominated Kent Wells Productions in Nashville TN to release some new music coming soon.

MORE ABOUT WAYNE HENDERSON
Henderson’s father and uncle were musicians who played with Estil Ball, an admired finger-style guitar player from the area who influenced Wayne’s playing. Inspired by Ball, Wayne ordered a cheap guitar from the Sears catalogue. Disappointed with that instrument, he decided to build his own guitar, out of a used dresser drawer bottom. When he struggled to find the proper glue for his newly crafted instrument, he sought out the advice of a neighbor, Albert Hash, who built fiddles and other instruments. With Hash’s encouragement, Wayne continued working on his instrument building.

He sold his second guitar in exchange for some tools and cash. “Ever since,” he says, “somebody’s wanted one as soon as I get it finished.” For years he worked as a rural mail carrier, spending his off-time performing and building guitars and other instruments. He has become so famous that he has a long backlog of orders placed for guitars. Henderson has built guitars for Doc Watson, Gillian Welch, Peter Rowan, and Eric Clapton.

Wayne Henderson has trained several apprentices, taught intensive workshops, and given informal discussions about instrument building and repair. He has been a regularly featured instructor at the Augusta Heritage workshops in Elkins, West Virginia.

Henderson is an accomplished performer. He has won more than 300 ribbons at fiddlers’ convention competitions. He was featured as part of the Masters of the Steel Guitar tours, and has traveled internationally. Wayne has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Smithsonian Institution, on A Prairie Home Companion, and for the 1992 presidential inauguration. He has hosted the annual Wayne C. Henderson Music Festival and Guitar Competition since 1995. Winning the competition is said to be the only way to skip ahead of the waiting list for a Henderson Guitar.