From an early age, Henri Herbert was fascinated by the piano-pounding pioneers Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino and Pete Johnson. Herbert broke into the music scene in the explosive rock revival band The Jim Jones Revue.
Henri Herbert born in France and raised in the UK, Henri Herbert was drawn to the music of piano playing of madman pioneers such as Jerry Lee Lewis and Albert Ammons.
He continues to promote and curate the sound of 20th Century American Blues pianists with his recent release, Get It While It’s Hot. Rather than simply copying the sound of the 1950’s Rock’n’Roll with his own original music, Henri Herbert brings the sound forward into 2025, putting a powerful backbeat underneath the jukebox swing of “If I Could” as he sets his piano keys on fire with the sizzling force of “I Got the Fury”, fully leaning into the flames with a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire”.
After testing the waters with his own band The Fury, Herbert made the move to Austin, TX to immerse himself in the rich history of American roots music. He quickly moved up the ranks of players and made a name for himself.
Now a permanent resident of the U.S., he has become one of the most sought-after blues and boogie pianists in the world and tours around the globe.
The album opens with “Cold City”, a song he defines as an autobiographical tale of his journey as a musician. He notes that as he started “I ain’t got no money, ain’t got no friends”. “Hold your head up high, low is all you know.” He says he headlined big stages and turned around and had to wash dishes at the same venue. He had “nothing left to give, nothing left to lose” as he moved “here on a dream” to the US. He comes out with a pounding piano and a solid rock beat that would have fit Jerry Lee Lewis. He says the song is not meant to be pessimistic, but rather is encouragement for perseverance and states that “if you have to entertain people three hours multiple times a day, you get good or you leave”.
“Guilty Pleasures” keeps the rock going as he notes they are things “you just try to justify when you want to get high”. Next, he realizes you “Can’t get “Nothing Free” with a solid boogie-woogie hook. He notes that “I am “Bad”, don’t mean bad as in good, but I mean bad as in bad” Some strong guitar powers alongside of Henri’s piano.
I was inspired by the great rockers Jerry Lee, Elvis, Chuck Berry and Little Richard, but also by the next generation – MC5, Stooges, also The Clash and Ramones and of course the Rolling Stones and eventually ACDC I’m also big into soul and funk -James Brown is the king – and let’s not forget the Blues greats John Lee Hooker, BB King, Memphis Slim. I wanted to channel all my influences into some Rock n Roll that told a story about my life so far, my immigration to the US, and building a new life in a new land. I wanted to take this inspiration from the greats and make something new,- an interview with us said Henri Herbert.
Get It While It’s Hot is a musical snapshot documenting Henri’s struggles immigrating to the U.S. in pursuit of his own American dream.
Putting the piano back into the forefront of rock ’n’ roll, this album is a result of playing countless nights in bars refining a sound — all while navigating the system, a pandemic, and a little heartbreak.
The lead single Cold City recaps the hardships of following a dream against the odds, the highs and lows of fame, and the sacrifice in taking risks. “The hustle never ends,” says Henri.
“Cold cities have been everywhere on my journey. They’re shiny, and that brightness can shine on you when you’re doing well. But when the chips are down, those lights dim, and the temperature drops fast — you’re on your own. But it’s not a pessimistic song. It’s about keeping on during hard times and learning about self-reliance — the hard way.”
I Got The Fury is a super-charged, classic roots rock banger with a punk attitude revealing Henri’s raw energy as a passionate rock and roller. This one truly showcases Henri’s capability to highlight the piano as a powerful and dominant force in music. The album is also a love letter to the sounds that made Henri.
The Motown-inspired Guilty Pleasures highlights Henri’s versatility in capturing the essence of the mid-century American groove. As Henri says, “there are no guilty pleasures, just pleasures.”
His tender rendition of Snooks Eaglin’s If I Could is a nod to classic New Orleans R&B and soul that has shaped Henri’s sound and style. Listeners get a glimpse of vulnerability with this one.
The album title is indicative of how fleeting success can be and how important it is to be in the now. Henri’s dream is still in the making, but he’s a little rougher around the edges. “I’m not here to preach or tell tales — this is just my story as I lived it.”
Piano born Boogie Woogie pours from the fingers of Henri Herbert and is the resident soundtrack for Get It While It’s Hot. A pounding beat begins the song cycle on the album with opening cut “Cold City” as Henri Herbert raises a glass to toast toxic love in “Poison” and struts on a frenetic beat to announce “Nothing Free”. Get It While It’s Hot dances to a “Texas Boogie”, hammers the rhythm for the story of “Blood from a Stone”, and weighs in on “Guilty Pleasures”. Henri Herbert pounds out a beat on his piano to lay out his resume with “Bad”, exiting the album on a runaway rhythm that acts as a pulpit for the Soul shouter “Talking Trash”.
A video of Henri playing an impromptu blues Gettin On Down on the public piano in London’s St Pancras Train Station has reached an incredible 73 million views on YouTube.
Henri has sold out the Palais Montcalm in Quebec City, the Blue Note in Hawaii, the 100 Club in London and Nice Opera for the Royal Family of Monaco, showcased at the Cincinatti Blues Fest, the International Jazz Fest Switzerland, and the Milan Piano Fest, and brought down the house in bar rooms and dancehalls including a residency at C-Boy’s Heart and Soul in Austin.
His passion for capturing the essence of his musical heroes and elevating it to new levels is what makes him stand out above the crowd.
Henri’s formative years in life were absorbed by the sounds of Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Elvis, Little Richard, and Fats Domino, all of whose talents and sounds were undoubtedly subsumed into Henri’s inner consciousness. And it was these inspirational figures that fashioned his career objective which was, as Henri put it in an earlier interview with Louder Than War, “just to earn a living at the piano and not have to do other jobs.” Of course, there is usually a means to an end in advance of any career aspiration which, in Henri’s case, crystalised in the long hours he spent working on the docks. But once the big break came through joining the incendiary force that was the Jim Jones Revue, Henri was up and running on the live stage and he has never looked back, with that career aspiration working through perhaps more than he could ever have dreamed of.
Since Henri left the Revue after they played their final show in 2014, he has carved out his own successful solo career, initially based in the UK but then immigrating to the USA with a base in Austin before then moving to his current home of Nashville, which of course is steeped in such strong musical traditions all of its own. After starting out with his own band The Fury, he has performed and recorded both solo and with a band, releasing a number of critically acclaimed albums. But there is little doubt that, much as he loves the solo piano material which showcases his talent on the keyboard so vividly, Henri’s passion for the hard driving rock’n’roll sound which helped to shape his early years has never diminished and a new raw and unbridled energy was about to be unleashed upon the world.
Henri has released seven independent solo albums: Live At The Gypsy Hotel (2018), Boogie ‘Til I Die (2022), Blues Piano Grooves (2023), Boogie Woogie Blues (2023), Live In New York (2023), Boogie Woogie Piano Vol. 1 & 2 (2018/2023). His latest project and first full-band LP, Get It While It’s Hot, brings back the wild spirit and energy of early R ’n’ R, R&B, and garage boogie.”
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