Rub Wrongways Records

09/12/2024

Tonight, I'm grabbing my acoustics and heading down to the studio to do a live stream. It's my first since January! Maybe you'd like to stop by, it's free. Say hello in the chat window. 7:30 PM Eastern. Thanks! See here for link and info:

Live Stream from Henning Ohlenbusch.

07/17/2024

This is tonight! Wednesday July 17, 2024 in Williamsburg, Massachusetts. It’s in lovely Angel Park, unless it rains, then it’s in the Grange next door (picture a historic meeting house sort of thing). It starts at 6:00 and goes until 7:30. If it’s in the park, you might could bring a folding chair for yourself or a blanket (but you don’t have to). Note: It’s a nice small intimate area and it fills up pretty quickly.

Here’s a little quote from the organizers of this delightful weekly event: “Join us in the Park Wednesday evening, enjoy Henning, savor a Crepe from Crepes Nanou, a snack from the Grange table, and the company of fellow music lovers.”

05/30/2024

04/26/2024

On Monday (April 29), Gentle Hen will be playing a show at UMass for their big Founder's Day Celebration. We'll be on at 4:00 right after StompBox Trio. It's open to the public. Check out the stage we'll be on:

03/28/2024

How are you celebrating Ken Maiuri's birthday today? May I recommend you pop over to Bandcamp and listen to his music? Pick any one of the selections there, they are all top notch and you'll love them. Download a few. Celebrate this guy, this bundle of musical-enthusiasm who is a master of many instruments and brilliant songwriter. And, on top of it, an all around swell person.

Multi-instrumentalist currently with The B-52s, Mark Mulcahy, Spouse, King Radio, Gentle Hen, The Fawns, and Marykate O'Neil, formerly with the Young@Heart Chorus, Pedro the Lion, New Radiant Storm King, The Mammals, The Maggies and others.

01/18/2024

Tonight!

Live Stream from Henning Ohlenbusch.

01/11/2024

One week from today.

Live Stream from Henning Ohlenbusch.

12/01/2023

The new Gentle Hen album is out today! It's on Bandcamp and on all the places you listen to music! (CDs will follow soon). I hope you'll check it out. I'm quite fond of it and of my bandmates, Ken Maiuri, Max Germer, Brian T Marchese and our special guests: Lesa Bezo, Debbie Way, Leo Hwang, and Gordon E Clark. A thank you to Justin Pizzoferrato for help recording and Carl Saff for mastering. Also to WRSI - 93.9 The River for playing our lead off single the last couple of weeks!

It was a long time in the making. But we made it. It's not a concept album, but it is a sort of hazy storybook about traveling, time, motion, and life.

-------

Without planning it, my songs started to venture out into the world, seeking big skies and larger spaces and longer spans of time. I didn’t prod them; they prodded me. They put the keys in my hand, their hands on my back, and pushed me out the door. Who am I to argue with songs?

I just followed them as they careened down mountain highways, sprouted wings and flew south, shook off the sofa and headed to a friend’s house, sat back in a canoe beneath a winter sky, tore up lists and plans, broke promises, made apologies, and considered life after life, and then came back home.

I wrote all of these songs on my old red Guild acoustic while perched on the arm of a sofa in Northampton, Massachusetts. To my left was the kitchen and its windows watching the seasons pass in tree form: deep green, vibrant yellow, searing white, and muted brown. To my right was a view of the street, with cars, bicycles, families, dog walkers all going somewhere, or coming from somewhere (that’s the same thing).

When the songs were partially done, I finished up the lyrics while walking through my little town. I’d stroll down Main Street past cafes and benches, or sometimes on the bike path balanced above a bird swamp. Each song lived with me, in the back of my head, for weeks and weeks until suddenly they were all done.

Then, I introduced the songs to the band and breathed calmly and excitedly as Max, Brian, and Ken absorbed them, fed them, molded them, and lifted them up. We recorded openly, laughing often, making sure to capture anyone’s initial inspiration and immediate ideas, always asking what each song wanted.

And here we are now with a storybook of ten songs with knapsacks on their backs, waving see-you-later as they head off to wherever. I hope you consider going along for the ride.

I hope you find something here on this album that feels like home to you. That’s the full phrase you see. The Whole Point of the Trip is the title, but the sentence continues, of course, because really, the whole point of the Trip - is to get back home.

- Henning (December 1, 2023)