Dinner & A Show Series - Jesse Henry + the butterfly weapon play Morph*ne

Morph*ne formed in 1989, a merging of musos whose lives had intersected for many years prior in the local Boston/Cambridge music scene.

They’d issued their debut album Good in 1992 to positive reviews but if you knew nothing about the band, their sophomore album, Cure For Pain, was set to drop you, quite literally, in the deep end.

‘Buena’ kicks off with the low-slung rumble of frontman Mark Sandman’s sludgy two-string bassline, before Dana Colley’s slithering sax cuts loose to the climactic throwdown of “Buena, buena, buena, buena, good, good girl!”

On Cure For Pain, there’s strong blues and jazz inspirations, conjuring late nights, darkened silhouettes walking abandoned streets with tracks like ‘Dawna’ and ‘Miles Davis’ Funeral’ perfect as film noir cuts.

On tracks like ‘I’m Free Now’, ‘Candy’, ‘Let’s Take a Trip Together’ and the beautiful mandolin-led ‘In Spite of Me’ you also get the sense of the ghost of Sandman’s journeying spirit.

A spirit that led him to travel widely, working in construction, commercial fishing and for a time as a taxi driver which left him with a nasty scar across his chest as a result of a violent mugging attempt.

In the '90s, there was no shortage of hot bassists flogging fat bass riffs, but one of the most underrated is Morph*ne’s Mark Sandman.

His unique sound, style and songwriting has influenced the likes of Les Claypool, Mike Watt, Henry Rollins and Josh Homme - to name a few.

His deep bass grooves and low vocal register, teamed with sax (Colley would at times play two at the same time), meant that Morph*ne sounded as heavy and full bodied as any of the decade's biggest rock bands.

About Jesse:

Jesse Henry started playing music when he was 6 years old. He grew up in Bluffton Ohio and spent his early years roaming Newton, KS. His grandmother talked him into going to her alma matter Bethel College, a small school, with mostly smart people in the plains.

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Jesse currently studies and writes music in Columbus and Athens Ohio. He has fronted the Spikedrivers since 2003, played and recorded with 100's of musicians. His latest musical adventure is teamed up with the cool and talented High Definitions and keyboardist Ryan Paradise to form DAWNA.

While not on stage or working on his own music Jesse teaches guitar and piano and is the Music Director of the Kirk Horn Music Fund, a non-profit that provides free music lessons for elementary-high school students in Central Ohio.

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Jesse wrote a 3-part guitar method book for kids, The Color String Guitar Method.

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