Dorris Henderson (February 2, 1933 – March 3, 2005) was an American-born, United Kingdom-based folk music singer and autoharp player.
Born in Lakeland, Florida but raised in Los Angeles, she was the daughter of an African American clergyman and the granddaughter of a Blackfoot Native American. The blues musician, Guitar Nubbit, was her uncle. She initially worked as a civil servant but became interested in music after seeing a performance by Odetta at the famed LA folk venue the Ash Grove.
At this time, Los Angeles ran a city wide music contest for civil servants. Dorris entered singing “Five Hundred Miles From My Home” accompanying herself on autoharp and won. Winning this helped Dorris to make up her mind as to what direction she should take in life and she quit the civil service, walking away from her newly promoted senior position and into a full time into a musical career.
Things changed rapidly. One of her girlfriends had just been presented with a brand new MG sports car as a birthday present. The pair of them decided to drive across the country to visit friends and relatives in New York. At the end of the three day journey, they arrived in Greenwich Village and Dorris embarked on a six week round of visiting and performing in every folk club she could find. Settled in this environment Dorris soon made friends with Bob Dylan (and had a cameo appearance in Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Look Back” movie”), Fred Neil, Mark Spoelstra, Dave Van Ronk, Paul Simon and virtually everyone on the scene at that time. She became one of the first artists to cover Simon with her version of "Leaves That are Green."
Henderson's brother served in England with the United States Air Force and, following encouragement from him, she travelled to London, staying at a hotel in the Hampstead area. Singing with her autoharp, Henderson soon became a regular feature at The Troubadour, a centre of the folk revival, later explaining that she sang folk ballads rather than blues because she was "a city girl".
After meeting John Renbourn at The Roundhouse, she offered the young guitarist the chance to accompany her when she won a residency on the BBC2 television programme Gadzooks! It's All Happening. She signed a six month contract, performing her own choice of material and free range of the wardrobe department. The weekly guests were among the top pop stars of the day. Tom Jones, Lulu, Sandie Shaw, Georgie Fame and The Everly Brothers.
The duo of Henderson and Renbourn recorded two albums together, There You Go (1965) and Watch the Stars (1967), before Renbourn left to link up with Bert Jansch. After an encounter with the Dutch folk singer Cobi Schreijer at the Roundhouse, Henderson undertook a European tour encompassing thirteen countries, and lived for some time in the Netherlands, where she also recorded.
Early in 1968, Henderson formed a rock band, Tintagel, with Ian McDonald, later of King Crimson, but the band was not well received and soon disbanded. Later in 1968, Henderson replaced Kerrilee Male as the singer with the band Eclection, performing with them at the Isle of Wight Festival 1969. Following their demise she launched Dorris Henderson's Eclection with her son Eric Jones as guitarist. When the band finally broke up Dorris got back to jazz, first with Bob Kerr`s Jazz Friends and later with John Rodgers` House Band. They were all good readers and arrangers as well as improvisers. As disco and karaoke had replaced live music in many British venues, the bands worked mainly in Germany and Switzerland.
After marrying Mac McGann, formerly of the Levee Breakers, Henderson settled in Twickenham and largely retired from music, bar some jingle work and a few appearances with Bob Kerr. Following a re-release of There You Go in 1999, Henderson returned to music on a more regular basis, culminating in the 2003 album Here I Go Again, a work featuring Renbourn and a number of other former colleagues and proved that even at the age of 70 she was still a bundle of vitality, character and charm. This album was described by Henderson as 'my musical autobiography'. Henderson died at Charing Cross Hospital, Fulham, in London, in 2005, from cardiac failure.
(Edited from Wikipedia, AllMusic & Monday Night Music Club)