Stephen Hendricks

My name is Stephen Hendricks, I was raised in Livermore CA, and I started playing guitar when I was about 11 or 12.  I was taking piano lessons at that time and those were ending so I was motivated to try something new.  That summer I worked for neighbor in the evenings digging fence post holes for fifty cents an hour.  This was in grape country; the ground is half rock and half hard dirt.  I made $35 and my dad matched that and he brought home a nylon string Aria guitar that he bought for me at a music store in Berkeley CA.  I learned to play a guitar like many kids in that era, by ear, playing with friends, and going to musical get togethers with my family and their friends.
 
I began writing guitar instrumentals while serving in the Navy where I always seemed to have a lot of time and very little money.  The guitar helped pass the time and I had a few guitar playing friends to share songs with that we’d learned from each other or by figuring them out on our own. 

My musical influences includes CSN&Y, Buffalo springfield, Doors, Beatles, Rolling Stones, the Who, DC5, Jackson Browne, Joe Cocker, Simon & Garfunkel, Santana, Leo Kottke, Eagles, America, Dan Fogelberg, Harry Nillson, Ellen McIlwain, Joni Mitchell, Jethro Tull, the Band, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Bonnie Raitt, Allman Brothers, Fleetwood Mac, Taj Mahal, CCR, and Peter, Paul, & Mary.  I play original progressive folk and slide blues.  

My current project is an EP with 5 original songs called Ninth Ward House.  This project was my effort to use my music to try and build a house for someone else in New Orleans, Louisiana through Brad Pitt’s Make It Right foundation.  All of the houses in the lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans were flooded during hurricane Katrina from water levels rising above the front door knobs of these houses.  Mr. Pitt’s foundation has been coordinating construction of new replacement houses with energy efficient, flood resistant structure, home replacements for some of the people who lived in the Ninth Ward before Katrina flooded them out.  One of my songs on the EP, Summer Sun, was inspired by the hurricane Katrina tragedy.  Having visited New Orleans 5 or 6 times prior to that hurricane, I had fallen in love with the city, the music and the people.  This project is a pay it forward venture.  Wouldn't it be great to be able to build a house by playing music?

Latest EP project UPDATE 

Unfortunately since I began my EP, the Make it Right Foundation has encountered some difficulty with their program due to several lawsuits they've brought against suppliers those that have been made against the foundation by homeowners. The foundation no longer has a working website so I've shifted gears and now that I've finished recording and mastering I am looking to work with Unicef, United Way or Habitat for Humanity to provide funds for victims of hurricanes in New Orleans or Louisiana.