Originally from Estevan, Chris Henderson grew up in a musically rooted family and stayed fairly close to home whenever he wasn't on the road touring. Then him and his wife ended up moving to Wilcox in recent years and shortly after their arrival they saw a musical gem sprout up in front of their own eyes in their new hometown.

"Their was a fellow last fall that bought a place," explained Henderson. "And he's starting up a house concert venue in Wilcox. So very cool to have a venue right here in this little town that we live in."

That fellow is a man by the name of Gary Island, who recently purchased his new home in Wilcox. Island's home used to be the local financial institution and still features a working safe that was used to hold all of the money for the bank. And now the vault is being used as a dressing room for the performers.

Photo of Gary Island in his new home. (Courtesy of Gary Island)

"So I was living in Ontario most of my life and I did a lot of different house concerts and I enjoyed it so much that I thought 'well one day when I retire I'm going to move to a small town and bring a grassroots initiative like house concerts to that town'," said Island. "But I wanted a place or building where I could live and also put on a concert. So it had a commercial component and that way I could do both and enjoy life bring music to my place, but also to live there. So that was my beginnings. I guess the bug was already there and it was something I wanted to do. So here I am doing a parking lot show here August twenty-second with Chris Henderson."

Photo of The Music Vault's dressing room inside of an old bank safe. (Courtesy of Gary Island)

"Unfortunately he was originally supposed to have his first show back in March but with Covid and everything else that got postponed," Henderson told about Island. "So now I'm thankful to have the honour of playing his first show and I'm looking forward to doing it August twenty-second, we're going to be doing an outdoor concert, and making sure that social distancing guidelines are all followed. I'm just looking forward to sharing some music again."

What are you most looking forward to?

"I'm looking forward to trying some new songs," stated Henderson. "I put out a new album in October of last year and my original plan was to do a lot of touring of that record this year. But of course things have changed so I'm looking forward to presenting a lot of those songs that maybe a lot of people haven't heard or only heard a handful of times. But also I've written some new songs over the past months, so I'm looking forward to trying out some new material, and more than anything else I'm looking forward to performing in front of people."

This past weekend Henderson played two sold-out but socially distanced shows at The Happy Nun Café in Forget, Saskatchewan.

"It's a wonderfully unique room ran by some amazing folks, Gayla and her staff. If you haven't ever eaten there before their food is incredible. When I perform there the entertainment is adequate but the food makes up for it."

Henderson's upcoming show at The Music Vault in Wilcox will be taking place on Saturday, August 22nd at 2:30 p.m. in the parking lot at 501 Railway Ave.

"You're encouraged to bring your lawn chair," Island explained. "We won't be serving and food or drinks, but you can bring your own if you'd like. We still want to make sure that there is distancing at this show because we want to do this as safe as possible."

So what else can we look out for Chris?

"I'm getting ready to release another single this fall," answered Henderson. "I'm going to be partnering with an organization in Canada. The one thing I can say is that it's going to be a male health initiative. So looking forward to doing that later this year. And I've had a few chats with a producer about potentially recording some more songs before the end of the year too. So at this point in 2020 I'm taking it day by day. But looking forward to getting some musical projects going as well."

To stay up to date with everything Chris Henderson releases feel free to follow him on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. You can also visit his official website to purchase tickets & merchandise.

You can also find more information about future events at The Music Vault in Wilcox over on their official Facebook page.