Joshua Henderson, who is a learning-disabled artist, officially launched his debut album Songs of Liverpool for Friends with a special performance at the Bluecoat in June of this year to coincide with this year’s Learning Disability Awareness Week.
Upon release of the album Josh was hoping to reach a target of 500 streams of his album online but has smashed this target receiving over 2,500 streams of his songs in less than 6 months. Now, to kick off Disability History Month, Josh is again receiving recognition for his work by having music giants HMV agree to stock CDs of his album at a local store.
The album of original songs was recorded at the city’s The Cabin studio with the support of innovative Liverpool disability arts organisation DaDa and with the assistance of a grant from the Youth Music, using public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England. The Youth Music Next Gen Funds aim to help young creatives across the UK realise their dreams.
Josh first became involved with DaDa through the DaDa Young Ensemble project more than a decade ago, which works with young disabled musicians to compose and perform original music. The organisation has continued to work with Josh to nurture his talent, and source the funding to produce his debut album.
‘Songs of Liverpool for Friends’ is a love letter from Josh to the city he grew up in and features artwork created by Josh with support from Blue Room of his favourite Liverpool Landmarks.
The former Redbridge High School and Notre Dame Catholic College student, from Walton village, started playing the guitar at the age of nine, inspired by his musical dad. All the songs on the album have been written and arranged by Josh who performs vocals, electric guitar and piano.
The singer-songwriter is joined on the album by Mollie Parkinson on bass and Tyler Sherwood on drums who have also come through the DaDa Young Ensemble Project, with additional vocals, piano and keyboards from producer Jon Hering, with fellow producer David Kelly providing vocals and rhythm guitar. The track Capital of Culture 08 features a special performance by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s Georgina Aasgaard.
Josh speaking passionately about his inspiration behind his album explained:
“Liverpool is my home city. Liverpool is my favourite place. It’s where I do my art and I like the buildings, they make me calm. I like to go down on a sunny day and get on the ferry; I love feeling the breeze and looking over at the city.”
Liz Henderson, Josh’s mum told us the whole family are delighted with Josh’s album success saying:
“Josh is absolutely thrilled about his CD going in HMV and looking forward to meeting people. I am incredibly happy and pleased for him, he is very excited about it all.”
Executive Producer at DaDa Rachel Rogers said:
“It has been a privilege for the DaDa team to work with Joshua Henderson and see his development across the last decade. We are thrilled for Josh that HMV are now stocking his CD’s off the back of his successful launch.
Josh is an incredibly talented and credible artist, and his success shows just how powerful funding grassroots disabled music projects can be in beginning to nurture artists to grow and develop.
DaDa celebrates 40 years of supporting disabled artists this year, promoting ‘Equity and Excellence in the Cultural landscape’. We work to provide artists with opportunities to try, develop and become successful in their own right.
Josh is a determined and hard-working young man, and this album really showcases his passion and ability to write and produce quality music. Through our ensemble project and the investment from Youth Music, Josh has been able to develop and become the artist he is today.”
A spokesperson from HMV Liverpool said:
“Our Live & Local programme is in place for exactly this type of thing: To help showcase un-signed and up & coming artists and bands from each store’s local area and provide them with a platform to have their music heard by a wider audience.
“Josh’s passion and love for music and Liverpool shine through on his album, so it is with pleasure that we are stocking copies in-store for our customers to purchase.
“We have come to know Josh through his frequent visits to our store and we are delighted to be able to provide this opportunity to him and hope it may inspire other disabled musicians to contact us (or their local HMV store) to do something similar.”
Josh would love to have his song ‘Christmas Wishes’ all about the lights in Liverpool over the festive season bringing others the joy that he has felt through seeing the lights himself.
‘Songs of Liverpool for Friends ‘by Joshua Henderson is now available in HMV Liverpool to pick up with exclusive CD copies for just £9.99.
For more information about Joshua visit the DaDaFest website.
