Henry Strzelecki

• Active: '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s
• Genres: Country
• Instrument: Bass

Biography

Birmingham, AL-born Henry Strzelecki (sometimes credited as Henry P. Strzelecki) started out in country music in his teens, recording with songwriter Baker Knight on the Decca label out of Nashville in the mid-'50s. He played with his brother Larry in a group, the Four Flickers (later the Four Counts), who toured the southern and border states late in the '50s, and he subsequently had a hit as a songwriter, in collaboration with Lyle Lovett, with the novelty song "Long Tall Texan," which was cut by the Beach Boys, among many others. He worked with Hank Garland as a bass player in the early '60s, and subsequently worked for Chet Atkins for more than a decade, both in the studio and on tour, which helped move him to the front ranks of Nashville's session players. The list of recordings on which he has worked in the years since -- usually as bassist, but sometimes also as a singer and occasionally on mouth organ, or as a producer -- is prodigious, and encompasses the work of just about every star to come out of Nashville since the early '60s. He also founded a publishing and production company in Nashville that was very active during the 1970s and 1980s, and in 1987 was nominated for Bassman of the Year at the 23rd Academy of Country Music Awards. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide