Henri Herbert - Get It While It’s Hot (2025)

This is a straight-out driving old school rock ‘n’ roll collection. Though it dips its head in a barrel of retro influences, it does not come up wet with vintage, antiquated, scrapyard oldies. Instead, it does what the original rockers did – made it sound challenging, danceable & infected with groovy-itis. Some could be songs Chuck Berry mislaid between the pages of an old magazine, & someone found them.

“Cold City,” & “Guilty Pleasures” lead the 12-song energy-propelled rockers that ignite consistently on Get It While It’s Hot produced & recorded by Henri Herbert (piano/vocals) in Austin & Nashville. Henri was fascinated specifically by the original rock ‘n’ roll piano rockers & stool kickers – Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino & Pete Johnson. Born in France & raised in the UK, Henri started in a R&R revival band but decided to reenergize the genre with his boogie piano playing.

To give his music some authenticity, he came across the pond & relocated to Austin, TX & became legal & a sought-after blues & boogie pianist. His Jerry Lee Lewis fingers are nuclear-powered to perfection as they ski downhill on the 88-keys on “Bad,” & “I Got the Fury” — superb. Herbert would’ve worked excellently with the likes of the late rockabilly artist Robert Gordon (“Red Hot”).
Not so retro is the blistering “Blood From a Stone” with its piano mixed with modern-day edgy angst & muscle — quite a landscape. Whereas on Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire,” it goes from its original guitar slices to a piano-pounding horror-movie chill with Herbert’s pure vocal urgency. Certainly, this guy has a fire extinguisher beside his stool.

Some tunes are typical R&R with icy knifing guitar lines & notes that sizzle on the grill that are mixed with Henri’s percussive fingers on the ivories. There’s a dollop of doo-wop toward the end delivered as sincerely as possible without skipping down novelty lane. Overall, this is one hell of an entertaining pianist who can sing too (“Talkin’ Trash”) with the confident delivery of a Bruce Hornsby (“Spider Fingers”). Great stuff.