Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley Duo (*postponed*)
Due to an abundance of caution, and with the safety of the artists, our audience and staff foremost in our minds, this concert has been postponed. We are looking to reschedule it at some point In the future with Rob and Trey’s agent.
The Prism Coffeehouse and WTJU 91.1 FM Radio are proud to present
The Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley Duo – “Dobro and Guitar Superpickers!”
Friday March 27th 2020 at 7pm (doors at 6:30pm)
C’Ville Coffee, Charlottesville
The Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley Duo
Take a 15-time IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) Dobro Player of the Year and a Tennessee-born guitar prodigy who made his Grand Ole Opry debut at the age of 11, and you have Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley, a powerhouse acoustic duo that has electrified the acoustic music scene.
On their new Compass Records album, WORLD FULL OF BLUES, they move beyond the acoustic-centric sound of their previous two releases (including the GRAMMY-nominated BEFORE THE SUN GOES DOWN) and juice things up with Hammond B3 and a horn section. Guests include blues great Taj Mahal, who provides his unmistakable mojo to the title track, and country music legend Vince Gill, who joins the duo on an inspired rendition of The Grateful Dead’s moonshiner song, “Brown-Eyed Women”.
White-hot picking and stone country vocals are still the driving force of the duo, but now with added grit and a nod to the rootsier side of Americana, all aided by the guiding hand of GRAMMY winning producer Brent Maher. Maher, known for his production and engineering of such diverse artists as The Judds, Faces, and Ike and Tina Turner, loved the duo’s demos and signed on to produce immediately upon hearing them.
Ickes grew up in a suburb of San Francisco and discovered the Dobro as a teenager when he borrowed a Mike Auldridge cassette from his brother. He later moved to Nashville to pursue session work for artists such as Alan Jackson, Merle Haggard and Earl Scruggs, co-founded the highly influential bluegrass group Blue Highway, and ultimately won 15 IBMA Awards for Dobro Player of the Year.
Hensley grew up in East Tennessee and started singing in a gospel group when he was 6 years old. A few years later, his parents took him to a bluegrass festival where the lineup included back-to-back sets by bluegrass legends Charlie Waller and Jimmy Martin. Hensley decided then and there that he wanted to play guitar. By the time he was 11, he had performed on the Grand Ole Opry playing guitar with Earl Scruggs and Marty Stuart.
When Scruggs played Knoxville not long after the Opry appearance, he invited the young Hensley to sit in. Ickes, who was playing Dobro in Scruggs’ band at the time, remembers Hensley as “a very talented kid”, but it would be roughly a decade before they crossed paths again. When they did, Ickes was blown away.
“I couldn’t believe the guy!” Ickes says. “I was just so excited about his music that I called everyone I knew in Nashville and told them about him. Then I suggested that we start playing at (Nashville’s) Station Inn and treat it like a showcase for Trey, just to see what might happen. I used to tease him and say, ‘I’ll have you famous by Christmas.’ Then, just one year later, our first record was nominated for a GRAMMY.”
Going forward the goal is simply to reach more people and illustrate what the unique talents and down to earth, honest approach of Ickes and Hensley can bring to roots music. “We want to keep doing the music that we love, no matter what the genre, and finding the audience that gets what we’re mixing together” says Ickes. Hensley adds, “I love what we’re doing, so it’s just continuing on with that, to more and more people.”
