All readers of this article today had their introduction to bluegrass in their own seemingly unique way, but not really. I, the special young man that I am, did have the unique experience of hearing bluegrass for the first time at festivals like Grass Valley Father’s Day Festival and Plymouth. But for most people, their first festival was Strawberry, hell, maybe even the vice ridden High Sierra. This is true for the old guard as well where older generations were much less likely to hear Bill Monroe before they heard Hank Williams or Merle Haggard. Another plurality of current bluegrassers came from the sounds of the Gratefel Dead or the Allman brothers. All of these bands were specifically used because they are all bands covered on the new Trey Hensley and Rob Ickes project The Country Blues. Along with covers of the Wood Brothers, Tumbleweed Connection Elton John, Charlie Daniels, and Ray Charles, this album has a few originals that create a full fledged opus into the bluegrassish genres, and how with brilliant instrumentation and a voice hybrid of Merle Haggard and (fill in modern country voice here) there seems to be hope for the modern country genre if they are willing to continue to reception they gave to their last project Before the Sun Goes Down.
Trey Hensley and Rob Ickes project The Country Blues.
While roaming the streets of Raleigh, North Carolina during a stunted hurricane I came upon one of the bars hosting music in the new IBMA format. I can’t say my intention was to discover the next artist emerging from the depressing bars of bluegrass to the sparkling lights of country; my main intention was to find some southern comfort food. Also, I love to look around a new city when it’s my first time and Raleigh has a limited, yet very charming downtown. When I walked past this venue all I could hear were the wails of dobro and the erratic whines of Telecaster licks. Not my usual go to, but this sounded different, and it was. I saw only two men on stage, but it sounded much bigger. The ability of both Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley to follow and instigate where the others solo would go simultaneously was something that I had only heard between Rice and Skaggs when they got to their duet singing. This, I could tell was going to be big. Little did I know many people were already aware, but for those that are still not I’ll clue you in.
Imagine Rob Ickes as the second best instrumentalist in a band. I know that’s hard for our California favoritism to muster, but once one has heard Hensley play “Leave My Woman Alone” at a blazing speed and with frightening joy, one has to come to terms. That doesn’t mean that Ickes is no slouch on this record, in fact Ickes has to be having more fun doing this than he was being limited to four lines of solo every song in the much more structured Blue Highway. Along with more opportunity, Ickes and Hensley are having much more fun doing songs that they grew up admiring and hoping they could reproduce. When hearing them play “Friend of the Devil” the listener can tell that both are reaching back to their teenage years when instead of running through Jimmy Martin Records, they were just realizing that American Beauty brought new scales and meter selections into the big tent bluegrass genre that was materializing during both of their teenage years although one is a few years older. Another beautiful blast from the past where both are very conscious of a heralded style is the appropriate last track “One way Out” where both ickes and Hensley use the Greg Hallman pentatonic scale to high heaven. While it is not the best executed cover on the album, the intro track “Ballad of a Well Known Gun” left me with the most joy and admiration because using Tumbleweed Connection as a true country inspiration is something I believe to be necessary in order to make a great country record today.
While this satisfied all us “Rock/blues bluegrassers” this album was called The Country Blues for a reason. Both lyrical originals are much more country than rock. The second and third tracks respectively, “Everywhere I go is a Long way from Home” and “That’s what Leaving’s for” sound like what Josh Williams wish he could have done on the new album, and what everybody wished they could do after hearing Bradley Walkler sing, respectively. After hearing Hensley sing, the Haggard comparisons are necessary which is what made “I Won’t Give Up My Train” such a genius choice. The instrumental back and forth on this track is also much better than expected even for this album. The other old school country track “May You Never be Alone” is an old Hank Williams tune that allows Rob Ickes to show off his sensitive slide guitar side while the rest of the album focuses on him at his wildest.
If this wasn’t enough, special guest fiddle player Andy Leftwich makes an appearance whenever you hear psychopathic fiddle solos, and Ron Block adds some much needed banjo to the most bluegrassy track, “Everywhere I go is a Long way from Home”. The decision to add a full band was a great idea by Ickes and Hensley even though they sounded great live, and that decision was even made better when it was revealed the bass and drum player would be Mike Bub and John Alvey respectively. Obviously, Bub is one of the best bass players on the planet and that is to be expected, but I was more impressed with the incredibly tasteful full kit work by
Alvey which acted like a real drum kit instead of a shuffle box that was stupidly used throughout the new Josh Williams album. This is yet another example that when two brilliant bluegrassers/ country artists aren’t afraid of their roots and what genres they enjoy, magic can be made.
