Album Review – Trey Hensley’s “Can’t Outrun The Blues”

Bluegrass (#520) on the Country DDS. AI = “clean”

It turns out this Trey Hensley guy is pretty good at music.

He does things on the guitar you’re not exactly sure if they’re even humanly possible—at least they seemed impossible until he makes the leap and sticks the landing right in front of you, defying belief and logic. There’s no trickery here though. This is human fingers moving across wood and wire to tickle the eternally relevant sounds of the universe for your audio edification. A.I., eat your heart out.

There might be guitar players out there that just like Hensley, have achieved the very pinnacle of skill and capability on the guitar dictated by the laws of physics. But nobody is able to pull off the kinds of bursts and runs Hensley perfects like rolling out of bed in the morning, making it all look so effortless that it’s almost maddening to understudies.

“Blues” might be in the name of Trey Hensley’s new album, but it’s still a bluegrass affair. But if Billy Strings uses jam band improvising to separate and distinguish himself from the rest of the bluegrass world, Tennessee native Trey Hensley uses soul. He might be the reigning IBMA Guitar Player of The Year—a distinction he’s now earned for a second time. But an entirely different discussion could ensue on if he’s the most soulful singer in the bluegrass discipline, or even beyond.

After amicably separating from his long-time partner in crime—bluegrass dobro legend Rob Ickes—Hensley is now searching for musical immortality with his first solo album since 2009, and makes a strong case he should find it via Can’t Outrun The Blues. The superbly-written title track co-penned by Hensley is bluegrass at its finest, but can hold the attention of any music fan in the way its message rings universally.

There are numerous songs from the album that feel like they will be signature songs of Hensley henceforth like “Tucson,” which is the perfect vessel for showing off what Hensley is capable of on guitar. Shower him with whatever praise you wish for his guitar skills and singing. But make sure you save some hot water for his songwriting and composition like he showcases on the lush moments of the final song “Off To Sea.”

Yet perhaps some of the moments that will resonate the widest or make fast fans from curious listeners might come from outside compositions. For some in the audience, it’ll be Hensley’s spectacular take on “Up On Cripple Creek” with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band that seals the deal, and for damn good reasons. It’s so soulful and greasy, you start searching for drop biscuits to sop it up with. Trey even features a little “trad country” (as they call it in bluegrass) when he covers Neil Young’s “Unknown Legend” admirably.

Singing in a Gospel group by the time he was six years old, making his Grand Ole Opry debut on the stage with Marty Stuart and Earl Scruggs when he was just 11, and spending 13 years in partnership with Rob Ickes has resulted in ample dues paid for Trey Hensley. If anything, he’s paid more than his fair share. Those within the bluegrass discipline need no convincing of this.

But the gifts that Trey Hensley has to contribute to the world should not be resigned to one genre or subgenre specifically. Hensley’s music doesn’t just come with that wide open appeal, it deserves that wide open audience to reintroduce this blinding, inspiring musicianship back into the national conversation of what music should be. Hopefully, Can’t Outrun The Blues is that conduit. Whether it is or not, it most definitely deserves to be.

8.5/10

– – – – – – – – – –

Stream Can’t Outrun The Blues – Purchase from Trey Hensley