Album Review – Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley’s “Living In A Song”

It’s a great time for bluegrass, it’s a great time for traditional country, and it’s a great time for quality songwriting. Bluegrass duo Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley find the sweet spot between all three of these disciplines on their new album Living In A Song, which captures these award-winning instrumentalists leaning toward the country side of their sound more than ever before, and exploring the art of songwriting through their own works and the songs of others.
Ickes and Hensley are sometimes easy to lose site of in the crowded bluegrass field since everything seems to be focused on either the jam grass side of stuff, or the staunch traditionalists and legends. But Rob Ickes gives up nothing to any other dobro player in the field, and has about a dozen IBMA Awards to prove it. Is Trey Hensley any less of a flatpicker than Billy Strings or Molly Tuttle? Listening to this album, it’s tough to come to such a conclusion. They’re just not into showy presentation and spectacle. They let the music speak for itself.
Even then, Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley have been one of the more interesting projects in bluegrass for some time. A few years ago they backed Texas country songwriter Jason Eady on his 2018 album I Travel On. That’s the kind of unexpected moves you can expect from them, and similar to Jason Eady, everything Rob and Trey do is thought out and intentional. This new album is no different.
Drawing from their own experiences on the road and trying to attain notoriety through music, this is how you get songs like “Backstreets Off Broadway” and “Living in A Song.” There is also a faith component on this album with a spirited rendition of the old standard “I’m Working On A Building” and their own original “I Thought I Saw a Carpenter.”

If you want a master class in classic country songwriting, check out “Is The World Still Turning” co-written by Rob and Trey with the album’s producer Brent Maher. Trey Hensley has a pleasantly distinctive voice, and this song helps explore his lower range, while Ickes’ harmonies are a good compliment to a song that works so simply and perfectly like all classic country songs do. Living In a Song is also fair to call well-produced, showing restraint with the instrumentation to allow the song to be the focal point.
But this album also doesn’t forget to have a little fun. Bootlegging songs are a dime a dozen in country and bluegrass, but “Moonshine Run” will get your blood pumping nonetheless. Doc Watson’s old standard “Way Downtown” has been done a million times too, but it creates the perfect showcase for the instrumental talent of these two men, lest you forget about it on this more songwriter-based album.
Living In A Song is a good mix of the new and the familiar, of country and bluegrass, of songs and reels, all of which help to illustrate the parallels between these things and bridge gaps in appeal until you have an album that is hard to not enjoy no matter what you’re a fan of, as long as it’s unpretentious music delivered with heart and skill.
1 3/4 Guns Up (8/10)
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Purchase from Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley
February 18, 2023 @ 1:58 pm
Interesting mix of sounds and styles. I like it a lot.
Loving the resurgence in bluegrass.
February 18, 2023 @ 2:00 pm
I dislike musicians who think we give a shit about their political opinions. Unfortunately it’s a growing list. Write a protest song, fine. I can choose not to buy it.
February 18, 2023 @ 3:00 pm
Protest song?
February 18, 2023 @ 8:30 pm
I’m not sure if I’m more confused by this post, or the fact that two people agree with it. There ain’t anything approaching a protest song on this album. Ready. Shoot. Aim!
February 19, 2023 @ 11:27 am
It now has 20 likes. Who are these people, and what did they hear that we didn’t?
February 19, 2023 @ 11:40 am
There are absolutely no “protest” songs on this album. And even if there were, if they were good, more power to them. “Murder On Music Row” was a protest song.
Can’t explain how that comment got 20+ likes, except it validates that there is a small, but loud contingent of SCM commenters who come here simply to vent their political frustrations without even really interfacing with the content presented. They just find a glimmer of opening to the political world, and seize upon it to seethe. I can’t think of a better example.
February 20, 2023 @ 9:36 am
I wasn’t familiar with these guys until I saw them on Premier Guitar’s Rig Rundown a couple of weeks ago. https://youtu.be/aUQN9yh5E1U
That man Trey can really rip. And he’s got a couple of unique guitars if you’re into that sort of thing.
February 20, 2023 @ 8:09 am
Stacy’s in the ATF.
February 18, 2023 @ 6:34 pm
I’ve been enjoying this album. “Moonshine Run” really stood out to me at first listen, but I enjoy what I call ‘driving songs’ for those times I’m cruising down the road with windows down.
I was unaware of Ickes or Hensley until I got to see the latter perform with Nitty Gritty Dirt Band as part of their 50th anniversary celebration for Will The Circle Be Unbroken at the CMA Theater in December. His lead vocals and picking really stood out and he seemed right at home with the rest of the amazing performers on stage. Since then I’ve been looking for more music from him.
February 18, 2023 @ 9:00 pm
While there’s definitely some stone cold country on this album, more than anything it strikes me as deeply Southern. There’s a focus on well constructed, clear lyrics that meet folks where they live. The music is country and bluegrass and blues and gospel. It feels authentic in that there’s no obvious studio trickery or relying purely on atmosphere and aesthetics to get a song across. And – here’s an understatement – these boys can flat play. Great album by a couple of great musicians who chose to focus on the songs, some of which might have been bonafide hits in a different era. Trigger, thanks much for reviewing this one.
February 19, 2023 @ 10:53 am
I haven’t listened to these guys in a couple of years but if I’m not mistaken they did something like a blues Dobro album too.
Man I need to figure out a system for keeping track of all the good music. I consume music at a firehose rate and sometimes forget about great artists. I remember being SUPER excited about the other album and it looks like it just fell off my radar completely until this review.
February 19, 2023 @ 12:54 am
It’s shocking to me that anyone would think Rob Ickes was somehow not well known. He’s been super famous since like the early 2000’s at least when he was ripping with Blue Highway. I saw them in 2004 or 5 and I’m pretty sure it was billed Blue Highway with Rob Ickes. Anyway, sounds like a killer album, as does the Jason Eady album, whom I have never listened to. Something to check out on Monday!
February 19, 2023 @ 1:35 am
I don’t mean to imply that Rob Ickes is unknown or something. I just think that in the bluegrass world, just like country, you have these buzzed-about artists, and then you have artists that may not have all the buzz, but bring it consistently every time. That Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley, and Jason Eady too.
February 19, 2023 @ 10:19 am
I guess my impression of the bluegrass world is that it is small enough that everyone who is more than just a casual fan would absolutely know who he is. Certainly people who specifically only listen to country maybe not. Personally, I have always listened and studied both in addition to gospel, soul, tejano and everything else which I have always lumped under the “Americana” label. Sidenote, since when did “Americana” become somehow political in any way? I always thought of it as people who like George Jones, Howlin Wolf, Flaco Jimenez and Woody Guthrie about the same amount. It’s certainly what Michael Bloomfield meant when he called Electric Flag an “American Music Band” and he understood American roots music on a level that few will.
February 20, 2023 @ 7:22 am
i discovered Ickes and Hensley through the Eady’s album and became a fan ever since.
Hensley performances during the sequestred songwriters sessions made me feel ashamed of being called a “guitarist”.
February 20, 2023 @ 9:42 am
Thanks again Trig. Love this album. Jason Eady’s I Travel On was my 2018 most listened album. 5 years on this songwriting and music hits the same sweet spot. Whenever I hear music like this, I think of Guy Clark’s Stuff That Works.
February 23, 2023 @ 12:14 am
Was in San Francisco for work last fall. When I’m on work trips solo I try to find things to do in the evening. Saw the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band had a show in Berkeley and being that their Will the Circle Be Unbroken album is easily one of my top 5 favorite albums of all time I bought a ticket. No surprise at all that the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band put on a fantastic show.
Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley who I had never heard of opened for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: and wow! Very impressed with the musicianship and songwriting from these two fellas. Worst part of their set was that it had to end. After being on the west coast for a week I was missing the south and it seemed like they brought the south to me.