Trey Hensley (born 1990) is a flatpicker and singer from East Tennessee. He played the Grand Ole Opry at age 11 with Marty Stuart and Earl Scruggs. He has won IBMA Guitar Player of the Year twice, in 2023 and 2025, and he won a Grammy in 2025 as a member of the Taj Mahal Sextet. His duo with dobro player Rob Ickes has made four albums for Compass Records.
Why Hensley matters
Hensley brought a country singer’s voice and a blues player’s bend to bluegrass guitar. He plays hard and clean at high speed, but he also plays slow songs with the same care. Jammers hear him and learn that a flatpicker can sing lead, front a band, and still take the hottest break of the night.
Life and career
Hensley was born on September 27, 1990, in Johnson City, Tennessee, and grew up in nearby Jonesborough. He started guitar as a small child. Around age nine his father set up a backstage meeting with Marty Stuart at the Appalachian Fair in Gray, Tennessee. About nine months later Stuart invited him to the Grand Ole Opry. There, at age 11, he sang Jimmy Brown the Newsboy with Stuart and Earl Scruggs.
As a boy he went to the jams at the Carter Family Fold in Hiltons, Virginia. He met Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash there, and they introduced him to Tom T. Hall in 2002. He made his first record, First Time Out, in 2003, and two more solo records in 2008 and 2009.
In 2013 Hensley moved to Nashville and formed a duo with Rob Ickes, the co-founder of Blue Highway and a 15-time IBMA Dobro Player of the Year. Their first album, Before the Sun Goes Down (Compass, 2015), earned a Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album. They followed it with The Country Blues (2016), World Full of Blues (2019), and Living in a Song (2023), all on Compass.
Hensley moved back to Jonesborough in 2021. He toured and recorded with Taj Mahal, and the live album Swingin’ Live at the Church in Tulsa won the 2025 Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album. That year he also won his second IBMA Guitar Player of the Year award. In 2026 he released his first solo album in years, Can’t Outrun the Blues, on Pinecastle Records, produced by Brent Maher with guests Molly Tuttle, Vince Gill, Steve Wariner, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
Playing style
Hensley attacks the strings. His right hand digs in for a loud, full tone, and he keeps that tone at speed. His lines mix the standard bluegrass runs with blues bends, slides, and swing phrasing that he picked up from country and blues records. He also plays a lot of open-string licks that ring against fretted notes.
He sings in a deep baritone, and his guitar breaks follow the melody of the song more than they follow scale patterns. He has played a Gallagher Doc Watson model, and in 2023 Huss and Dalton released a Trey Hensley signature rosewood dreadnought, the TD-R Custom.
Influences and legacy
Hensley names Tony Rice and Jerry Garcia as sources. His singing owes a debt to Charlie Waller and Jimmy Martin. Marty Stuart and Earl Scruggs gave him his first big stage, and Johnny Cash and Tom T. Hall encouraged him as a boy.
His partnership with Rob Ickes made the dobro and guitar duo a working format for a touring act. He has recorded with Molly Tuttle, Vince Gill, Tommy Emmanuel, and Taj Mahal. He also teaches, with a TrueFire course and camp workshops that reach a new set of flatpickers.
Signature tunes and songs
Before the Sun Goes Down Fireball, with Special Consensus White Line Fever Going and Gone Tucson Can’t Outrun the Blues.
Essential recordings
Before the Sun Goes Down, with Rob Ickes (Compass, 2015) The Country Blues, with Rob Ickes (Compass, 2016) World Full of Blues, with Rob Ickes (Compass, 2019) Living in a Song, with Rob Ickes (Compass, 2023) Can’t Outrun the Blues (Pinecastle, 2026)
Awards and honors
IBMA Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year, Fireball, with Special Consensus (2016) Grammy nomination, Best Bluegrass Album, Before the Sun Goes Down (2016) IBMA Collaborative Recording of the Year, I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You (2017) IBMA Collaborative Recording of the Year, White Line Fever (2021) IBMA Guitar Player of the Year (2023) Grammy Award, Best Traditional Blues Album, with the Taj Mahal Sextet for Swingin’ Live at the Church in Tulsa (2025) IBMA Guitar Player of the Year (2025)
Watch and listen
Hensley plays and sings Going and Gone alone at Carter Vintage Guitars in Nashville. Watch how his right hand keeps a full rhythm going between the sung lines.
A solo performance of Tucson, from Can’t Outrun the Blues. Listen for the blues bends inside the bluegrass runs.
What to learn from Hensley
Learn a mid-tempo song, not a breakdown. Take a country standard from the Ickes and Hensley records and work out a break that follows the sung melody. The technique to steal is his pick attack. Hensley gets a big, loud note without speeding up, and that comes from a firm grip and a downstroke that drives through the string. Play a G run at half speed with that attack until each note has the same weight. Then add one blues bend on the third of the chord. That one bend is the sound.
Sources
Trey Hensley, IBMA award recipients Trey Hensley, Wikipedia Trey Hensley official site Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley, Compass Records Trey Hensley, Pinecastle Records Trey Hensley’s solo album Can’t Outrun the Blues out now, Pinecastle Records Trey Hensley talks bluegrass and guitar pickin’, Bluegrass Today Featured artist Trey Hensley, Gallagher Guitar Taj Mahal Sextet wins Best Traditional Blues Album, GRAMMY.com Swingin’ Live at the Church in Tulsa, Wikipedia Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley, Living in a Song, Discogs
Related players
See the guitar players hub and the guitar guide for more flatpickers. Hensley learned from Tony Rice records. He trades the IBMA guitar award back and forth with Cody Kilby, and he recorded with Molly Tuttle. Billy Strings is another flatpicker who sings lead and fronts his own band.