Tim Hensley
Chesney bandmate's new album grabs attention
Most nights, 16,000 or so people would file out of the arena just as the concert began.
"We sat so many nights backstage, or in a dressing room or on a bus, and started up a bluegrass jam session with Tim Hensley as the ringleader," Kenny Chesney said. "I told him one day, 'I don't know how or when, but I'm going to capture you doing this.' "
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Hensley plays guitar and sings harmony vocals in Chesney's band, making him an integral element in country's most popular tour. With Chesney, he helps out on amped-up hits such as "Young" and "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy." But backstage and on new album Long Monday (produced by Chesney and Buddy Cannon), Hensley sings acoustic music with bluegrass roots.
"The first music I remember hearing was Ralph Stanley, when I was a 6- or 7-year-old kid," he said. "I was in my grandpa's station wagon, listening to Ralph sing 'Gloryland' and play the banjo."
Originally from Cincinnati, Hensley paid his way through college by playing in bluegrass and country bands. He moved to Nashville in 1986, and in Music City he took jobs as a touring musician. He worked with Patty Loveless for years, played with Ricky Skaggs and also with Jason Sellers. About nine years ago, Hensley joined with Chesney on what was supposed to be a temporary gig, which proved anything but. And Hensley's bluegrass background actually jibes with Chesney's sensibilities: The country star tuned in to bluegrass as a college student in East Tennessee, often listening to the Seldom Scene's Old Train album.
"Some people are surprised by that, because they only know me as the guy onstage with all the electric Les Paul guitars up there," Chesney said. "They don't know the part of me that loves the Seldom Scene, and they don't know that one of my favorite songs is 'Wait a Minute' (a Herb Pedersen ballad recording by the Seldom Scene and recently cut by Alan Jackson). It's true that out on the road I have a huge production, but I love this kind of music also."
'I love listening to him'
In the mid-1990s, Hensley was knocking on Nashville doors in hopes of getting a solo deal. But he'd largely put those aspirations aside in favor of steady work with Chesney. In the studio in 2007, though, he, Chesney, Cannon and keyboard player Wyatt Beard were singing bluegrass standards during a recording break, and Chesney asked Cannon, "How much would it cost to do an album on Tim?" Struck by the simplicity of the men singing around a single microphone, Cannon answered, "If we do it the way we're doing it now, it'll cost about $5."
Hensley, Cannon and Chesney bounced song ideas off each other and wound up deciding on a mix of material for Long Monday that includes some standards, some tunes from modern songwriting masters John Prine and Rodney Crowell and a Hensley-penned song called "What a Sight To Behold."
"Tim is such an honest singer," Chesney said. "I love listening to him. I think this album started out as a project for Tim and me and the band and the crew to listen to. But the more we got into it, the more it seemed like it was a song cycle that was going to be something other people were going to want to hear. It just seemed like something that was going to have legs."
Today at 8 a.m., Hensley is slated to be interviewed by Bill Cody on WSM-AM 650, and an XM Radio interview will air at 11 a.m. on XM's bluegrass channel. And Friday night, Hensley is set to make his Grand Ole Opry debut. He'll likely sing "Ridin' Out the Storm," a Crowell-written song that Rural Rhythm Records is releasing to bluegrass radio.
"I was real nervous about doing all this, at first," Hensley said. "It's funny, but I can go out in front of 60,000 people at a Kenny show and be as comfortable as anyone could be. But put me at a country church in front of 15 farmers and their families and I'll get nervous. But we booked the Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree not too long ago, and that went so well that after the show I called Buddy Cannon and said, 'Why don't we do the Opry?' "
So he's doing just that this weekend. And on the road with Chesney, things are beginning to change as
well.
"We were in Panama City, Fla., doing a show," he said. "I was waiting to get into a little joint to get some food, and some kids started shouting, 'Hey, Tim! Long Monday! Yeah!' Now that caught me off guard."
This summer, Hensley might as well put himself on guard for such occurrences.
Posted 04/07/2008
"We sat so many nights backstage, or in a dressing room or on a bus, and started up a bluegrass jam session with Tim Hensley as the ringleader," Kenny Chesney said. "I told him one day, 'I don't know how or when, but I'm going to capture you doing this.' "
Advertisement
Hensley plays guitar and sings harmony vocals in Chesney's band, making him an integral element in country's most popular tour. With Chesney, he helps out on amped-up hits such as "Young" and "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy." But backstage and on new album Long Monday (produced by Chesney and Buddy Cannon), Hensley sings acoustic music with bluegrass roots.
"The first music I remember hearing was Ralph Stanley, when I was a 6- or 7-year-old kid," he said. "I was in my grandpa's station wagon, listening to Ralph sing 'Gloryland' and play the banjo."
Originally from Cincinnati, Hensley paid his way through college by playing in bluegrass and country bands. He moved to Nashville in 1986, and in Music City he took jobs as a touring musician. He worked with Patty Loveless for years, played with Ricky Skaggs and also with Jason Sellers. About nine years ago, Hensley joined with Chesney on what was supposed to be a temporary gig, which proved anything but. And Hensley's bluegrass background actually jibes with Chesney's sensibilities: The country star tuned in to bluegrass as a college student in East Tennessee, often listening to the Seldom Scene's Old Train album.
"Some people are surprised by that, because they only know me as the guy onstage with all the electric Les Paul guitars up there," Chesney said. "They don't know the part of me that loves the Seldom Scene, and they don't know that one of my favorite songs is 'Wait a Minute' (a Herb Pedersen ballad recording by the Seldom Scene and recently cut by Alan Jackson). It's true that out on the road I have a huge production, but I love this kind of music also."
'I love listening to him'
In the mid-1990s, Hensley was knocking on Nashville doors in hopes of getting a solo deal. But he'd largely put those aspirations aside in favor of steady work with Chesney. In the studio in 2007, though, he, Chesney, Cannon and keyboard player Wyatt Beard were singing bluegrass standards during a recording break, and Chesney asked Cannon, "How much would it cost to do an album on Tim?" Struck by the simplicity of the men singing around a single microphone, Cannon answered, "If we do it the way we're doing it now, it'll cost about $5."
Hensley, Cannon and Chesney bounced song ideas off each other and wound up deciding on a mix of material for Long Monday that includes some standards, some tunes from modern songwriting masters John Prine and Rodney Crowell and a Hensley-penned song called "What a Sight To Behold."
"Tim is such an honest singer," Chesney said. "I love listening to him. I think this album started out as a project for Tim and me and the band and the crew to listen to. But the more we got into it, the more it seemed like it was a song cycle that was going to be something other people were going to want to hear. It just seemed like something that was going to have legs."
Today at 8 a.m., Hensley is slated to be interviewed by Bill Cody on WSM-AM 650, and an XM Radio interview will air at 11 a.m. on XM's bluegrass channel. And Friday night, Hensley is set to make his Grand Ole Opry debut. He'll likely sing "Ridin' Out the Storm," a Crowell-written song that Rural Rhythm Records is releasing to bluegrass radio.
"I was real nervous about doing all this, at first," Hensley said. "It's funny, but I can go out in front of 60,000 people at a Kenny show and be as comfortable as anyone could be. But put me at a country church in front of 15 farmers and their families and I'll get nervous. But we booked the Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree not too long ago, and that went so well that after the show I called Buddy Cannon and said, 'Why don't we do the Opry?' "
So he's doing just that this weekend. And on the road with Chesney, things are beginning to change as
well.
"We were in Panama City, Fla., doing a show," he said. "I was waiting to get into a little joint to get some food, and some kids started shouting, 'Hey, Tim! Long Monday! Yeah!' Now that caught me off guard."
This summer, Hensley might as well put himself on guard for such occurrences.
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