Sophia Michaels
Bluegrass aces Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley play with gusto on their new song “Moonshine Run,” which will appear on the duo’s new album Living in a Song. The project will be released by Compass Records on Feb. 10.
As its name suggests, “Moonshine Run” crackles with outlaw attitude and a swampy groove as Dobro player Ickes and guitarist Hensley throw out some dazzling runs and solos on their respective instruments. Lead singer Hensley describes a town bisected by a river — on one side is righteousness, the other is where people go to procure that moonshine, and in the hidden depths of the river lie “shotguns, bodies, and rusty Chevrolets.”
“I grew up near a river bridge and had always heard stories from the other side of the bridge,” says Hensley, who wrote the song with Ickes and Thomm Jutz. “It seemed to be a divider for the town I grew up in.”
“It’s just a fun song about what happens in East Tennessee when the sun goes down,” Ickes adds.
Produced by Brent Maher, Living in a Song is Ickes and Hensley’s fourth album as a duo, following 2019’s World Full of Blues. Their first outing together, 2015’s Before the Sun Goes Down, earned a Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album.
Living in a Song track list:
- “Living in a Song”
- “Deeper Than a Dirt Road”
- “Backstreets Off Broadway”
- “Way Downtown”
- “I’ve Given All That I Can Take”
- “Moonshine Run”
- “Just Because”
- “I’m Working on a Building”
- “Is the World Still Turning”
- “Louisiana Woman”
- “I Thought I Saw a Carpenter”
- “Thanks”
