Here’s a new CD release from Rural Rhythm that we missed recently. Tim Hensley is a seasoned veteran of both the bluegrass and country music genres. Hensley has toured as a side man for Ricky Skaggs, Patty Loveless, and Kenny Chesney. Now he’s stepping into the spotlight with his first ever solo recording, Long Monday.

A multi-instrumentalist, Hensley has previously played both mandolin and guitar with the stars he’s toured with. He’s also contributed backing vocals to many of their well known songs. On Long Monday that vocal arrangement is reversed. Hensley is still playing guitar and mandolin, but this time he’s singing lead, with background vocals coming from Ronnie Bowman, Melonie Cannon, Vince Gill, Sonya Isaacs, Patty Loveless, and more.

The CD is produced by Country Music super-star Kenny Chesney, with whom Hensley has been performing for six years.

Tim gets up there every night and rocks with us, but it’s after the shows, walking back to the bus that you can hear his voice in the halls, singing what he truly loves. You hear enough of someone singing something that really matters to them, well, you wanna help them realize their music, too. That’s how it felt with Tim and the bluegrass stuff…It was letting the world get to hear something we’ve been lucky enough to get to hear almost every night for the last five or six years.

Chesney brought in ACM Song of the Year writer Buddy Cannon to co-produce the project.

Hensley traces his musical roots back to his days singing in church with his family and then Southern Gospel bands, before moving into bluegrass and commercial country territory. The CD reflects his musical journey. Many of the songs have a more contemplative feel that is typical on a bluegrass album. Don’t worry, there’s some hard driving bluegrass present as well though. It takes the form of tunes like Fox Run The Henhouse and Shady Grove.

Joining Hensley instrumentally are such bluegrass luminaries as Rob Ickes, Aubrey Haynie, Wyatt Rice, Tim Stafford, Adam Steffey, and Dave Talbot.

The songs come from all directions on this CD, some are traditional tunes that you’ve heard before, arranged afresh by Hensley and Chesney. Others are written by bluegrass songwriters such as Tim Stafford, Shawn Camp, Larry Cordle, and Ronnie Bowman. Also present are tunes from the pens of John Prine and Rodney Crowell. Hensley wrote one of the tunes himself.

If you like a smoother sounding bluegrass, this CD is the one for you. The press release accompanying the CD sums it up quite well.

Blending the various genres he has passed through - Southern Gospel, bluegrass, singer/songwriter, mountain soul and strait-up the middle country, Long Monday is a survey course in much of what’s great about organic American music.

Make no mistake, this is not a country album. It’s just not a banjo-centered bluegrass record. While it contains its share of fiery banjo picking, it tends to center more around the sound of the acoustic guitar as played by Hensley, Stafford, and Rice. And that’s not a bad thing!

Audio samples are available on Tim’s website.

Country music superstar Kenny Chesney is climbing the charts right now with a song written by bluegrass favorite Ronnie Bowman.

Never Wanted Nothing More was written during a marathon writing session that took place between Ronnie Bowman and proven country writer Chris Stapleton. The two wrote a number of songs together during one extended informal writing session. The thing is, it was the first time the two had ever worked together. Ronnie remembers it this way.

Chris came over to the house and we started writing. A day later we had a handful of good songs, but this one just really stood out. We went right in and recorded a demo!

Ronnie tells me the demo was just the basics, the two songwriters with their guitars, that’s it. No frills, no fancy arrangement, just the song.

Ronnie writes for Sony Music Publishing and they took the song and started pitching it. It was just a short time later that Ronnie discovered Chesney was interested in the song. Then Chesney’s producer, Buddy Cannon, called and asked if Ronnie would like to stop by the studio and hear the track as they worked on it.

After I got off the phone, I just asked myself “Am I dreaming or is Kenny Chesney recording my song today?” As soon as I came back to my senses, I headed right over to the studio to check it out.

Once he got in the studio, Ronnie was in for another surprise. (more…)