Hensley and Ickes Hiatus as Hensley Pivots to Solo Career and Ickes to Shift Focus to Session Work & Touring With Other Artists
Grammy Award winners Rob Ickes (15-time IBMA Resophonic Guitar Player of the Year) and Trey Hensley (2023 IBMA Guitar Player of the Year), who have recorded and toured for a decade as a highly-acclaimed acoustic duo, will take a hiatus from their musical partnership at the close of 2025. The pair will continue to tour together throughout 2025 and honour all touring commitments through the end of the year. Hensley will simultaneously pivot to focusing on a solo career heading into 2026, and Ickes will shift his focus to session work and touring with other artists.
Trey Hensley Rob Ickes
Ickes, the most decorated musician in IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) Awards history and co-founder of the bluegrass supergroup Blue Highway, and guitar prodigy Hensley, referred to as Nashville’s hottest young player by Acoustic Guitar, have a full slate of theatre and festival performances forthcoming this summer and fall and will not be canceling any of those dates. Bookings are still being accepted for Rob and Trey shows through the close of this year and bookings will begin opening for Trey Hensley solo performances in late 2025 and 2026. Hensley plans to release new music soon and embark on an extensive solo tour beginning in 2026.
We are starting to wind down Rob and Trey and beginning to wind up Trey Hensley solo, I’m ready to pull back a little bit in terms of touring, and Trey’s career is really taking off, so we both think it’s time for him to focus on that. I’d like to thank Trey for being such a solid musical/business partner and friend for the past decade. I can’t imagine working with anyone more talented and more fun. I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished together, and I’m very excited to see what comes his way with his career; I know it’s going to be incredible – Rob Ickes.
Rob and I have covered a lot of ground together over ten years, winning a Grammy Award this year, earning a Grammy nomination for our first duo record, collaborating with so many of our musical heroes and touring all over the United States, Europe and Australia; it’s truly been an amazing ride. As I step out of the duo to focus on my solo career, I want to say a big thank you to Rob, who has been a great mentor and friend to me and my family over the years and although it sounds cliché, this isn’t the end, but a new chapter. I know we will make more music together in the future. This change is simply going to allow me to focus on some other projects that I am excited to share with everyone – Trey Hensley.
Ickes and Hensley won their first Grammy Awards at the 67th annual awards night on Feb. 2, 2025 as members of The Taj Mahal Sextet, whose 2024 recording Swingin’ Live At The Church In Tulsa, won Best Traditional Blues Album. Ickes and Hensley earned a Best Bluegrass Album Grammy nomination for their first recording together, Before The Sun Goes Down, released in 2014. The dynamic duo earned widespread critical acclaim for their follow-up albums The Country Blues (2016), World Full of Blues (2019), and Living In A Song (2023)—with production work by six-time Grammy winner Brent Maher on the latter two albums.
Having received praise from the late, great Merle Haggard, Marty Stuart and Tommy Emmanuel, CGP, to name just a few, Ickes and Hensley have been referred to as two musical phenoms by NPR, bluegrass aces by Rolling Stone, two of the finest musicians playing today by No Depression and an acoustic firestorm…[who] are changing the rules by Vintage Guitar.
Noted for their world class musicianship and guitar prowess, Ickes and Hensley were invited to perform at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival 2023 in Los Angeles among many of the world’s most talented guitarists. Ickes and Hensley have collaborated with some of the most legendary artists in the business, including Taj Mahal, Tommy Emmanuel, Vince Gill, Dolly Parton, Jorma Kaukonen, Little Feat, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Rodney Crowell and many others.
