Press Release
Immediate
Rural Rhythm Records / Blue Chair Records
800.776.8742  www.RuralRhythm.com
Media Contact:  Hope River Entertainment
678.377.3298

Tim Hensley’s "Ridin' Out The Storm "

Rodney Crowell Song Is Long Monday’s Lead Single
Listen to a sample of Ridin' Out The Storm

Nashville TN (11.12.07) With the finishing touches being applied to Long Monday, the first album from Cincinnati journeyman guitarist/vocalist Tim Hensley, the first taste of this acoustic/bluegrass will arrive at radio November 15, 2007. The first single from the project, two years in the making, will be Rodney Crowell’s harrowing “Ridin’ Out The Storm”.

“When Buddy Cannon and I started talking about this project,” Hensley says of the stark track that captures the spirit of the song, “I remember a trip he and I’d made to New York City with Kenny to do some TV shows. We’d gone out for a walk, just around our hotel, and the snow was coming down, and it was so pretty. But you’d look around all that, and you’d see these homeless people… you know, folks with nowhere to go, and it really hits you.”

“When we started looking at songs, Buddy played me this one… and he remembered that same walk… and he agreed this song was everything we saw and felt that day. When something can hit you like that, make something real again, that’s when you know the song is strong…”

“Ridin’ Out The Storm” certainly mines a deep vein of truth. Not intended to be preachy or to make the singer into a hero, it is an honest portrait of a homeless man who in the midst of abject poverty is determined to maintain his dignity… the one thing that is not subject to monetary transaction.

“That is a real story,” says Grammy-winning singer/songwriting icon Crowell. “It happened to me when I was walking with my youngest daughter in New York… and I’d offered this homeless man my coat because it was so cold. He was almost offended, told me his choices were his own. He just caught me between the eyes with my own judgement…”

“And the thing about this song is that honesty,” Crowell continues. “You can tell when you hear Tim sing this song that he’s not just been there, but that he understands all the emotions I was trying to show. It’s about loneliness and sadness, but it’s also about maintaining the honor of your dignity in a very difficult place. It takes a lot of compassion to bring that to light… and he does.”

A veteran of extended stints with Ricky Skaggs and Patty Loveless, as well as an enduring tenure with Kenny Chesney, Hensley creates an acoustic/bluegrass hybrid that is about songs, performances, moments, truths and emotions. In addition to enlisting traditional bluegrass and gospel and songwriters ranging from John Prine to John Scott Sherrill, Ronnie Bowman and Tim Stafford to Larry Cordle and Carl Jackson, Hensley contributes his own redemption glimpse “What A Sight To Behold.”

With “Ridin’ Out The Storm” setting the tone for what’s to come, people will be able to start experiencing the man who has been a muse, a catalyst and a secret weapon for some of bluegrass and country’s biggest names for almost two decades. As a survey of what makes true American music so compelling, one only need check out Long Monday and its 12 tracks to understand.

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