Hensley, Walter

WALTER HENSLEY

  • From Baltimore, Maryland (Born in Grundy, Virginia).
  • Called “The Banjo Baron of Baltimore.
  • 1952, worked with Hobo Jack Adkins and the Kentucky Pals and filled in with the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers.
  • 1956, played in a rockabilly band The Black Mountain Boys.
  • 1957, joined Earl Taylor and the Stoney Mountain Boys.
  • 1961, joined the Country Gentlemen.
  • 1962, re-joined Earl Taylor.
  • 1963, recorded an influential banjo album for Capitol Records “Five String Banjo Today.”
  • 1980, formed his own band The Dukes of Bluegrass.
  • 1990, worked with Vernon McIntyre’s Appalachian Grass.
  • 1999, joined James Reams and the Barnstormers, which became “James Reams, Walter Hensley and the Barons of Bluegrass” in 2002.
  • 2012, died at the age of 76.