TREY HEDRICK

Trey Hedrick grew up in the Appalachian town of Wilkesville, OH. His grandfather was from Parsons, WV and was a life-long coal miner who played music on the side, guitar, fiddle, mandolin, whatever was around, and it was never a special occasion when an instrument came out, just how the house worked. Trey picked up guitar as a boy and never really put it down, but music stayed something he did with family, not a plan. He built a career as a geologist instead, traveling the country working in Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana for years. All the while his friends continuing to tell him he should consider music more than just a hobby.

Sing Appalachia, his debut album, came out February 20, 2026, recorded at the Tractor Shed in Nashville with producer Sean Sullivan, whose recent credits include Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers, and Cole Chaney, effectively a co-sign from someone with a track record for letting an artist sound like themselves rather than like a format. The album carries another one: Tim O'Brien, an artist Trey grew up idolizing, sings and plays on the record, which is the kind of detail that would be a bigger deal if Trey brought it up more than once.

The songs themselves don't stay in one lane. There's flatpicking pulled straight from bluegrass tradition, sitting next to blues phrasing and soul, with the occasional groove that has more in common with '90s R&B than anything from the mountains. It's not a stylistic statement; nobody sat in a room deciding to blend genres. It's closer to just what a song sounds like once Trey's actually finished with it, whatever influence happened to be loudest that day.

Critics have started to notice. Country Central gave Sing Appalachia a 9.0, praising the record's poetic depth and its metaphor-driven lyrical style. Trey has also been featured on NPR affiliate WOUB, in pieces tracking the album's lead-up.

For someone who spent most of his adult life building a different career entirely, Trey doesn't talk about music like it's a second act. He talks about it like it's the thing that was always going to happen, eventually, once enough people said so out loud.