Harold Hensley
Musician
Best known for
Songwriter
Harold Hensley was a Virginia-born old-time fiddler who moved to the West Coast and built a long career as a Hollywood session player, bandleader, and songwriter. His best-known composition, “You’ll Find Her Name Written There,” was introduced by Tennessee Ernie Ford in 1949 and has since become a bluegrass standard.
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- Grew up in Virginia steeped in the local old-time fiddle tradition.
- Moved to the Los Angeles area in the 1940s and worked as a session fiddler and bandleader on the West Coast country and Western-swing circuit.
- Wrote “You’ll Find Her Name Written There,” first recorded by Tennessee Ernie Ford in 1949.
- Led Harold Hensley and the Virginia Mountaineers, who cut hoedown-fiddle albums for Capitol’s budget Tower imprint in the 1960s.
- Worked on Hollywood sessions with Jimmy Bryant, Roy Lanham, Don Parmley, Rue Barclay, and other West Coast hillbilly-swing studio regulars.
- “You’ll Find Her Name Written There” has since been recorded by Mac Wiseman, Del McCoury, the Blue Velvet Band, Bill Monroe, and Audie Blaylock & Redline, among others.
