With a new album out and just back from a successful trip spreading bluegrass music to the most interesting and far-flung destinations, I caught up with Henhouse Prowler’s founding member/banjo player/co-vocalist Ben Wright to find out more.
Can you tell me how the band came together and what sonic paths led you to become Henhouse Prowlers?
Henhouse Prowlers is truly an amalgamation of all the members of the band’s influences. The band started as a bunch of musicians who loved bluegrass and just wanted to play it the way we heard it in old albums, but we eventually started wanting to bring original songwriting to the mix. What you hear on our newest album is twenty+ years of travel, hard work and life experiences.
How would you say that your sound and the process of making music have changed over the two decades or so that you have been together?
The sound has changed a lot. Old me would be pretty shocked at what the band sounds like now. Sure, the musicianship has leveled up, but the band plays quite a bit outside of the bluegrass box now. On stage, we’re more eager to stretch things out and have fun. I also can’t help but recognize how different the recording process is for the band now. We go into the studio much more prepared than we’ve ever been before.
We’ll often quietly slip songs we’re hoping to record on the next album into live sets to see how people react. It’s much more of a selective process now, thanks in part to the fact that we have a lot more songs to choose from when recording. The band writes a lot now.
Your latest album, Unravel, is out; what can listeners expect from it?
I’m more proud of this album than any that have come before it. We’ve got some playful tunes on it and some really weird and cool stuff, too. One of the songs has a samba rhythm, and there’s a goofy tune about spacemen. Then, there are some more serious songs about war and love. It’s a great representation of how differently we all write.
You work with Bluegrass Ambassadors to take your music across the world. Can you tell me something about that?
Bluegrass Ambassadors is our nonprofit, born from our travels around the world as cultural diplomats. As I write this, we’ve just returned from Kazakhstan, and I’m still processing everything we experienced. That’s really the core of our work if I’m being honest. Standing in awe of the world and discovering both the similarities and the differences between cultures creates a sense of global citizenry that sometimes feels missing these days.
Watching glitzy Instagram videos of tourist destinations is one thing. But making genuine friends, learning the nuances of someone’s language, and understanding the deeper layers of their culture is something entirely different.
How much of an appetite is there for such traditional sounds in the modern world? Are people turning back to such music, or has it never really gone away?I don’t think that a love of traditional music has ever truly gone away, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s an increased appetite for it now. We’re inundated with AI-generated content everywhere these days, and traditional, authentic music is something that’s hard to fake.
My first banjo teacher once pointed out how Elizabeth Cotten’s song “Freight Train” (from around 1910) was timeless and immune to passing fads. At the time, that idea didn’t fully register with me, but it sure does now.
What has been the reaction to what is essentially a fairly traditional American sound when you take it to other countries, particularly those cultures with very different musical roots?
The reaction is spectacular when we take the time to learn a song they know and sing it in their language. That’s the bridge we’ve learned to build, and it helps them see how the music we play can be applied to their cultural and musical norms. Plus, it changes us. We now have more than a dozen songs from our travels that undoubtedly inspire our own music. It’s a beautiful cycle that brings us closer to seeing and hearing how humanity has inspired itself through cross-cultural contact, starting as far back as the Silk Road.
And what does the future look like for the band?
We’re fortunate to have found ourselves in this space where our travels and our drive to create new art coexist and feed off each other. I can’t wait to see how this recent trip to Kazakhstan (an absolutely stunning and fascinating country) shapes us, both as individuals and as a group.
At the same time, I don’t want to overlook how important our U.S. touring is to us. We’re playing a ton of great festivals this summer and have a three-night Halloween run in Chicago this fall. Traveling far and wide only makes home feel that much more important.
I hesitate to predict too far into the future, especially since I could never have imagined twenty years ago where this band would take us. That said, I’m incredibly excited about what the next few years hold. There are things I can’t share just yet, but I honestly feel like one of the luckiest guys in the world.
And thank you very much for a wonderful insight into your musical world. Best of luck with everything in the future.
Facebook
Instagram
Website
Spotify
Apple Music
Tik Tok
