By Brittany Ward
Photos by Jay Douglass
April 5, 2018
Henhouse Prowlers perform at The Zoo Bar in Lincoln, Neb., on April 4, 2018. Jay Douglass/KZUM.
Day one of the Henhouse Prowlers’ first U.S. tour in 2018 started out with high energy and an excited crowd at the Zoo Bar.
It is evident that the band have been playing passionately for years, as they played seamlessly together — as if they could do this in their sleep. While the Chicago-based band is clearly rooted in bluegrass, they have strong influences from their international travels, collective life-experiences and the use of traditional form intermixed in their sound.
The group consists of bassist Jon Goldfine, Ben Wright on banjo, Kyle O’Brien on both fiddle and mandolin and Chris Dollar on guitar.
Just getting back from a five-week tour in Europe and embarking across the U.S.,the guys are also doing work for their nonprofit, Bluegrass Ambassadors, between shows
“We like to bring these songs we’ve learned from our travels and incorporate them in our music and play them in our sets,” Wright said after explaining the nonprofit and before the group launched into a song from Ugandan singer Eddy Kenzo called, “Sitya Loss.”
According the the band’s website, it plays over 175 shows a year, and has toured more than 25 countries, often where traditional American music has never been. “Tours in Siberia or the Middle East are not uncommon since the Prowlers started working as cultural ambassadors with the US State Department in 2013,” it reads.
Bluegrass Ambassadors uses traditional American music as a foundation to talk about folk music and culture’s all over the world. The Henhouse Prowlers released two albums in 2017, including Live from Kyrgyzstan in March and the brand new studio album, Separation Man, in November.
This year holds two European tours for the band and even more untold adventures as the Prowlers continue to bring their own blend of bluegrass and world music to hearts unknown. Including this U.S. tour that includes a show almost everyday until the last posted day in St. Clair, Mo., on July 7. More information is available on their Facebook or website.
Brittany Ward is an intern with KZUM.
