Kyle Kellams: These are the Henhouse Prowlers, a Chicago-based band that will be on stage at Walton Arts Center tomorrow night at 7:30.
(music)
Kyle Kellams: Tomorrow's concert in Starr Theater is part of the venue's West Street Live series. For more than 20 years, the Henhouse Prowlers have mixed their four-part harmonies with banjo, mandolin, bass and guitar. The easy way out is to describe the band as bluegrass, and it is. But the Henhouse Prowlers explore. Their songs can be about World War II, like this one, "Lining the Avenues," or outer space. Or it can be a cover of a late 1980s Genesis hit. And they travel the world. Their project, Bluegrass Ambassadors, has allowed the band to perform in more than three dozen countries and hundreds of schools in North America. They're just back from touring Brazil. This week, as the band was, what else, traveling, I caught up with Henhouse founder and banjo player Ben Wright. He was in a van somewhere south of St. Louis as they were heading to Fayetteville. We first discussed the Bluegrass Ambassadors.
Ben Wright: It's a huge honor to represent culture abroad. There's no question. But if I'm being honest, the things that we get out of those tours is the stuff that happens offstage. Through the music we learn and the experiences we have, we're given opportunities to meet people and create music and share music with people from different parts of the world.
And that kind of creates these experiences and conversations and just a better understanding of humanity at its core, I think. And there's nothing more gratifying than that, finding common ground with people through music. It's just effortless and fun and interesting.
Kyle Kellams: All those things, humanity, connections, stories. Do you also pick up some music or some influences that we might hear later down the road?
Ben Wright: Absolutely. That is a big part of, whether it's conscious or not is up for debate. But it's funny, a few years ago, or less than a year ago, we were jamming after a performance and someone pointed out that the feel from one of our songs, they asked if it had any influence from the parts of Africa we'd been to, and I had never conceived of that. But it's entirely possible.
But even the music that we learn and then write, the things that we write about now, I think there's no way they're not influenced by the experiences we've had.
Kyle Kellams: I love that because it, you write, it would be almost impossible to completely dissect where an inspiration came from or where it came from. And it's just sort of all put together in that musical gumbo.
Ben Wright: Yeah, I appreciate that take. I think that's exactly, it's hard to pinpoint those influences, but there's no way they're not there.
Kyle Kellams: Ben, I once read a bio of yours that said that you began playing, and I don't know, this might be a romanticized version, but after seeing a banjo in the window.
Ben Wright: Yeah. I mean, I had this general sense that I wanted to play music, but I didn't know what that meant or what it was. And I just happened to walk by the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, and there was a banjo in the window that cost exactly the amount of money I happened to have in my pocket. And that's what started it all.
Kyle Kellams: You don't just play around the world. You don't just play concerts like you're going to at Walton Arts Center. You also love to take music into schools.
Ben Wright: Yeah. And that is also very connected to the international work we've done. We started to realize there was this through line between working with people from different cultures and working with children. And so the work we started doing abroad really started inspiring work in the States, which we're going to be doing some in Arkansas as part of this run, where we get in front of a group of kids. And just like when we're abroad, we try to find something that we have in common with the people that we're in front of. And that's a tool set that we've kind of built. If you can do it across linguistic lines in another country, you can absolutely do it across generational lines in our own country.
And so, for instance, when we travel internationally, we try to learn a song before we even leave that people in that country will identify with. And similarly to that, when we're coming to Fayetteville, we're trying to find other musical inspirations in the area that the kids can connect with and see themselves reflected with. So, Johnny Cash, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, there are a ton of Arkansas musicians and artists that we can draw from in a program that we do with kids. And that's how we build programming that is tailored to the audience we're in front of, whether it's internationally or down the street in the elementary school.
Kyle Kellams: I want to ask you about a couple of songs that are on the record, "Unravel." I love "Space Man." What can you tell me about that song?
Ben Wright: Yeah, that song was written in this very van.
(music)
Ben Wright: Our mandolin player, Jake, wrote that. I very clearly remember him saying, "I'm writing a song about a guy in space." And there's something really fun about that song and kind of buoyant. Like a guy who's floating without gravity.
(music)
Ben Wright: And it speaks very closely to Jake's personality, too. He's very fun and goofy and brings that very important element to what we do. And I think that song's a really important part of the full picture of that album.
Kyle Kellams: And I love "Land of Confusion."
Ben Wright: Yeah, yeah. So our producer's Stephen Mougin from Sam Bush Band, and he always tries to insist that we put a cover on the album. And I remember, we're a band of a couple generations here. And so when our bass player, Jon, suggested that, I remembered it being played endlessly in JCPenney's when I was a kid, and so I didn't. My initial reaction was, hell no. But I listened to it again, and lyrically it's, I think, a brilliant song.
(music)
Ben Wright: And it was cool because Jake and Chris weren't all that familiar with it because they were born after it was released. And so it made sense and has become a big part of our set now. We pull that out and it does tend to hit Gen Xers more than it does anyone younger than that. But even if they've never heard it before, it's a great song, so who cares?
(music)
Kyle Kellams: So this kind of brings us all full circle on our conversation because it's finding something different in a song that you said, hell no, I don't want that JCPenney soundtrack song. But when you start paying attention to it and dissecting it a little bit, you find something you love.
Ben Wright: Absolutely. And I do think good songs are timeless. And it's too bad that popular radio kind of ruined that song in the '90s by overplaying it, but it's time for a comeback.
Kyle Kellams: So, and finally, what can we expect when we see you on stage at Walton Arts Center?
Ben Wright: Well, you can expect both of those songs. But you can also expect we have a brand new song in our rotation that we learned for this trip to Brazil. We do at least one or two songs from our travels at every show and kind of incorporate some short experiences that we had around them. But we're playing, I think, all of the album that you listened to, "Unravel," and several of the songs off the previous albums. It's kind of a mix. Our shows absolutely represent who we are in the moment. And so you will hear that song, but you hear some new stuff too. And we're excited to play.
Kyle Kellams: All right. Well, safe travels. Make sure you take a ride at Rolla if you want to get to Fayetteville. And we will see you on Friday.
Ben Wright: Thank you so much, Kyle.
Kyle Kellams: Ben Wright, founder and banjo player, Henhouse Prowlers. The band performs at 7:30 tomorrow night at Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville as part of the venue's West Street Live series. Our conversation took place late Tuesday afternoon.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
