Henhouse Prowlers joined KGNU’s Dave McIntyre to play some live music and discuss their upcoming performances in Colorado. The band spoke about their cultural ambassador work through the State Department’s American Music Abroad program. They highlighted the unique bluegrass history in the Czech Republic and spoke about the power of music to connect cultures (Interview date: 12/6/2024)
Dave McIntyre: We have a guest band in the studio with us this morning, the Henhouse Prowlers. Say good morning, guys.
Henhouse Prowlers: Good morning.
Dave McIntyre: They’re in our studio and they’re getting ready to play for you. The band’s been together 20 years, and they have a new album coming out soon. I hope you were lucky enough to hear them at RockyGrass like I was this summer. They were really good. They know this music really well and we’re going to chat with them a little bit later, but let’s let them play something live. What do you got planned for us, guys?
Henhouse Prowlers: We’re gonna play a new single that has not been released yet.
Dave McIntyre: Excellent.
Henhouse Prowlers: Don’t tell our label. It’ll be coming out, I think, January 10th. This is a song I wrote called “Three Seasons”.
Dave McIntyre: All right. Sounded great, guys. I’m enthralled by the cultural ambassador aspect of what you guys do. I think that’s really cool. I understand there’s a CD here with a bunch of cuts from different countries all over the place. And you’ve been doing this since what, 2013?
Henhouse Prowlers: ‘12 or ‘13, something like that. We got a suggestion one day. We were touring Europe for quite a while and we really loved touring abroad. Someone suggested we apply for this program called American Music Abroad that is part of the State Department’s Cultural Diplomacy Initiatives which we didn’t know anything about. It was free to apply and it paid, and we were like, we should apply for this. We did and we auditioned and we got it.
We weren’t even quite sure what it meant, but we knew it was a big deal, so we were excited. About three months before we went on our first tour, they called us and said, we’re sending you to West Africa, and we were like, okay! We played in the Congo, Liberia, Niger, and Mauritania for that first tour, and it was a mind blowing, life changing experience for us. We were like, this is something that we love and we want to do more. So we positioned ourselves to be in the favor of the State Department by building relationships with them and just going the extra mile whenever we could. What that amounted to often was not just showing up on these tours and playing bluegrass, but learning some music that was popular in the areas we were going and playing them on bluegrass instruments in a bluegrass style. It really took off and became something that we do regularly.
Just in the past six weeks, we’ve been to Bolivia and the Czech Republic. So it’s really become a big part of what we do. We still tour nationally and internationally as the Henhouse Prowlers, but also we spend a lot of time connecting people around the world with music and it’s really an important part of who we are.
Dave McIntyre: That’s fabulous. Is there a country that you visited that really stands out? Can you pick one or two for me?
Henhouse Prowlers: We recently went to the Czech Republic. There’s a fascinating history with them playing bluegrass and learning bluegrass and taking it as their own form of music and creating these amazing versions of tunes that often are American tunes that had English lyrics that they translated into their own language. So it wasn’t like we came over there and were like, hey, you guys should learn bluegrass. They figured it out on their own.
Dave McIntyre: Were there many countries that you went to that already knew bluegrass music?
Henhouse Prowlers: No, and that is definitely an outlier. That program is the first one that we’ve done without the State Department. We’ve really taken it on ourselves to continue doing this work, because it’s so cool. Honestly, it’s some of the coolest stuff in the world. Over the past several years, we’ve learned how music connects people all over the place. Seeing how it worked with bluegrass really gave us this touchstone to understanding how it happens around the world, and there’s this incredible story about how at the end of World War II, the Nazis fell and American soldiers put up these radio towers in Munich and Berlin that started broadcasting Armed Forces Network Radio.
At the time, Czechoslovakia was increasingly under the thumb of dictators and communism. There are these stories about Czech people picking up those radio broadcasts and hearing bluegrass music. We’re talking the 1940s and fifties. So really the genesis of bluegrass’s popularity, and being inspired by it, and literally going out and learning how to make banjos and mandolins from photographs and then learning how to play them.
Now when we go there, there are musicians that just wipe the floor with us. It’s really inspiring. To hear them sing bluegrass songs in Czech is an emotional thing when you hear it the first time. You’re like, wow, this music doesn’t belong to anybody. It belongs to everybody. It’s really this powerful thing that we’re trying to celebrate. And that’s what we just did. We were there for 10 days with a film crew, getting this down because we think more Americans need to know this. But we also think that more Czech people need to recognize how amazing it is and how they’ve added to the sound of bluegrass.
Dave McIntyre: Are there many countries that you go to that you actually get to play with the native people?
Henhouse Prowlers: Of course. That’s a big part of it, where they will pair us up with local bands, often who don’t speak English. They’re like, you got two hours to figure out how to put a show on with these guys. And you sit across the table from them and play a chord. They’re like, oh, okay. We know that chord. And you figure out how to play together.
Dave McIntyre: Are they playing bluegrass type instruments or their own instruments?
Henhouse Prowlers: More often than not, there are instruments we may have never even seen before. It’s pretty life changing stuff.
Dave McIntyre: Good for you guys. That’s great to hear. Again, 20 years you’ve been together and 29 countries. You got a new CD coming out. Where are you playing this time in Colorado?
Henhouse Prowlers: Tonight we are at Swallow Hill Music here in Denver. Tomorrow, Saturday, we’ll be in Boulder at the Velvet Elk Lounge. And Sunday we’re in Fort Collins. It’s a house concert, which I believe is sold out.
Dave McIntyre: Wow. And did you play Colorado Springs as well this time too?
Henhouse Prowlers: We were in Colorado Springs last night at Lulu’s.
Dave McIntyre: Great. How was that?
Henhouse Prowlers: That was a lot of fun. Our friends Armchair Boogie from Wisconsin were on the bill as well.
Dave McIntyre: Excellent. You got another live one you can play for us?
Henhouse Prowlers: Yeah, so we got a single off our new album that actually has been released. This is a song that I’ve been wanting to write for many years. My grandfather was a B-25 pilot in World War II in North Africa. When I was a very young man, he got me up early one morning and said, I wanna show you something, and sat me down at breakfast and showed me these photo albums that he took on his journey in the war. It really left this deep impression on me as a young man.
As I sat down to write this song, I realized that his experience in the desert of North Africa really lines up with what a lot of people went through in the Gulf War. This song just bears witness to what people who are put on the front lines have to deal with. It’s called “Line the Avenues”.
Dave McIntyre: Great tune. Nice harmonies. We’re gonna let you get out of here. I’m gonna play a song from one of your CDs, “The Lead and Iron Song”. Again, we want to thank you so much for coming on today. And let the people know you’re gonna be in Swallow Hill tonight.
Henhouse Prowlers: That’s right.
Dave McIntyre: Velvet Elk Lounge in Boulder tomorrow night. And unfortunately, the house concert in Fort Collins is sold out. It sounds like a great little tour for you guys. Thanks so much for coming on KGNU. We appreciate you very much.
Henhouse Prowlers: It’s been an honor.
Dave McIntyre: Thank you. Great stuff.
