I was fortunate to catch the henhouse Prowlers live at a winter music festival in Florence, Oregon about a year ago where they played several of the songs off their albums. From Chicago, the bluegrass group formed in 2004 and went full-time in 2007. Besides composing and performing the soundtrack to a 2008 PBS documentary “The Ride of Our Lives,” the band won the Rockygrass band contest in 2010, won Chicago Music Award for “Best Country/Western Entertainer” in 2010 and 2011, performed several tours overseas for the U.S. Department of State, and released four albums. Now associated with the Dark Shadow recording label, The Henhouse Prowlers never specifically call themselves a bluegrass band but they build their signature sound around banjo, mandolin, guitar, bass and vocals.

“Unravel,” the new album is called “an amalgamation of thoughts, feelings and experiences of four wildly different humans who have found a way to be creative in the same space at the same time.” I also highly regard their not-for-profit mission as bluegrass ambassadors inspired by a unique vision of music education throughout the world. So perhaps their genre could be called “globalgrass” that has goals of educating and inspiring while also blending global folk music traditions with cultural awareness and understanding. It’s a good gig, and “Unravel” shows how their collective ball of twine can lead to a cumulative impact of creative art pioneered by Chris Dollar (guitar), Jon Goldfine (bass), Jake Howard (mandolin), and Ben Wright (banjo). Each member sings, and all but one track (the closer, “Land of Confusion”) are self-penned songs. My only suggestion would have been to include some real hot guest fiddle or resophonic guitar on a few of the tracks to even further embellish the sound. 

Standout tracks include Chris Dollar’s “Look Up To The Sky,” Jake Howard and Carolyn Kendrick’s “Palomino,” Ben Wright’s “Line the Avenues,” and Jon Goldfine’s “Honey Will You Be Mine?”  It’s nice to see a band like The Henhouse Prowlers “unraveling” in order to mine these songs from deep within themselves and stretch boundaries to explore a blend of bluegrassy Americana music. (Joe Ross, Roots Music Report)