Bluegrass Ambassadors

The Henhouse Prowlers are more than a crowd-pleasing, Chicago-based bluegrass band. It turns out they are ambassadors-- Bluegrass Ambassadors. And now that they’ve embraced international touring--often on behalf of the U.S. State Department--they are dedicated to showing other musicians how to do the same.

The band has established Bluegrass Ambassadors, a non-profit whose mission is “to educate and inspire through the cultural exchange of music.”

The Henhouse Prowlers have been to more than 25 countries and incorporate music from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and other regions into their unique traditional American music catalog. They say these far-flung travels have generated wonderful experiences and lasting friendships.

“The Henhouse Prowlers started 20 years ago now, and we were just a bunch of guys that wanted to play bluegrass music,” says Ben Wright, who plays banjo in the band and serves as Bluegrass Ambassadors program director. “And somebody at some point said, ‘Hey, there's this work the State Department does called cultural diplomacy work. There's a program you can apply for, and you guys should do that.’ And I filled it out, and all of a sudden, we were accepted to audition for this thing. And so we did, and we got it.”

For their first trip as State Department representatives, the Henhouse Prowlers toured Niger, Mauritania, Congo, and Liberia.

“Despite how hard it was and how difficult it was, it really left this incredible impression on us,” Wright recalls. “We started learning these skills of connecting with people that we don't even share a language with. If you just learn a little bit of music that people know, then you open these doors that you didn't even know existed.”

At a workshop at the Folk Alliance conference last February, the Prowlers showed how they do it. In addition to explaining the State Department program to other musicians, they taught everyone in their session a bluegrass version of “Sitya Loss,” a rousing Ugandan folk song they had worked up on a visit to that country. Wright says that making the effort and taking the time to learn a song from the host country creates instant goodwill.

Performing a Ugandan, Saudi Arabian, or Rwandan song doesn’t necessarily come naturally to a bluegrass band. But Wright says it’s all folk music, and often, the songs have more in common than one might think.

“I definitely remember these moments of sitting down with a song like that and being like, ‘Oh, my God, like, how are we going to do this?’ And then you pull your instrument out, and you're like, ‘Oh, it's G-C-D.’” 

Despite the challenges, Wright says connecting with other cultures is fascinating and rewarding. And it makes sense for bands to make these trips.

“One of the things I love about those tours is that I just need to go, and I have to do my homework about the music, but I don't have to worry about promoting the shows. I don't have to worry about all the stuff that is part of being a band these days because the embassy takes care of all that, and if they're doing their job well, every show you play is packed with people, and all you have to worry about is performing.” 

The Henhouse Prowlers will travel to Bolivia in October. Later this year, they’ll be in the Czech Republic.

“We're going to be there on the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution when communism fell, and that really was an impetus for the Czech people to embrace country and bluegrass music. We're going to do some education work at some schools. And then we're going to do this symposium where we're going to gather stories from Czech people about bluegrass history there. And really, one of the main goals is that I want Americans to understand more how profound bluegrass is to Czech people and how they not only embraced it, but they made it their own.”

The Prowlers continue to perform about 100 shows a year in the United States and are beginning work on a new album. However, holding workshops about connecting people and cultures through music and travel as Bluegrass Ambassadors has become essential to their identity.

“There’s several goals to it,” Wright explains. “One is making people realize that these tools we've developed are available to everybody. You just need a little bit of curiosity and a desire to learn.

But it’s also to ideally encourage people to think about visiting these places and ultimately recognize the things that we have in common with people, no matter where they are, no matter what language they speak, no matter what color their skin is. We actually share these fundamental things as human beings, which is wanting to be artists, celebrating music, and culture. It's part of who we are as a species. Because those are the exact feelings we get when we're on these tours.”