A band branching out from their bluegrass roots into something jammier, Henhouse Prowlers have come to our attention for the first time with their tenth album, Unravel.

By Graeme Smith

Feature photo by Lily Shea

Look Up To The Sky opens the album in lively, string-plucking style before launching quickly into a soulful verse. Lyrics plead for the freedom of the hills, full of a sense of escape as well as love. They give way to a noodling instrumental interlude that gets us hungry for the rest of the album.

Things progress in a folksy, timeless manner with plenty of shades of light and dark. Palomino is pleasingly laidback yet has introspective lyrics. Line The Avenues is a tubthumping, storytelling moment. Headin’ For A Heartache gives us the blues. We get plenty of wit and charm throughout, with insightful lyrics that will stick with you.

Love and War provides a delicate and memorable highlight at the heart of the album. Space Man proves another highlight thanks to its swagger and image-rich lyrics. Climb The Mountain is wonderfully soaring and the album end with an unexpected take on Genesis’s Land of Confusion.

With ten albums under their collective belts, you’d expect Henhouse Prowlers to have developed a lot of chemistry together, and you’d be right. Unravel is a nuanced toe-tapper of a record that shows plenty of who the band are, and who’d they like to be. If you like traditional Americana with a bit of a edge, then look no further than this album.

Unravel is out now via Dark Shadow Recording and you can give it a listen below.