After 4 1/2 years with the Prowlers, James Weigel will no longer be with the band.  Life on the road can keep you away from home and loved ones for long periods of time and James has a beautiful young daughter named Dylan that he wants to spend more time with.  We know it was a tough decision for him and we greatly respect him for it.  He’s a great guy and an amazing songwriter, musician and friend.   We will certainly miss him.  But fear not, you can always keep up with James in his new band Will Wandering (http://www.myspace.com/willwandering).  Please join us in wishing him great success on this new endeavour!

We would also like to take this time to introduce Nathan Sitzman as our new mandolin player.  Nathan is from the Green Bay area and was suggested to us by multiple people before we even got in touch with him.  His mandolin playing is exceptional and he’ll be contributing heftily to the songwriting and singing as well.  Nathan was turned onto to the mandolin while living in Fort Collins, CO.  He soon became influenced by the sounds of local bands The Bluegrass Patriots, and Open Road.  After returning to the midwest he found inspiration and encouragement from artists such as  Bill Jorgenson, and Art Stevenson and Highwater .  He has lived all over the country (most recently Alaska) performed with regional artists such as The Chicago Bluegrass Band, Cornmeal and Burnt Toast and Jam, as well as numerous other acts from every genre of music. Nathan is a multi-instrumentalist  and we’re glad to have him on board… make sure to come out and welcome him to the Prowlers.

Thanks to everyone who came out to our shows in Joliet, IL and Indiapolis, IN last week.  We had a great time and the rain didn’t keep the bluegrass fans away.  We made a number of new friends.  Thanks to Melinda Mears for forwarding the article from the Indianapolis Star! 

The Prowlers will be making a brief cameo appearance on the Today Show on NBC this Thursday, September 18 (provided the footage doesn’t end up on the cutting room floor).  Our good friend Mike Leonard (Ride of Our Lives) came out and shot the band as a part of a feature he’s producing on legendary Chicago singer/songwriter Steve Goodman.  So set your VCRs, DVRs and LMNOPs to record the Today Show this Thursday… just in case we make it on.

Make sure and check out our Shows page for upcoming dates… new shows are being added regularly.  We’ll be down in Nashville at the end of the month for the IBMA World of Bluegrass Conference, doing a number of showcases - so if you’re down there swing by and say ‘Hello’.

So we hope to see you out on the road.  Thanks for all the support.

HHP

We’ve been hard at work in the studio.  We hope to have the new album ‘Trouble’ ready for release by mid-October.  It’s currently in the finishing stages of recording and mixing and we’re finalizing the artwork.  Some of the new cuts have been sent to radio stations and are already being played regularly and have been well received by fans.  This album will contain a lot of original material.  Our big thanks to Greg Cahill and Don Stiernberg for all their production assistance.  We’d also like to extend that note of thanks to Steve Rashid of Woodside Avenue Studios in Evanston, IL for all of his help with it.  We’re real proud of how it’s sounding.  So make sure you come out and see us and pick up a copy of ‘Trouble’.

The Henhouse Prowlers can currently be heard on PBS stations all over the country. Wilmette native and NBC Today Show correspondent Mike Leonard is a good friend of the band, so when he decided to do a 12 part series based on his best-selling book ‘The Ride Of Our Lives’ , he asked The Henhouse Prowlers to help provide the soundtrack to the series. The band was in the studio at the end of 2007 laying down the tracks, and the show began premiering all over the country in January of 2008. Be sure and check your local listings to find out when The Ride Of Our Lives is showing in your area.