Many correlations between bluegrass and Jazz have been drawn. Chicago's Henhouse Prowlers just drew another line to connect the dots.
In their latest video, the Prowlers invoked a time-tested Jazz tradition to include in their rendition of a classic R&B / Rock & Roll cover song.
The band did a live recording and video shoot in the campgrounds at Suwannee Springfest 2014 for Hype-mag.com, choosing Jackie Wilson's 1967 R&B/Pop hit "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" complete with Jazz style scat singing that would make Louie Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald proud.
Neither the original 1967 Wilson version or the 1977 Rock and Roll cover version by Rita Coolidge used the improvisational nonsense lyrics so aptly done by the Prowler's Dan Andree.
Rita Coolidge scored her first major career hit with the tune - reaching the number 2 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with her version in 1977 produced by Booker T. Jones. Wilson's original version didn't do near as well on it's initial release and only reached #6 on the pop charts but did much better, reaching #1 in home territory on the R&B charts.
Wilson's version was ranked #246 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
Our impression of the Henhouse Prowlers version is that it has all the potential to do equally as well in the Bluegrass world as it's two predecessors did and we applaud the Prowlers for the extra-fine efforts.
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