The band's story started in 2007, when Chris Funk gathered local musicians he admired for a chance to write music and play instruments he wasn't utilizing in his role as guitarist for The Decemberists. He pulled in fellow Decemberists Nate Query and Jenny Conlee, on bass and accordion, AnnalisaTornfelt on fiddle, and Jon Neufeld on guitar. In 2012, Decemberists drummer John Moen joined in, too. Their only ambition was to have fun, and their all-acoustic instrumentation meant they could hold practices in each other's living rooms. But ideas started sparking immediately -- they were pushing their own musicianship and the conventions of their instruments, and could hear a new brand of Americana music burbling up.
2013 was a breakout year for the band, from gigs at big festivals like Bonaroo and Newport Folk to an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. But none of it dampened the anything-goes, risk-taking attitude Black Prairie had adopted in the living room days.
Black Prairie's fourth full-length record, Fortune, is an unexpected departure - which is, strangely, exactly what everyone's come to expect from the band. In a way, it's their most conventional record -- thirteen polished vocal tunes with mostly conventional pop song structures. On the other hand, there's a glaring eccentricity to it that hits you right away: here is a band of accomplished acoustic musicians playing what are essentially rock songs - a record, band members say, that's trying to channel not the spirit of Earl Scruggs or Jerry Douglas, but Led Zepplin.
