Ben Bridwell never finished high school or attended college, but he did his share of partying at the College of Charleston as a fledgling musician in his late teens.
The Irmo-bred leader of Band of Horses migrated between South Carolina, Arizona, and Washington State as a young man. He wound up homeless and washing dishes in Seattle before founding the band that would bring him back to the Lowcountry as a prodigal son.
When he steps atop the College of Charleston Cistern on Saturday for his Spoleto Festival USA debut, it’ll feel almost like an honorary degree.
“I just gotta get my GED first,” he laughed, on the phone with Charleston City Paper from his home in Awendaw.
Bridwell and his ex-wife chose Charleston to raise their four daughters. “You can throw a rock and hit one of my kids in this town,” Bridwell joked. “Please don’t. But they’re everywhere, is what I mean.”
Hard times, honest songs
A few years ago, Bridwell wasn’t in a laughing mood. A rocky divorce aligned with the pandemic. Band of Horses’ last album, 2022’s Things Are Great, expanded on its tongue-in-cheek title as Bridwell coped out loud with his crumbling world.
“Obviously, divorce is not fun,” Bridwell said. “Then I was renting, dating, sharing our kids, with the heavy boot of the state on my neck. Divorce was brutal, and it was also Covid, and I couldn’t really make money by touring.”
New tracks, fresh fire
Band of Horses is currently touring to support a live album, Acoustic at the Ryman Vol. 2, and it has also been recording this spring at The Space in downtown Charleston. Bridwell anticipates a new studio release in early 2026. He said it’s the closest thing to a happy Band of Horses album yet.
“I’m a dramatic kind of songwriter about heavy feelings and stuff, but I didn’t want to drag those vibes into the next project,” he claimed. “Songs were coming free and easy, but then some problems hit again. I’m doing my best to process all the things going on, whether they’re good or bad, but even if I try to steer it, sometimes I can’t.”
Bridwell said not to expect “rainbows and unicorns,” but that he’s learning to “keep (his) head on a swivel.” He’s a homeowner again, with land abutting the Francis Marion National Forest, where he can ride his four-wheeler “dodging snakes and stuff.”
“I’m hyper-aware sometimes, and I don’t have any problem writing what I know,” Bridwell explains. “I think the only way I can work out all of these questions in my life is to try to put it through my 10th-grade education grinder.”
Home stage advantage
At Spoleto, the band will draw from its nearly two-decade discography, beginning with 2006’s Everything All the Time and its hits like “The Great Salt Lake” and “The Funeral.” Drummer Creighton Barrett, another Charleston resident, has been with the band since its early days, while guitarist Brett Nash and bassist Matt Gentling (also of Archers of Loaf) joined since the pandemic. Nash also lives in Charleston, making the band’s Cistern debut all the more special.
“I can’t believe we actually get to play there. We’ve played some really weird places, like Roman ruins and in Grand Central Station,” said Bridwell. “Other times we’re in a beer garden in Lexington, Kentucky, you know? But unique places like the Cistern make you stop and smell the roses a little bit longer. Plus, there’s something about a Charleston show that brings an X-factor we can’t really account for. So I reckon you’ll get as much as we’ve got to give.”
IF YOU CAN GET TICKETS, Band of Horses performs 9 p.m. May 31 at the Cistern on the College of Charleston campus.
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