the band

Music for people on a side quest. 

That’s how singer-songwriter Ben Hardesty describes the spirit vibrating behind the tunes of indie-folk rockers The Last Bison. Passionate in delivery, dense in lyricism, and with the soul of Virginia’s Great Dismal Swamp haunting the band’s every melody, The Last Bison is well into their second decade of crafting sonic experiences for folks seeking adventure and poetry in equal measure. 

With experience comes change, as inevitable as the tide. The Last Bison were in their teens and early twenties when they released their first album “Inheritance,” in 2012. A rollicking guitar, banjo, and mandolin-soaked journey backed by textured violin and cello, “Inheritance” found an audience excited for a fresh acoustic sound. 

But it’s no secret that the world has shifted in 15 years, and The Last Bison has shifted right along with it — playing with the lineup, subtly modifying the sound, and always seeking the truth lurking underneath the music they heard in their heads. The band now consists of Hardesty and fellow founding-member Amos Housworth, whose classical cello background, expertly blended harmonies, and cinematic ear have done as much for The Last Bison’s sound as Hardesty’s lyrics and vocals. Restless souls, every release finds the pair seeking unexplored sonic landscapes. 

The band’s newest music honors that journey while pushing relentlessly forward. The latest tunes take what worked in the past and pairs it with a Hardesty and Housworth’s hardwon experience. If you don’t have loss and love, heartbreak and heartache, soaring joy and plunging depths between your early twenties and mid-thirties, you aren’t really living, and no one can accuse The Last Bison of that. There’s a raw honesty to the new tunes that will appeal to longtime fans while still offering the musical creativity upon which the band has built their reputation.

Nothing made with care is disposable, nothing well-crafted ever truly dies — not so long as souls (and ears) crave authenticity, connection, and real experiences. And so The Last Bison keeps side-questing — one eye looking back, one eye looking forward, and feet rooted firmly in the present moment.