You can’t talk about the history of music in Iowa without mentioning the seminal (and sadly defunct) grassroots record label Trailer Records, started by Iowa City musician David Zollo. Recently on the Iowa Music Archive Series, Zollo shared the genesis of the label. “…[Greg Brown, Bo Ramsey, Radislav Lorkovic and I] wanted something more funky and under the radar that was more local… There was a real punk-rock ethos– it was me and a small-balance credit card and a belief in the music and the music from this area.”
One of those early signings to Trailer Records was Des Moines roots-rock band Brother Trucker. Founded by lifelong friends Andy Fleming and Mike Fitzpatrick, Brother Trucker has been a stalwart live music institution for over 25 years. Speaking via email, singer and songwriter Fleming said, “Zollo’s been my consigliere since the first time he took me under his wing… When I first started recording albums back in 2000 he impressed on me, ‘The album is the novel, the performance is the play.’ We do [Zollo song] ‘Parnell’ at every show as a way of thanking him.”
The performance of “Parnell” on Brother Trucker’s sixth album Live at Octopus holds true to Zollo’s: a letter of weary regret, a dream chased and lost. The song fits perfectly in a setlist of Brother Trucker’s dry-eyed dispatches of the struggle of blue collar heroes.
There were a few things at work to bring Live at Octopus to fruition. Ralph Bryant’s constant archiving of the live music scene at the Octopus on College Hill in collaboration with proprietor (and House of Large Sizes frontman) Dave Deibler provided the opportunity to create a multitrack recording of the performance. The inspiration for doing a live recording was Bo Ramsey’s rockin’ Live album from 1995 on Trailer Records — a CD that Fleming recalls playing as a band pre-show tradition when they got within 30 miles out from a venue.
Live at Octopus captures a band with both the polish of seasoned road warriors and the edgy electricity that comes from playing live to a welcoming room of fans hungry for the songs they know. Every song drives home what a groove machine live Brother Trucker is. The addition of Iowa drumming legend Jim Viner to the band in 2012 is no small part of that. Viner knows how to bring the right touch to each song and provides a framework for Lyle Kevin Hogue’s bass to slink around. “Let’s Have a Nice Friday Night,” one of the new songs on the album, reminds me of the early live performances of the E-Street Band when they leaned more towards the party rocking sounds of Motown and Mitch Ryder.
Taking a wider view of Brother Trucker’s catalog, and Fleming’s songwriting in particular, the band is continuing a time-honored tradition of danceable sing-along songs with colorful portraits of characters and stories with glints of familiarity to those of us who grew up in small towns across the Midwest.
During the heyday of Trailer Records, it seemed that you could see any of the hard-working and hard-rocking bands on that label live in bars every weekend in bars across Iowa. Live at Octopus captures that feeling perfectly, reminding us that we can (and should) still go see amazing live shows here.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s May 2025 issue.
