There’s a moment in Cedar County Cobras’ “Bessie Smith’s Last Ride” when nearly a century of American history collapses into a few verses. The song takes as its starting point Smith’s death following a car accident on Highway 61 near Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1937, a tragedy long surrounded by the persistent but inaccurate story that Smith was turned away from a whites-only hospital. While that account has been debunked, the Cobras use the myth to consider racial inequality, drawing a line between Smith’s story and contemporary police violence. “Since 1937, nothin’s really changed,” Tom Spielbauer sings, connecting Smith’s story to Minneapolis and contemporary state violence.
The result is one of the most pointed tracks on Sinners & Saints, the new album from the Eastern Iowa duo of guitarist Spielbauer and April Dirks on upright bass and mandolin. Out Sept. 4 by Memphis-based Overton Music, the album draws from Delta blues, early country, folk and rural Americana while sounding unmistakably like the band that has spent more than a decade developing its own loose, lively musical language.
The Cobras have played together for 12 years and more than 800 shows, and that experience is central to their sound. Their live performances blend humorous banter and improvisation; they rarely use a set list, with Spielbauer shifting among multiple guitars and open tunings while Dirks adjusts on the fly.
That spontaneity followed them into the studio. Working with engineer Bryan Vanderpool at Golden Bear Studios in Des Moines, the duo resisted the impulse to overproduce the record, instead preserving the chemistry that happens when they play together in the same room. Guest musicians, including saxophonist Heath Alan, keyboardist Tanner Taylor, Dave Moore on harmonica, and back-up vocals from Monica Faye and Krista Guillaume, add color without overwhelming the Cobras’ rootsy core.
The album also marks an evolution in the duo’s creative partnership. Spielbauer had been developing “Bessie Smith’s Last Ride” for years, while Dirks helped shape it into its final form. Four songs feature significant contributions from Dirks, a marked change from their earlier records.
That collaborative spirit gives Sinners & Saints its emotional range. “Ruby Red,” written by the late Iowa banjo player Lonnie Bowden, tells of a Vietnam veteran returning home and searching for the woman he left behind. Dirks, who had long requested that Bowden play the song at gatherings, completed the lyrics after his death, with his blessing, and sings it on the recording, her first appearance as a vocalist on a Cedar County Cobras album.
Elsewhere, “Motorbike” turns a small Yamaha and a gravel road into an escape route from small-town life, accented by Iowa’s own Dave Moore, a local legend and longtime friend of the Cobras, whose haunting harmonica gives the song the feeling of cruising down a gravel road on a motorcycle, while “Matches & Gasoline” transforms gossip and a volatile relationship into combustible blues. “Guitar Zero” celebrates old-school musicianship with a healthy dose of humor.
For all its heavier themes, Sinners & Saints is ultimately an album meant to make you move. Dirks hopes listeners “find that boogie,” a chance to breathe, feel the music and get a little reprieve from everyday life. The Cedar County Cobras have spent years building that feeling one live show at a time. Sinners & Saints captures it in a bottle.
Cedar County Cobras Album Release w/ The Soul Searchers, xBk Live, Friday, Sept. 11, 7 p.m.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s September 2026 issue.
