On the road, through the telephone, Alex Williams’ voice sounds like it’s coming from an ancient country 8-track. He’s not even 30 years old yet, but his voice, a rich baritone even when he’s just speaking, seems to come from the dusty rack of a since-shuttered record shop. He plays and sings at the Wildwood Smokehouse & Saloon this Saturday, May 11. Tickets are $12. […]
Luke Winslow-King sings like the Michigander he both once was and now is again, influenced as he’s been over the years by New Orleans and a lot of other places in between. He’s playing a stripped-down duo set with Italian slide guitarist Roberto Luti at The Mill on Friday, May 10. Brian Johannesen opens. […]
Despite his name, Chicago Farmer has a tough time even getting grass to grow at his home in Bloomington, Illinois. It’s not for lack of trying, though. “I actually have this mud pit in my backyard right now,” he says, laughing. “I’ve been planting grass, but I’m never around here to water it.” He plays the Famous Mockingbird in Marion on Friday, May 3 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10. […]
At this point, Leo Kottke is made mostly out of broken guitar strings and American myth: a folk instrumental overheard and transcribed by what could be remembered. Even the facts of his life paint wide, patriotic strokes of wordless music. He brings all of this, an unparalleled but true American story in music, to the Englert Theatre on April 13. […]
It’s approaching dinner time, and Chef David Zaghloul is sitting at one of his tables, waiting for customers to arrive—a common scene in every restaurant, but here at Chez Grace, even the waiting is a job that Zaghloul does alone. “I do the front and the cooking and everything else,” he explains. This means that […]
Back in 2012, an Iowa City-based string band named themselves Flash in a Pan in the belief that they would play two shows and dissolve quietly into the night. Those two shows were seven years ago now, and 2018 saw the band release their second full-length album in as many years. […]
Jeff Tweedy was itchy last Wednesday night at the Englert Theatre. “This show is going to have an asterisk next to it,” he said. “Full disclosure: I’m ‘roided out.” […]
Taylor Goldsmith spent a week recently sitting in his Los Angeles house alone, practicing every song he’s ever released. For the lead songwriter, singer and guitarist of Dawes, that adds up to 63 songs over the last 10 years. The band plans to play every one of them over the course of this leg of their “An Evening with Dawes” tour, which comes to the Englert Theatre on Sunday, Jan. 27. Tickets are $40. […]
“We tried to get all three of the Zachs in the front row next to each other, but they didn’t go for it,” Zach Wahls says with a laugh. Wahls is standing inside the Iowa Senate Chamber on the top floor of the capitol building, proudly pointing to his desk near the front of the […]
For over 25 years, the Bottle Rockets have made music steeped in gas station coffee, weeknights at honkytonks and rearview mirror Midwestern miscellany. Singer Brian Henneman, John Horton on guitar, Mark Ortmann on drums and Keith Voegele on bass play Thursday, Nov. 15 at Big Grove Brewery & Taproom. […]
The Cordovas are a repository of American folk music who have spent countless nights on tour studying Grateful Dead soundboards and Doc Watson records equally, fusing and subverting them both into their own style of Americana music. […]
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