Recorded at Golden Bear Studios in Des Moines in the fall of 2023 and produced, engineered and mixed by Bryan Vanderpool, Fool of You features 11 originals by Tutson who handles lead vocals and guitar.
Rob Cline
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Jazz, drag and ballet combine for Noce’s Voix de Ville, a nightclub cabaret that’s never the same twice
There is a guiding axiom in show business that provides some clarity when things go wrong. That axiom (which we should note is sometimes superseded by, say, a pandemic) is, “The show must go on,” of course.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
TrekFest 39 is sure to be a Trilling experience for ‘Deep Space Nine’ fans
Update: After a long delay—perhaps caused by subspace interference, tachyon particles, or communications jamming technology—the U.S.S. Little Village has received answers to interview questions posed by Acting Ensign Rob Cline to Terry Farrell, who portrayed Jadzia Daz on Star Trek: Deep Space 9, just in time for this weekend’s TrekFest event in Riverside, Iowa. What […]
Posted inBook Reviews
‘The Worldly Game: The Story of Baseball in the Amana Colonies’ by Monys A. Hagen
In “The Obvious Child” — the lead single from Paul Simon’s 1990 Rhythm of the Saints album — the iconic songwriter sings “The cross is in the ballpark.” It’s a striking and unexpected image in the flow of the song, and it has always seemed to me a sharp encapsulation of several intertwined threads of […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Book Review: ‘Secret Pizza: A Midwestern Fairytale’ by Brenden Greeley
Let’s start by getting all the toppings on the table. Better than a decade ago, I self-published a comedic novel titled Murder by the Slice. It drew heavily on my own experiences as a pizza delivery driver in Cedar Rapids as a young man. The book was received fairly well locally (and a bit beyond), […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: Dandelion Stompers — ‘Whirlwind Sessions Vol. 1’
Whirlwind Sessions Vol. 1 by Dandelion Stompers Recently, John Kenyon — executive director of the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature organization and one of our area’s most insightful arts analysts — and I were both in the audience at the Englert for a performance by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Kenyon wrote about the […]
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Album Review: Wave Cage — ‘Even You Can See in the Dark’
Even You Can See in the Dark by Wave Cage “Here we orbit each other with creative collaboration,” says poet Caleb “The Negro Artist” Rainey on the opening and title track of Wave Cage’s new album Even You Can See in the Dark. That sentiment is central to the record itself. The band’s notes on […]
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For Blake Shaw, no gig is more rewarding than teaching — but two teaching gigs won’t keep him from the stage
Several weeks ago, Iowa City-area musician Blake Shaw shared some exciting news with folks who follow him on Instagram, @theeblakebass. “Starting this fall,” he posted, “along with my work at Cornell College, I’ll also be taking over the Kirkwood Community College jazz department! My main responsibilities will be directing the big band and one other […]
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‘For 10 years I dreamed of bringing something like this to Iowa City’: Dreamwell Theatre to host no-holds-barred queer variety show this fall
The details are not yet set, but Iowa City’s Dreamwell Theatre is bringing back its QueertopIA event this fall. QueertopIA is an offshoot of the Queertopia project in Minneapolis, “a longstanding tradition of an all-inclusive, no holds barred ‘cabaret of queer love’ started in Minneapolis by Jeffry Lusiak and carried on by Nastalie Q,” according […]
Posted inAlbum Reviews
Album Review: James Tutson — ‘Happy’
Fans of James Tutson’s lovely voice, guitar stylings and well-crafted songs will be more than happy with his new release, a six-track recording called Happy. The album, which features Tutson’s longtime collaborator Tyler Carrington on keys and drums and Blake Shaw on bass, is of a piece with his previous work. The songs are R&B […]
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A community read of ‘Les Miserables’ drives a thread of ICBF programming
Anna Barker hadn’t even made it into her chair in the patio seating area of the downtown Java House for our interview before she posed a question. “Thirteen hundred pages in 92 days? Who does that?” The answer, of course, is that she does — and so do her hundreds of reading companions. The 1,300 […]
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Jane Smiley’s Iowa-set classic ‘A Thousand Acres’ is adapted to the stage for Des Moines Metro Opera’s 50th
When an arts organization celebrates 50 years of sharing wonderful work with enraptured audiences, the time is right to do something exceptional. The question, of course, is what that something should be. For the Des Moines Metro Opera, the answer in part turned out to be adapting Iowa Writers’ Workshop alum Jane Smiley’s Pulitzer Prize […]
