On her debut album Dream About a Cowboy, there’s a quiet strength to EleanorGrace’s voice, like Reba McEntire and Billie Eilish had a baby that’s singing through Taylor Swift’s Fearless. At only 19 years old, EleanorGrace (EG) has created a […]
Trying by The Ruralists “I pray to the saints,” begins the Ruralists’ “pandemic album,” Trying. Then, later, with the strained tension of drawn out tones and stretched-then-resolving chords, album opener “HereNow” continues, “And I wait/on the word/on the whisper never […]
JGDC by histo A near-fatal lung infection gave multi-instrumentalist Donald Curtis a sense of urgency to follow his passions for music and form Histo, according to the band’s bio. The prefix “histo” medically refers to body tissue, but it also […]
Debut albums are always about moving boxes, and Bella Moss’ debut album Midwestern Daydreams is full of them. Throughout, this seven-song set feels like a “summer’s surely over” album delivered here at the blustery start of spring. “Change” is the […]
The Great Vehicle by Byrn D Paul Byrn D. Paul is one of those musicians on a wavelength entirely their own. He plays guitar, cello, violin, oud, koto, pedal steel guitar and modular synthesizer on The Great Vehicle. On previous […]
Happy Hearts by Jad Fair and Samuel Locke Ward Cross-country collaborations with punk-rock legends are nothing new for Sam Locke Ward. His glorious work with Mike Watt (Minutemen, fIREHOSE, etc.) under the SLW cc Watt moniker has been covered in […]
Greg Wheeler and the Poly Mall Cops – Manic Fever by Greg Wheeler & The Poly Mall Cops You didn’t realize you were waiting for this moment. But I promise you, you were. Later this month, on March 24, just […]
Jamshid Jam by Ramin Roshandel & Jean-Francois Charles Since the 1960s, it seems the University of Iowa School of Music has loosened up about what is allowed and appropriate music for which one can get a Ph.d. Composition — in […]
The Less I Needed the Better I Felt by Pieta Brown Pieta Brown says time she spent in Tucson and the friends she made there sparked a music career. These friendships continue to this day as she works with AZ […]
It will be a celebration when Greg Brown performs two retirement shows at the Englert this month. A lot of reverence will be there too, as a town gets the chance to pay tribute to one of its musical patron […]
Bubblegum Necropolis EP by SLW + BBJR Iowa is beautiful: a land of verdant cornfields, ball diamonds, quaint small towns and Shire-like rolling hills. But the realities of life are grim: the mask of “Iowa nice” all too often hides […]
Climbing by Kyle James When Des Moines-area native Kyle James released his debut solo LP Datum in February last year, I was impressed, but disappointed. Not because the album was anything less than stellar. Across seven delicately composed instrumentals, James […]
Little Village Issue 321
Little Village Issue 320
Little Village Issue 319
Rec'd 2023
Central Iowa Issue 014
Eastern Iowa Issue 318
