Little Village spoke with singer-songwriter and visual artist Deb Talan about the inspiration behind her recently-released solo album, I Thought I Saw You, what she loves about creating art in her chosen hometown of Iowa City, and the joy she’s found in collaborating with her fellow Iowa-based artists.
Dan Padley
FilmScene’s long-awaited ReFocus Film Festival is ‘tailormade for a City of Literature’
Iowa City’s literary history casts a long shadow. It’s the first UNESCO City of Literature in the country, home to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. But next month, Iowa City will enter the film festival world with FilmScene’s long-awaited ReFocus Film Festival, an event dedicated to the relationship between literature and film. Andrew Sherburne, executive director […]
Album Review: Jarret Purdy & Dan Padley — ‘Ecotones’
Ecotones by Jarrett Purdy & Dan Padley When Dan Padley played at the Iowa City Farmer’s Market a few weeks ago, I was impressed (as always) by the liquid elegance of his playing on the jazz standard “All the things you are.” I’m sure there was effort expended, but he played effortlessly, pulling different sounds […]
Watch: Elizabeth Moen, Dan Padley and V.V. Lightbody at the Englert
Former Iowa City-based musician Elizabeth Moen returned from Chicago with a sackful of new songs to perform on the Englert Theatre stage Friday, April 22, with openers V.V. Lightbody and Dan Padley. Postponed two weeks due to COVID-related reasons, Mission Creek Festival passholders enjoyed free admission to the show. Videos by Jason Smith and Peter […]
Watch: Dan Padley, perhaps Iowa City’s most versatile guitarist, has a passion for improv (and cooking eggs)
If you’ve seen an Iowa City band perform in the past few years, odds are you’ve heard Dan Padley on guitar. Trained in jazz at the University of Iowa, Padley’s specialty is improvisation — creating “mini sonic universes” of sound, whether he’s soloing at a rock concert or twanging it up at a country show. […]
Album Review: Dan Padley — ‘Bloom’
Bloom by Dan Padley On a first listen, I struggled to find my way into the musical world of Dan Padley’s Bloom. The record by the Iowa City guitarist and composer is mysterious, almost certainly by design. But it is by way of this sense of mystery and wonder, it seems to me, that the […]
The Coralville Community Food Pantry offers music, poetry and dance in exchange for support fighting food insecurity
Over the last several years, the food insecurity rate in Johnson County was dropping. According to interactive maps from the organization Feeding America, it went from 13.9 percent in 2016 down to 8.2 percent in 2018 and maintained that in 2019. But a projection the site ran for the impacts of COVID-19 predicted a rise […]
Album Review: Dan Padley — ‘Druthers’ (out Nov. 1)
Dan Padley (a member of Laranja and Elizabeth Moen’s band) is releasing a new EP of ambient guitar improvisations Nov. 1 to benefit the Emma Goldman Clinic. Padley is not wedded to a specific style of music. With Elizabeth Moen, he meshes with her rootsy singer-songwriter style; with Laranja, he explores modern jazz. On Druthers he probes the
Album Review: Dan Padley — ‘Perfectly Whelmed’
Dan Padley, a graduate of the University of Iowa College of Music, has been a versatile asset to Iowa City’s music scene. From touring with singer/songwriter Elizabeth Moen to performing with his band Laranja, he’s a player’s player, meshing seamlessly with the music at hand. Perfectly Whelmed seems more personal and reflective than his

