Awful Purdies are a group of five women who joined forces like an Americana Voltron. For the past 20 years, they have been rocking the region with their beautiful blend of folk, honky tonk, bluegrass and a little bit of soul.
This synthesis is achieved through an amalgamation of instruments that range from cello, mandolin and bass to guitar, banjo and some washboard rhythms thrown in for good measure. Oh, and they all sing — fabulously. Those harmonies!
The group doesn’t have a designated frontwoman, so they all take turns singing lead on traditional folk songs, covers and their own originals. Awful Purdies mostly do their own songs, which makes sense because their songwriting bench is stacked with all-stars.
Their next album, Begin Again, will include 18 songs they wrote for the group’s 20th anniversary, plus two covers. This past Mother’s Day, I caught up with the group while they were recording with Luke Tweedy at Flat Black Studios in Lone Tree. We talked about art, activism, motherhood and the background hum of misogyny that women in music learn to tune out.
For the past 16 years or so, the group’s lineup has consisted of Sarah Cram, Katie Roche, Kate Rowe, Marcy Rosenbaum and Nicole Upchurch. Previous members include Annie Savage (of The Savage Hearts), Amy Harron (formerly Amy Finders, currently playing with Ms. Amy and the Jet Set) and Gabrielle Kouri (of Big Begonias).
Marcy Rosenbaum recalled that the Purdies began after Savage and Harron discussed in 2006 how they had mainly played in bands with men. Between their jobs and kids and partners, that didn’t leave much room for other women in their lives.
“They thought, ‘You know, the only way we’re going to get to hang out with women is if we form an all-women band with our friends,’” Rosenbaum said. “They approached Katie Roche, Gabrielle Kouri and I — and it kind of just happened that way. I remember we had our first practices in my backyard under a pine tree. So, that’s how we started.”
The current version of the band came about after Roche threw an all-women party at her house in Iowa City in 2009.
“Over 100 women came to my house that night, and it was beautiful,” she said. “In my bedroom, there was a group of nursing mothers sitting in a circle talking to each other. Poets were out in the backyard around the fire, and the hot tub was lit.”
And Roche means lit — so much so that the tub had overflowed. The mass of bodies displaced so much water that there were only dregs left by the end of the night.
Nicole Upchurch had just moved to the Midwest, and had been gifted a banjo.
“It was so inspiring,” Upchurch said. “I went home that night and I played the banjo for three hours in my bathroom so my kids wouldn’t wake up, and because the acoustics are great. I just stayed up and started figuring out my instrument.”
One thing led to another, and after a few musical chair shuffles, Awful Purdies’ current lineup congealed.
“We get together every week,” Sarah Cram said. “As you go through life, it gets hard to sustain hanging out with friends on a regular basis. So, it helps us do that weekly. Maybe we’re not making music together, but we’re doing something and getting together, and that’s what is important.”
“Part of what happens with us is that it’s not just making art,” Rosenbaum added. “It’s supporting each other as friends and women. There is no ‘leader,’ so one way that this group is sustainable is that we’re all making the decisions together.”
Being able to express themselves within a collective is a key reason why Awful Purdies keep on rockin’ in the (un)free world. They all work as individual artists outside of the group, but come together in a musical mind meld. It’s the best of both worlds.
“I always joke that Awful Purdies is my longest relationship,” Kate Rowe said. “It’s actually been part of my entire adult life. I was one year out of college when I joined this band and I’ve been through two divorces, a kid, all of this stuff. I can think of moments in time where each person in this group has shown up for me, or where we’ve shared a moment where I really saw them and they saw me. That is very impactful.”
“One of the ways we have supported each other is through childrearing,” Roche said. “You know, it’s not easy to have small kids and instruments and jobs and that whole thing. There was never a question of whether someone’s child could be present at a practice. Having a kid coming out in their pajamas asking for something to drink was par for the course.”
Friendship is the glue that binds Awful Purdies, but the other thing that keeps the group dynamic new and fresh is that they all come from such varied musical backgrounds.
“My other little secret,” Rowe said, “is that I’m not a connoisseur of folk music. I grew up listening to heavy metal and electronica. Outside of Purdies, I’m a techno DJ, but I love playing music with the group. It makes it so worthwhile to do it, even though it’s not technically my jam, because they make it fun and exciting.”
“I had just been in a punk band and a blues band,” Cram said of the period before she joined, “and I was traveling a lot. I knew that I wanted to play with women and I kind of wanted to settle in a little bit. I just felt like being with them was going to be so much cozier, and I was kind of ready for this softer lifestyle.”
Begin Again will be the group’s fifth and sixth album. It was originally going to be a double album, but then William Elliott Whitmore (who produced their previous record) suggested they release the 20 songs as two separate records. Think Guns N’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, but less grandiose.
It takes a village to sustain a musical collective. In addition to the tireless support of friends and family, funding for the Awful Purdies’ 20th anniversary project was provided by the Iowa Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts and Iowa City’s Rapson Collaborative. This was essential in helping to cover the costs of recording those 20 songs.
“I was just listening to the mixes last night with Benj,” Upchurch said, referring to her husband. “He was listening and was like, ‘What would you call this genre?’ And I couldn’t really say. I mean, we go all over the place because we all have different musical backgrounds. It’s interesting to see what kind of mutt comes out of it. And I mean that in the most endearing way. I love mutts.”
“Yeah, it’s mutt music,” Roche chimes in. “Or maybe goulash is a more apt metaphor.”
Whether they prefer to think of their songs as goulash or mutt music, to me, Awful Purdies will always be Iowa’s Americana Voltron.
Awful Purdies upcoming shows
Iowa Arts Festival, Downtown Iowa City, Sunday, June 7, 3 p.m.
Turkey River Cabin Concerts, Elkader, Saturday, July 18, 1 p.m.
Bunker Mill Bridge, Kalona, Tuesday, July 21, 6:30 p.m.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s June 2026 issue.
