Website for Iowa music of ALL and ANY genres. Showing the wonderful and diverse music our state offers!
We feature music podcasts, interview podcasts, videos, among other media, to present to you what is happening and has happened in the Iowa Music Scene.
To submit a song or website, app, playlist, etc, send audiofile or link to iowamusicshowcase@gmail.com!
This is the first of another weekly feature on Iowa Music Showcase. In case, you missed these bands on We Are Iowa and ABC WOI 5 on Thursday and Friday mornings, you'll be able to catch them here!
Lou Sipolt, Richard Ardnt, and Jackie Smillen on Iowa Live
This week we present a collection of the blues and southern rock of Richard Arndt. We don't stray much farther with the next video, the country rock of Michael Moncada and the Whiskey High Band. And sticking to bluesy, country style, we close with Josh Sinclair.
This week's collection of IHearICvideos from May 2013 features a return of The Combined Efforts Men's Chorus as well as Iowa City staple, Dana T. Plus, former Iowa City rock band, Huge Lewis.
TRANZIG is an instrumental solo project founded, written, and performed by Erich Tran of Des Moines, Iowa. Over a two-year period he wrote and recorded all of the album's guitars, drums, and bass parts producing a heavy metal journey through thrash, hard rock, and solo guitar pieces.
With unconventional song structures, this self-titled album is meant to be heard as a whole piece of music rather than individual songs. It also features guest appearances from David Ellefson, Randy Walker, and Stephanie Tran.
- from the Tranzig Facebook page
Erich Tran is a multi-instrumentalist from the Des Moines area. He recently recorded a self-titled solo album "Tranzig" in which he played all the instruments on the album. He also plays drums in Horror Business (a Misfits tribute band), bass in Facecage, and has an acoustic project with his wife.
California gets progressively more lovely, the further north you head. In the matter of the Great Divide within the state, it is clear that I sit firmly on the NorCal side of things. The greens are greener, the hills are lovelier, and the people are -- if you'll excuse the ad hominem painting -- more chill and genuine.
Rae Davis and Sara Routh are spending their time here quartered in different locations. Davis is staying with friends in Oakland, while Routh and a couple of her friends have rented an AirBnB in The City. After splitting up to unpack at their respective host homes, everyone heads into town for a gig at the Revolution Cafe, and right into a situation that has the potential to be the biggest clusterfuck of the entire tour.
The Mission District is one of the most vibrant, vital parts of the San Francisco landscape. It is exactly what you would expect any large city's heartbeat to look like: colorful, loud, frenetic, slightly gross, beautiful, dirty, and eternally entertaining. Looking for the best cafes? The best little places to eat? The best art? This neighborhood--no matter what each city calls it--is the place to go.
The one potential drawback to that much going on in one small area, however, is the chance for overlap in events. Like, for example, today, when Routh and Davis rock up to the Revolution, and find a full-on street fair happening on the street outside. A street fair including an actual stage with musical performers, literally 10 feet from the Revolution's front door. This could be interesting.
"Dan DeGeest is a jack-of-all-trades in the Ames community. He works as a senior software engineer at Workiva, ran for Ames City Council in 2015 and is a relatively new addition to the music scene.
"'If I'm gonna live here, I want to make it the kind of place that I want to live in,' DeGeest said when speaking for his reason to seek the city council seat back in 2015. When he didn't win the seat, he got back into playing guitar with a push from members of the local music scene.
"'I've had a guitar since I was 20, but I never really believed in myself, got busy with family and careers and hadn't picked up the guitar in eight years,' DeGeest said. 'I've always had it in the back of my mind — it's a dream come true for me.'"
- from the Iowa State Daily article, "Acoustic Lounge recap: Dan DeGeest", by Jill O'Brien
Ames singer-songwritter Dan DeGeest joins me in the studio. Dan and I talk about the Ames music scene, the projects he is working on, and playing Max Ames this past year. It was a lot of fun getting to talk with Dan and listen to his music.
As per usual, we have a rather eclectic mix of videos from IHearIC. We had acoustic guitar player, Katie Wedmore, keyboardist Matt Smart, and Tyler Swick, Aaron Ziegler, and Blake Shaw playing electric bass and steel drums.
Last of the Family Farms
by Kinsey
https://www.freeimages.com/photographer/Kinsey-52803
I took some time off to deal simultaneously deal with a divorce and unemployment. The div'Lorce is finalized and I'm ready to do temp work if I have to. So there's no excuse to get this thing back up and running.
We'll be featuring the same stuff as before, and when we can, try to play catch up with the stuff we missed while the site was down!
So I just want to say thanks to my dozen or so regular readers and followers! And if of you want to help me out, so I can keep this site going when I run into trouble, I would greatly appreciate it and you can write me at iowamusicshowcase@gmail.com.
So please let all your friends, neighbors, enemies, frenemies, people you meet on the streets, or whatever that we are back!
As a bonus, here's an updated Back playlist from another time we were gone for a while!
I fully admit that I know nothing about this show. DSM Unplugged, that took place on Jan 6, 2016. I just found a bunch of the performances on YouTube and am sharing them with you. If anyone has any information on the show, please let me know!
Chris Ranallo is a singer/songwriter whose musical talent, songwriting ability, and vocal prowess have graced a variety of stages and venues spanning the Midwest to the West Coast over the last decade. His sound has been described as a fusion of John Mayer and Maroon 5, with heartfelt ballads and a funky soulful flare.
Chris' passion for music was ignited as a child growing up in a creative, musical family in Iowa. By the time he was 9 he was composing his own material on the piano, and at 12, Chris was playing the guitar and joined his first band. As a developing artist, he was influenced by iconic performers, including the Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Police and the Dave Matthews Band, as well as his musical parents’ artistry. Chris spent countless hours listening to his Dad playing the piano, and recalls being mesmerized by his mother’s “captivating” voice. He performed with rock bands all throughout high school, and went on to hone his musicality and performance skills at the University of Iowa.
After graduation, Chris moved to Chicago in 2001, and began to tour as a solo performer. He continued to pen his own material, and returned to Iowa to form a duo with Scott Kacher, a fellow singer/songwriter. Together they performed in Vail, Colorado in 2005, and collaborated on the album “Velcro Dog.”
Chris continued to light up venues as both a solo and duo performer. In 2009 he joined the band Decoy. The band developed an infectious enthusiasm among its loyal fan base. Their 2010 CD, “Nothing to Lose” has garnered well-deserved kudos for their tight harmonies and overall production in a fine first effort.
Chris recently released his solo album, “Exhale,” which features eight original tracks, and he is planning a tour in the Fall 2013. As Chris continues along his own trajectory as an artist, he will always be the kid that fell in love with acting and performing and will continue captivating audiences by sharing his stories through music and creating unforgettable moments with his fans, in the spotlight in which he truly shines.
- from his Facebook page
Our first two-day stint in a town, and it comes immediately before a four-day stop in our next locale. It's an easy week in California.
The appeal of Los Angeles continues to confound me, but more positives are showing their faces all the time. Rae Davis and I start making a list.
- The oppressively Californian weather
- There's a place on Santa Monica that sells $2 thrift clothing. It's all in a giant pile on the floor, but there you go.
- There's damn good food to be found
- The city is large enough and diverse enough to not only have a little China and little Italy, but a little Ethiopia.
So it grows. Today was originally scheduled as an off day. Davis spends most of it relaxing around our host home, while Sara Routh has brunch with a friend, then heads to a photo shoot. The hot LA sun blazes away as errands are run and friends are commiserated with.
Lock N Load was a Sioux City live talk show podcast that ran from Jul 2013 to Jan 2017. As the show progressed, music started playing a bigger role in it. Iowa Music Showcase will feature some of their shows and excerpts that have a strong component of Iowa music or nearby neighbors, like this one featuring Dustin Conaway from Allen, Nebraska, a stone's throw away from Sioux City.
Local Country music Artist Dustin Conaway came in studio with us to talk about his first album coming and and also to debut and play live on our show. This is the clip from the episode which is titled "Dustin Vs. Zombies".
There are people who feel that Los Angeles is a city you know about right away: you pull in, and immediately know in your gut if you're going to love it or hate it. Conversely, I've heard that LA is so big, so diverse, that you really need to spend a couple of years submerged in it before you really have a handle on how you feel about it.
For me, as the most superficial of interlopers into the greater LA biosphere, I can say that it seems very much to be a place with a purpose. Not so much a city, as a tool. As such, I can understand why some people live here. If you're involved in entertainment in just about any way, LA is where you have to be. So for actors and screenwriters and directors and media types, I get it. I can see why people are here. What I haven't figured out quite yet, is why people would WANT to live here, all things being equal. The greater allure of the city, outside of the entertainment industry, has so far eluded me.
There's a shabbiness to LA. Part of that is affected. Shabby-chic is a definite way of life here. But another portion--I'd wager the greater portion--is just how the city has become. It looks tired. The people and their cars are all very shiny and well maintained and beautiful. But the city around them, the set upon which everyone plies their trade, is worn and frayed at the edges. You can see it in the trees and on the faces of buildings. A lot of it is unquestionably the fault of this great drought that is ravaging much of the American west, and hitting California particularly hard. But it's not the only explanation, because there is a general weariness that you can feel in the spirit of the place. I don't know if I've seen more than a handful of genuine expressions of emotion or desire in my time here.
This week present the singer/songwriter music of Dana T with accompanying trumpet, plus some classical work with violinst Timothy Hsu, and finally choral pieces with Combined Efforts Men's Chorus.
To celebrate our TWENTIETH radio show on KRUI, I invited a bunch of my friends to come in and party for a couple hours. We listened to recordings from the 4/20 iHearIC concert at High Ground Cafe, discussed things both relevant and irrelevant to the arts and music scenes in and around Iowa City, and enjoyed a live performance from Joe!
Catch the New Music Collaborative Chamber Recital tomorrow night (4/23) at 7:30pm in the Opera Studio at Voxman, organized by Kenken Gorder and featuring iHearIC regulars Justin K Comer and Will Yager among many other excellent instrumentalists: https://www.facebook.com/events/143387889840322/
Rae Davis booked Sara Routh's tour. All three legs of it, in fact. For this west coast swing, Davis focused on finding gigs close to friends houses, which allowed Routh and Davis to save a ton of money on lodging.
We've talked about it before, but one can not put too fine a line on it: indie artists know they aren't going to make money on their self-funded tours, so every expenditure becomes vital to track. Anywhere you can find to cut costs, and potentially extend your tour one more day, you do it. This is what most galled indie artists who read about Pomplamoose's horrendous debacle of a tour back in 2014.
This week we present just two performances. One is from Iowa City band, The Main Sequence, with some ambient prog music. Then Boris and Natasha present some singer/songwriter music accompanied by violin.
We have featured both country music and folk music on this podcast before. But to be frank and honest, I have huge backlog of submissions. And by combining them, I can get a bunch finally out of you people, so you can hear them instead of just me!
So mosey on up to the porch, grab a rocking chair, lean back, lift up your poop-kickin boots up, and pull down your cowboy hat, and have a listen to these fine Iowa artists bringing some of that western flavour!
Original painting by Monique Booker
Stretched and trimmed to make into a square
We once again present some videos from the IHearIC channel on YouTube. We present two classical pieces, one tuba solo and another ensemble piece, and a performance of more popular music on acoustic guitar.
The first video features Kate Wohlman on tuba. The second features Nathaniel Lee on trombone with support from Kate Wohlman and other musicians. The third features Dan Telsrow, a mainstay of the Iowa music scene for a few years now.
The snow's got me down, but not down enough to stay out of the KRUI studio to record another episode of iHearIC Radio! No guests tonight, just me alone on a mic playing recordings from past concerts. Just as it was in the beginning. Back to basics.
This last week T&A joined me in the studio. It was such a fun show. We read from Weird Al Trading Cards, they played a bunch of covers, I had my Terot read and they finished the set with a song they wrote the day before! This little Marshalltown band is something special.
