Ken Pomeroy   

The first of the sold-out shows was a performance by Ken Pomeroy (no, not the basketball player). Pomeroy is a folk artist, who takes inspiration from famous musician John Denver. Pomeroy would explain what would inspire her to create her music. John Denver aside, Pomeroy calls upon her upbringing as a Cherokee living along the American Bible Belt. This drove her to write more American folk/gothic style music. Many people have heard of Pomeory thorugh her featured songs, “Wall of Death” from the movie Twisters, and “Cicadas” featured on the show Reservation Dogs. 

Pomeroy opened her set with a song from her album Cruel Joke. Wrango is written about her “fat adopted dog” who is, in more appropriate terms, a jerk and a biter. I felt pretty seen as someone who also has a fat dog who kind of sucks. Her lyrics alone are enough to make you misty, pair that with her skill on her guitar and it’s truthfully breathtaking. 

In addition to her deeply sentiemental lyrics, Pomeory writes from her own personal life exepreinces. A very good example of this is her song Cicadas. Cicadas touches on the very real experience of just not being in the mood to talk; 

“I met someone I didn’t want to talk to  

She said my Saturn was on fire  

What a liar ” 

Pomeory went on to explain that it was based off a personal experience with not wanting to talk to someone new. Moments like this connected her audience during the show, showing a very transparent and human side to her art. Pomeroy’s set is one that I will never forget, and I hope to see her if she ever tours again.

Stream Curel Joke, you will not regret it.   

Loudon Wainwright III  

“79?! Thats not that old!”  

My first impression of Loudon and his music was Motel Blues from Album 2 from 1972.  My first experience with his music sober. That being said, I was surprised by the borderline stand-up comedy approach that he took.   

Almost every song in the first half of his set was about being old, or, for a change, GETTING old. He had mentioned that his 79th birthday had been within the past few days. This was followed by the delcariation of, “Thats when life REALLY begins.”  

Along with that, Loudon’s set was full of surprises. one second, you’re looking down to write down what he said, the next he’s taking out an iPad. iPad itself took a little time, on account of him forgetting his password. He quickly recovered with a written, DETAILED list of what he wanted his memorial to be like. Loudon had it mapped down to how his former flings would interact. Even including his personal guidelines that they had to meet.

After every sentence the audience was in an uproar of laughter. Loudon stood out against many other acts of the evening due to his use of comedy during his set. Even when discussing hard topics, such as family hardship and political tensions, he did it through the lens of comedy. When it came down to it, everyone was incredibly entertained.

Overall

Iowa City Songwriters Festival did the wonderful task of humanizing artists, and their processes to the public. Seeing songwriters encouraging people to start and showing them how to begin is what makes art happen. I can’t wait to see what The Englert Theatre has to offer again for the festival next year! 

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Art and writing are very important to the culture in Iowa City. You can see both downtown, painted on the side of a building, pasted to a window, or stapled to a telephone pole. I first found out about the Songwriters Festival while passing the Englert on my way to work. Now, roughly three weeks later, I found myself with a press pass and a journal.

Courtney Marie Andrews

The festival started for me on September 5th, sitting in the way back on a plastic chair in Prairie Lights. At roughly 6 pm, Courtney Marie Andrews made her appearance. Andrews, as an acclaimed singer, songwriter, and author from Arizona, most known for her album May Your Kindness Remain. I was personally incredibly unfamiliar with her work. Despite this, after sitting through her performance, I wanted nothing more than to become familiarized with her work. She opened her set by sharing that her new book, Love Is a Dog That Bites When It’s Scared, had been recently published. She described the collection of poems as a story told in three parts. Part one, falling in love, part two, the fall out, and part three, the love around you.

It’s both impressive and gut-wrenching to see how well she was able to capture the feelings of puppy love. Progressing through the section, the sprinkles of doubt started to make a subtle appearance. I knew I was going to be a mess the moment I saw her pick up the guitar. Each chapter ended with a song, and all three blew me out of the water.

Hearing an artist perform in a large venue is always impressive. The venerable and intimate feeling of hearing Courtney Andrews in the middle of Prairie Lights is completely unmatched.  

Overall, having the experience of loving and losing someone and then finding yourself condensed down into a single hour left me amazed.

Sunny War

After a text from my roommate who was working an event and a quick sprint across downtown to make it to The James Theater, I found myself listening in the middle of Sunny War’s set. Coming from Nashville, Sunny War’s sound is an incredible mix of rock, folk, and gospel. There is no amount of or arrangement of words that could describe her wonderful performance.  

From her set, Have Another Pill, from her Red White and Blue album, stood strong during her performance. Mental health is a concept that has been explored in art for some time. “Have Another Pill” is a key example of this concept. The song details the singer’s first trip to the psych ward, creating a deeply emotional work of art. Watching an artist perform something so intensely personal in a live setting is key to ICSF.

On top of her set, Sunny War kept the crowd entertained with her jokes. Between her ‘you can always just make a face and nod’ and the newly learned knowledge of her dog’s namesake, actor and former firefighter Steve Buscemi, I found it hard to take notes, because every single sentence felt like it the funniest thing in the world.  

Sunny War was the final performance of my evening and was a wonderful note to end my night on.

Overall, both Sunny War and Courtney Andrews’ ability to be completely and wholly open in their art showed in every single second of their performances. Both sets worked as perfect tone setters for what would end up being the rest of ICSF.

The post Concert Review: Iowa City Songwriters Festival, Friday, September 5th appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The Black Angel was a snug fit that early evening, as the small audience crowded themselves haphazardly between the restaurant tables spilling out onto the patio. All three songwriters sat perched with their guitars on the makeshift stage, taking turns between testing their equipment and tucking their beers away. They were placed perfectly in line with the abstract art hanging on the wall behind them, each artist’s silhouette perfectly framed by a colorful painting. Intimate and laid-back, the restaurant became a comforting space as lagers, soft conversations, and nachos gently wound around the music coming from makeshift stage. 

Each of the three took turns playing their own songs. Aaron Longoria started the festival off with their sweet and melodic song “3 Months,” the first song they ever wrote. The next song “Sick Habit” was performed by Sophie Mitchell, who wrote it during her time at the University of Iowa’s writing program. Penny Peach followed with an ode to politicians who don’t suck, dedicated to Oliver Weilein who currently serves on the Iowa City Council. As the three continued to pass songs and conversations between each other, their unique sounds and inspirations became clearer and brighter. Playing off each other, their differences and similarities shone through their songwriting.

Songs told their stories about relationships, spinning out on the highway during a 3am blizzard, exes, the choices and agency that belongs only to ourselves, and lessons about how truly important it is to not live in a basement. Aaron Longoria’s songwriting was very conversational, music that felt like the spoken stories they were inspired by. Sophie Mitchell contrasted with more classic songwriting about love, a clear voice and gentle guitar glancing around the edges between softness and power, then continuing to throw jokes and pull laughter from the whole audience. Penny Peach’s lovely warbling twang held a thick and vibrant tone, with a wholly political and experiential style of writing.

In between songs, they all briefly paused to highlight the recent project Always Here: A Compilation of Sounds from Iowa, arranged by Aaron Longoria. The compilation features songs, sounds, and poetry from trans and nonbinary artists across Iowa, with proceeds benefitting the Iowa Trans Mutual Aid Fund.

This feature was the perfect opening to a new festival, quite different from The Englert’s most popular events on the same scale. Intimate and comforting, it was a beautiful display of our beloved local talents coming together on one stage to just share some music. Each artist brought their own talents, emotions, and writing into the room that evening to spin stories into songs that captured the hearts of everyone in the room. This was the perfect start and introduction to what the Iowa City Songwriters Festival is about, highlighting artists songwriting as a process of collaboration within our local community. They shared how complex the emotions and stories are that feed these songs. They proved how simple it all can be, a few people and guitars coming together to share all our love for music and life.

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Take a Breath was one of the bands that played; they are an alternative rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They played songs off their album ‘The Anatomy of a Rose’ . For the most part the crowd consisted of about twelve fan girls that were front and center for almost all the acts that night. They had a good stage presence, but the sound was up way too high and they sang to close to the microphone, so it caused a lot of distortion and was not pleasing to the ears. Besides that, after listening to their tracks online, they’re very good and if it were under different circumstances, I’m sure they sound better live.

Time Atlas was the main act of the night and definitely were the most talented ones that played. They are a pop/alternative rock band from Minneapolis, Minnesota that formed in 2015. They sound scarily similar to the previous group, and were not very different in that aspect. They do have promise and are relatively popular but there was nothing about them that really stood out to me. They just released their debut EP “Clarity” and you can check that out here.

Kickbox is a pop punk group from Chicago, Illinois. They reminded me a lot of Real Friends as far as their sound goes, it was almost like they were trying to mimic them. They really got all the fan girls going with their teenage angst lyrics, and when they would accentuate

the f-word anytime they sang it in one of their songs. Overall they were good enough to keep my attention which is a pretty big accomplishment. You can check them out here.

The rest of the acts that played that night were singer/songwriters that all pretty much sounded exactly the same. I know that may seem a little harsh but if you want to make it as a singer/song writer you have to find a way to differentiate yourself from all the other ones that are out there or else you are pretty much just background music for the audience.

One of the singer/songwriters was Brian Moroney. He is from Chicago, and also plays in Airways an indie rock band from Peterborough, England. Brian had a really nice voice and played an all acoustic, but like I

said, he wasn’t very unique in that aspect. He did draw in a lot of attention from the ladies though and had a pretty good presence on stage.

Next is Clay Borrell, a 19-year old singer/songwriter and entertainer from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was very good at getting the crowd going; well, the crowd that was there

with his young Justin Bieber type of sound. The fan girls went crazy over him which made him even more energetic on stage. If you’re interested here is the link to his to YouTube account.

Lastly, there was Cup Check: a female-fronted pop punk band from Chicago, Illinois. Their female lead singer has a great voice but not a very attention-capturing presence. It may have that way just because it was an all acoustic set rather

than their usual rowdy pop punk sound. The lyrics were very well-written and they had an overall good sound but sounded very similar to the other bands that were there. The only thing that made them different was their female lead singer.

Overall it was a good show; it wasn’t the greatest one I’ve ever been to, but it was still entertaining. None of the bands sucked so I would say it was worth the trip back to Iowa City for the night.

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