Saturday, June 11, 2011

Dodging in and out of pop ditties, lilting melodies, and quirky song structures, Dick Prall’s inability to stay in one musical place is reflective in a body of work that mirrors his personality: youthfully distracted and sweetly cynical. He puts great care into fashioning accessible and viral songs, inserting them with content that, if you look beyond the hooks, shows you a landscape filled with unsavory characters, undesirable behavior, frustrating ambivalence, and a decent dose of thoughtfulness.

Andy Elwell has been creating and performing music in Minneapolis, MN, since 2001. He began gaining recognition in 2007, after a successful East Coast tour of his debut release Different Places (2006), which has been featured on over 200 college radio stations and licensed for use by MTV, Lifetime Network and Oxygen Network. Elwell has toured over 30 states, showcased at the Red Gorilla SXSW Music Festival and was a finalist in Eddie’s Attic Bi-Annual Singer-Songwriter Shootout in Atlanta, GA, in 2009.

Ankeny’s own Mary McAdams brings a mother’s love and a lover’s passion to her Iowa-based album, “Mary McAdams”. She can serve up slow and saucy roadhouse blues, earnest Americana roots rock, or a lullabye ballad with equal authenticity. You’ll fall in love with the subjects in Mary’s songs. You will leave with a smile tattooed on your face. She might even give you a hug.

One of our own, from the humble heart of Iowa, Dustin Smith’s musical interests have always been satisfied and influenced by early Western Swing and Americana. In search of something unknown, Dustin spent four years traveling around the Northeastern U.S., and with a band in tow, released his first Ep “Summer Afternoon,” in 2008. Returning to Iowa with a unique honesty towards the reality of his music and the reality of the world, he released his second EP, “Burgess,” in December of 2009.

$3 Admission, 12 & under free