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“Iowa music to experience in 2025” – Iowa Public Radio

Iowa can be a strange place for musicians. Historically, a lot of touring artists have skipped the state in favor of Minneapolis, Kansas City or, ultimately, Chicago. However, there’s a lot going on and a multitude of talented musicians creating music across all genres — right here in Iowa — that you deserve to know. With artists and venues scattered across Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Davenport, Cedar Falls and more, there really are endless musical offerings here in the state.

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“The Mr. Softheart show happened like this” – Little Village

Two valued team members from Principal Financial Group were delivered here to the LiFT — by the divine means of Court Ave, or maybe, Fong’s — and found themselves next to me. There was nowhere else to go. The place was packed on Aug. 1 to welcome Mr. Softheart (the band, not man) into the home stretch of their summer tour. This would be the first of four final shows in Iowa, following a dozen others that covered more of the continental United States than Culver’s franchise locations.

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“Album Review: Mr. Softheart — ‘Magdalene in Crisis’” – Little Village

Somewhere in the search engine results for “magnolia,” there is one of many paintings titled exactly that. It’s just a JPG of the original by Martin Johnson Heade, but thanks to the click-to-zoom functionality on slam.org, you can get close enough to see the wrinkles in the white paint. The digital placard is also doing its best to describe the “voluptuous blossoms.” Any hint of horniness, however, doesn’t translate through the screen.

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“Album Review: Mr. Softheart — “Caravaggio”/“Flower of Tomorrow”” – Little Village

“I suppose the new direction is another pandemic story,” Nick Fisher offers as the impetus for the recent pivot of the band formerly known as Hex Girls. “I had begun writing lyrics to songs that seemed to lend themselves to a new project: The themes were darker, perhaps more complex. Personal grief, as well as the collective grief and isolation of the time, had informed that shift.”

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