Our friends at Big Grove Brewery are once again opening their doors and taps to us at the Big Free Show at Big Grove curated by Mission Creek Festival.

Middle Western was formed out of a long friendship and discussions the various members had while playing on each others’ recordings and the occasional band show organized as a way to play and sing songs written and recorded by other members. The band is made up of singer/songwriter and Anti Records artist William Elliot Whitmore on bass guitar and vocals; singer/songwriter/session keyboardist and founder of legendary Iowa roots music label, Trailer Records, David Zollo on keyboards and vocals; Chicago multi-instrumentalist Stephen “The Kid” Howard (James McCartney, Pinebender, Mississippi Heat) on electric guitars; Stevie Doyle (The Hoyle Brothers) on electric and slide guitars; and in-demand Iowa City drummer Brian Cooper on percussion. The fact that members live in Chicago (Doyle, Howard;) rural Iowa City (Cooper and Zollo;) and rural southernmost Iowa (Whitmore;) Middle Western brings together the influences and talents of its members to create something at once unique and familiar. Mixing New Orleans piano stomps, Crazy Horse-era guitar epics and proto-garage boogie, Middle Western is at work on their debut record, at Lone Tree’s Flat Black Studios, with Luke Tweedy engineering and mixing, and a summer 2017 release planned. 

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