Posted September 24, 2014in The Sound
When Joe Giunta, music director and conductor of the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, came to town in 1989, he knew he had his work cut out for him. “I had meetings with business leaders where they’d tell me, ‘You picked a bad time to come to Des Moines,’ ” Giunta
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Posted September 17, 2014in The Sound
All bands — well, all the good ones, anyway — are constantly evolving. That evolution stems not from the need to follow trends or the constant reach to stay relevant, but from the fact that bands are living, breathing things, and living things grow. Like rings on a tree, bands
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Posted September 10, 2014in The Sound
Eric Church is blowing up. His last album, 2011’s “Chief” hit No. 1, and included two singles (“Drink in my Hand” and “Springsteen”) that also hit No. 1 individually. This year’s follow-up album, “The Outsiders” has been every bit as hot, debuting at No. 1 and selling more than 700,000
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Posted September 03, 2014in The Sound
I don’t want to start mixing my pop culture metaphors, but Dick Prall is kind of like Andy Dufresne of “The Shawshank Redemption.” If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll remember the scene towards the end when Red, played by Morgan Freeman, describes Dufresne as the man “who crawled through a
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Posted August 27, 2014in The Sound
The Secret Sisters — a neotraditional country duo consisting of not-so-secret sisters Laura and Lydia Rogers — have all the right hallmarks to appeal to anyone with a sense for rich music history. The pair hails from the music mecca of Muscle Shoals, Alabama; their lilting, sumptuous harmonies have often
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Posted August 20, 2014in The Sound
Atmosphere comes from a different time. In the mid-’90s when Atmosphere got its start, gangster rap reigned supreme and the violent posturing of the rap lifestyle was at its most decadent peak. Atmosphere started down a similar path but made an interesting and important pit stop. “In 1995 I released
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Posted August 13, 2014in The Sound
The key in life is to continue learning. Not every decision that doesn’t pan out is automatically a mistake, as long as you can take something away from it. It’s that ability to learn and grow that’s got Katelyn Epperly where she is now. The Des Moines native has been
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Posted August 06, 2014in The Sound
We’ve had to deal with 311 a bit longer than everyone else. For most of the music-listening world, 311 seemed to start around 1995, with the release of its self-titled album that contained the mega hits “Down” and “All Mixed Up.” But by the time the rest of the world
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Posted July 30, 2014in The Sound
Success is a relative term. For example, by being signed to a major label, Sevendust can ostensibly be deemed more successful than 90 percent of the bands out there. However, by any purely commercial measure, the band’s success has always been of the middling variety. But it’s safe to say
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Posted July 23, 2014in The Sound
The evolution of Fitz & The Tantrums can be viewed in microcosm in their music. One song, specifically: 2013’s “Out of My League.” “Out of My League” was a song the band had always believed in. When it was initially released last year, the single was a middling success, but
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