The Iowa City Songwriters Festival returns for its second year of intimate performances and a songwriting conference from Nov. 5-7 in venues across downtown Iowa City.
The Englert Theatre, the organization behind the festival, has just announced this year’s lineup.
Lineup
Lucinda Williams & Her Band, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Bill Callahan, Fred Eaglesmith, Craig Finn (Artist In Residence), Mary Gauthier, Bo Ramsey, Samantha Crain, Awful Purdies, Dan Wriggins, Olivia Ellen Lloyd, Chicago Farmer, Creekbed Carter, Nathan Graham, Annalibera, Denny Richards, Groundwater, James Tutson, Jeni Grouws, Joel Sires, Joel Worford, Jordan Sellergren, Kane Kyrie Edwards, Simon Cropp, Stephanie Catlett, Todd Partridge, Win Miranda F
“We really encourage artists, never require but encourage them, to go into the songs, go into the stories behind the songs, talk a little bit about how and why they write,” Brian Johannesen, the Englert’s executive artistic director, said. “The idea is that you can hear these songs stripped down and at their core elements, getting across the way they were intended to get across.”
Festival attendees also have the opportunity to network and refine their songwriting craft during the conference portion of the weekend, which takes place on Saturday, Nov. 7, at the Iowa Conservatory (ICON).
“[The conference is] a chance to really dive deep on the craft of songwriting with these incredible songwriters,” Johannesen said. “There are panel discussions, there are one-on-one interviews, there are artist resources available. There's all sorts of stuff going on during the day there, and it's just a chance to sit and think and be in conversation.”
The ticketing structure for the festival has changed as well this year. There will be no VIP tickets offered this fall, so all festival happenings, with the exception of some scholar-exclusive events, will be accessible to general admission ticketholders. There will also be daytime performances that are free and open to the public, and a limited supply of tickets will available to individual shows, like Lucinda Williams’ headlining set.
Williams will be performing with her full band, as ICSF is a stop on her “World’s Gone Wrong” fall tour. The majority of the other acts on the lineup will be playing stripped-down, storytelling-focused sets.
“The lineup came together in a really fun and interesting way for me,” Johannesen said. “I'm really excited about Bill Callahan being here. He's one of my favorite songwriters and just a prolific writer. [He’s released] 15 albums over the last 36 years, and they're all amazing.”
“Fred Eaglesmith coming down from Canada is really, really special. He’s kind of a Canadian songwriting god, and he's just a storyteller, my favorite kind of storyteller, both bleak and funny.”
“Then, there's Mary Gauthier, who is another one of those legends that was high on the list when we first started conceiving of the songwriters festival. She's not just a great songwriter, she's a songwriting teacher, or, as she likes to call it, a songwriting encourager. She has this amazing book called Saved by a Song, where she talks about how she came to songwriting late in life. She's going to be doing a talk about that at the conference as well.”
Over 50% of this year’s lineup is local artists, including Jeni Grouws, Jordan Sellergren and more. Veteran Iowa City musician Bo Ramsey will open for headliner Williams, whom he's collaborated with several times over the years. Festivalgoers will get an inside look into Iowan songwriting during a daily 5 p.m. writers roundtable at the Black Angel Restaurant.
Craig Finn, best known as the frontman of Twin Cities band The Hold Steady, will serve as the Artist In Residence for the second annual festival. He's released seven solo albums with his world-building, prose-like songwriting and hosts the That’s How I Remember It podcast. Finn will engage in activities in Iowa City throughout the week of the festival, including a performance, an interview at the conference and a workshop with ICSF scholars.
A cohort of 20 aspiring songwriters, 10 from Iowa and 10 from locales as far as England, have been selected as this year’s ICSF scholars. In addition to free lodging, meals and a festival ticket, the scholars will receive one-on-one mentorship sessions with festival performers and participate in an exclusive workshop with the Artist In Residence.
“We believe deeply in the power of connecting artists together, removing financial barriers and creating a space where they can focus on learning and developing their craft,” Keegan Colletta Huckfeldt, the Englert’s executive managing director, said. “Bringing together this cohort of local Iowa artists as well as artists from across the globe not only impacts these individual artists’ work and networks but ultimately strengthens Iowa City’s position as the greatest small city for the arts.”
Tickets for the Iowa City Songwriters Festival are available starting Friday, July 17 on the Englert Theatre website.
