The Englert Theatre launches new Songwriters Festival in Iowa City

IOWA CITY — Iowa’s UNESCO City of Literature has all the hallmarks of a town built for prose and poetry.

But the team at The Englert Theatre thinks it has good bones for song writing, too.

After Mission Creek celebrated its last year at the helm of The Englert in April, the Iowa City institution is making one of the first steps in the new direction it has teased for months.

Next month, they welcome a new crowd and artist lineup to the stage with the Iowa City Songwriters Festival’s inaugural event Sept. 4 to 6.

“We have amazing writers who live here, but (song writing) doesn’t have the same kind of attention that other forms of writing have,” said Brian Johannesen, programming director of The Englert. “Many things go into that, and the first step is the Iowa City Songwriters Festival. It’s our flag in the ground to say Iowa City is a songwriting town.”

Where the idea came from

Song writing in Iowa City is nothing new. Some may remember a harmony decades ago that used to emanate from the local scene.

“Not a lot of people know that back in the ‘90s and early 2000s, there was a pretty distinctive music sound coming from Iowa City that was getting a lot of traction with our bigger name artists house here,” said John Schickedanz, executive director of The Englert.

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Artists like Dave Zollo and Bo Ramsey regularly performed at places like The Mill, Gabe’s and other venues across town. All of it was fostered by an arts ecosystem and a deep love for the written word in Iowa City, Schickedanz said.

But since then, much of that vibrant songwriter community has gone underground.

“That sound was gaining notoriety, both for music coming out of it and song writing becoming synonymous with Iowa City,” he said. “As we evaluated what Iowa City was today and what we’ve been in the past, we wanted to honor what’s happened before but also create new opportunities for people just coming into the scene and making music on the ground.”

Laying the framework

When Johannesen thinks about songwriting cities, places like Nashville, New York, Los Angeles and Austin come to mind. Most of them have industries built for music on the creative and business side.

In Iowa City, the new Songwriters Festival follows a framework The Englert has been building since last year with its Songwriter Series. The festival, he hopes, will flag the city and build a new community for songwriters as the effort grows.

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Through a plan of various phases, The Englert is bringing well-known artists to engage the public and songwriters in the craft, exposing a side to songwriting Mission Creek, The Englert’s former signature event, didn’t always have room for.

Schickedanz said a Courtney Marie Andrews performance in 2023, when she brought her intimate poetry to an off-the-cuff reading off stage at Prairie Lights Books, was a prime example of the magic they’re hoping to cultivate.

“That showed we can dive into songwriting and shows there’s a really intimate process that goes into that. One of my hopes is people see that in a different way,” he said. “They’re coming to a performance with really amazing music, but (looking) behind the shows these people are using an art form to express things going on in their lives that we all encounter every day.”

Investing in the future

By investing in programming efforts, The Englert hopes to set the stage while building an audience with up-and-coming artists.

Unique to this effort is its investment in scholarships for songwriters of all levels of experience. In its first year, a cohort of 20 artists — half from Iowa, half from outside Iowa — will have full-ride funding, exclusive programming and intimate opportunities to hone their craft with other artists.

“We’re trying to think holistically about who has access to art and how people are accessing arts education,” Schickedanz said. “Previous programming efforts have set the stage for a lot of that. We have a strong belief that we can build audiences locally and grow them over time.”

Programming

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With a structure similar to Mission Creek, the Iowa City Songwriters Festival will take place in venues across the city. Three days of performances, panel discussions and keynotes will be capped off by a half-day conference on Sept. 6.

Panel discussions with artists like Ken Pomeroy and one-on-one mentorship sessions will focus on artistic development. MusiCares will have a presence to help musicians with physical health aspects, like custom ear plugs to prevent hearing loss, and mental health resources.

Organizers anticipate the festival’s first year will engage 1,200 to 1,500 people in various ways. While Mission Creek’s pass-style ticketing lent itself to an “all or nothing,” mentality, the Iowa City Songwriters Festival will engage a wider range of people with an even mix of well-known names and local talent.

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“This is kind of focusing on a specific faction of community but in an intense way,” Johannesen said. “At its core, (the Songwriters Festival) is very niche, but these artists are not very niche.”

Though passes are sold out, individual tickets to evening performances at The Englert like Jeff Tweedy and Joy Oladokun are available, as well as the Saturday conference at the Iowa Conservatory.

Three acts per day will be available for free at The Black Angel, in addition to Mars Hojilla at the Northside Saturday Nights free concert series.

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With every performance set to be a solo or a duo, Johannesen hopes attendees will walk away with a new appreciation for the raw artistry that goes into songwriting and a better understanding of who artists are.

“You get to hear songs stripped down and hear the literary components to that writing,” he said. “We’re hopeful that format leads to storytelling on sets and giving more background on artists.”

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.