For Hire

David Zollo & The Body Electric

The long-awaited new release from Iowa City singer/songwriter/bandleader, features 9 new tracks that use gospel, soul, blues and rock and roll to explore how his personal demons took the artist to the edge, and how he fought his way back.

The long-awaited new release from Iowa City-based singer/songwriter/bandleader/producer, featuring 9 new songs

The long-awaited new release from Iowa City singer/songwriter/bandleader, features 9 new tracks that use gospel, soul, blues and rock and roll to explore how his personal demons took the artist to the edge, and how he fought his way back.

The long-awaited new release from Iowa City-based singer/songwriter/bandleader/producer, featuring 9 new songs and made with his touring band, The Body Electric, as well as many musical guests, and is co-produced by long-time musical partner Stephen Howard. Zollo is known for his work as a sideman with such American roots-music luminaries as Todd Snider, Greg Brown, The Pines, and William Elliot Whitmore (to name a few) but also for his work as songwriter and frontman of Iowa's alt-country pioneers, High and Lonesome, and the solo records he made with his own band. This is Zollo's first recording since leaving the record label he founded and ran from 1994-2005, Trailer Records, which put out releases by Greg Brown, Bo Ramsey, High and Lonesome, Pieta Brown, Brother Trucker and Kelly Pardekooper, among many others. As with Zollo's previous records, "For Hire" mixes rock and roll, blues, soul, gospel and honkey-tonk, to create a unique sound all his own.

Read more…

The Morning Is a Long Way from Home

David Zollo

A blue-eyed soul singer with a crack band, David Zollo delivers 9 original songs that touch on boogie, blues, honky-tonk and balladry on this 1994 debut.

If you're a follower of the midwestern indie music world (or of American roots music generally) you might be forgiven for thinking David Zollo has been around forever. The truth is, it just seems

A blue-eyed soul singer with a crack band, David Zollo delivers 9 original songs that touch on boogie, blues, honky-tonk and balladry on this 1994 debut.

If you're a follower of the midwestern indie music world (or of American roots music generally) you might be forgiven for thinking David Zollo has been around forever. The truth is, it just seems that way.

Since bursting on the scene as a baby-faced 21-year-old with Iowa City's white-hot, road-chewing pub-rockers, High and Lonesome in 1992, Zollo has done just about everything you can do in the rock and roll business. Whether as a singer/songwriter/keyboardist with his own bands; as a sideman for an incredible array of roots music talent (Todd Snider, William Elliot Whitmore, Greg Brown, Bo Ramsey, The Pines); as founder/owner/ operator of legendary underground label,Trailer Records; or producer to up-and comers (The Pines, Brother Trucker) Zollo always maintained a frenetic schedule, logging thousands of miles and 200+ gigs a year, doing all of these things at an incredibly high level.

He has paid dues that any bluesman or honkey-tonker (both titles apply to Zollo) would envy. High and Lonesome's meteoric rise was halted in late-1994 by the discovery of pre-cancerous tumors in his vocal cords; reconstructive surgery followed. While waiting impatiently for his singing voice to recover, Zollo started and established Trailer Records, then joined the band of critically-acclaimed country-folk rocker Todd Snider in 1996, moving to Nashville. After Snider downsized his band in 1997, Zollo followed his heart back to the midwest and his hometown of Iowa City. There he rejoined mentors Bo Ramsey and Greg Brown, further growing Trailer Records and creating an atmosphere of music-as-family, that saw the entire label roster playing on stage together; on record; and, judging by the sounds of things, in each other's living rooms.

It was around this time that demand started growing for Zollo's services as a producer. Throughout it all, Zollo continued to write music that consistently won critical and popular support for its power, honesty, and intelligence. By 2002 he had produced six records of his own material; Alackaday (1992); Livefromgabes (1994); and For Sale or Rent with High and Lonesome, and The Morning is a Long Way From Home (1995); Uneasy Street (1999); and The Big Night (2002) under his own name.

Of the many things that David Zollo does and does well, it is on stage that he seems most comfortable and happy. Long known as an exuberant, passionate performer, it is clear that at present, Zollo is relishing the opportunity to do what he does best: make music. If you haven't had the pleasure, try to catch him while you can; solo, or with his band The Body Electric. Either way, you'll get a chance to experience the timeless power of a voice that seems to have been with us forever.

Read more…

David Zollo & The Body Electric Mailing list

Join the email list!

David Zollo & The Body Electric Mailing list

Find Us: