Midwest Calling: From First Avenue to the American Football House

A collection of original essays by artists, label owners, and booking agents—from DEVO to The Smashing Pumpkins to Michigander—on how Midwestern culture and landscape shaped their music and scenes. Midwest Calling takes you on a tour from DIY scenes to festival stages in St Louis, Milwaukee, Chicago, Cleveland, and beyond, with over 25 writers and interviewees. The National's Bryan Devendorf explains how the jug bands and rivers of Ohio helped create his band's sound, Bon Iver's Justin Vernon tells a story about Prince at First Avenue, and American Football's Steve Lamos defends boredom as an essential part of the creative process. Offstage players contribute stories as well, from Chris Swanson on the beginnings of the Secretly label group in Bloomington, Indiana, to Peter Jesperson facilitating the debut of national success stories at the legendary First Avenue in Minneapolis. Elsewhere, writers offer an inside look at the communities that shaped them, such as Rachel Cholst's informational tribute to alt-country and the impact of Bloodshot Records, and poet Marguerite L. Harrold's personal ode to the power and originality of Chicago house music. This book is for fans—that friend with a worn-out story about Paul Westerberg or your vinyl-obsessed uncle, those who work or worked in the music industry, readers of Such Great Heights: The Complete Cultural History of the Indie Rock Explosion—and, above all, anyone interested in how music can be grounded in a place even as it transcends it.

© 2026 Belt Publishing (E-bog): 9781540270375

Udgivelsesdato

E-bog: 8. december 2026