The Nadas are no strangers to our cameras, as we welcomed them on the bus for our first outing to Memphis for coverage of Folk Alliance in 2009. And they brought booze, rye whiskey, I believe. I was not a rye drinker until that moment, but I saw the light!

The guys formed at college in Ames, Iowa in 1995. By 2001, they were heralded by Playboy Magazine as “The Best College Band You’ve Never Heard Of.” After 16 years together, Mike Butterworth (vocals, guitar) and Jason Walsmith (vocals, guitar) have recently released their 7th album, Almanac, a year-long project, during which they wrote, recorded and released a new song each month, crafting a portrait of 2009. What’s more, every step of the process was streamed live on the ...]]>

The Nadas “Drink It ’til It’s Gone” by Jessie Scott for Music Fog

The Nadas are no strangers to our cameras, as we welcomed them on the bus for our first outing to Memphis for coverage of Folk Alliance in 2009. And they brought booze, rye whiskey, I believe. I was not a rye drinker until that moment, but I saw the light!

The guys formed at college in Ames, Iowa in 1995. By 2001, they were heralded by Playboy Magazine as “The Best College Band You’ve Never Heard Of.” After 16 years together, Mike Butterworth (vocals, guitar) and Jason Walsmith (vocals, guitar) have recently released their 7th album, Almanac, a year-long project, during which they wrote, recorded and released a new song each month, crafting a portrait of 2009. What’s more, every step of the process was streamed live on the band’s website, delivering unprecedented access to the creative process. Fans were allowed to offer critique on everything from lyrics to instruments, and some of the suggestions were even incorporated into The Nadas’ music. In September of 2009, select fans that had joined the Almanac project were extended an exclusive invitation to a special songwriting session to write that month’s addition to this most unique album. That’s brave and head’s up stuff indeed, but it doesn’t surprise us that they are embracing social networking in such an interactive way, as The Nadas were our Twitter spiritual guides early on.

“We started The Nadas sixteen years ago with just a couple of songs, a van and a newsletter, then grew a community from there,” said Walsmith. “The tools we have now to communicate with and build that community are crazy. But it’s still about the songs, and our fans. They’re why we do this.” Music Fog, as fans, invited them back for a session on the Threadgill’s stage in Austin, TX this past March. And what do you know, they gave us a drinking song!

Des-Moines based rock band The Nadas just released their seventh album, Almanac. The record is fantastic, filled with one alluring folk-country tune after the next. The album was written and recorded virtually live, giving fans a chance to watch the band’s every move via a live stream on their website. Not only that, the band released one song per month throughout 2009, wetting listeners’ pallets for when the album dropped on March 16th. The Nadas- ...]]> The Nadas latest release Almanac is slowly but surely starting to garner the attention of the media, and Laura McDonald from the Denver Music Examiner hopped on the bandwagon to get the latest on what the band is up to as well as how the process of writing and recording a song each month effected the band’s creative process.

Intervivew with unique rockers The Nadas by Laura McDonald for the Denver Music Examiner

Des-Moines based rock band The Nadas just released their seventh album, Almanac. The record is fantastic, filled with one alluring folk-country tune after the next. The album was written and recorded virtually live, giving fans a chance to watch the band’s every move via a live stream on their website. Not only that, the band released one song per month throughout 2009, wetting listeners’ pallets for when the album dropped on March 16th. The Nadas- Mike Butterworth (vocals/guitar), Jason Walsmith (vocals/guitar), Jon Locker (bass), Jason Smith (drums), and Becca Smith (violin)- recently passed through Denver on their way to SXSW. I got a chance to talk to Walsmith about the new music, their online communmity, and how they use their musician status to help those in need.

The Nadas’ home is in Iowa and they have a large and loyal fanbase there. But Denver has always been good to them. “Colorado sort of rivals Iowa,” Walsmith tells me. “Denver is a great place for us. It’s just full of music fans.”

The Nadas’ new album was just officially released, but they have been slowly releasing one song per month over the course of the past year. The approach is unique and so is the music. Bigger and fuller than their previous albums, Walsmith explains that the new music on Almanac flowed naturally from the band. “I think it was a natural progression,” he says. “But I don’t think it’s necessarily going to get bigger every time. I fully expect there to be an acoustic record next, but you never know. We have a lot of new friends that are great musicians that were hanging out in the studio that helped us make this record and I think that’s part of what you hear. There were several songs where we went in and were like ‘Ok we’re just going to do a stripped down, simple version’ and then two weeks later it’s got full orchestration and strings and all kinds of stuff.”

The band streamed the entire recording process live from the studio. The idea to approach it in this unconventional way just sort of happened. “I don’t think it’s necessarily revolutionary in its pieces, but the way that it was all put together I think is pretty unique,” Walsmith says. “We’ve been streaming our shows for a long time and streaming goofy stuff, like going down the road in the bus or breakfast in some weird diner, and so we kind of were doing that anyway. We thought that it might be an interesting peek at the process.”

In the beginning it was unnerving for the band to be constantly under the watch of their fans. “At first it was really scary because writing a song is not necessarily that pretty of a process,” Walsmith admits. “It’s sort of like when you’re drawing a picture and it doesn’t really make sense until you get mostly finished with it.” But the fans were patient and supportive. “Our fans were pretty understanding,” Walsmith continues. “Not everybody would enjoy watching that, but the people who did get into it enjoyed it and were forgiving in the process. Same thing goes with recording, the first time I’m singing some of those parts it’s pretty sketchy and I sometimes sound like a prepubescent boy in choir. It’s really scary but people were cool about it and we got used to it. It ended up influencing the project in a good way, just kind of feeding us this energy off people who are interested.”

Fans of The Nadas interjected their thoughts during the process, but the band didn’t let listener comments run the show. “We really tried to ignore that as much as possible,” Walsmith reveals. “We enjoyed the interaction, but we also tried to discourage and ignore input for the most part because it wasn’t necessarily about that.” He pauses to think. “I will say that a couple of times the feedback influenced us, especially one song in a major way,” he reveals. “We were writing another down-trodden, sad song and all the people online were like ‘Come on, enough of this already, write a happy song!’ So we instantly cranked out a happy song for the month. And that’s why that song is on there.”

The Nadas have built themselves a flourishing online community and are thankful for what the internet has done to bring the band and their fans together. “Our community, between ourselves and our fans, has always been the biggest part of our band,” Walsmith relays. “Social media networks allow that community to thrive and interact around the country, not just one show at a time. I’ve sort of turned into a geek with it and spend way too much time on Twitter and Facebook.” Walsmith doesn’t see much of a downside in the online world. “It’s sort of distracting sometimes,” he offers. “Sometimes I wish I could unplug, sit with a guitar, and just be a musician.”

The Nadas recently reworked and rereleased the song “Wrecking Ball” and are selling for $1 to raise money to help rebuild Haiti. “The catastrophe and tragedy inspired us to do it,” Walsmith laments. “We’re in a unique position where we have people’s attention for entertainment, but sometimes it can be helpful and purposeful. All we really have to give is music and people know they can go directly and donate anyway, but this way allows us to help raise awareness and attention.” Benefiting Haiti is not the only charity work that The Nadas take part in. “We always try to get involved when things like that happen,” Walsmith adds. “There’s not a whole lot you can do as an independent working band, but that’s one thing we can do. And that song just seemed eerily appropriate. I think the new version that’s not on the record is the better version. It took it from being a poppy song to being a heartfelt, emotional song. I hope people get a chance to hear it.”

The Nadas down-to-earth, hard-working approach to rock and roll is refreshing and so is their music. If you feel like your lacking something in your life, pick yourself up a copy of Almanac by The Nadas and let them make you whole again.

The Nadas are a rock/folk quintet based out of Des Moines, Iowa that has been recording and touring for almost 15 years. The band recently finished a yearlong project that resulted in a brand new album called “Almanac”. The intention of the project was to capture the year of 2009, one month at a time in album form. The band wrote, recorded and released a new song each month, every month, for the year. The outcome was a sort of “snapshot” of the year. This week on Ardent Presents we are excited to bring to you a set of stripped down versions of some of the bands most quintessential songs.

Setlist:

00:00 Introduction 00:45 Long Goodbye 04:40 The Deal 09:15 ...]]> BreakThru Radio airs the best small label, unsigned, and independent music on demand at www.breakthruradio.com. Check out their live recordings of The Nadas in their studio!

The Ardent Sessions: The Nadas – Click here to listen

The Nadas are a rock/folk quintet based out of Des Moines, Iowa that has been recording and touring for almost 15 years. The band recently finished a yearlong project that resulted in a brand new album called “Almanac”. The intention of the project was to capture the year of 2009, one month at a time in album form. The band wrote, recorded and released a new song each month, every month, for the year. The outcome was a sort of “snapshot” of the year. This week on Ardent Presents we are excited to bring to you a set of stripped down versions of some of the bands most quintessential songs.

Setlist:

00:00 Introduction
00:45 Long Goodbye
04:40 The Deal
09:15 Blue Lights
13:10 Dancing Lucinda
22:35 Templeton Rye
26:20 Bitter Love
30:35 Drink It Til It’s Gone
36:10 Carve Your Name Next To Mine
42:20 Where I’m Going
48:45 New Start
55:20 Good Night Girl

Live Tour Dates:

Mar 12 2010 Java House – Java Blend Iowa City, IA
Mar 13 2010 Gothic Theatre Englewood, CO
Mar 14 2010 Avogadro’s Number – Nadas Semi-Acoustic Show Fort Collins, CO
Mar 15 2010 Private Denver, CO
Mar 19 2010 Threadgill’s – SXSW- Music Fog Showcase Austin, TX
Mar 20 2010 Authentic Records Showcase – SXSW Music Festival Austin, TX
Mar 24 2010 The Hotel Utah San Francisco, CA
Mar 25 2010 The Mint Los Angeles, CA
Mar 27 2010 Private Party – Private Phoenix, AZ
Mar 28 2010 The Rhythm Room – w/ special guest Martin Zeller Phoenix, AZ
Mar 30 2010 Private Party Oklahoma City, OK
Apr 8 2010 Nutty’s North Sioux Falls, SD
Apr 9 2010 Surf Ballroom – w/ special guests The Envy Corps and Bonne Finken Clear Lake, IA
Apr 10 2010 Fine Line Music Cafe Minneapolis, MN
Apr 16 2010 Peoples Court Des Moines, IA
Apr 17 2010 Chesterfield Sioux City, IA
Apr 18 2010 The Hub Cedar Falls, IA
Apr 24 2010 Redstone Room Davenport, IA
Apr 27 2010 Schubas Tavern Chicago, IL
Apr 28 2010 The Intersection Grand Rapids, MI
Apr 29 2010 World Cafe Live Philadelphia, PA
May 1 2010 Birchmere Music Hall – Supporting America Alexandria, ViA
May 6 2010 Old Rock House – Supporting Cameron McGill St Louis, MS
May 7 2010 Record Bar Kansas City, MS
May 8 2010 Pella Tulip Festival Pella, IA
Jun 26 2010 Sturgis Falls Festival Cedar Falls, IA

Recorded and Mixed by Alan Burcham

Mastered by Kevin Nix

Since 2001, they have moved past the college band title, and Jason Walsmith, lead vocals and guitar, said they have made the “long, slow and steady gradual transition” to a full-time band.

“We’re definitely settled in now and are a career band,” said Mike Buttersworth, who does vocals and guitar. “This is who we are and will be for all of eternity.

The Nadas are scheduled to return to Ames in the Maintenance Shop at 8 p.m. Thursday.

After playing around the Des Moines area for more than 15 years The Nadas said they are able to draw in a wide variety of crowds to all of their shows.

“We have a lot of different markets,” Walsmith said. “It sort ...]]> Starting from humble beginnings, the five-piece band The Nadas set out to create a college band and were even awarded the title “The best college band you’ve never heard of” by Playboy Magazine in 2001.

Since 2001, they have moved past the college band title, and Jason Walsmith, lead vocals and guitar, said they have made the “long, slow and steady gradual transition” to a full-time band.

“We’re definitely settled in now and are a career band,” said Mike Buttersworth, who does vocals and guitar. “This is who we are and will be for all of eternity.

The Nadas are scheduled to return to Ames in the Maintenance Shop at 8 p.m. Thursday.

After playing around the Des Moines area for more than 15 years The Nadas said they are able to draw in a wide variety of crowds to all of their shows.

“We have a lot of different markets,” Walsmith said. “It sort of depends on the town, sometimes people are really into the live music scene, other times they’re not.”

Another way The Nadas have been able to continually draw in new crowds is through their different style of creating albums. The band recently released it’s seventh LP, “Almanac.”

“We recorded and released a song every month in the year of 2009 and the album is what was compiled at the end of the year,” Walsmith said.

The concept of the album also ended up changing the sound of the album.

“It was a different recording experience for us and the album is a little different as well just from that experience,” Buttersworth said.

Thursday’s M-Shop performance may be one of the last with The Nadas’ symbol the “Templeton Rye” tour bus.

After the band wrote a song that mentions the locally-made whiskey, Templeton decided to sponsor The Nadas. But the now the band has decided to change the logo on the bus to support World Bicycle Relief.

“This organization sends bikes to third-world countries so that people like doctors, teachers and students can have transportation to school and work, which is much quicker,” Walsmith said. “A walk would usually take about four hours, with these bikes it can take only one, so that the doctor can get more work done and see that many more patients a day.”

The Nadas

Where: Maintenance Shop, Memorial Union

When: 8 p.m. Thursday.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.

Cost: $10 for students

Press release starts here:

The bands new album, Almanac, is set for release on March 16th through Authentic Records and included on this unique album is a poignant song called “Wrecking Ball”.  Eerily, the lyrics reflect much of what is happening right now with the victims and rescue workers after the devastating earthquake struck Haiti earlier this week.  “If we stand together….” sings frontman Mike Butterworth.  “All we really want is to stand united. All we really need is to just hold on, And we’ll withstand colliding with this human wrecking ball… If I could take away the ...]]> I don’t normally just post press releases, but this is a good cause with a lot of info. My copy of “Almanac” came in the mail today. I look forward to giving it a listen this weekend. – Joe Lawler for Metromix Des Moines

Press release starts here:

The bands new album, Almanac, is set for release on March 16th through Authentic Records and included on this unique album is a poignant song called “Wrecking Ball”.  Eerily, the lyrics reflect much of what is happening right now with the victims and rescue workers after the devastating earthquake struck Haiti earlier this week.  “If we stand together….” sings frontman Mike Butterworth.  “All we really want is to stand united. All we really need is to just hold on, And we’ll withstand colliding with this human wrecking ball… If I could take away the things that bring you pain; if I could make the sun shine through the pouring rain.”

Moved by the images coming from the devastated country, the band was determined to help in any way possible. Spontaneously, the band entered their studio this morning to re-work a new, live version of “Wrecking Ball.”  It was all streamed live for their fans to watch and experience as they recorded as well. You can see the process by clicking: www.thenadas.com/tv. Singer/guitarist Jason Walsmith has also edited a video montage of images from the riddled Haiti. This moving tribute can be seen here.

The new version of “Wrecking Ball” will be available through the bands website, starting today, with all proceeds being donated directly to “Yele Haiti”, a charity begun in 2005 by the Haitian musician, Wyclef Jean.  The song will be priced at $1.00 and there is an option for additional voluntary contributions.

Des Moines-based roots rockers, The Nadas, took an innovative approach to the process of making their latest album, Almanac. I recently sat down with Jason Walsmith, one of the band’s founders, at the Authentic Records music label’s Beaverdale offices to discuss the process.

Jason explained the idea to me, “Normally, we’d go into the studio and spend two or three months of contiguous time, as much as possible, working on a record. This one, we decided we would write, record, and release one song per month over the course of 2009. So, we started in January and we’ve done one song a month ever since.”

They didn’t ...]]> Haven’t heard of The Nadas Almanac project yet? Check out Geoff Wood’s (from Silicon Prairie News) interview with Jason Walsmith about Almanac and the challenges the band faced while making the album.

The Nadas Year-Long ‘Almanac’ Recording Project Reaches Completion by Geoff Woods for Silicon Prairie News

Des Moines-based roots rockers, The Nadas, took an innovative approach to the process of making their latest album, Almanac. I recently sat down with Jason Walsmith, one of the band’s founders, at the Authentic Records music label’s Beaverdale offices to discuss the process.

Jason explained the idea to me, “Normally, we’d go into the studio and spend two or three months of contiguous time, as much as possible, working on a record. This one, we decided we would write, record, and release one song per month over the course of 2009. So, we started in January and we’ve done one song a month ever since.”

They didn’t set out to create a chronicle of news events but rather to engage their audience over the long-term in an innovative way. Additionally, the end result is a retrospective look at how the happenings of each month of 2009 influenced their writing process. “We just wanted to see how the year influenced us,” Jason explained. “The songs still are personal but on a little bit more general topics. I could go back – and I’m excited to do this after I digest it for awhile – and see what influenced what.”

Fan engagement is the main reason they undertook the project. According to Jason, “We were just trying to come up with a way to keep our audience engaged while we were working on another record. It seems like it’s harder and harder to keep people’s attention these days. Normally, we’d do a record every couple of years but we knew that we’d lose people so we just wanted to continuously keep them engaged”.

They also used Almanac to experiment with new technologies to increase the interaction between the band and their fans, as well as bring the fans closer to each other. Almanac was presented through a WordPress blog, with the traditional text and image posts, but also quite a bit of video. First available as a live stream and later as archived content, The Nadas let fans directly access the song writing and recording sessions as well as interviews with external media outlets.

Some of the interaction technology was more successful than others and Jason is excited to take what they learned through Almanac and apply it to the band’s day-to-day life. They’ve already started by streaming their regular live shows through Ustream. “We’ve been streaming almost all of our shows and we’ve built up a pretty good fan base on there. They’re our regular fans, if we go to their town they show up, but when we’re not in their town they log on and watch the stream at night. They’ve built their own little community there…which is awesome”.

The songwriting and recording for Almanac is now complete and the album has a release date set of March 2, 2010, however, you can still subscribe to the project to have access to songs, videos, and other information right now, or, take a sneak peak with this login:

• Website: thenadas.com/almanac
• Username: SPN
• Password: december09

Check out the interview below to see Jason’s thoughts on the Almanac project, interacting with the audience through nascent media technologies, the recent Nada Silent Night charity event, and the renaissance in the Des Moines music scene.