Iowa City’s beloved folk-Americana collective Awful Purdies, helmed by five multitalented women, has been enthralling audiences for 20 years. An integral part of the Midwest music scene, the Purdies blend banjo, accordion, cello, guitar, mandolin, bass, and percussion with flawless vocals, drawing on the sounds of folk, old country, bluegrass, honky tonk, and soul. Band members take turns as lead singers and songwriters—creating a communal musical voice that resonates with friendship, insight, compassion, humor, and raw courage. The Purdies are being featured in an upcoming documentary and were the closing act at the Iowa Arts Festival this year. In honor of their 20th anniversary, they are also releasing a new album full of juicy songwriting.
Founding member Katie Roche says the Purdies began with a conversation between Annie Savage and Amy Finders (now Amy Harron of Ms Amy and the Jet Set). The two Iowa City musicians were chatting about their experiences in various bands and thought it would be interesting to put together an all-woman group. Roche says Savage and Herron approached her and Marcy Rosenbaum about the project, and then invited Gabrielle Kouri of the Big Begonias, and together they made up the original ensemble. While the group has changed over the years, the Purdies are still a multi-instrumental quintet. Since 2009, their roster has included original members Roche and Rosenbaum as well as Nicole Upchurch, Kate Rowe, and Sarah Cram. Upchurch says that she actually attended their first concert, explaining, “I had just moved to town and had been gifted a banjo.” Upchurch later ran into Savage at the library and mentioned that wished she could find musical camaraderie. Savage invited her to practice, and Upchurch subsequently joined the band.
Many of the Purdies play multiple instruments to create their distinctive sound. “Marcy is a marvel,” says Upchurch. “In the time that I’ve been in the band, she was our guitarist, she moved to mandolin, and now she’s primarily a bassist but still plays those other instruments. She’s an impressive multi-instrumentalist.” Kate Rowe plays electric bass and cello. “I’m just a lonely banjo player, mostly,” Upchurch says, but admits to also playing the guitar “like a banjo.” Roche initially played penny whistles, hand drums, glockenspiel, and the accordion, though she tends to focus on the accordion and the washboard now. “In the beginning,” she says, “I would have to put my baby on my back and then put all my instruments into the stroller to get on stage.”
Upchurch and Roche reflect on what 20 years of making music in Iowa has been like as an all-woman band, and how their group dynamic has encouraged growth. The Purdies are iconic not just for their sound but also for how truly democratic and mutually supportive the group is. “And it works,” Upchurch says. “It can be messy, but repair is more important than anything else. We ultimately make sure everyone’s heard.”
Both Roche and Upchurch agree that spending decades together has added an intuitively fluid element to their creative collaboration. “There’s not a main person, there’s not a star of the band with everyone backing them up,” Roche says. “It’s really about serving the song. . . . We’ve worked hard to foster a culture of inviting ideas and inviting experimentation.”
To celebrate their anniversary, the Awful Purdies are basically doing a double album. They’re writing 20 songs, releasing them as singles as they’re finished, and then combining all the songs on an album.
Roche explains the first three singles were released in May. Because they take turns singing lead and writing songs, they’re releasing the songs as they finish them, as well as in an order where the songs complement each other. People can buy the singles individually or they can pre-order the album. It will be delivered digitally, song by song, with a physical album at the end. “It’s a different way to do it,” Roche says. “But we just wanted to celebrate this period of time.”
Roche feels the album will show how the Purdies have grown lyrically, too. “As the years have gone by, we’ve stepped into speaking more directly to the things that we care about in the world.”
The Purdies’ music is a compelling mixture of beauty, wit, empowerment, and outrage, continuing the folk tradition of pithy social commentary. Roche says that as folk musicians, they are “attuned to what’s happening socially and politically in the world. It’s part of our job as musicians.” She says they listen, observe, and throw it all into a metaphorical cauldron, stirring everything into a song that speaks directly to the current moment. “We democratically decided that the album will be called Begin Again. I would like people to know that it’s always a good time to begin again.”
Roche says they often hear that their shows inspire other women to start a band with their girlfriends—and they totally encourage that. “Just start getting together,” she says. “Just start playing, start being vulnerable. Make some ugly noises until you make some pretty noises, or maybe you want to make ugly noises. There’s no wrong way to do it. Just make art.”
For the Purdies, playing the main stage at the Iowa Arts Festival for the community that has supported them for so many years is an integral part of their 20th anniversary experience. “That’s a really meaningful stage for us,” Roche says.
Encouraging young musicians has always been important to the Purdies. Roche says they often invite girls and young women to “open for us or play with us and encourage them to make music.” Upchurch adds that they recently unearthed a photo of the Purdies at the Mill from 2012, with three young girls watching at the front of the stage, and have chosen it as the image for each of the singles being released.
“In 2006, we sat underneath a pine tree, picked out a couple tunes together, and thought it was pretty fun,” Roche says. “Twenty years later, you’re making music with your dearest friends, and you’ve raised your children together, and you feel pretty darn lucky.”
For more information, visit www.awfulpurdies.com.