Paper Jams

The warming-up voice of Johnny Delaware, frontman of The Artisanals, echoed from the first-floor restroom of the Quad-City Times building a few minutes after the band arrived. After offering a hug and hello, the smiley Delaware said his voice doesn't work well in the morning and he needed al the warm-up time he could get. The band is based in Charleston, South Carolina and drove this August morning from St. Louis to play a Paper Jams session at the Quad-City Times ahead of a two-day festival with other Charleston bands, such as Susto, at Codfish Hollow, the Maquoketa venue that Delaware declared the best in the country. Delaware must've made an impromptu decision to make up for his "morning voice" -- he, along with Clay Houle, made the set not feel so acoustic (Look for the guitar solo at the 5 minute mark). At the end of their two songs, Delaware apologized to online and in-person viewers for his voice sounding like “garbage” in the morning, to which his bandmate remarked, “You need to stop saying it’s morning. It’s 1 o’ clock.” To us, it sounded great all the same.

In honor of the first day of the 99th annual Mississippi Valley Fair, country artist Jake McVey stopped by the Quad-City Times newsroom. The Burlington, Iowa native and current resident of Nashville, Tennessee sings like a pop-country purist with lyrics shouting out Templeton Rye whiskey, John Deere tractors and a tune all about falling in love at a red light. Even in an acoustic setting, he is also a true performer asking, after two songs, if the small crowd of Quad-City Times staffers would like to hear another one. A viewer on Facebook Live chimed in with an enthusiastic, "Yeeeaaah!" McVey and his bandmates were in town to play the fair and had a busy stretch of shows ahead of them including a stop at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus as well as a set at Big Grove Brewery in Iowa City. On his way out, McVey said he'd surely be back in the "neighborhood" soon.

During one of the year's busiest weekend for the Quad-City Times' staff and parking lot, the members of the Nashville-based indie pop band Frances Cone navigated their way -- by foot -- from sound check at a nearby venue to the newsroom. With some commotion surrounding the impending start of the Jr. Bix, a series of short road races for kids located just outside the building, we made an impromptu Paper Jams location change to a calmer office space just next door. Frances Cone played two acoustic songs, "Unraveling," and "Keep It Movin'," before going on their way back to the Triple Crown Whiskey Bar & Raccoon Motel for their 8 p.m. show. The next morning, the streets of Davenport were full of thousands of people participating in and watching the 44th annual Quad-City Times Bix 7.

Marah in the Mainsail, a band from Minneapolis, played in the Quad-City Times newsroom on Tuesday, June 12.

The Way Down Wanderers kicked off our Paper Jams series on May 4.