When a promising roots-music musician leaves his home environs for Nashville, it's not difficult to guess the reasons: fame and fortune. But Iowa native Kelly Pardekooper left Iowa City for the country-music capital of the world with an entirely different motivation.
After a hot, delectable meal, what would be better than to relax, listen to live music, and enjoy the company of friends? Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart would have agreed. During his lifetime, he wrote hundreds of pieces that were classified as house music, meant to be performed for friends and guests in the home.
• While the film won't open until February 18, fans of Dave Matthews should look forward to his acting role in Because of Winn Dixie, playing Otis, a pet-store clerk who sings to animals and sets them free. The Nettwerk Records soundtrack comes out this week and features music from the Be Good Tanyas, Emmylou Harris, Leigh Nash of Sixpence None the Richer, and a duet from Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne and James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins.
Amy Martin, a folk musician now living in Montana, is returning to her native Iowa to perform in Davenport this Saturday, January 22, at the River City Music Experience. Martin, who grew up on a farm near Preston, headed west from Chicago with guitar in hand in 1999.
How do two new releases in January already feel like "best of 2005" contenders? More satisfying with each repeated listening, two new CDs hitting store shelves this Tuesday have dominated my stereo for the past few weeks, and I'm not ready to hit "eject" yet.
Ron May, the founding president of the City Opera Company of the Quad Cities, said he wants his organization, now in its fourth year, to open the world of opera to everybody - both performers and audiences.
Quad Cities native Thomas Sauer gave voice to the piano and his wife, Serena Canin, made the violin sing at a concert hosted by Chamber Music Quad Cities on January 2, at the Unitarian Church in Davenport. Sauer and Canin, both of whom are music teachers and performers from New York, showed their masterful technique and musicianship to a receptive audience of almost 100 people.
• Hot off the heels of the third volume in KCRW-FM's Sounds Eclectic CD series, Boston's WBOS-FM has just released the second CD in its 92.9 Live from the Archives series of artists performing intimate tunes live in the studio.
• With a rush of new films opening over the next few weeks, nearly a dozen soundtracks hit store shelves this Tuesday. From sublime scores to the infectious beat of Punjabi wedding songs, all sorts of soundtracks are itching to get in between your ears and extend the film experience.
• This Tuesday the power-pop purveyors at Not Lame Records are releasing a new tribute to The Cars entitled Substitution Mass Confussion. As a salute to Cars bassist Benjamin Orr, who died of cancer in 2000, the CD benefits the American Cancer Society.

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