Touring in support of his 2025 release Roadkill Poetry, a work whose title song was praised by Lightning 100 as "a cathartic, introspective road trip through an alt-country landscape," touring singer/songwriter Austin Sawyer brings his musical project Drumming Bird to Davenport's Raccoon Motel on September 27, his latest recording inspiring Xavier Newswire to state, "Give Drumming Bird a chance, and you'll find a new indie artist to brag to your friends about.

With the lauded stage talent best known for Broadway and touring productions of Mary Poppins and for originating the role of Hannah in the Tony-winning musical Come from Away, a Midwestern native takes the stage in A Broadway Cabaret with Q. Smith, a September 26 event in the University of Dubuque's Heritage Center that will find the artist joined by visiting high schoolers to perform a showcase of thrilling solos and group numbers.

Fifty-one years after his passing, the music of the man who introduced the world to "Take the A-Train," "Caravan," "Sophisticated Lady," "Satin Doll," and other classics will be performed by the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts Big Band in An Evening of Duke Ellington: Sentimental Mood. a September 26 evening boasting vocalists Mary Denmead, Katelyn Halverson, and Steven Jepson, and presented by Josh Sazon and Wes Habley as part of the American Songbook series.

Lauded by The Guardian as "mercilessly catchy and meticulously camp," the Chicago-based garage-rock/pop trio of Dehd headlines a September 17 concert event at Rock Island venue Rozz-Tox, their 2024 album Poetry inspiring Pitchfork to rave, "With more ambitious melodies, bolder harmonies, and compositional complexity, the Chicago trio’s new album hypercharges their already electric sound."