David Zollo

Electric roots rocker David Zollo, an Eastern Iowa native, built his reputation through work as a solo performer, as a sideman supplying barrelhouse piano and Hammond organ to other roots rockers, and as the proprietor of an independent label. He took up the piano at age four; exposure to the vintage American recordings amassed by his father, a writer and journalist, soon led him to perform R&B covers for family and friends during his teenage years. In the early ’90s he assembled the band High & Lonesome, whose repertoire centered on Mick Taylor-era Rolling Stones material alongside Southern rock, blues-rock, and alternative country-rock. The group issued three albums on Zollo’s Trailer Records imprint and maintained a heavy touring schedule until the physical demands of the road necessitated throat surgery. After a lengthy recovery that coincided with the dissolution of High & Lonesome, Zollo completed Uneasy Street, a project originally begun as a band recording that ultimately appeared under his own name. He also contributed keyboards to singer/songwriter Greg Brown and to guitarist/producer Bo Ramsey, whose credits include work with Lucinda Williams, and spent a year in Nashville playing with Todd Snider’s Nervus Rex. In 2002 he released the solo album Big Night, which showcased his milk-and-whiskey rasp across songs that spanned Rolling Stones honky tonk, country-rock, blues-rock, and heartland rock; Zollo wrote every track except one.