Codfish Conversations #6 Jeni Grouws from The Avey Grouws Band

Growing up, for the majority of my life, within the confines of the Quad Cities, I’ve seen several acts, including many friends, take their passion to bigger stages from coast to coast. As an artist that continues to showcase work outside of this area, I know the excitement that comes from not only experiencing this directly, but also seeing other skilled and passionate people take their expression beyond what they originally perceived. I was taught during the early years of my endeavor into the world of art that you mustn’t view the accomplishments of others as taking away from what you’ve accomplished, or still are hoping to accomplish. Not only is there plenty of space for all of us to breathe, but you’d be foolish to think that this world could use less creative expression. Now I won’t pretend as though this section of “fly-over” country is commonly seen as a beacon of art, in any capacity, and I know over 2 decades now, my relationship with the scene has ebbed and flowed, but when you take an outsider's view, you begin to appreciate it a little more.

I have seen street punks get record deals from their idols, friends in hardcore bands tour across Europe, and now have heard tales of Buddy Guy choosing to share the stage for nearly half an hour with a Roots Rock band, all three from the same cluster of cities, straddling the shores where the Mississippi turns momentarily West. While gracing the stage at Codfish isn’t quite as comparable as the three aforementioned situations, it has still come to be a sort of rites of passage for local musicians. Nearly every local band I’ve interviewed has put the barn at the top of their list of stages they hope to stand on one day, and while I have seen quite a few local acts open shows in the Hollow, it was surprising when shows were getting announced to find out that Avey Grouws would be making their debut at the barn this season. It’d be tough to be involved at all in the local scene without being familiar with this group, but near impossible to not have crossed paths with at least one member. They have been involved with some of the biggest acts in the QC as well as providing hands-on support and guidance for new and aspiring musicians. 

While the weather provided a blistering setting for their first performance, Avey Grouws matched that intensity, engaging the crowd in ways I wish all openers I see could do. Though that also speaks for the crowds that convene in this eastern-Iowa barn, and just how long people have been waiting for Avey Grouws to share their sounds from the Codfish stage. While the weather delayed my arrival at the barn, and I wasn’t able to do this interview in-person, Jeni Grouws was gracious enough to record her responses to my questions, and yet again I am happily surprised by, and thankful for, the time and effort others put in to help me make these Codfish Conversations happen.

Matthew: Let’s start off with an introduction for those who aren’t familiar. Who you are, how long have you been playing, and where do you call home?

Jeni: Oh, hey, so I decided to record the answers because it's crazy sometimes trying to type while I'm riding here in the van. But yeah. So the Avey Grouws band has been together since January 2017 and most everybody in the band is from the Quad Cities, on the Iowa side. I have been living in Decorah, Iowa, up in northeast Iowa, for the last 20 years, and I'm currently doing a residency for songwriting at the Music House in Omaha, Nebraska. So I've been there since September.

I'm Jeni Grouws. Chris Avey is lead guitar and does some vocals. Randy Leasman is on the bass, and Bryan West is on the drums. 

Matthew: As a professional artist myself, I understand that sometimes the answer is simply that there was no other choice, but why did you become a musician? What or who originally got you interested in music?

Jeni: How did we become musicians? Well, obviously that answer will be very different for each and every one of us. Most of the guys have been playing professionally. In fact, probably all of them since they were in their late teens or early 20s. I think it's something that they were all just called to do from the beginning. And I would say the same goes for me. Since I was five years old, I knew I wanted to sing and perform and write. I just didn't necessarily find it the most responsible career, or at least that's what I had been told. So I didn't do it for many, many years. I waited a very long time to make it my professional career, but it was worth the wait. It just took a really long time for me to get there. But I think, you know, when it's deep inside you, it's kind of hard to ignore, and eventually it's got to come out somewhere. And eventually it did for me.

Matthew: I've spoken to several QC bands and it seems like Codfish tops every list of places to play. I'm surprised this is your first time playing, but what makes this place so special from a performer's stand point? 

Jeni: As far as Codfish Hollow goes, it is absolutely a venue artists want to play, especially Iowa artists, because we hear about it, we see it, we go to concerts there. It was our first time playing there. And while I'm not entirely certain why, it was really cool after our performance with JD McPherson to have Tiff come up and say, “Oh my gosh. I can't believe it took us this long to get you here. We will definitely have you back.” So that meant a lot, and honestly, maybe it made it even more special, because we got to wait so long to finally make our debut at Codfish. But um, gosh. Why is it so special? I think because there is a feeling and a vibe at Codfish that you can't or it's very rare, I should say, to find anywhere else. I mean, it's from the owners, through the volunteers. Everybody that's a part of Codfish is dedicated to the music and to the people that provide the music and to the people that support the music. It's all about the music. And I think it's hard. It sounds like it shouldn't be hard to find, but it is hard to find these days because finances are a real thing. They get in the way, and people start thinking toward the dollar rather than toward the music. And I think it's been really cool to see what Codfish Hollow does with their artists. From an artist's perspective, I mean, we were treated like kings and a queen. It was pretty cool, but it goes beyond that. It's the respect and the excitement, the enthusiasm, the encouragement that everyone that's at Codfish Hollow brings to the day and to the artists that are there. So I just have to say thank you. And I know everybody in the band would say the same thing. It was magical. I literally can't wait to get back.

Matthew: The blues have a long history in the QC. Did that make it a natural choice when you were finding your own sound? Did you ever play in groups outside of the world of blues/blues rock?  

Jeni: Yeah, the Quad Cities does have a long history of the blues, you know, being right on the Mississippi River that music was taken up and down that river for decades and decades and decades, and it was brought from the South, obviously, where the blues was born. And I think it's natural that those sounds, and those stylings, and those feelings really made an impression on the folks that heard it as it came further North, and then it started to blend. It started to blend in with all of the other forms of American music. And so you have people, I mean, we're a bunch of Midwesterners playing blues rock, and I get that it can be maybe a little unexpected, but we actually have tended to call ourselves roots rock because we want to be very respectful of the natural history of the blues, the origins of the blues. It's not originally ours. It's just something we admire and respect and take as inspiration for the music that we make now as a roots rock band. We are clearly very heavily blues-influenced, but you'll also hear rock. You'll also hear country, which is sort of what I grew up listening to. You'll hear soul. You'll hear funk. There's a little bit of all of those sounds in what we put together. I mean, it's a natural progression for us as a band to take all of our backgrounds and pull them together and make music that is us. It is Avey Grouws band, but it is definitely informed by the music that came before. And the Quad Cities has just been a really cool petri dish of different sounds of music that have come up and down the Mississippi River over the years.

Matthew: You all have serious roots locally, being in different bands and/or helping teach the youth locally, so I think you have a good grasp on the scene. What do you feel are the strengths of this scene? Do you think it's in a better spot than it was when you were younger?

Jeni: You know, I might have a different perspective on it, because I did not grow up in the Quad Cities. I didn't even step foot into the Quad Cities music scene until 2015 when I went to a blues jam, because I was in the Quad Cities to speak at Augustana, excuse me, St Ambrose College, and I was supposed to talk about radio. I got there, and the night before, I was at a hotel, and I thought, well, there's got to be music somewhere. I hear the Quad Cities has good music, and I found a blues jam, and I jumped in, and that's when I met all of the guys in the band. So it was a very lucky moment for me, fortuitous, I think, for all of us, maybe, but that's kind of an indicator of what the music scene is like in the Quad Cities. You know, the guys can tell you what it was like when they were younger. I don't know, because I didn't grow up there, but I do hear, I hear people, you know, talking bad about their own scene. But honestly, I think that's pretty natural. I think people are highly critical of the scene within which, you know, they're enmeshed every single day. So people will talk about the scene in Nashville, they'll talk about the scene in Los Angeles. You know, we're in the Quad Cities, and I think the folks that grew up there are annoyed by some things and they know the institutional knowledge of the town and the scene. So it's maybe easy to get annoyed with…whatever. I do think it's pretty natural. But also, as an outsider to the Quad Cities music scene, I have to say that I think it's a pretty spectacular and thriving scene. I think there's so much music happening on any given night. There is so much encouragement for young people to be a part of music. There is so much enthusiasm for the new sounds and textures and emotions that different artists bring to the stage. Whether it's a cover band or an original music band, it's really exciting to be maybe a slight outsider on the music scene and to see all the things happening. And yes, people can complain if they like. In fact, I think when you're in the middle of something, it's good to have complaints. It's what helps grow something stronger and better, right? But I think as an outsider, I would say the Quad Cities folks are pretty lucky.

Matthew: Where do you draw inspiration from, both musically and outside of the world or music?  Has that inspiration changed as you’ve grown, both personally and musically?

Jeni: I know when I'm writing a song, the world around me is a natural part of what I'm writing about. It might be something that is directly related to me, or something that I'm seeing happen in the world, or to people that I love. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's heartbreaking. I guess for me, the idea of art in general is to move, inspire, teach, heal, question, all of those things. It can be pretty, and when it's pretty, it's such a beautiful thing. But it isn't always pretty. Life isn't always pretty. Therefore, music isn't always pretty. It's an opportunity for me, as a songwriter, anyway, to be able to speak on the things that are sitting in my heart or in my mind….You asked if it's changed for me. Although the world has changed, I've grown. I'm an older person than I was when I wrote my first song. I'm a different person than I was when I wrote my first song. So absolutely, and you know, any songwriter will tell you that it's a healing thing to be able to write those feelings that sit inside. So as someone who has gone through breakups, divorce, love, new love. That's just on a personal level, and then looking at children and seeing them grow and become their own beings, their own people, that kind of just makes you sit in awe of what they're doing and accomplishing., to looking at the world, and seeing the beauty in it, and then seeing the pain and the sorrow and the heartbreak in it. It's all of that that ends up in the music, and I hate to say that we have a duty, but we kind of do. For those of us that are creatives, it doesn't have to be something that we put onto an album. It doesn't, but we do have a duty to use our talents, our inspirations, to write what we see about the world around us. So yeah, I feel pretty lucky to be a songwriter, honestly, and I think you'll hear that in our music when we come together, and I'm speaking mostly lyrically. But of course, what the songs sound like melodically inform the feelings that are being put into the lyrics, and that's why it's so cool to be able to have really talented, feeling, thinking, thoughtful people that you're making music with, because they get it, and we try to find the right way together for a song to really come alive and go out into the world. 

Matthew: When it comes to songwriting, do you spend a lot of time sitting down intending to write or does it tend to happen more organically?

Jeni: As for writing, I do sit down to write. I try to do it multiple times a day. It doesn't always work, but I find that the best songs come out when I don't mean to write, like they just pop up, and sometimes it's annoying because I got stuff to do. In fact, I'll be honest with you, the times that I write the best and most focused are when I have other things I'm supposed to be doing. Writing for me is an incredible procrastination tool. So like when I'm trying to avoid getting other work done, it's a really great thing to be able to sit down and write a song instead. What's wild is it can come at any time of the day. I've written songs at four in the morning when I couldn't sleep. I've written songs at nine in the morning when I got up from having a good night's sleep. I've written songs at lunch when I was supposed to be doing the dishes, and I didn't feel like doing them anymore. You know, it's just, I think you have to let inspiration come because life is busy. Life is chaotic. It's hard to find time to make these things happen, and so you make it happen when you can. And I do think that's really important to find those times and spaces to make them and to allow for them to happen.

Matthew: You've played from Vegas to the East Coast down to Florida, and so many places in between.  I love seeing a local act tour and get some shine. During these travels are there any musicians or idols you've crossed paths with or gotten to work with that you wouldn't have expected?

Jeni: Yeah, we've played the Big Blues Bender in Vegas with Keb Mo, and Shemekia Copeland, and Jimmy Vaughn, and it was a really, really amazing experience. We've done festivals on the East Coast, out in Massachusetts. We've toured to Florida a lot, I think five times now. And honestly, we love getting to tour. It's harder to do financially, but we love those opportunities, and we take them whenever we can. But people that you asked about, people we've played with, the highlight, there's probably two. One was opening for Walter Trout after COVID at the Adler Theater in Davenport. That was an amazing experience. That was something that we were pretty excited to be able to have happen for us, especially when we hadn't, at that moment, been opening for anybody, not of that level. So we were grateful that Walter had us and that the Adler had us. Then this past year, we played Buddy Guy's Legends in Chicago, which is exciting in and of itself, but Buddy Guy got on stage with us, which he is known to do. But we did hear from people that he tends to get up like five, sometimes 10 minutes. The man stayed up with us for 22 minutes. And if you watch the video, you will see that we had a really good time, and honestly, I cried after it, because I just couldn't believe that Buddy Guy would spend that much time with us. To have a living legend be on the stage while you're playing music with him and what he's been through and what he's seen and what he's done and what it's just, it was wild. It was pretty cool. Yeah, I mean, we've had some great experiences. We've played a backyard party and jammed with Albert Castiglia. That was really cool. I mean, I think I can call him amongst our friends. We've had some great opportunities, and we definitely don't take those moments lightly. We're very excited, but we also know that any artist we get a chance to play with is a pretty cool experience. It's probably one of my favorite things as a musician is getting the chance to just play, to jam, and to make music happen with folks that you wouldn't normally be playing with. So they don't have to be famous; they just have to have a good time. Oh, we did have a fun time where we were running a jam at the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival years ago, and Tab Benoit was there. And everybody knows he likes to have a good time. He hung out, and then he got on the drums with us and played some music. And that was really cool.

Matthew: Are there any other big plans for 2025 that you’d like people to know about?

Jeni: As far as what we have coming up this year, you know, we have stepped down a little bit in that we were going nuts doing as many shows every single weekend of the entire year as we could. You know, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, usually between three and sometimes five shows a week, and we wore ourselves out, and people miss their families. You know, I get it. So we decided to take a little break. We're just taking certain shows. It's kind of a bummer, because we love playing the bars and the smaller venues where people can just interact with us and have a good time, rather than it being like a stage, but we also realize, if we keep doing that, it makes it less likely that they're going to buy a $40 ticket to go see us on a stage like Codfish Hollow. So we actually think that in the long run, it's a smarter choice for us to be able to grow our music and really focus on what shows, be selective about, what shows we're doing, and where we're performing. So yeah, we've got some we're excited we've got some festivals coming up this summer that we'll be doing. There's talk of working on an album. We've got a lot of irons in the fire at the same time. Everybody has their own separate bands. And our drummer, Bryan, I think he plays with 17 different groups. I don't know how he does it, but it's a busy time for everybody, and we're just happy to be able to be making music and engaging in this life in a really weird, like, I was gonna say real and exciting way, but I said weird, and maybe that's because it is somewhat weird. It is a weird and exciting way. Look Avey Grouws Band is one of the things that I'm most grateful for over the last 10 years, for sure, and I think it's always a surprise to see what's coming next. So we'll let you know if we find out. But I'm not sure we've totally figured it out yet. Go with the flow.

Matthew: Along similar lines, are there bands/musicians you’ve been listening to a lot that you think the world needs to know about, or people would be surprised you’re a fan of?

Jeni: Well, I would be dumb not to say, you know, check out everybody's individual stuff. Bryan West is playing with a bunch of bands. Randy Leasman has a solo career out there. Chris Avey has the. Chris Avey band. You can check that one out. I'm doing my solo stuff. Jeni Grouws music. Jeni Grouws with bands and solo so I think you know, that's music you could definitely check out if you're looking to see the ways in which we're all growing and doing different things.…The biggest thing I want to say is we just really want to say thank you to Codfish Hollow. That was a wildly cool experience, and all of the photographers that were there captured it in such a beautiful way. I mean, it really is this sort of little biome of music. It's the music. It's the band, it's the music lovers, it's the photographers, it's the tech folks, it's the merch folks. It's the owners that feed us and care for us. It's the dogs that keep us smiling because they're wanting a good pet and a piece of cheese backstage, like it's all of those things together that make a music experience like Codfish Hollow so special, and so we just want to say thank you again for having us, and man, we can't wait to get back.