Iowa City is home to one of the best eccentric pop songwriters in these United States. His name is Sam Locke-Ward and the obvious musical reference point would be Daniel Johnston, which is slightly misleading since Sam isn’t crazy — he’s viciously smart and well put together — though he does share an undeniable link to Johnston in his penchant for quirky and endearing pop. Sam, who seems to change the lineup of his band for each gig, put together an eleven piece ensemble called the Sam Locke-Ward Big Band for his support slot on the Bon Iver show that happened during the Mission Creek Festival. Despite some hateful live sound engineering — just listen to that vocal microphone cutting out every 30 seconds or so — this band blasted the house. A lot of people had a WTF? look on their faces which, given the fact that it was a Bon Iver show, they probably weren’t expecting a quirk-pop orchestra; heck, they probably weren’t even expecting Bon Iver to rock as hard as he did. We at the Freak will continue to pour Sam’s pop genius down your throats until you get it and one day, dear friend, you will get it. Until then, scratch your head on this live recording of the Sam Locke-Ward Big Band gig from the Mission Creek Festival. Thanks to www.cornwarning. for posting this.

Sam Locke-Ward Big Band (live at Mission Creek Festival ’08)