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Rocky Votolato: Live in IPR's Des Moines Newsroom

Photo Courtesy of the artist
Rocky Votolato

Rocky Votolato is a Seattle Washington-based Singer and Songwriter. He got his start in music more than twenty years ago in a punk band with his brother Wax Wing. After it disbanded he started performing solo. He took a break from writing and his latest record, “Hospital Handshakes,” has a similar sound to his old material. 

A couple years ago Votolato thought he was done with music. He wasn’t very proud of his last record, Television of Saints, and he decided to get a job; that ultimately didn’t work.

"The dam broke open and I wrote so many songs in such a short period of time and it was much like it was when I was younger," Votolato says. "Things were just really coming out. Creative ideas. And I was having fun with it again.”

Votolato recently went on a tour of living rooms and we asked him to stop by our Des Moines studio to talk about his career and the new record and play a show in our newsroom in front of a couple dozen fans. 

SELECTED SET LIST: 

  • "Portland is Leaving" from "Makers"
  • "Hospital Handshakes" from "Hospital Handshakes"
  • "Makers" from "Makers"
  • "Red River" from "True Devotion"
  • "Little Spring" from "Television of Saints"

John Pemble is a reporter for IPR
Clay Masters is the senior politics reporter for MPR News.