The Nadas are friends of mine. Mike Butterworth and Jason Wallsmith founded this band in 1995, and for the last 16 years, have been rocking audiences with live performances across the country. From Philadelphia to Los Angeles, Minneapolis to Phoenix, The Nadas have been on the road for quite some time now. The reason I write you, is to ask you to please consider giving these guys a huge lift by giving their ride “Meatloaf” (You guessed it, The Meatloaf’s old tour bus) a "redo".
Firs let me give you a history of The Nadas. Its been a series of weird events that have kept them from making it big. After playing local shows and traveling a bit across the country, performing for mostly college crowds. In 2001, RCA was coming with a contract in hand and Playboy magazine just announced in a 3 page write up that The Nadas, are “The Best College Band You Never Heard Of”… it was right after 9/11… so he didn’t come! Everything fell apart. Just little things like that throughout the years have kept the band independent. Natural opposites, Mike brings an edgy rock to the stage, while Jason brings a bit of alt-country roots, forming quite a unique style that only The Nadas seem to make work in today’s ever changing music world.
Over the years, and 6 studio albums later (working on there 7th now), they have had large regional success, probably the most popular band to ever come out of Iowa. A bit of national success, the theme song for “Pinks” on the speed channel happened to be a Nadas song called Walk Away. These guys are still just working hard, and as committed as ever in getting there music heard. They don’t care to be famous, they had chances to move to LA and give the big time a shot, and they have always answered, “That’s not us, were from Iowa”.
These guys are a strong part of the community; they created a Flood Relief Concert when fellow Iowans needed help. The actively take part in the One foundation, doing there part to end extreme poverty. They are also active with the Des Moines chamber, which has adopted there song “Feel Like Home” as the theme song for the city of Des Moines.
So, after that long intro, here is the story about there ride Meatloaf. The 1985 classic Eagle tour bus now has well over 1.5 million miles on it, and The Nadas still load it up and trek across the country in it. I don’t think that it has ever been remodeled, so it has some mystic to it, kind of old school cool. The problem is that it seems to break down on them, almost every time they go anywhere. Mechanical this, mechanical that. Just last month, a low unmarked bridge, removed all four air conditioners...
Trick My Truck, do you think you could consider giving these guys the break they deserve and trick out a rock and roll relic? You won’t find a more appreciative rock band than these guys.
Links of interest;
www.savemeatloaf.com
www.thenadas.com
www.youtube.com/nadaschannel