David Zollo

Electric roots rocker and Eastern Iowa native David Zollo has made a name for himself as a solo artist, a sideman (laying down barrelhouse piano and Hammond organ for a number of fellow roots rockers), and an independent-label owner.

Zollo began playing piano at four. Influenced by his writer/journalist father's extensive collection of vintage American music, he was entertaining family and friends with R&B covers by his teen years. In the early '90s, Zollo founded the band High & Lonesome, which specialized in Mick Taylor-era Rolling Stones, Southern rock, blues-rock, and alternative country-rock. The band released three albums on Zollo's own Trailer Records label and toured extensively. However, the stress and strain of the road manifested itself when Zollo was forced to undergo throat surgery. David Zollo made the long road to recovery, but High & Lonesome dissolved. Uneasy Street, an album that began as a High & Lonesome recording, evolved into a Zollo solo effort.

The keyboardist also laid down keys for singer/songwriter Greg Brown and guitarist/producer Bo Ramsey (Lucinda Williams), and spent a year in Nashville as a member of Todd Snider's Nervus Rex. 2002 saw the release of Big Night, another solo full of Zollo's milk-and-whiskey rasp and tunes that ran the gamut from the Rolling Stones honky tonk to country-rock/blues-rock to heartland rock. Zollo penned all but one song on the disc.