The Driftless Plain is a unique geological region in the Upper Midwest encompassing parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. Along with its unique natural beauty, the Driftless Plain gave rise to a musical culture that reflects the area’s distinct history and environment.
Untouched by the last Ice Age's glacial drift, the “driftless area” retained its ancient rugged terrain, a rolling landscape rich with valleys, rivers and bluffs. These natural features played a role in shaping community life and, by extension, the music.
The Driftless Plain’s earliest inhabitants — indigenous American groups including the Ho-Chunk, Dakota, and Sauk-Fox peoples — contributed traditional music deeply tied to the rhythms of nature and spiritual practices. Drums, flutes, and vocalizations were central to their musical traditions, inspired by the sounds of the region’s environment.
The arrival of European settlers, especially German, Scandinavian, and Irish immigrants, brought new musical traditions:
German pioneers contributed polka and waltzes, which became especially popular at community gatherings and celebrations.
Norwegians and Swedes introduced folk tunes and instruments such as the Hardanger fiddle.
Irish immigrants added jigs, reels, and ballads, often blending with existing traditions to create hybrid musical styles.
These influences combined with indigenous sounds, fostering a unique regional folk music identity throughout the Driftless Plain.
The Mississippi River and its tributaries, which define much of the
Driftless Plain, were vital conduits for trade and cultural exchange:
Riverboats brought traveling musicians, minstrel shows, and early forms of blues and jazz up from the South.
River towns became hubs for musical performances, with taverns and dance halls hosting diverse acts.
The river's role as a connector amplified the spread of styles, enabling musical cross-pollination.
With the expansion of railroads in the mid-19th century, the Driftless Plain became more accessible, fostering the movement of people and musical instruments, including pianos, accordions and banjos.
Railroads facilitated the circulation of sheet music and phonographs, making popular music from urban centers like Chicago and St. Louis accessible in rural areas.
The rise of community bands and orchestras, often tied to local churches, schools, and civic organizations, reflected this accessibility.
By the 20th century, the Driftless Plain became a cradle for Midwestern folk revival movements, preserving and reimagining the musical traditions of its European and indigenous roots.
The area also absorbed early country, bluegrass, and blues influences, particularly from Southern migrants during the Great Depression and World War II eras, a time of migration from the rural South to the more-industrialized Midwest.
Music festivals celebrating regional heritage, including old-time fiddling competitions, gained prominence. During the Great Depression, the Driftless Plain produced its first widely renowned musical talent.
The advent of personalized travel in automobiles rapidly expanded the cultural map established by and bearing ongoing influence on the music of the Driftless Plain. As autos and roads improved, the region’s geographic and cultural footprint expanded by 100 miles or so in any given direction. Both Madison, Wi., and the Quad-Cities, straddling the Mississippi between Iowa and Illinois mid-state, would become — and still are — breeding grounds for talent and performing ensembles. Savanna was by default the southern gateway into the Driftless, and became a town known for it’s robust nightlife in the ‘60’s.
Just an hour down river from the southern tip of the Driftless Plain, Bix Biederbeck emerged from Davenport, Iowa, becoming one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s.
Within a decade of Bix’s ascendancy, Savanna, Ill., a river town just to the north, produced as bright a star — Wayne King (1901–1985), affectionately known as "The Waltz King,"
Savanna, King’s hometown, is the southern gateway into the Driftless Plain. Yearly growth in railroad traffic and the ongoing Savanna Army Depot expansion before, during and after WWII provided Savanna with a rich recipe for the type of cultural roux from which musical talent emerges.
Wayne King was an American musician, songwriter, and orchestra leader celebrated for his mastery of romantic melodies and waltz compositions. Born in Savanna, King displayed musical talent early in life, excelling as a saxophonist. He pursued a career in music after a brief stint as a football player at Valparaiso University.
King rose to prominence in the 1930s, forming his own orchestra that became famous for its lush, melodic sound. His style, blending classical, popular, and jazz elements, resonated with audiences during the Big Band era. Signature hits like "The Waltz You Saved for Me" earned him widespread acclaim and solidified his nickname as America’s Waltz King. His music's dreamy quality made it a favorite for ballroom dancing and radio broadcasts.
By the early 1960s, AM radio had brought the rock ‘n’ roll revolution to America’s doorstep, and autos invited America’s increasingly mobile youth to explore. With the emergence of rock combos as a preferred entertainment offering, the Driftless Plain was ready to produce another musical icon, this one hailing from Savanna as well.
Born in and raised in Savanna, Ty Kindell developed a passion for music at a young age. Following in the footsteps of his successful, touring, multi-instrumentalist father, he mastered guitar, saxophone and other instruments. His eclectic influences include rockabilly, jazz, and early rock and roll, which he seamlessly blended into his unique sound. As a young teen, Kindell formed the locally popular group The Kasuals, playing regularly at local venues. Soon after leaving high school, he was recruited into The Night People, a popular Davenport-based band that helped define rock music of the area in the era.
It wasn’t long before Kindell took his passion for rock and rockabilly to the West Coast, settling in southern California and changing his name to Billy Zoom. In 1977, he co-founded the band X with John Doe, Exene Cervenka, and DJ Bonebrake, creating a group and sound that would be a cornerstone of the West Coast Punk Rock scene. Zoom became a defining figure in the early years of that movement. He remains a revered figure in punk and rock history, celebrated for his innovation and musicianship.
But what about all of that local talent that decided to stay put at home on the Driftless Plain?
There were and still are lots of talented — proficient and creative — players and singers who have had a close look at the bright lights and big city and said, “No thanks, I think I’ll go back home and play for my friends.”
The early 1960s saw the birth of the garage band era, with hundreds, if not, thousands of groups forming just in the Midwest. At some point in the 1970s, Rolling Stone magazine offered an estimate that there were over 1 million locally performing rock bands in the United States.
In this era of homegrown talent, the Driftless Plain region of northwestern Illinois — like Savanna’s high school wrestling program in the 1960s — demonstrably wrestled above its weight.
Between 1964 and 1966, the region spawned three bands whose performance quality, stage presence, and popular repertoires endeared them to fans around the multi-state area. The abilities of each of these groups to sustain and offer those same qualities were evidenced decades later in standing-room-only reunion concerts, and in one case a 15-plus year string of annual concert performance events.
Reflecting on the opening of this narrative — the influence of indigenous Americans, the Mississippi River and the railroads, and their impact on musical culture — it is at least worth note that the names of these three groups are:
The Natives
The Nomadds
The Road Runners
In 2010 Freeport’s Nomadds held their one and only reunion, some 45 years after the group had disbanded. The single show sold all 1200 seats within 48 hrs. of its announcement; fans traveled from across the country to attend.
Lee Garner, cofounder and lead guitarist, when the group disbanded, had headed to Nashville and soon landed a position as lead guitarist for Eddie Rabbitt, which would continue for the next several decades. As a youth, he learned quickly, was passionate about his playing, worked hard on his technique and style, and had become a sought after instructor in the Freeport area while still a teenager. Lee’s easy demeanor has earned him the love of his peers, and his effortless and fluid guitar work earns their special respect as the master that he is.
Gary Goetz, a cofounder of the Road Runners, also native to Savanna, was born just a few years after Tyson Kindell (a.k.a. Billy Zoom of X).
Born to a long-time and well-known country performer, (whose day job like many troubadours was on the railroad), Gary’s family included several uncles who also performed along the upper Mississippi.
Gary‘s talent did not stay long hidden. When the Road Runners stopped performing at the end of 1969, Gary was soon touring the country as lead singer and guitarist for nationally known groups such as Monte Carlo, Family Affair and Ralph Cooper & The MasterSounds.
Gary also did a brief turn as part of the short-lived but musically impressive ProgRock group Chilldron, which included several members of the original Road Runners. Gary continued to entertain full house crowds across the U.S. and Canada, until he retired from touring in the early 1980s to tend to his growing family.
Savanna’s talent continued to flower . . .
Beginning in the mid ‘70’s, Kevin Hamilton brought his D-28 Martin guitar and Hohner mouth harp out of the closet and began entertaining local fans as a band member and solo artist. Kevin went on to become a highly regarded balladeer, guitarist and Christian songwriter based in the Quad-Cities.
Together with his sister Cathy (she of the smoky vocals), Kevin formed and led the group Sibling Revelry for a number of years in the early ‘90s in the Quad-Cities area. They regularly performed for full-house crowds, being well-known enough that they never even had to produce marketing materials in order to keep their calendar full. Along the way they recorded one album. In ‘96 Kevin and sister Cathy began performing with The Road Runners, and thereafter became a sought after part of the annual reunion shows on Alumni weekends each June in Savanna. Since 2021 Kevin has been a resident performer with the Bucktown Americana Music Show in Davenport.
Today, the Driftless Plain's music continues to celebrate its diverse origins. It’s a blend of Native American traditions, immigrant folk influences, rock, blues, country, and other genres shaped by river and rail traffic. Its identity is preserved in local festivals, live performances, and a strong DIY ethic found in small-town venues and artist collectives.
This rich tapestry makes the Driftless Plain and the surrounding region a microcosm of American musical evolution, uniquely shaped by its environment and history.