David Zollo is an Eastern Iowa native and roots-rock musician with a penchant for wearing old western shirts and performing barefoot. As a teenager growing up in Iowa City, I used to sneak into bars to hear his band play. His music runs the gamut from blues and soul to country-rock, and has been compared to the “Honky Tonk Woman”–era Rolling Stones.
For the re-design of his 1994 solo album, The Morning is a Long Way from Home, I drew inspiration from Hatch Show Print posters and David Zollo’s wardrobe of western shirts, creating an album cover with a handmade aesthetic to match his homegrown sound. I also spent the better part of a weekend at my kitchen table carving and printing a linoleum block for the cover image, listening to David Zollo on repeat, and getting really nostalgic.