With a required outfit of trucker hats and flannel shirts, The Poor Poor Rich are a Cedar Rapids/Iowa City based roots rock/Americana band with flourishes of Waits-ian weirdness and gypsy punk energy.  The current lineup is fronted by Wes Shirley on guitar, vocal and songwriting duties, with Rich Wagor on bass, Ben Schmidt on lead guitar and keyboards, Jonathan Welch on fiddle, and Wyatt Forster on drums. 

Collectively the band has decades of experience performing music in a wide swath of genres and settings.  Wes brings a history of playing in indie rock, country, punk and roots rock outfits before relocating to Iowa from Oregon.  Rich is a journeyman musician, playing in jazz combos, classical orchestras, and roots rock outfits (The Berneman Brothers Band, Roots of Rhythm).  Ben Schmidt is also a veteran of the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids music scene, fronting his own band and The Berneman Brothers Band, as well as acting as a sideman for a number of local musicians.  Jonathan Welch brings a classical music perspective, as his day job is Orchestra Director at Iowa City West High School, and brings some Appalachian flavors from his family roots in Eastern Kentucky.  Wyatt Forster, although the youngun of the band, still brings a decade of playing guitar, bass and drums in various bands and on his own projects (Cave Sounds, Horse Theory).

The band is currently in the studio working on songs for its first full length release, Cholla, after releasing two EP’s, Eponymous in 2017, and Ocotillo in 2021.  The band plans to release a number of songs as singles, building up to filling out a full length release in 2025.