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).
With songs ranging in subject and style, The Poor Poor Rich are free to move between genres, including country, folk, singer-songwriter, touches of jazz, gypsy punk, and noir. From social commentary to broken hearted love songs, drinking songs and driving songs, songs of escape and return, the band tries to capture the range of experiences and emotions inherent in being alive. With influences as varied as John Prine, Bob Dylan, Mississippi John Hurt, Tom Waits, Modest Mouse, and Gogol Bordello, the band tries to plant its feet in its roots rock past while charting a new path forward, trying to create something new but not forgetting where they came from.
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 individually, building up to a full length release in 2025.