The Nadas will perform Feb. 8 at Wooly’s in Des Moines at a 21 and older show.

The rock/folk group is comprised of four members: Mike Butterworth on vocals and guitar, Jason Walsmith on vocals and guitar, Brian Duffey on bass and trumpet and Brandon Stone on drums.

Walsmith started singing as a kid and began working with the guitar his senior year of high school. Walsmith also has an anthropology degree from Iowa State.

The Nadas started out as an ISU local college bands around 1993. They were a sort of house band for People’s Bar and Grille, but ultimately, “I didn’t have any notion that I would continue to do it,” Walsmith said.

The Nadas celebrate its 20th anniversary as a band this year, and with it, it will release a greatest hits record.

“[We are] rerecording old songs, 20 songs for 20 years,” Walsmith said.

The album will be out by late spring or early summer. To further supplement the release, “Iowa Public Television is filming a two-hour 20-year anniversary special which will be out this spring,” he added.

On this tour, The Nadas will be playing an array of songs including some from its latest album, “Lovejoy Revival,” but fans can certainly expect some of its bigger hits as well.

Walsmith thinks the time the Nadas started in Ames was a good time for the band.

“Ames helped give us the confidence and fan base to move to other markets. Ames has always been the spring-board,” Walsmith said.

Walsmith graduated from Iowa State in 1996, but none of the members moved far from Ames. 

“We’ve narrowed it down to a handful of shows we play each year. We play out of town more than we play in town,” Walsmith said.

The Nadas hope to play for many years to come.

“We want to be able to continue. This long career for an independent band is pretty awesome,” Walsmith said. “It would be cool to play Europe or Australia and get more commercial success however.”