Somewhere in the nooks and crannies between rock ‘n’ roll, blues, folk, roots and alternative country there lies a gemstone that is coming to be known as the Iowa Sound.

Iowa is smack dab in the middle of the United States, and its sound reflects that. Bits of Chicago, Memphis and Nashville are audible in the medley that makes up the Iowa Sound. It effectively melds Bob Dylan with Muddy Waters, Merle Haggard with Neil Young, Johnny Cash with Elvis Costello – all on a landscape of rolling plains and Midwestern thunderstorms. This is stuff that born-and-raised Midwesterners can feel and relate to. Hard work. Long winters. Rural towns. Simple love songs. No songs about snowy mountaintops. Nothing about beaches or the ocean here.

And Trailer Records, an independent record label based in Iowa City, provides a cozy front porch to gather on for the tight-knit bunch of musicians who play this music. They are all old friends and loyal supporters of each other’s work. It is a place where people are still referred to as “folks,” and mother is “mama.” The music they produce from this atmosphere is undecorated and honest. It loops well-crafted stories around songwriting that is refreshingly free of pretension.

But don’t let this down-home attitude deceive you. These artists may sing about the Midwest, but they are known all over the United States. They’ve got Grammy nominations and rave Rolling Stone reviews tucked under their belt buckles.

Trailer Records presented seven of these artists at a showcase at the Maintenance Shop on Saturday. Two shows were held, one at 7 p.m., which sold out, and another at 10 p.m., which was close to selling out. Each of the seven performers performed short 15 to 25 minute sets. Both shows were about three hours long – three hours that nearly disappeared as each artist presented his or her interpretation of the Iowa Sound.

The headlining act was folk-rock great Greg Brown, who has had the most mainstream media exposure. He has won indie music awards, had two Grammy nominations and was awarded a coveted four stars by Rolling Stone magazine for his 1996 album, “Further In.”

The packed M-Shop crowd sat captivated as Brown took the stage with his acoustic guitar. His friends and labelmates, Bo Ramsey, Joe Price, David Zollo and Price’s son Kenny, backed him up on electric guitar, electric slide guitar, keyboard and drums respectively. The rest of the audience seemed to fade into the distance as the veterans leaned in close and fed off of one another. Brown’s thick and pure vocals combined with his masterfully austere lyrics to pack a double punch. “Iowa Crawl,” Brown’s last song before his encore, had the audience stomping their feet and singing along.

Bo Ramsey performed a three-song set before Brown. He too summoned his friends up to the stage, telling the audience, “It’s a rare treat that I get to play with my old friends.”

Out of all the Trailer artists, the lanky Ramsey seemed to fit the typical cowboy persona the most, from his pointed black boots to his Western hat with both side brims curled up. He played with his knees bent, his torso stooped over his guitar, and head down. Every once and a while he would look up and smile at his counterparts when he hit a particularly high note during his bittersweet guitar solos.

Ramsey proved that guitar solos don’t have to be fast and furious to be considered genius – his lilting and mysterious solos had just as much, if not more, emotional impact.

Before Ramsey, Joe Price performed what was easily the most energetic set of the evening. A definite blues veteran, Price’s fingers fluttered effortlessly up and down the frets of his cherry-red electric guitar, skillfully utilizing the slide on his pinky finger to add some twang.

“I got a record player/I can feel it in my bones” he sang. And judging from the way he couldn’t sit still in his chair, bouncing back and forth with the music, he could definitely feel it in his bones. A smile lit his face the entire time, as he frequently glanced around the stage at his fellow musicians. A highlight of Price’s set was when he accompanied his wife Vicki as she sang and played her acoustic guitar.

David Zollo, who took the stage before Ramsey, looked like someone a grandmother might call “a pistol.” He grinned mischievously as he pounded away at his keyboard. Zollo began playing piano when he was only four years old, and his expertise was apparent. He would hammer out white hot solos, reminiscent of something out of old Western saloons, without looking down once at his hands. In addition to his impressive keyboard skills, Zollo has a pure country voice to match.

Mike Fitzpatrick and Andy Fleming of Brother Trucker, Eric Straumanis and Kelly Pardekooper, with backup guitarist Dustin Busch, began the evening with three sets that deserve a very honorable mention. Especially Pardekooper, whose gentle acoustic ballads combined Americana, country and folk, truly embodied the Midwestern appeal of the show.

One of the most impressive things about the evening as a whole was the laid-back camaraderie of all of the Trailer artists. They jammed together over and over, yet it never got dull. They thanked each other after each set, and applauded their fellow labelmates. When one performer was on stage, the others gathered on the stairs to watch and cheer. Perhaps this generous and unselfish attitude is yet another defining feature of the growing Iowa Sound.