It all started over five years ago. A couple of frat guys playing their acoustic guitars and singing in an attempt to pass the time and maybe pick up a few chicks.

But three albums later with another one due out this weekend, Ames’ natives the Nadas are doing over 200 shows a year and traveling as far as New York and Los Angeles to perform.

The folk-rockers’ latest effort, “Coming Home,” which will be born with a string of release parties, finds them as professional musicians, who know nothing but making music as a way of life.

Frontmen Mike Butterworth and Jason Walsmith, both ISU graduates, discover that they have constantly been maturing as songwriters since their past albums, and “Coming Home” is a perfect example of that maturity.

“There’s probably similar songs,” Butterworth says, comparing the new material with that from 1997’s “New Start.”

“We’ve matured as songwriters, but I can’t say if the songs are better and the styles are better. We’ve just been doing it longer now,” Walsmith adds.

The rhythm and backing vocals section, consisting of Brett Nelson on bass and Tony Bohnenkamp on drums, mixed with the guitar playing and contrasting vocals of their leaders and founders, has developed so much over the years that the confidence has grown in the group’s chemistry.

“I know our musicianship is better,” Butterworth admits. “But I can’t really say if the songs are better. That’s for the fans to decide.”

“New Start” contains an array of slow acoustic songs and dynamic dance-oriented songs.

The first single off “Coming Home,” a medium-paced dance/love song called “Beautiful Girl,” doesn’t necessarily capture the essence of the rest of the record.

“There’s a much wider spectrum,” Walsmith explains. “There’s kind of heavier, faster and more energetic songs. Then there’s slower, more stripped down kind of acoustic songs. We covered the whole spectrum.”

But when the band hit the studio, they more or less just recorded what they felt.

“I don’t think it was too calculated,” Butterworth says, “but we do have more acoustic songs on this one.”

Butterworth and Walsmith share the songwriting duties. The content of their songs varies from a friendly parrot to a running Indian tribe, accented with a few love songs including the story of a past elementary school relationship.

But as they get older and travel more and more, the songwriting is changing for, they hope, the better.

“For me, I guess the content only changed as my life has changed. When we did ‘New Start,’ I was in college. I don’t know if the songs literally reflect the fact that I was in college, but know that I’m out and touring, the content has changed,” Walsmith says. “We do tour a lot, and Mike and I differ in this way that he can write wherever he is and whatever is going on. But I haven’t been able to write as much because we’ve been touring so much.”

For Butterworth, his song-writing has stayed pretty constant from record to record.

“There was not really any dramatic change,” he says.

But a slight overall shift will definitely be detected from those that follow the band closely.

“Hopefully there will be surprises,” Walsmith says excitedly. “There’s definitely surprises for me. Nothing real noticeable, but definitely some subtle surprises.”

Like most other musicians, the Nadas didn’t want to put out a record they weren’t totally satisfied with. So after nearly three years of writing and a year of recording, they finally reached an end product.

“I’m pretty happy with it,” Butterworth says, with that hint of skepticism that most musicians have before a new album is released.

On the road again

After the long and grueling processes of writing and recording while touring at the same time,comes a whole new process that’s even more exhausting and involves more time and patience — promotion.

Of course the most logical and effective way to promote a new album is by touring, something the Nadas know very well. But in many cases, in order to play in a new city, you must attack the radio.

The Nadas have a whole new game plan for publicity.

“We definitely have kind of a different strategy in mind this time,” Walsmith explains. “We’ll start out the same way we did with ‘New Start,’ which is to promote it to college radio. We’ll kind of see how it goes, what people think and how people like it.

“Then we’ll promote it to the commercial radio in the areas we play. And if it does really well there, then we’ll go for more commercial radio and globalize it kind of,” Walsmith continues. “It’ll be national but it will be selective to the markets that we’re already playing. But if it does real well, then we’ll try and blanket it and see what happens.”

The man who is leading the radio mission for the Nadas is the band’s manager, Dave Hadlin, who says that “Beautiful Girl” is already being embraced by radio.

So with Hadlin handling that part of the deal, the Nadas will continue to put much of their focus into touring.

The first thing any Midwestern band should do is work on building a foundation in the surrounding states, and work their way out from there.

“We’ve started to do really well in Chicago and Minneapolis, which is kind of an important step,” Walsmith says. “In those two cities especially, we’re doing at least as good and maybe better than we ever did in Ames, only because they’re bigger cities.”

And with those roots planted, the Nadas have been able to travel all up and down the east coast. But they couldn’t do it without the help of Iowa State.

“One thing we joke about is the fact that we went to Iowa State and we started in Ames and we’re still based in Ames,” Walsmith says proudly. “There’s not one place we go to that there isn’t an Iowa State student that shows up there.

“We’ve gone to shows thinking that maybe this will be the show that we won’t know anybody,” he adds. “Never happens. Stillwater, Okla., we’re like, ‘this is the one, no one is gonna be here that we know.’ Not that we want that, it’s just funny because we went there and there were like three people from Iowa State. And in New York City, there were probably 20 people that went to Iowa State.”

The Nadas definitely like that support and find that it makes things easier after their long road trips.

“We’re pretty lucky because of that,” Walsmith says sincerely. “That’s kind of what helps as we tour around the country. There’s those people that started our following who continue it where they are now.”

Along with that support, and the reactions they get from other crowds, the Nadas are proud to say where they’re from now more than ever.

“It’s almost kind of like our identity now,” Walsmith says. “People have this stereotype of Iowa, and we like to perpetuate that.”

While playing all over the country, the band experiences all sorts of different crowds, and now understands the difference between Iowa and places like New York.

“There’s always those underlying similarities. But it’s always different depending on the circumstances,” Walsmith reveals. “In New York, we’re always in a little club and it’s like a 45 minute showcase type of deal where we play at 6 p.m. on a Monday. We usually pull up, put our flashers on, unload our stuff, play and put our stuff back in and drive away.”

As part of the group’s new plan of action for promoting “Coming Home,” they hope to play more new venues.

“We’re always kind of testing the waters. We’re always willing to go to different places, so we try and do that,” Walsmith says. “For this record we’ll experience with radio and if we get reactions that warrant a show, we’ll make it happen.”

But things aren’t always that easy for the foursome.

“We want to be playing new places, but it seems like every time we go play somewhere new, we’re neglecting some place around here that we really should be playing as well,” Walsmith says.

With over 200 shows a year, one of the bad things the band has to endure is the constant hours in the van, and the monotony of sitting in a bar for hours before playing.

“It’s exciting being out there, and it’s fun,” Walsmith says. “But there is some drudgery involved.”

Butterworth agrees and as an optimist, he has sums up the good things about being on the road.

“There are three things that I say always say keep us going,” Butterworth explains. “Meeting new people, the time we’re actually playing and eating dinner with my friends. Oh yeah, we go to a lot of zoos also.”

An unknown future

Though the Nadas are constantly on tour, and have sold over 20,000 albums, the word rich is still far from their vocabulary.

“We’re definitely living in poverty, scraping by,” Walsmith admits. “But we’re doing what we want to do, it’s easier to be poor but kind of like wake up at noon.”

This raises the question of what the future holds for the band. Rumors of possible major label talk frequently surface, and the band always follows up and will send out demos.

But the Nadas consider themselves picky and don’t want to get sucked into the nearly impossible world of record labels.

“It’s pretty hard to say we’ll do it for the rest of our lives,” Butterworth says. “We talk to people at different labels. But we have this friend who has been strung along by a label. A now, after all she’s been through, she has one month to get a record done.”

So for now, the Nadas will stick with their grassroots approach as late March foresees the group on the “Fresh Tracks Tour,” with Hello Dave and Domestic Problems, that will cover the entire Midwest.

The group’s new album, “Coming Home,” will be on sale this weekend at CD release parties in Des Moines at the Val Air Ballroom on Friday, in Ames at People’s Bar and Grill on Saturday, and an acoustic show at Borders Books and Music in West Des Moines on Sunday.

The name means nothing, but their music means everything. So show a little support.