The market for potential musical creativity has been virtually left unexplored and untapped in the Midwest.

However, signs of change are everywhere, as more local and regional bands are finding successes, and musicians elsewhere are relocating in places such as Iowa.

For Des Moines musician John Tancredi, relocating to the Midwest meant coming back home.

“I left Des Moines in the late ’60s (around age 18 or 19) to go Woodstock, N.Y.,” Tancredi said from his home in Des Moines. “Des Moines is a very hard place to do your own stuff.

“Back then, Woodstock was a little artist colony filled with musicians, painters and writers,” he continued. “We actually drove through it and didn’t realize it.”

But this “colony” of creative minds was just the stepping stone that launched Tancredi’s love for the blues, jazz and R&B into a career.

His career has since included playing the guitar, keys and drums with three Grammy winners, four Grammy nominees and renown players including Paul Butterfield, Martha Valez (one of the first women who has recorded reggae and who has worked with Bob Marley), Jimmy Smith, O.C. Smith (who was also a singer for Count Bassie) and Hall and Oats.

“I’ve played with a lot of people who have great respect in the music world, but they are still names that not many have heard of,” Tancredi said. And while touring with many of these artists, Tancredi has had a chance to watch first-hand the musical developments on the East and West coasts, including New York and L.A.

Not talking much about his experiences in New York, Tancredi spoke about L.A. and its music venue.

“L.A. is like a big K.F.C.,” Tancredi said. “Have you ever driven down Merle Hay Road by I-80? There is Jiffy Lube, gas stations and Taco Bell on both sides. The only difference is that in L.A. there is the Chuck Norris School of Martial Arts next to the Taco Bell.

“Another thing about L.A. is that every girl or guy who was told in high school that they were good-looking and should be in L.A. is there,” he continued. “Everyone is from somewhere else. There are people there from North Dakota. On the East coast, everyone is from the East.”

However, Tancredi is quick to point out that there were several good things about L.A. (like the palm trees and the sunshine), and that many of his reasons for leaving were because his own musical creative spirit was being stifled.

“I was tired of playing behind people,” Tancredi said. “I was doing good, but it was hard to do my own thing and make money. It’s always money.”

So in the late ’80s he left and came back to Des Moines.

“Some of it has been good and some hasn’t, especially on the creative side of it,” Tancredi said about coming home. “But now original artists are more accepted without major record deals.”

Leaving the confines of the coasts, Tancredi has more room to circulate musically and to make a name for himself without it getting lost in the countless clubs and bars.

Tancredi wanted to do his own thing, and now he is.

“One thing I’m proud of is I’m the first Des Moines composer to get paid and hold down a steady gig in Des Moines,” Tancredi said in reference to Borders. “I’ve been playing at Borders almost every week for the past 18 months. They have really helped me get started in this area.”

Although playing in a corner cafe at a bookstore may not be every musician’s ideal venue, Tancredi is content.

“People really respond to a lot of the music I do now,” he commented. “On a regular night within a two hour span, I’ll get ten to 35 requests for a CD which I don’t even have.”

But that’s about to change. In about one month, Tancredi will release his first CD, “John Tancredi’s Truth,” under his own record label.

“It’s the first of many CDs that I will release this year,” Tancredi said. “I’m planning on releasing a staunch blues and jazz CD.”

Tancredi will be featuring his original work, most of which will come from his CD, with long-time friend and bassist Scott Crochran this Sunday.

“The concert will be unusual because we will be performing with backtracks [Tancredi] created in his home studio,” Crochran said.

The tracks will allow the duo to create a wide range of sound, from jazz to ambient to “chill out guitar stuff” to blues, and will allow them to play the music formatted for trios and quintets.

Tancredi and Crochran have been playing together sporadically since the late ’60s, although Crochran’s career took a different direction. After Tancredi left for N.Y., Crochran remained in central Iowa to play in several local bands, including old Ames bands Mal Hombre and the Mooky Byrd Band.

As part of a concert series sponsored by the Ames Public Library, John Tancredi and Scott Cochran will be performing Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Farwell T. Brown Auditorium. The concert is free and open to the public.