Despite what the name suggests, The Nadas aren’t just a shapeless mass of wadhaveyuh. Rather, the Ames-based foursome are tryin’ their damnedest to make something out of their union, and the result so far has been “acoustic mayhem.”

The Nadas lineup, Mike Butterworth and Jason Walsmith both writing songs and playing guitar, Ray England on drums and Brett Nelson on bass, has had about a year to cement itself. It existed in a different form before that, with Mike and Jason as a duo, appropriately named “Mike and Jason.”

The story of how The Nadas actually gelled once and for all, however, is a soap opera in itself. It’s a tale of love and loss, and it’s as mesmerizing as one of their performances. “We’ve been together since the beginning of last school year,” Walsmith explained.

“Mike and I have been playing together for a long time, the year before that, as an acoustic duo. We played that way for a while, and we played open mikes and opened for a couple bands, including Graynamore Blues,” the vocalist for which, Stephanie Flora, is Walsmith’s girlfriend.

In their fledgling stage, “Mike and Jason” employed a lot of other people’s songs; the two were still new to the whole songwriting thing. “We did covers, and we did originals,” Walsmith said. “Mostly covers ’cause we had just started writing.”

As time went by, though, one of the guys wanted to expand the band to include a percussionist, and it just so happened that fate and journalistic meddling stepped in. “I was happy with the duo thing, but Mike was always trying to talk me into looking for a drummer,” Walsmith said. “He talked me into it, I guess.

“Ray was drumming for Graynamore Blues, so in December of ’93, Stephanie graduated and moved away; and one of the guitarists for Graynamore Blues graduated and moved away, which left Ray wanting another band,” Walsmith said.

“Mike and I had done a noontime M-Shop show, and the Daily did an article on it, and we had mentioned we were looking for a drummer. Ray read the article in the Daily, and he was in band limbo, and he gave us a call.”

Because “Mike and Jason” (the duo) and Ray all drew inspiration from the same group of local musicians, the transition from guitar duo to guitars-and-drums trio was ultra-smooth.

“We did a lot of the same songs Graynamore Blues did,” Walsmith explained. “Obscure covers. Stephanie made me tapes. We got songs off that, so Ray knew them already, so things went really fast.”

Instead of switching around instruments by Jason or Mike leaving the guitar and picking up the bass, the group kept a firm grasp on the uniqueness that the pair of guitars afforded the band. “Two guitars are really intricate to our sound,” Walsmith explained. “I can’t play guitar. I play really simple things. Mike brings out the details. Just the way our voices work together, our guitars work together.”

With the brand-spankin’-new member, and later with the addition of a bassist in Nelson, the four decided that it was high time they settled on a name, especially since “Mike and Jason” was no longer all-encompassing. “As soon as Ray joined, we kinda decided we had to come up with a name, and we came up with The Nadas,” Walsmith said. “Then when Brett joined it really became The Nadas, really kinda completed the package.

“Brett adds a lot to the band,” Butterworth said. “He filled in that fourth spot that made it a band, instead of a duo with drums.”

Now that the players of “melodious acoustic folk with a poppy alternative edge” have firmly established themselves as The Nadas and claim loyal fans, they boast the majority of their songs to be from their very selves. And since practice does make perfect (to employ an old adage), their sound has drastically improved since their early days. “It’s way better, first of all,” Butterworth said. “On my way home I listened to a tape of us from ’93. It scared me.”

They have also taken it upon themselves to bring their favorite, albeit obscure, cover tunes to the stage. “Most covers we play are just remnants of early days,” Walsmith said. “We don’t do enough for me to tell you what we look for in them.”

Some musicians they pay homage to include Michelle Shocked, Nancy Griffith, Chris Isaac, Jack-O-Pierce and Jupiter Coyote. “We kind of like to introduce new music, but most of the time we’re working on our own stuff. We’re well over two-thirds original. If we didn’t have to play all night long, we could do all originals.

“I still like playing some covers, but I really like our original music,” Butterworth added. “But I really like covers. We give credit where credit’s due, but if we didn’t, people might not know [that they’re covers].”

With all of the upcoming gigs and exposure, The Nadas are attracting fans like static electricity. By the beginning of spring semester, they hope to have something for their admirers to toss in the stereo. “We talked a lot about putting out a product, and just recently I think it’s become a very serious possibility,” Walsmith explained. “We’ve narrowed it down to a couple places to record and get the discs pressed. We talked to a couple people about designing the CD.”

“We wanna have it recorded before Christmas break so that we can release it after break. There’s tons of people that walk up to us after a show that wanna buy a CD [and ask], do we have a CD?”

The Nadas will open a show with The Nodding Begonias and Blue Mountain at Sheffield’s on Court Avenue tonight; the cover is $6. The band will also open for Lunchbox at Connie’s Lounge, located at 3839 Merle Hay Rd., Saturday night. Showtimes are 9 p.m. both nights.