SUBMITTED PHOTO Dave Grey interviews Paul Hatfield with the band “Nine Miles North” on his podcast, “The Marshall County Hangmen,” which can be found on the Dave Grey YouTube channel. The podcast is dedicated to Iowa songwriters and other “creatives.”

STATE CENTER – Marshall County podcast fans have a local channel to add to their list.

Dave Grey, 68, of State Center has been producing a podcast, which he calls The Marshall County Hangmen but can be found on the Dave Grey channel on YouTube, dedicated to Iowa songwriters. He is looking to pique the interest of fellow songwriters, creatives and listeners.

“I started writing back in 1996, and I always thought it was interesting to hear the story about where a song came from or how it started,” he said. “It was kind of fascinating for me.”

A lot of Grey’s songs he has written were inspired by true stories. One song, “And She Danced,” is about a woman struck with dementia who loved to dance. Grey met her at a nursing home during one of his visits to play music.

“You could look in her eyes and see something was going on. You could see her past,” he said.

Grey learned from the nursing home employees that the woman’s spouse, whom she was married to for 25 years, just dropped her off and never came back.

Grey also attempted to take his own life once, but then thought about what life is like for the people left behind. That inspired his song, “And Now You’re Gone.”

“Some people say my music is maybe too personal,” he said. “But when you go on my Jango.com, I have more than 500,000 listens. People are listening to my music, and I’m not benefiting monetarily. But, what I’m after is to stir people’s creativity.”

When Grey helped form the now disbanded The Marshall County Hangmen in 2010, it would be another two years before the band would create an album with songs Grey had written.

“To me, writing is more what I wanted to do,” he said.

After the Hangmen ended their run in 2024, Grey’s wife suggested he start a podcast to serve as an avenue for his music. That same year, he aired the first episode. Before he knew it, some of his songwriting friends got involved, and there was a library of seven or eight episodes dedicated to the art of songwriting. Then his friend Greg Schnirring, who had retired from Iowa Public Radio, became Grey’s producer.

Some of the episodes are filmed at his house in State Center, and others are filmed in Sac City. Grey likes to talk to songwriters over the phone before they go on the podcast. That way, he gets a better understanding of their music, and he can ask better questions during filming.

“It takes about two hours to shoot an episode, because inevitably you’re going to mess up,” Grey said. “We mark it and start all over where we’re going to pick up. Greg is so good at editing that it turns out really well.”

Some of the Iowa songwriters who have made appearances on the channel include Mark McDowell, Todd Partridge and Joel Wernimont.

“It’s just been a wonderful thing,” Grey said. “I’ve been having a blast with it. There’s 15 episodes now. We had a gospel songwriter. Maroon Lagoon was another band, more of a metal band. Then we had another fellow named Tayler Thompson. It just kept getting better.”

Right now, the channel has 61 subscribers, but episodes can attract more than 200 views.

“It seems like it’s snowballing. I’m getting more talented artists come on and they have a blast when they come. Of course, we feed them, too. That’s important,” he said, laughing. “Sometimes people come in and want to write a song, and I try to help them if I can.”

Grey is open to all genres of music – everything from gospel to death metal – but draws the line if songs are Satanic.

“I’m sorry. My faith won’t let me do that. I won’t promote that,” he said. “But, when it comes to music, as long as it has a message. I want people to know there is a creative avenue they can use.”

Grey would love to have a comedian on the channel, and would even entertain writers of other outlets, such as books. He said he would need time to read the books, but would love to interview them, as well. Grey might even consider painters.

“I need to have stories to tell. There needs to be some way I can weave the interview into this painting that they did,” he said. “I used to be a painter in high school and sold a painting to my science teacher and he still has it to this day.”

Episode premiers on the podcast are put online on YouTube on Sunday night. He said they are trying very hard to make new material available every Sunday, but sometimes are not able to do so.

Grey does not charge anyone for the podcast, nor does Schnirring. People sit at a desk for the interview, and there is not a fancy backdrop.

“As long as people are creative and willing to share their story, maybe it would inspire other people to come on,” he said. “As long as I can keep people’s interest in the interview, I don’t care if they are fledgling or masters at what they do. Just as long as I can get a story out of it which lasts 30 minutes.”

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Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timeserpublican.com.