Kaleidoscopic yet intimate, *Iowa Dream* contains some of the most personal tracks in Arthur Russell's catalogue, including recently discovered folk songs composed during his time in North Carolina in the early 1970s. For him, Iowa was never far away: the red houses, the fields, his childhood home and his family resonate throughout this album. Elsewhere, more pop-oriented tracks appear as nods to New York's avant-garde and disco scenes. A work symbolizing the encounter between a young man who grew up in the countryside and the rest of the world.