WATERLOO -- Waterloo helped launch Jimmy Newquist's alternative-rock career.

The singer-songwriter's 1997 song, "Sullivan," inspired by the city's five fallen fighters, was Newquist's first hit to reach Billboard magazine's Top 40 chart.

Next weekend, the founder of Caroline's Spine will return to the Cedar Valley with his ever-evolving band for Cornstock 11, a music festival featuring both national and local acts. The three-day event starts May 22 and runs through May 24 at Spicoli's Grill and the Reverb Rock Garden. Caroline's Spine hits the stage at 11 p.m. May 23.

"I'm always excited to come to Waterloo," said Newquist, who played at the November opening of the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum. "I've got a lot of friends in the Midwest and there's always a connection because of the song."

The Caroline Spine Project -- as Newquist calls it -- began with his 1993 solo album titled (you guessed it) "Caroline's Spine." On the record, Newquist performed virtually every instrumental and vocal track. He later recruited a band for touring purposes, and together, the group shared the stage with Aerosmith, KISS and other big-ticket acts. Since that time, the band's songs have been performed live by a rotating pool of roughly a dozen artists.

"You work with great musicians who want to make music, and you leave the rock stars at the door," Newquist said. "I get bored only playing with the same musicians, so I like working regularly with lots of different people."

Next Saturday's show will feature songs off "Work it Out," Newquist's 2008 release. The disc's first single, "The Light Inside," is the second-most downloaded song in Caroline's Spine history. The album was released under Newquist's own indie label, 7thKid Inc. The disc, along with the band's other albums, is enjoying success in part because fans easily can sample tracks on the band's Web site.

"It's a new day in music, and I think that's a good thing," Newquist said. "It's great to see teenagers downloading songs that you yourself wrote when you were just a teenager."

Other headliners at Cornstock include Chicago rockers Local H and guitarist Tracii Guns of LA Guns, said Cody Winther, Spicoli's co-owner. In all, 22 bands will be featured at the festival.

"People can expect a lot of different kinds of music," Winther said. "We have everything from percussion to dance stuff to blues, metal and hard rock."