Wednesday MidDay Medley
TEN to NOON Wednesdays – Streaming at KKFI.org
90.1 FM KKFI – Kansas City Community Radio
Produced and Hosted by Mark Manning

KC Singer Songwriters:
Teri Quinn + Dustin Rapier + Crystal Clayton
+ Andrew Earl of Dawg Daze Winter Wing Ding

Mark plays New & MidCoastal Releases from: Katy Guillen & The Girls, Ruth Acuff, The Grisly Hand, Belle and Sebastian, La Guerre, Tyler Gregory, Calvin Arsenia, Whiskey for the Lady, 3 Son Green, Dustin Rapier, and more.

At 10:15 Andrew Earl joins us to discuss Dawg Daze Winter Wing Ding benefit, at Californos in Westport, Saturday, January 31, 6:00 pm to 2:00 am, featuring The Wolfmanz Brothers, 3 Son Green, Shedding Watts, Whiskey for the Lady, Old Salt Union and Dirty River Ramblers. This is a fundraiser for the Dawg Daze of Summer Festival, and also benefits St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. More info at: http://www.dawgdazeofsummerfestival.com.

Dustin Rapier

At 10:30, we’ll talk with pop singer/songwriter, and piano man, Dustin Rapier who will be performing his original music at The Tank Room, on Friday, January 30, at 9:00 pm, with Amanda Hughey, and Adriana Nikole. More info at: http://www.dustinrapier.com.

Crystal Clayton

At 11:00 Mark talks with Kansas City based singer/songwriter, Crystal Clayton who has sang on tracks with Prozak and Ces Cru (part of Tech N9ne’s label, Strange Music) and she has released three singles digitally, available on iTunes. Crystal is currently recording in the studio for her debut EP which is to be released soon. More info at: http://www.crystalclayton.com

At 11:30 Teri Quinn joins us live in our 90.1 FM Studios. Teri is a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She is a clarinetist and guitarist for Claire and the Crowded Stage and provides vocals and is a guitarist for Rooms Without Windows. Teri Quinn and Her Situation will play Coda Bar and Grill, on Friday, January 30, at 9:00 pm, with The Scatters, and Thommy Hoskins. More info at http://www.teriquinn.com

Teri Quinn photo by Cody Kauhl.

On your local radio dial 90.1 FM or
STREAMING LIVE at: kkfi.org

Show #562

Wednesday MidDay Medley
TEN to NOON Wednesdays – Streaming at KKFI.org
90.1 FM KKFI – Kansas City Community Radio
Produced and Hosted by Mark Manning

Mikal Shapiro + New Music for The New Year
+ Emily Berhmann of JCCC’s Performing Arts Series

1. Viet Cong – “Continental Shelf”
from: Viet Cong / Jagjaguar Records / January 20, 2015
[First single from the debut album from the Canadian indie rock band formed in Calgary, Alberta in 2012. The group consists of two ex-members of the rock band Women, vocalist/bassist Matt Flegel and drummer Mike Wallace, as well as guitarists Scott Munro and Daniel Christiansen. The group’s musical style has been described as “labyrinthine post-punk.”]

2. Deco Auto – “One In A Million”
from: “The Curse of Deco Auto” / Indep. / To be released in 2015.
[Single released Dec. 30, 2014] [New music from Kansas City based alternative pop-punk / power-pop trio. Guitar/vocals: Steven Garcia; bass/vocals: Tracy Flowers; drums: Pat Tomek. All songs written by Steven Garcia, $tudent Loans For Life Music (ASCAP). Recorded, mixed and mastered by Pat Tomek at Largely Studios, Kansas City, MO.]

[Deco Auto play Replay in Lawrence, KS., Thursday, Feb. 26, w/ Varma Cross, & Gentlemen Rogues.]

3. Baby Teardrops – “Young Hearts Can’t Be True”
from: Westbeth Rotted / Independent / February 22, 2015
[Second studio album from Brooklyn based trio of Matthew Dunehoo on vocals & guitar, Megan X Thomas on bass & vocals, Gerry White on drums. Songs composed by the band. Some songs date back to 2007/2008, others were just near completion when the band’s studio was destroyed during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, in their rehearsal space in the Westbeth Artists Residence, 55 Bethune St, in Manhattan’s far West Village. Andy Marcinkowski served as Producer/Engineer at Silent Barn in BK, Aug. of 2013. The band pieced the rest of it together over the last 18 months. Mastered by Duncan Stanbury. Matthew has toured with Billy Corgan and was in the bands: Loose Park, Doris Henderson, Proudentall. Megan plays bass for Lez Zep and will be joining Kristeen Young’s band. Gerry has played with Murphy’s Law, Slayer, Kraut, Sleep to Death, Labretta Suede and the Motel 6.]

[Baby Teardrops play a special reunion show at The Mercury Lounge in NYC, Sun, Feb. 22 at 7:00pm with Asphalt Green, Jane Lee Hooker.]

10:19

4. Admiral of the Red – “Footbeats”
from: Footbeats Single / Independent / January 5, 2015
[Formed in early 2013, the band has evolved from a blues-based garage rock duo into a full-on, dynamic rock band. The group recorded its debut EP, Almost Free in the summer of 2013 and now have a full length album in the works. M.B. Hurst – vocals, Matt Hurst – guitar & voice, Tom Hudson – drums, Meredith McGrade – bass. Song written by Matt Hurst, M.B. Hurst, Tom Hudson, & Meredith McGrade. Engineered, Mixed, & Mastered by Joel Nanos at Element Recording Studios, KCMO. Produced by Joel Nanos, Matt Hurst, M.B. Hurst, Tom Hudson, & Meredith McGrade.]

5. the author and the illustrator – “Paper Faces”
from: A Minor Component to a Cold November / Independent / January 6, 2015
[Alternative dreamo indie rock midwest post punk shoegaze from Kansas City. The Author and The Illustrator are: Schuyler Bates – Bass, Ian Dobyns – Drums, Zack Hames – Vocals / Guitar, Josh Legler – Guitar. Recorded Live at BRC Audio Productions in Kansas City, Kansas October-November 2014. Recorded/Mixed/Mastered by The Author and The Illusrator and Chris Schmidt.]

[the author and the illustrator play Vandals, Sat., Jan. 24, w/ Ocean Atlas, Not A Pullover, Lion House]

6. The Decemberists – “The Wrong Year”
from: What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World / Capitol Records / January 20, 2015
[Seventh studio album from the Portland Oregon based band, formed in 2000 by Colin Meloy (lead vocals, guitar, principal songwriter), Chris Funk (guitar, multi-instrumentalist), Jenny Conlee (keyboards, piano, Hammond organ, accordion), Nate Query (bass), and John Moen (drums).]

10:28 – Underwriting

10:30 – Interview with Emily Behrman

Emily Behrmann is General Manager of the Performing Arts Series at Johnson County Community College presenting cutting-edge performances, celebrity names, diverse cultures, dance and music. Emily joins us today to talk about the continuing season of shows.

The 2015 Season continues with: Music, Dance, Theatre, Shakespeare, and like last yeear’s season the Performing Arts Series is producing with local companies

2015 Season continued:

Tango Buenos Aires
Thursday, January 29

Maria Bamford
Sunday, February 8, SOLD OUT

Voice
Saturday, February 14

Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Saturday, February 21

Tango Buenos Aires
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 29 (Yardley Hall)
Ticket Planning Worksheet/Prices (PDF)

Voice — “If Music Be the Food of Love”
8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 14 (Polsky Theatre)

Crimes of the Heart
Wednesday, February 25 – Sunday, March 8

MEMPHIS
Saturday, February 28

La Maleta (The Suitcase)
Tuesday, March 3,

Fredericks Brown
Friday, March 20

Cherish the Ladies
8 p.m. Saturday, March 21 (Yardley Hall)

Heart of America Shakespeare Festival “The Merchant of Venice”
7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 26
8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 27-28
2 p.m. Sunday, March 29 (Polsky Theatre)

MOMIX
Friday and Saturday, March 27 and 28

David Lindley
Saturday, April 4

Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
7 p.m. Sunday, April 12 (Yardley Hall)

Michael Feinstein
Saturday, May 9, Various

Michael Feldman’s Whad’Ya Know?
Saturday, June 27, Seated by 9:00 am, 10:00 am LIVE Broadcast

Performing Arts Series at Johnson County Community College, 12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, KS. For more information about the Performing Arts Series at Johnson County Community College, you can call (913) 469-4445 or visit http://www.jccc.edu/TheSeries

10:42

7. She’s A Keeper – “Pennsylvania”
from: Westside Royal / Independent / January 17, 2015
[Kansas City based band includes: Fritz Hutchison – vocals, banjo, percussion; Zac Jurden – vocals, guitar; Colin Nelson – vocals, guitar; Elliott Phillips – bass, mandolin. Recorded and produced by She’s A Keeper and Joel Nanos at Element Recording in Kansas City, MO.]

[She’s A Keeper play Davey’s Uptown, Sat. Jan 31, for the official release party w/ Organized Crimes.]

8. The Electric Lungs – “(it’s not the) Bones that you Break”
from: Simplified and Civilized / Little Class Records / February 12, 2013
[KC based 4-piece band formed in 2012 by Tripp Kirby, Marc Bollinger, Eric Jones, and Jason Ulanet]

[The Electric Lungs play The Brick, Thursday, Jan. 22, with Bone Spur, and Crush.]

9. Black Luck – “I Dreamt I Died”
from: Firebrand / Blue Note Records / September 23, 2014
[Critically acclaimed garage punk rock n roll from Lawrence. Formed in 2012 with members Wade Kelly, John Benda, and Aaron Riffel. Black Luck recently changed their name from Black on Black and became a 4-piece band with the addition of Jason Jones. Firebrand was Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Steve Squire.]

[Black Luck play the Jackpot Lounge, in Lawrence, KS on January 30.]

10. Sleater-Kinney – “Surface Envy”
from: No Cities To Love / Sub Pop Records / January 20, 2015
[8th studio album from Sleater-Kinney, formed in early 1994 in Olympia, Washington, by Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein. The group’s name is derived from Sleater Kinney Road, Interstate 5 exit number 108 in Lacey, Washington, the location of one of their early practice spaces. Tucker was formerly in the influential riot grrrl band Heavens to Betsy, while Brownstein was formerly in the queercore band Excuse 17. They often played at gigs together and formed Sleater-Kinney as a side-project from their respective bands. When Heavens to Betsy and Excuse 17 disbanded, Sleater-Kinney became their primary focus. Janet Weiss of Quasi is the band’s longest lasting and final drummer, though Sleater-Kinney has had other drummers, including Lora Macfarlane, Misty Farrell, and Toni Gogin. Upon Tucker’s graduation from The Evergreen State College (where Brownstein remained a student for three more years), she and then-girlfriend Brownstein took a trip to Australia in early 1994. Their last day there, they stayed up all night recording what would become their self-titled debut album. It was released the following spring. They followed this with Call the Doctor (1996) and Dig Me Out (1997), and became critical darlings. The lineup features: Corin Tucker (vocals and guitar), Carrie Brownstein (guitar and vocals), and Janet Weiss (drums).]

[Sleater-Kinney play The Uptown Theatre, Sunday April 26, at 8:00 pm.]

11. The Big Iron – “Climate Refugee”
from: We Will Fail / Independent / May 30, 2014
[The band’s 3rd full-length was produced & mixed by Joel Nanos of Element Recording. It’s the band’s follow-up to 2008’s “Thanks for the Therapy,” and their 2001 debut recording, “Bury My Mistakes.” Ricky Reyes on guitar; Jon Paul on drums; Jeff Pendergraft on vocals, PK on guitar; and Mike Farren on bass. More info at: thebigiron.bandcamp.com]

[The Big Iron play Vandals, FRIDAY, Jan. 23, w/ Nato Coles & The Blue Diamond Band, The Right Here, Red Kate.]

[The Big Iron play recordBar, Feb. 7, at 9:30 with Appropriate Grammar, Kangaroo Knife Fight, and Reid The Martian to benefit Midwest Music Foundation’s MidCoast Takeover Fundraiser #3 fro SXSW in Austin.]

11:00 – Station ID

12. Atlas – “Between”
from: Ten Twenty / Independent / November 21, 2014
[ATLAS was formed in 2007 by 5 friends: Jonny, Dave, Nick, Josh, and Jeremy who have known each other for most of their lives. Since graduating college, music has become a common ground..]

[Atlas play an in-store show at Mills Record Company, Fri, Jan 23, at 7:30 w/ Doing What Apes Can’t.]

13. Scott Hrabko & The Rabbits – “Lorraine”
rom: Biscuits and Gravity / Independent / January 24, 2015
[Beatlesque backing vocals][Scott Hrabko on vocals, guitar, keyboards & drums, with Emily Tummons on accordian & vocals, and Josh Arnold on bass & vocals, and Kirk Scott on lead guitar. Kansas City based, singer-songwriter Scott Hrabko has played with Kansas City’s oldest garage band, The Original Sinners, as well as various incarnations of the 1980s bands: The Splinters, and The Andersons. In the 1990s he performed with Iris Dement and Howard Eisberg. Scott Hrabko ‘s critically aclaimed solo release, “Gone Places” is said to be 30 years in the making.]

[Scott Hrabko & The Rabbits play Coda, Sat. Jan. 24, in a CD Release show for their new release Biscuits & Gravity, with The Kemps and special guests: Marco Pascolini, Jason Beers, Fred Wickham.]

14. Kasey Rausch – “Crazy Heart”
from: Guitar in Hand / Mudstomp Records / November 21, 2014
[Guitar in Hand is the third solo release from Kansas City based singer-songwriter Kasey Rausch. With Mikal Shapiro she hosts/produces RIVER TRADE RADIO Sunday mornings at 9am, on 90.1 FM.

[Kasey Rausch plays with The Naughty Pines every Tuesday night at CODA.]

11:15 – Interview with Mikal Shapiro

Singer, songwriter, artist, filmmaker, puppeteer, ring-leader Mikal Shapiro studied Film History, Film, and Writing at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. She received her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago studying Film, Video, New Media, and Animation. Her full length solo releases “The Crow The Lark And The Loon from 2008, and “For Good” from 2010 have been acclaimed by local music writers. Mikal is the creator of the web television project, “Go! Go! Global Girls.” She has also created music videos for Dead Voices and Folkicide. Mikal Shapiro is also a curator, producer and co-host of River Trade Radio. Aside from performing as a solo artist Mikal also performs with Chad Brothers of the band Old Sound, she is a member of the 4-piece band Royalphonic, and with Kasey Rausch as Partners in Glory. Kasey and Mikal are also the co-hosts / co-producers of River Trade Radio airing every Sunday morning 9 to 11:00 on 90.1 FM KKFI. Her new full length recording, The Musical is about to be released.

Mikal co-produced Kasey Rausch’s new recording Guitar in Hand. Kasey gave Mikal her first guitar and taught Mikal her first chord.

The Musical is Mikal’s third full length solo release. She also has previously recorded albums with the bands: Eudora and Boon.

The Musical is a collection of stories and characters; an intersection between popular music, classical songwriting and personal mythologies. Pronouns shift between “them” and “us,” “you” and “me.” Tracks jump influences from jazz, folk, and blues to rock, country and psychedelia.

The core band includes a line-up of local greats:

Johnny Hamil (Mr. Marco’s V7/The Malachy Papers) upright & electric bass,
Matt Richey (Dead Voices/Grisly Hand) on drums
Chad Brothers (Old Sound/Supermassive Black Holes) on electric guitar / harmony vocals.
Emily Tummons also lends her voice to the mix creating lush three part harmonies that weave throughout the album.

Special guests on the album include:

Mike Stover (Dead Voices/Grisly Hand) on pedal steel,
Hermon Mehari (Diverse/The Buh’s) on trumpet,
Betse Ellis (The Wilders/Betse and Clarke) on fiddle,
Clarke Wyatt (Trio E/Betse and Clarke) on Wurlitzer,
Damon Parker (The MGDs) on Wurly and Rhodes,
Erin Bopp AKA Natural E (Royalphonic) on tambourine.
Long time friend and collaborator Rachel Gaither (Tullamore/The Boon) stepped in to sing and play violin on the song “Chimo.”

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Joel Nanos at Element Studios, it displays a full spectrum of production. Some tracks are deep and watery. Others wide and epic.

11:20

15. Mikal Shapiro – “Daniel”
from: The Musical / Independent / April 11, 2015

“Mikal Shapiro: The Musical” has two acts–an A-side and a B-side. The songs are engineered for long play off a 12” vinyl record on a hi-fidelity stereo system. Mikal plans to release The Musical on vinyl which cost a lot more to accomplish, so she has launched a Kickstarter campaign to cover the basic costs of producing this record on vinyl.

River Trade Radio has been on the air on 90.1 FM since March of 2014 and has quickly developed a loyal listenership.

Mikal Shapiro is a “renaissance woman” because she is involved in many creative projects from radio, to film, to visual arts, to music.

11:30

16. Mikal Shapiro – “This Way To Heaven”
from: The Musical / Independent / April 11, 2015
[This song features Betse Ellis on fiddle, and Chad Brothers and Emily Tummons on vocal harmony.]

Mikal Shapiro is such a collaborator, working on multiple projects and genre. She also plays with the funk/jazz quartet Royalphonic, the folk duo Partners in Glory, the latin based band, Ayllu, and the experimental, Gawd Project.

11:38

17. Mikal Shapiro – “Nope”
from: The Musical / Independent / April 11, 2015
[This song features Hermon Mehari on trumpet.]

Mikal Shapiro co-hosts River Trade Radio Sunday mornings at 9:00.

[Mikal Shapiro will be performing at the Folk Alliance International Music Fair, Thursday, February 19, at the Sheraton Crown Center.]

11:45

18. Sad American Night – “Bright Mornings”
from: One of These Bright Mornings / Independent / November 6, 2014
[Sad American Night is Andrew Langford on drums, Sam Avery on bass, Chris Martin on keyboards, Rachel Christia on vocals, Gavin Snider on vocals & guitar. For more information: sadamericannight.com.]

[Sad American Night play The Brick, Friday, January 23rd, with Odd Harmona.]

11:48 – Underwriting

11:50

19. Victor & Penny – “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To (Live)”
from: Live At the Living Room Theatre / Independent / January 10, 2015
[3rd release for Kansas City based duo, and sometimes quartet. Victor & Penny are Jeff Freling (Blue Man Group, Chicago) who attended Berklee School of Music, and Erin McGrane (George Clooney’s, “Up in the Air” and the cabaret troupe, “Alacartoona”). Erin is a recipient of an Inspiration Grant from the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City as well as a Mid-America Arts Alliance Grant for Professional Development. Victor & Penny have been touring the USA for the last three years and were awarded a 2013 Escape to Create Artist Residency.]

[Victor & Penny and their Loose Change Orchestra play the Take Five Coffee Bar, 6601 West 135th St. OP, KS, Sat. Jan. 24, at 8:00 pm.]

20. Bob Dylan – “Full Moon and Empty Arms”
from: Shadows in the Night / Columbia / February 3, 2015
[36th studio album from Bob Dylan consisting of covers of traditional pop standards made famous by Frank Sinatra, chosen by Dylan. Writen in 1945 by Buddy Kaye and Ted Mossman, based on Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. The best-known recording of the song was made by Frank Sinatra in 1945. Other recordings include: Eddie Fisher (1955), Donna Brooks (1956),Robert Goulet (1961), Sarah Vaughan (1963), Jerry Vale (1964), Mina (1966). It has also been recorded by Caterina Valente, The Platters, Carmen Cavallaro, Jim Nabors, June Valli and Billy Vaughn.]
11:59:30

21. Noel Coward – “The Party’s Over Now”
from: Noel Coward in New York / drg / 2003 [orig. 1957]

Next week on January 28, we’ll play music from Various Blonde, Katy Guillen & The Girls, Ruth Acuff, Mark Lowrey, Belle and Sebastian, La Guerre, Kangaroo Knife Fight, Tyler Gregory, Calvin Arsenia. Plus we’ll talk with four separate special guests: Andrew Earl, Dustin Rapier, Crystal Clayton, and Teri Quinn.

Wednesday MidDay Medley in on the web:
http://www.WednesdayMidDayMedley.org
http://www.facebook.com/WednesdayMidDayMedleyon90.1FM
http://www.kkfi.org

Show #561

Wednesday MidDay Medley
TEN to NOON Wednesdays – Streaming at KKFI.org
90.1 FM KKFI – Kansas City Community Radio
Produced and Hosted by Mark Manning

Mikal Shapiro + New Music for The New Year
+ Emily Jones Berhmann of JCCC’s Performing Arts Series

Mark plays new releases for the new year from: Baby Teardrops, Deco Auto, Scott Hrabko and The Rabbits, ATLAS, Mikal Shapiro, Admiral of the Red, the author and the illustrator, Victor & Penny, She’s A Keeper, Kasey Rausch, Black Luck, Sad American Night, The Big Iron, The Electric Lungs, Sleater-Kinney, Viet Cong, The Decemberists, Bob Dylan, and more.

At 10:30, we’ll talk with Emily Behrmann about the upcoming 2015 season for the Performing Arts Series at Johnson County Community College. More info at: jccc.edu/TheSeries.

Mikal Shapiro

At 11:15 Mark welcomes singer, songwriter, artist, curator, producer and co-host of River Trade Radio, Mikal Shapiro, who joins us to share songs from her new musical recording. Mikal studied Film History, Film, and Writing at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. She received her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago studying Film, Video, New Media, and Animation. Her full length solo releases “The Crow The Lark And The Loon from 2008, and “For Good” from 2010 have been acclaimed by local music writers. Mikal toured through the west and is the creator of the web television project, “Go! Go! Global Girls.” Mikal has also created music videos for Dead Voices and Folkicide.

On your local radio dial 90.1 FM or
STREAMING LIVE at: kkfi.org

Show #561

Wednesday MidDay Medley
TEN to NOON Wednesdays – Streaming at KKFI.org
90.1 FM KKFI – Kansas City Community Radio
Produced and Hosted by Mark Manning

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

“Remembering MLK” + Glenn North

MLK at The March on Washington, 1963

Wednesday MidDay Medley celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., born January 15, 1929. Dr. King led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. King’s efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means.

By the time of his death, Dr. King had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and opposing the Vietnam War, both from a religious perspective. Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. national holiday in 198I.

1. Soweto Gospel Choir – “Pride (In The Name of Love)”
from: In the Name of Love – Africa Celebrates U2 / Shout! Factory Records / 2008

2. International Noise Conspiracy / MLK Jr. – “The First Conspiracy / Let Freedom Ring”
from: Adbusters – Live Without Dead Time / Adbusters / 2003

3. Labelle – “Something in The Air / The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”
from: Something Silver / Warner Archives / 1997
[orig. Pressure Cookin’ / 1973, 3rd album from the funk/soul trio of: Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash who each shared a rap on “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” a poem and song by Gil Scott-Heron. It was the B-side to Scott-Heron’s first single, “Home Is Where the Hatred Is”, from his album Pieces of a Man (1971). “Something in the Air” is a song orig. recorded by Thunderclap Newman, a band created by Pete Townshend for The Who’s former roadie John ‘Speedy’ Keen who wrote and sang the song. It was a UK #1 single for three weeks in July 1969.]

10:13 – Soul Brother…

4. Curtis Mayfield – “Beautiful Brother of Mine”
from: Roots / Curtom-Buddah / 1971

5. Maceo & The Macks – “Soul Power ’74”
from: James Brown’s Funky People, Pt. 2 / People Records / 1988
[Not only is this particular record sampled more than hors douvres in a supermarket aisle, it contains samples itself in the form of tape overlays of civil rights rallies, a Dr. King speech, and an announcement of King’s assassination. Maceo Parker has played saxophone with James Brown, Parliment, Funkadelic, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell and Prince.]

6. Sweet Honey in The Rock, Aaron Neville, Lamar Campbell & Spirit of Praise -“Ella’s Song”
from: Soundtrack to Boycott / HBO / 2001
[Critically acclaimed 2001 film staring Jeffrey Wright as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Terrence Howard as Ralph Abernathy, and CCH Pounder as Jo Ann Robinson.]

10:25 – Underwriting

10:27 – King’s Life, Death, and Spirit…

7. Common & John Legend – “Glory”
from: Selma (Music from the Motion Picture) / Paramount Pictures-Pathe / January 6, 2015
[Golden Globe winning song from the new motion picture Selma. Most of the millions of African Americans across the South had effectively been disenfranchised since the turn of the century by a series of discriminatory requirements and practices. Finding resistance by white officials to be intractable, even after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This led to the three Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965 where Dallas County Voters League (DCVL) were joined by organizers from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and also invited Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and activists of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to join them. These marches were part of the Selma Voting Rights Campaign and led to the passage that year of the Voting Rights Act, a landmark federal achievement of the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement. The 54-mile highway from Selma to the Alabama state capital of Montgomery was a demonstration showing the desire of black American citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote, in defiance of segregationist repression. ]

8. Mahalia Jackson – “How I Got Over”
from: The Original Apollo Sessions/ Couch & Madison Partners / May 25, 2013

[Gospel hymn composed & published in 1951 by Clara Ward (1924-1973). It was performed by Mahalia Jackson at the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 before 250,000 people. Mahalia Jackson (Oct. 26, 1911 – Jan. 27, 1972) was referred to as “The Queen of Gospel”. She became one of the most influential gospel singers in the world, heralded internationally as a singer and civil rights activist. She was described by entertainer Harry Belafonte as “the single most powerful black woman in the United States”. She recorded about 30 albums (mostly for Columbia Records) during her career, and her 45 rpm records included a dozen “golds”—million-sellers. “I sing God’s music because it makes me feel free,” Jackson once said about her choice of gospel, adding, “It gives me hope. With the blues, when you finish, you still have the blues.”]

10:35

9. Martin Luther King Jr. – “MLK – I Have A Dream 1963 (excerpt)”
from: Inspirational Speeches, Vo. 3 / Orange Leisure / May 16, 2011
[American civil rights leader/activist and Baptist minister, born Jan. 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. King’s speeches have been issued on numerous releases – his most well-known and influential address being “I Have a Dream”, which was held during “The March on Washington” in 1963. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.]

10. Marian Anderson – “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”
from: He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands / BMG / Orig. 1961
[Reissued 1991][Marian Anderson (Feb 27, 1897 – Apr. 8, 1993) was one of the most celebrated singers of the 20th century. In 1939, the (DAR) refused to let Anderson sing in Constitution Hall. With the aid of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Anderson performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. before a crowd of more than 75,000 people and a radio audience in the millions. Anderson became the first black person, to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in NYC on Jan. 7, 1955. Anderson worked as a delegate to the UN Human Rights Committee and “goodwill ambassadress” for the U.S. Dept. of State, giving concerts all over the world. She participated in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, singing at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Anderson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1978, the National Medal of Arts in 1986, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991.]

11. Tramaine Hawkins, Ella Mitchell, Billy Porter & Chorus -“Rocka My Soul”
from: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre “Revelations” / V2 / 1998

10:43 – Freedom…

12. Nina Simone -“I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free”
from: Silk and Soul / RCA / 1967

13. Solomon Burke – “None Of Us Are Free”
from: Don’t Give Up On Me / Fat Possum / 2002
[Back up singers: The Blind Boys of Alabama]

14. Nina Simone – “I Shall Be Released”
from: To Love Somebody / RCA / 1967

10:55 – The Staple Singers & Bobby Watson

15. Pops Staples – “You Gotta Serve Somebody”
from: e-town live volume 3 / e-town /
[orig. written by Bob Dylan. / Rec. Sept. 16, 1994, Live in Boulder] [Roebuck “Pops” Staples was born on a cotton plantation near Winona, Mississippi, on December 28, 1914, the youngest of 14 children. When growing up he heard, and began to play with, local blues guitarists such as Charlie Patton, who lived on the nearby Dockery Plantation, Robert Johnson, and Son House. He dropped out of school after the eighth grade, and sang with a gospel group before marrying and moving to Chicago in 1935. A “pivotal figure in gospel in the 1960s and 70s,” and an accomplished songwriter, guitarist and singer. Patriarch of The Staple Singers, which included his son Pervis and daughters Mavis, Yvonne, and Cleotha.]

16. Mavis Staples – “Down in Mississippi”
from: Live – Hope At The Hideout / Anti / 2008
[Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Mavis Staples, of The Staple Singers, is a celebrated equal rights activist. She’s performed at inaugural parties for Presidents Kennedy, Carter and Clinton, Recorded in June, 2008, in the run up to the Presidential election of Barrack Obama. Recorded live in the intimate bar The Hideout, in her hometown of Chicago. Mavis Staples, marched, sang & protested alongside Dr. Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.]

17. The Staple Singers – “When Will We Be Paid”
from: Single / Stax (Fantasy / Ace) / 1967

18. Bobby Watson & The I Have a Dream Project–”Check Cashing Day” [feat. Glenn North]
from: Check Cashing Day / Lafiya Music / Digital – Aug. 28, 2013 / Physical – Nov. 12, 2013
[From wikipedia.org: “Bobby Watson was born in Lawrence, Kansas, August 23, 1953. he is an American post-bop jazz alto saxophonist, composer, producer, and educator. Watson now has 27 recordings as a leader. He appears on nearly 100 other recordings as either co-leader or in a supporting role. Watson has recorded more than 100 original compositions. Watson grew up in Bonner Springs and Kansas City, Kansas.]

11:12 – Interview with Glenn North

Poet Glenn North

Nationally recognized poet Glenn North, has shared the stage with Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, and Amiri Baraka. He served as Poet-In-Residence & Education Specialist at the American Jazz Museum from 2004 – 2014. A 2009 Charlotte Street Foundation Generative Performing Awards Fellow, he has been commissioned by Points of Light Foundation, the Norman Lear Center, the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, and Kansas City Public Library. He has been a featured poet for MTV Rock the Vote, NAACP Black History Month, and KC Repertory Theatre. He was accepted into the Cave Canem program and has worked as director of the Urban Transcendence Poetry Project in KCK. He has collaborated on recordings with: the Jazz Disciples, the Phantom, Tru Sol, and Bobby Watson. He studied English at Lincoln University, earned his BLS from Rockhurst University, and is currently pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing at UMKC. He is currently working for The Black Archives of Mid-America where Glenn will host #BlackPoetsSpeakOut with a Community Reading, Saturday, Jan. 24, at 4:00 pm.

“Check Cashing Day” was in Wednesday MidDay Medley’s Top Ten of The 113 Best Recordings of 2013.

Glenn North is part of seven of the 15 tracks on the recording. Glenn told us how he met Bobby Watson through his work at The American Jazz Museum.

Bobby Watson’s recording was released to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of The March on Washington For Jobs and Freedom, held August 28, 1963.

One of the pieces on the recording uses the actual words of MLK on Jazz.

11:19

19. Bobby Watson & The I Have a Dream Project– MLK On Jazz (Love Transforms) [feat. Glenn North]
from: Check Cashing Day / Lafiya Music / Digital – Aug. 28, 2013 / Physical – Nov. 12, 2013

11:21

Glenn North talked about his grandmother’s influence in his life. She was an educator.

Dr. King was a hero to Glenn as a young child. The use of “words to create change in my head and my heart.” Glenn told us that Dr. King “made him feel that any art he produced should serve a purpose for the cause.”

Glenn told us that at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, he was quite the orator, giving speeches and serving as the campus radical.

Glenn is currently working at the Black Archives of Mid-America where he is hosting:

#BlackPoetsSpeakOut – Community Reading
at Black Archives of Mid-America,
1722 E. 17th Terrace, KCMO,

Saturday, Jan. 24, 4:00 pm.
FREE! More info at: blackpoetsspeakout.tumblr.com

11:26

20. Glenn North – “Black Tide Rising” (LIVE)

11:28

Glenn and I worked together in schools in Kansas City, Kansas, in the beginning of the century, doing programming with Marcia Pomeroy and Michael Toombs. Glenn and I are still working with Marcia. I work with the KCK Organic Teaching Gardens and Glenn with the Saturday Science Academy and Summer Science Academy through Kansas University Medical Center Office of Cultural Enhancement and Diversity, K-12 Programming, serving Middle School and High School age students.

Glenn talked about being inspired by the students.

Glenn wrote a poem about one of his experiences when he first started working with Marcia and in schools in KCK at Hawthorne Elementary School, now named Caruthers Elementary.

11:34

21. Glenn North – “Overwhelmed” (LIVE)

Glenn North shared his process about writing a poem based on a painting called “Lynch Family” at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art.

11:38

22. Glenn North – “Lynch Family Blues” (LIVE)

11:42

Glenn North hosts #BlackPoetsSpeakOut – Community Reading at Black Archives of Mid-America, 1722 E. 17th Terrace, KCMO, Saturday, Jan. 24, 4:00 pm. FREE! More info at: blackpoetsspeakout.tumblr.com

11:42 – Underwriting

11:43 – Gospel & Folk Music Carried the Message…

23. Pete Seeger – “We Shall Overcome”
from: The Essential Pete Seeger / Columbia – Legacy / 2004
[Derived from a gospel song by Reverend Charles Tindley called “We Will Overcome” written in 1901. Adapted and made famous by Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and others the song became central to the civil rights movement of the 1950 and 1960s and eventually used all around the world. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made use of “we shall overcome” in the final Sunday March 31, 1968 speech before his assassination.]

24. Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion – “Dr. King”
from: exploration / New West / 2005 [written by Pete Seeger]

25. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings – “This Land is Your Land”
from: Naturally / Daptone / 2005
[written by Woody Guthrie, Sarah Lee’s Grandfather.]

Black Lives Matter. Racism is a systemic problem in the United States of America and we must continue the work of peaceful non-violent protest when faced with institutional inequality and injustice. We must continue the work of MLK, Bayard Rustin, Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Rosa Parks. None of us are free until all of us are free.

11:57

Next week on Wednesday, January 21, 2015 we’ll welcome our friend, the multi-talented Mikal Shapiro who is getting ready to release new music! PLUS, Emily Berhmann of JCCC’s Performing Arts Series joins us to talk about the 2015 series, Plus we’ll play New Music for The New Year from: Baby Teardrops, Deco Auto, Scott Hrabko, Atlas, Mikal Shapiro, The Author and The Illustrator, She’s A Keeper, Kasey Rausch, Black Luck, The Big Iron, The Electric Lungs, Sleater-Kinney, Shades of Jade, and more.

Wednesday MidDay Medley in on the web:
http://www.WednesdayMidDayMedley.org
http://www.facebook.com/WednesdayMidDayMedleyon90.1FM
http://www.kkfi.org

Show #560

Wednesday MidDay Medley
TEN to NOON Wednesdays – Streaming at KKFI.org
90.1 FM KKFI – Kansas City Community Radio
Produced and Hosted by Mark Manning

“Remembering MLK”

MLK at The March on Washington, 1963

Wednesday MidDay Medley celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., born January 15, 1929. Dr. King led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. King’s efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means.

By the time of his death, Dr. King had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and opposing the Vietnam War, both from a religious perspective. Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. national holiday in 198I.

Mark plays music of the movement from: The Staple Singers, Pops Staples, Mavis Staples, Mahalia Jackson, Curtis Mayfield, Nina Simone, Common & John Legend, Pete Seeger, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Labelle, Solomon Burke, Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion, Sweet Honey in The Rock, Tramaine Hawkins, Ella Mitchell, Billy Porter, and Bobby Watson & The I Have a Dream Project featuring Kansas City Poet and Charlotte Street Award Winner Glenn North.

Poet Glenn North

At 11:00 we’ll talk with nationally recognized Kansas City based poet Glenn North, who has shared the stage with Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, and Amiri Baraka. He served as Poet-In-Residence and Education Specialist at The American Jazz Museum from 2004 to 2014. He was a 2009 Charlotte Street Foundation Generative Performing Awards Fellow. North’s work has been commissioned by Points of Light Foundation, the Norman Lear Center, the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, and Kansas City Public Library. He has been a featured poet for MTV Rock the Vote, NAACP Black History Month, and KC Repertory Theatre. He was accepted into the Cave Canem program. He has worked as director of the Urban Transcendence Poetry Project in KCK. His original spoken word tracks are featured on recordings including: Out of the Comfort Zone by the Jazz Disciples, Release by the Phantom, The Experience by Tru Sol, and Check Cashing Day from Bobby Watson & The I Have a Dream Project. He studied English at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, earned his BLS from Rockhurst University, and is currently pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing at UMKC.

Black Lives Matter. Racism is a systemic problem in the United States of America and we must continue the work of peaceful non-violent protest when faced with institutional inequality and injustice. We must continue the work of MLK, Bayard Rustin, Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Rosa Parks. None of us are free until all of us are free.

On your local radio dial 90.1 FM or
STREAMING LIVE at: kkfi.org

Show #560

Wednesday MidDay Medley
TEN to NOON Wednesdays – Streaming at KKFI.org
90.1 FM KKFI – Kansas City Community Radio
Produced and Hosted by Mark Manning

A Birthday Tribute to Iris DeMent

Iris DeMent

Wednesday MidDay Medley celebrates the Birthday of Iris DeMent, born January 5, 1961, in rural Paragould, Arkansas. She was the youngest of 14 children. At the age of three, her devoutly religious family moved to California, where she grew up singing gospel music. During her teenage years, Iris was exposed to country, folk, and R&B, drawing influence from Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and Joni Mitchell. After a series of jobs as a waitress and typist, Dement wrote her first song at the age of 25. She played open-mic nights in Kansas City, until she moved to Nashville, in 1988, and met producer Jim Rooney, who helped her land a record contract. Dement moved back to Kansas City and made her recording debut in 1992, when her independent label offering, “Infamous Angel” won critical acclaim. Despite a complete lack of support from country radio, the record’s word-of-mouth praise earned her a deal with Warner Bros. records, which reissued “Infamous Angel” in 1993.

1. Iris DeMent – “Higher Ground”
from: Infamous Angel / Warner Brothers / 1992 / 1993

2. Iris DeMent – “Mama Was Always Tellin’ Her Truth”
from: Sing The Delta / Flariella / Oct. 2, 2012 [Iris Dement previewed many of her new songs when she was in concert with husband Greg Brown, for their 11-11-11 show at The Folly Theatre to benefit St. Mark Child and Family Development Center. Now those songs are part of her brand new release that includes a total of 12 new songs. It is her first full-length release of original songs since 1996. The new record has been critically acclaimed by the music press on both sides of the Atlantic.]

10:12 – Influences of Iris DeMent

3. Loretta Lynn & Jack White – “Portland Oregon”
from: Van Lear Rose / Interscope / 2004
[Produced by Jack White. It was initially intended as a musical experiment, blending the styles of country singer-songwriter Lynn and producer White, who performs on the whole album as a musician. At the time, Lynn was 69 and White was 28. The title refers to Lynn’s origins as the daughter of a miner working the Van Lear coal mines. The album was the most successful crossover music album of Lynn’s 45-year career. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, Lynn won: Best Country Album and Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for her duet with White.]

4. Johnny Cash & Joni Mitchell – “Girl From North Country”
from: The Best of The Johnny Cash TV Show / Columbia Legacy / 2007
[TV music variety show that ran for 58-episodes from June 7, 1969 to March 31, 1971 on ABC. It featured many folk/country musicians of the time: Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Kris Kristofferson, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Merle Haggard, James Taylor and Tammy Wynette. It also featured other musicians such as jazz great, Louis Armstrong, who died 8 months after recording the show. Recorded at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, then home of the Grand Ole Opry. The first show featured Joni Mitchell, Cajun fiddler Doug Kershaw, Fannie Flagg and Bob Dylan. The show included a “Country Gold” segment that featured legends never seen on network TV such as Bill Monroe & his Blue Grass Boys. Cash refused to cut the word “stoned” from Kris Kristofferson’s “Sunday Morning Coming Down”, he stood by his Christian faith “despite network anxieties”, and persisted in bringing on Pete Seeger whose anti-Vietnam song on another network had “caused a firestorm.” He premiered his Man in Black song on an episode filmed at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University’s campus. The show was dumped in 1971 as part of ABC’s so-called “rural purge,” which also claimed that network’s The Lawrence Welk Show.]

5. John Prine w/ Iris Dement – “We’re Not The Jet Set”
from: In Spite Of Ourselves / Oh Boy / 1999
[In 1968 country superstar George Jones witnessed a fight between Tammy Wynette and her husband Don Chapel. At Jones’s urging, Wynette and her daughters drove away with him. Wynette and Jones married Feb. 16, 1969, and Wynette’s 4th daughter, Georgette, was born in 1970. Jones and Wynette, were nicknamed the “President and First Lady” of country music, and they recorded a string of hit duets that seemed drawn directly from their volatile relationship, which resulted in their divorcing in 1975. Their classic recordings included “Two Story House,” “Golden Ring,” and the humorous “(We’re Not) The Jet Set.” ]

6. Loretta Lynn – “You Ain’t Woman Enough To Take My Man”
from: Legends of Country Music / Columbis Legacy / 1997
[Live performance for Austin City Limits taped in 1983. Loretta Webb was the second of 8 children; grew up in Butcher Holler, a section of Van Lear, a mining community in Kentucky. Growing up with such humble roots had a huge effect on Lynn’s life and heavily influenced her music as an adult. Her autobiography describes how, during her childhood, the community had no motor vehicles, paved roads, or flush toilets. She married Oliver Vanetta Lynn, known as “Doo,” on Jan. 10, 1948, at age 13. In an effort to break free of the coal mining industry, at 14, Lynn moved to the logging community Custer, Washington, with her husband. The Lynns had 4 children – Betty Sue, Jack Benny, Cissy and Ernest Ray – by the time Loretta was 18, and in her early 20s she then had twin girls, Peggy & Patsy. No stranger to controversy, Loretta Lynn possibly had more banned songs than any other country music artist, prior to The Dixie Chicks, including “Rated X,” about the double standards divorced women face, “Wings Upon Your Horns,” about the loss of teenage virginity, and “The Pill,” lyrics by T. D. Bayless, about a wife and mother becoming liberated via the birth control pill. Her song “Dear Uncle Sam,” released in 1966 during the Vietnam War, describes a wife’s anguish at the loss of a husband to war. It has been included in live performances during the US – Iraq War.]

7. Merle Haggard – “Workin’ Man Blues”
from: Oh Boy Classic Presents Merle Haggard / Oh Boy Records / 2000 [Originally released in 1969, a tribute to a core group of his fans: The American blue-collared working man. Backed by an electric guitar that typified Haggard’s signature Bakersfield Sound, he fills the role of one of those workers expressing pride in values of hard work and sacrifice, despite the resulting fatigue and the stress of raising a large family. Included on Haggard’s 1969 album “A Portrait of Merle Haggard.” Included in this collection on John Prine’s Oh Boy Records.]

10:29 – Underwriting

10:30 – Influences of Iris DeMent

Iris DeMent represents that place in the road, where Country and Folk music merged with honest stories, of working class people, not afraid to tell the truth about the times they are living through. Iris DeMent grew up singing gospel music. During her teenage years she was first exposed to country, folk, and R&B, drawing influence from Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and Joni Mitchell.

8. Johnny Cash – “Ring of Fire”
from: 16 Biggets Hits / Columbia Legacy / 2007
[co-written by June Carter (wife of Johnny Cash) and Merle Kilgore. The song was recorded on March 25, 1963 and became the biggest hit of his career, staying at #1 on the charts for 7 weeks. “Ring of Fire” refers to falling in love – which is what June Carter was experiencing with Johnny Cash at the time. Some sources claim that June had seen the phrase, “Love is like a burning ring of fire,” underlined in one of her uncle A. P. Carter’s Elizabethan books of poetry. She worked with Kilgore on writing a song inspired by this phrase as she had seen her uncle do in the past. In the 2005 film, Walk the Line June is depicted as writing the song while agonizing over her feelings for Cash despite his drug addiction and alcoholism as she was driving home one evening. She had written: “There is no way to be in that kind of hell, no way to extinguish a flame that burns, burns, burns”. Cash claims he had a dream where he heard the song accompanied by “Mexican horns”. Four years after the song was released, Carter and Cash were married which Cash states helped to stop his alcohol and drug addictions. Cash’s daughter, Rosanne has stated, “The song is about the transformative power of love and that’s what it has always meant to me and that’s what it will always mean to the Cash children.]

9. Bob Dylan – “I Shall Be Released”
from: The Essential Bob Dylan / Columbia – Sony / 2000
[Originally recorded October, 1971. ]

10. Joni Mitchell – “For The Roses”
from: For The Roses / Asylumn / 1972
[Released between her 2 biggest commercial and critical successes – “Blue” and “Court & Spark”. In 2007 it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. The title song “For the Roses” was Mitchell’s farewell to the business; she took an extended break for a year after. The album was critically acclaimed with The New York Times saying “Each of Mitchell’s songs on For the Roses is a gem glistening with her elegant way with language, her pointed splashes of irony and her perfect shaping of images. Never does Mitchell voice a thought or feeling commonly. She’s a songwriter and singer of genius who can’t help but make us feel we are not alone.” A nude photograph of Joni Mitchell was included on the inside cover of the original LP and is included in the CD booklet. The photograph shows the singer from the rear and was taken from a considerable distance; she is shown standing on a rock and staring out at the ocean. This created some controversy at the time.]

10:44

Iris DeMent

Iris DeMent’s first three releases on Warner Brothers Records, were all critically acclaimed, she received two Grammy nominations during this time, in the “Folk Music” category. Meanwhile country radio completely overlooked her original songs, and amazing voice, that has been compared to Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette. This next set features music from her debut recording, “Infamous Angel,” as well as its follow-up, the autobiographical, “My Life,” released in 1994 and we’ll play from her third Warner Brother’s release, “The Way I Should,” released in 1996, which contains some of Iris DeMent’s most political songs. When Michael Moore spoke at The Uptown Theatre Iris DeMent opened for him, with his favorite song “Wasteland of the Free.” We will play the title track, “The Way I Should.”

[We read the liner notes of Infamous Angel written by John Prine.]

11. Iris DeMent – “Infamous Angel”
from: Infamous Angel / Warner Brothers / 1992 / 1993

12. Iris DeMent – “My Life”
from: My Life / Warner Brothers / 1994

13. Iris DeMent – “The Way I Should”
from: The Way I Should / Warner Brothers / 1996
[Produced by Randy Scruggs]

11:00 – Collaborations

14. Nanci Griffith w/Iris – “Ten Degrees and Getting Colder”
from: Other Voices Other Rooms / Elektra / 1993
[written by Gordon Lightfoot]

15. Nanci Griffith w/Iris & Emmylou – “Are You Tired of Me Darling”
from: Other Voices Other Rooms / Elektra / 1993
[High Harmony – Iris / Low Harmony – Emmylou Harris] [Nanci Griffith’s 10th album. Here she pays homage to other songwriters who have influenced her own career.]

16. John McCutcheon w/Iris – “Over The Garden Wall”
from: Sprout Wings and Fly / Rounder / 1997 [written by AP Carter]

17. Gary Kirkland w/Iris – “Just For Me”
from: Shootin’ The Works on Love / Dark Horse / 2003

11:15 – Collaborations

18. Steve Earle & The Del McCoury Band w/Iris – “I’m Still In Love With You”
from: The Mountain / E – Squared / 1999
[Released February 23, 1999. Songs were written by Earle as a tribute to the founder of bluegrass music, Bill Monroe, who had died in 1996.]

19. John Prine w/ Iris – “In Spite of Ourselves”
from: In Spite of Ourselves/ Oh Boy / 1999 [written by John Prine]

20. Tom Russell w/Iris – “Love Abides”
from: The Man From God Knows Where / Hightone / 1999

11:29 – Underwriting

11:30 – Greg Brown

In the 2002 Iris DeMent did a benefit concert for The Friends of Community Radio at Unity Temple on The Plaza. I remember when Iris asked us if it was okay that she have a musician friend open the concert for her, we agreed because Iris was donated her talent to the cause of community radio. And then she told us that this musician friend was Greg Brown, who had all over the country, but had never before played Kansas City.

Later that year, on November 21, 2002 Greg married Iris DeMent in a private ceremony in the office of Rev. Sam Mann of St. Mark Church in East KC.

Grammy nominated Greg Brown is one of the most respected singer songwriters working in music today. He started singing professionally at the age of 18 organizing early folk concerts in New York City, Portland, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. In the 1980s, he worked and toured extensively as musical director for Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion radio program. He also founded his own record label, named Red House Records after a home in which he lived in Iowa.

Greg Brown has released over 30 recordings and has allowed much of his music to be used to raise funds and awareness for environmental and social causes. His songs have been performed by Willie Nelson, Jack Johnson, Carlos Santana, Michael Johnson, Ani DiFranco, Shawn Colvin, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Iris DeMent and Joan Baez.

21. Greg Brown w/Iris -“Jacob’s Ladder”
from: Honey in The Lion’s Head / Trailer / 2003

22. Greg Brown – “Bucket”
from: Evening Call / Red House / 2006
[The Washington Post writes, “The singer-songwriter from Iowa has a baritone as rough and chunky as Thanksgiving gravy with the turkey bits still in, and that’s just how his words drip out on his album, “The Evening Call.” on “Whippoorwill” he sing as sweetly as his lover down in Kansas City. That’s his wife, Iris DeMent, and on “Joy Tears,” he tells her, “When you start your singing, honey, the heavens open up with grace.”]

23. Greg Brown – “Let The Mystery Be”
from: Freak Flag / Yep Roc / May 10, 2011
[While recording what was to be his next album lighting hit the studio where he was working, and Greg Brown lost the recordings. Greg, used the experience to turn inward and write more songs that comprise his 24th album: Freak Flag, the title track is all that remains of the lost original album. Greg wrote ten new songs, recording them at Memphis, Tennessee’s legendary Ardent Studios. Produced by Bo Ramsey, the album also includes a cover of Brown’s daughter Pieta’s song ”Remember the Sun.’]

11:45

Iris DeMent

24. Iris DeMent – “Pretty Saro”
from: Songcatcher: Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture / Vangaurd / Jan 23, 2001
[Songcatcher is a 2000 drama film directed by Maggie Greenwald. It is about a musicologist researching and collecting Appalachian folk music in the mountains of western North Carolina.The film’s score was written by David Mansfield, who also assembled a roster of female country music artists to perform mostly traditional mountain ballads. Some of the songs are contemporary arrangements, and some are played in the traditional Appalachian music style. The artists include Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, Maria McKee, Dolly Parton, Gillian Welch and Patty Loveless. Singers Emmy Rossum, Iris DeMent, and Hazel Dickens, who appeared in the film, are also featured on the soundtrack. The soundtrack album inspired the 2002 follow-up album by Vanguard Records, Songcatcher II: The Tradition That Inspired the Movie, that compiled recordings of some of the songs selected for the film as performed by authentic Appalachian artists. The recordings are mostly from the 1960s, out of the Vanguard vaults.]

25. Iris DeMent – “Acres of Corn”
from: The Man From God Knows Where / Hightone / 1999 [Tom Russell]

In his review for WHYY’s Fresh Air, Entertainment Weekly Music Editor – Ken Tucker wrote: “Iris DeMent possesses one of the great voices in contemporary popular music: powerfully, ringingly clear, capable of both heartbreaking fragility and blow-your-ears-back power. Had she been making country albums in the ’70s and ’80s and had more commercial ambition, she’d probably now be considered right up there with Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette. Instead, she’s lived a contemporary life, a somewhat private life. As she recently told an interviewer, “There’s a lot that goes into life besides songwriting.” And she’s taken her time in composing songs that fit into no genre easily.”

Her album “Sing The Delta” has received glowing reviews from the UK publication UNcut, The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, and was in many Top Ten Lists of KC music affictionados, incl. #1 on our list of The 112 Best Recordings of 2012.

26. Iris DeMent – “Livin’ On The Inside”
from: Sing The Delta / Flariella / Oct. 2, 2012
[Her first full-length release of original songs since 1996. Iris was our special guest on our Oct 10, WMM.]

11:59:30

27. Noel Coward – “The Party’s Over Now”
from: Noel Coward in New York / drg / 2003 [orig. 1957]

Sources for notes on tracks: artist’s websites and wikipedia.org

Next Week on Wednesday, January 14, 2015, we present: “Remembering MLK” we’ll celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., born January 15, 1929. We’ll play music of the movement from: The Staple Singers, Pops Staples, Mavis Staples, Mahalia Jackson, Curtis Mayfield, Nina Simone, Common & John Legend, Pete Seeger, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Labelle, Solomon Burke, Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion, Sweet Honey in The Rock, Tramaine Hawkins, Ella Mitchell, Billy Porter, and Bobby Watson & The I Have a Dream Project featuring Kansas City Poet and Charlotte Street Award Winner Glenn North.

Black Lives Matter. Racism is a systemic problem in the United States of America and we must continue the work of peaceful non-violent protest when faced with institutional inequality and injustice. We must continue the work of MLK, Bayard Rustin, Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Rosa Parks. None of us are free until all of us are free.

Wednesday MidDay Medley in on the web:
http://www.WednesdayMidDayMedley.org
http://www.facebook.com/WednesdayMidDayMedleyon90.1FM
http://www.kkfi.org

Show #559

Wednesday MidDay Medley
TEN to NOON Wednesdays – Streaming at KKFI.org
90.1 FM KKFI – Kansas City Community Radio
Produced and Hosted by Mark Manning

A Birthday Tribute to Iris DeMent

Iris DeMent

Wednesday MidDay Medley celebrates the Birthday of Iris DeMent, born January 5, 1961, in rural Paragould, Arkansas. She was the youngest of 14 children. At the age of three, her devoutly religious family moved to California, where she grew up singing gospel music. During her teenage years, Iris was exposed to country, folk, and R&B, drawing influence from Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and Joni Mitchell.

After a series of jobs as a waitress and typist, Dement wrote her first song at the age of 25. She played open-mic nights in Kansas City, until she moved to Nashville, in 1988, and met producer Jim Rooney, who helped her land a record contract.

Dement made her recording debut in 1992, when her independent label offering, “Infamous Angel” won critical acclaim. Despite a complete lack of support from country radio, the record’s word-of-mouth praise earned her a deal with Warner Bros. records, which reissued “Infamous Angel” in 1993.

We’ll feature music from all five of Iris DeMent’s full length recordings, plus her additional work with artists such as her husband – Greg Brown, and also: John Prine, John McCutcheon, Emmylou Harris, Tom Russell, Nancy Griffith, Steve Earle, Gary Kirkland and songs from various compilations.

We’ll also feature music from Iris DeMent’s inspirations: Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard, and others.

On your local radio dial 90.1 FM or
STREAMING LIVE at: kkfi.org

Show #559