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, September 20, 2017

Our 700th Show! with Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear, Krystle Warren, Calvin Arsenia, Ron Megee, Marion Merritt, Maria Vasquez Boyd, Necia Gamby, Scott Hobart, and Nico Gray.

1. “Main Title Instrumental – It’s Showtime Folks”
from: Motion Picture Soundtrack to All That Jazz / Universal / Dec. 20, 1979
[WMM’s theme]

2. Dimitri From Paris – “Prologue”
from: Sacreblu / Atlantic Records / June 11, 1996

3. Sufjan Stevens – “Inaugural Pop Music For Jane Margaret Byrne”
from: The Avalanche: Outtakes And Extras From The Illinois Album / Asthmatic Kitty / July 11, 2006
[A press release on the Asthmatic Kitty website reported that the Illinois album was supposed to be a double record (with somewhere near 50 songs), but the idea was eventually scrapped. After the success of the album, Stevens returned to his analog 8-track recorder in late 2005 and began the process of finishing 21 of the previously abandoned songs, which would eventually become The Avalanche. Stevens has stated during interviews that although he doesn’t like The Avalanche as much as Illinois, he felt it was important to release the songs in light of the success of his most recent album. He has also said that he decided to release the album in order to buy time until his next “The 50 States” project,” release.]

Thanks for tuning into Wednesday MidDay Medley. I’m Mark Manning. Today’s show is a celebration of 700 weeks, 1400 hours of radio, 10,000 hours of preparation, nearly 2000 guests, and over 15,000 songs, from thousands of musical artists. We have made it our mission to mix musical genres, playing with themes, diversity, equality, free speech, connecting artists and venues and listeners and communities. Wednesday MidDay Medley has proudly endeavored to help tell the story of our growing Kansas City area music scene, “The Midcoast Sound,” as we like to call it. We have dedicated a majority of our programming to New & MidCoastal Releases.

We’ve happily presented new formats in radio, with our popular, “A Story In A Song” series, and our special shows featuring: Apocalypse Meow, The MidCoast Takeover, Middle of The Map, The Crossroads Music Fest, The Outer Reaches Festival, The Lawrence Field Day Fest, and our annual tribute shows to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., David Bowie, Iris Dement, Pioneers of Punk, Visual Art, The Spoken Word, Gay Pride, Civil Rights, and our interviews with Tommy Ramone, Iris Dement, Laurie Anderson, Lily Tomlin. Plus, our annual 4-week special: the 100+ Best Recordings of the Year.

To say I’ve been inspired by the KC music scene, is an understatement. In just this last year, we’ve played from over 100 local releases of 2017. The KC music community is fueled by a collaborative and generous heart that is beating in so many of the artists I’ve met while doing this show. I am inspired by the women who created radio on 90.1 FM long before me: my friend April Fletcher who know plays bass professionally in Los Angeles, and my friend Anne Winter, who left us in 2009, and reminded us how we’re all connected. I’m inspired by the diverse , intelligent, motivated, listeners, looking for place on the dial, where they can connect to the amazing stories and music and voice of our community.

Today we celebrate the pure idea of community radio, free form radio, radio that tells the story of the people who live here, the artists, the writers, the teachers, the performers, the lovers. Today we celebrate 700 weeks of Wednesday MidDay Medley, the show that has brought us together, at this time, on this frequency, in these community airwaves. Thanks for listening.

10:05 – Marion Merritt Interview/Story

Marion Merritt

Marion Merritt is our most frequent contributor to WMM, She grew up in Los Angeles, and St. Louis. She went to college in Columbia, Missouri. She studied art and musical engineering, and is a avid lover of classic films and punk rock music. She saw Talking Heads on their first U.S. tour when they played One Block West, in 1978. For 13 years she has been sharing her musical discoveries and information from her musically-encyclopedic brain on Wednesday MidDay Medley. Marion has joined us for every on-air fund drive to help raise funds for the MidCoast Radio Project. Marion is also the proprietor of Records With Merritt, at 1614 Westport Rd. in Kansas City, Missouri. That features new vinyl releases, weekly in-store performances from young and upcoming bands, and most recenty was the location for a wedding.

Marion Merritt thank you for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley.

We always wanted someone from a record store to have a regular presence on WMM.

When I first met Marion, she walked up to me with a recording in hand and suggested I might like the Philip Glass recordings of the Low Symphony with David Bowie and Brian Eno.

Marion and I really didn’t know each other in the beginning, but throughout these 700 shows we’ve become very close friends, I’ve watched her life transition from corporate retail to owning her own record store in the neighborhood where I live.

For 13 years Marion Merritt haa had a huge influence on our playlists. It was during our first year that she interviewed Regina Spektor.

10:10

4. Regina Spektor – “Braile”
from: 11:11 / Regina Spektor / July 9, 2001
[Debut album by singer-songwriter Regina Spektor. It was self-released on CD and sold at Spektor’s early shows. The album is now out of print on CD and much sought-after by collectors, it is available as a download from online music outlets. Regina Spektor was born February 18, 1980, in Moscow (former Soviet Union, now Russia), and began classical training on the piano at the age of six. When she was nine years old, her family left the Soviet Union in 1989, during the period of Perestroika, when Soviet citizens were permitted to emigrate. Regina had to leave her piano behind. The seriousness of her piano studies led her parents to consider not leaving the Soviet Union, but they finally decided to emigrate, due to the racial, ethnic, and political discrimination that Jews faced. Traveling first to Austria and then Italy, the Spektor family was admitted to the United States as refugees with the assistance of HIAS (the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society). They settled in the Bronx, where Spektor graduated from the SAR Academy, a Jewish day middle school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. Since the family had been unable to bring their piano from Moscow, Spektor practiced on tabletops and other hard surfaces until she found a piano on which to play in the basement of her synagogue. She began to write original songs shortly thereafter. Spektor gradually achieved recognition through performances in the anti-folk scene in downtown New York City, most prominently at the East Village’s SideWalk Cafe. She also performed at local colleges (such as Sarah Lawrence College) with other musicians, including the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players. She sold self-published CDs at her performances during this period: 11:11 (2001) and Songs (2002). After self-releasing her first three records and gaining popularity in New York City’s anti-folk scene, Spektor signed with Sire Records in 2004 and began achieving greater mainstream recognition. After giving her third album, Soviet Kitsch a major label re-release, Sire released her fourth album, Begin to Hope, which would go on to achieve a Gold certification by the RIAA. Her following two albums, Far and What We Saw from the Cheap Seats, each debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200. Spektor married singer-songwriter Jack Dishel in 2011. Formerly a guitarist with the band the Moldy Peaches, Dishel is a member of the band Only Son and duets with Spektor in the song “Call Them Brothers”. On January 23, 2014, Spektor announced her pregnancy on Facebook. The couple announced the birth of a son in March 2014.]

[Regina Spektor plays A Special Solo Performance, Sun, Oct.28, at 8:00 PM, at The Uptown Theatre]

10:15 – Interview with Calvin Arsenia live from Paris!

Since 2014 we have been celebrating the music of Calvin Arsenia who came home to KC after living in Edinburgh, Scotland, and has released his EPs, Moments, Prose, and this year his full length debut, Catastrophe. He has played Folk Alliance International, Kansas City Fringe Fest, The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, The Kauffman Center For The Performing Arts, The Middle of the Map Fest., The Folly Theatre. Calvin is currently in the third month of his Outlyre Tour where he has played San Francisco, Portland, Vancouver, NYC, Boston, Edinburgh, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Switzerland, Lyon and is currently in Paris where he joins us on the phone.

Calvin Arsenia thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Krystle Warren joined us in our brief phone conversation with Calvin in Paris.

Calvin has already played over 30 shows so far on this tour.

Calvin is on tour with musician and friend Simon Huntley who plays with Quixotic

Calvin wrote on Facebook:
“If you’ve been touring over a month you’ll probably want…
1) fingernail clippers
2) extra airplane sized toothpastes
3) back up phone case
4) hair brush (for I rarely brush this mop but when I do I use)
5) single use deep conditioner packets
6) black skinny jeans
7) better shoes
8) ear plugs (I’m sorry for snoring so much, Simon)
9) (to be continued….)”

Calvin is coming homing home to Kansas City on October 18.

Calvin is working to release new music from his June 11th, live recording at Kansas City’s newly restored Greenwood Social Hall, at 1750 Bellevue Ave. in Kansas City.

He shared with us one of the tracks to play as a radio premiere.

11:20

5. Calvin Arsenia – “Nature Boy”
from: Live at Greenwood Social Hall / Calvin Arsenia / Unreleased, 2017
[from Calvin’s June 11, 2017 live performance at Greenwood Social Hall, 1760 Bellevue. Written by Eden Ahbez, first recorded by Nat King Cole in 1948, and 2001 by David Bowie for Moulin Rouge Soundtrack]

11:24 – Interview/Story with Maria Vasquez Boyd

Maria Vasquez Boyd is an artist, poet, educator, and radio show host & producer. She has been a regular contributor to Wednesday MidDay Medley where she has produced shows about Ukuleles, Teachers, The Day of The Dead, and The Artist’s Studio. She has been a regular cast member in our “He Touched Me Gospel Hour” programs, and has contributed original material for almost all of our “A Story In A Song” shows, including our live show at recordBar, and this past Spring, for Big Bang Buffet Black Sheep Rising at The Buffalo Room. Maria is graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute, where she has taught in the Design/Illustration Department, as well as, the Nelson Atkins Museum. Maria is also a founding member of the Latino Writers Collective. Maria is also the host and producer of 90.1 FM’s ARTSPEAK Radio which airs Wednesdays at Noon, following Wednesday Midday Medley. ARTSPEAK Radio will be celebrating 5 years on the air!

Maria Vasquez Boyd, thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Congratulations on ARTSPEAK Radio!

When did Maria start calling Mark her “Radio Husband”?

We met at The Writer’s Place. I was serving on the Board of KKFI’s MidCoast Radio Project, you were serving on the board of the Latino Writer’s Collective. We would both go in early to set up for our meetings. You were a guest on the show and we welcomed you back to produce and host the show and eventually it became clear that you should host you own show. Through radio we became friends.

11:27 – Maria’s Story 10:32

6. Les Petits Minous – “À la claire fontaine”
from: À la claire fontaine – Single / Musicreche / September 25, 2008

10:34 – Underwriting

11:36 – Interview/Story Ron Megee

Originally from Anaheim, California, Ron Megee has worked at every theater in Kansas City including The Kansas City Rep, The Coterie Theatre, New Theatre, The Unicorn Theatre, The Folly Theatre. I first met Ron Megee through The Unicorn Theatre. He was running the spotlight for The Rocky Horror Show. We became friends while working together with Lou Jane Temple at Cafe Lulu. This summer Ron starred in the Unicorn Theatre’s production of Priscilla Queen of the Dessert The Musical. Laughter is healing and Ron Megee is a comic genius. He has created one of Kansas City’s most enduring and successful theatre companies, Late Night Theatre that began in 1997, and after a hiatus, was reborn several years ago at Missie B’s, on West 39th Street. In the last 20 years Late Night Theatre has produced over 100 shows, including their most recent one-night-only performance of Valley of The Dolls at the Folly Theatre.

Ron Megee, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley.

Will & Grace Watch Party Benefit for AIDS Walk Memorial Team, Thursday, September 28 at 6 PM at Missie B’s, 805 W 39th St, Kansas City. All money raised stays right here in Kansas City to help those living with HIV/AIDS.

Missie B’s presents “Hocus! Poke Us!: The Staged Reading” October 5 – October 19, Missie B’s, 805 W 39th St, Kansas City, ONLY 6 SHOWS! Featuring Daisy Buckët, Genewa Stanwyck, Chadwick Brooks, Matt Anderson, Brian Cross, Dirty Dorothy, & Ron Megee, Written & adapted for the stage by Daisy Buckët

11:39 – Ron Megee’s story

11:44

7. Portugal.The Man – “Feel It Still”
from: Woodstock / Atlantic Recording / June 16, 2017
[8th studio album release from the Portland Oregon based band that was originally formed in Wasilla, Alaska in 2004. The new album was produced by Mike D of The Beasty Boys. The group consists of John Gourley, Zach Carothers, Kyle O’Quin, Jason Sechrist and Eric Howk. Gourley and Carothers met and began playing music together at Wasilla High School.]

10:47 – Interview with Krystle Warren

Krystle Warren is originally from Kansas City, Missouri, although she now lives outside of Paris. She learned to play the guitar by listening to The Beatles albums: Rubber Soul and Revolver. Krystle Warren graduated from Paseo Arts Academy in 2001 and began her musical career performing to Kansas City audiences and collaborating with local jazz and pop musicians. After living in San Francisco and New York City, Krystle was signed to a French recording label, Because Music, and moved to Paris and released her album “Circles” in 2009. Krystle played numerous French and British television programs, including Later with Jools Holland, garnering critical acclaim and traveling all over the world, touring with Rufus Wainwright, Nick Cave, Norah Jones, and Joan As Police Woman. Krystle created her own record label, Parlour Door Music, to release her, 2012 record: “Love Songs: A Time you May Embrace” a recording from a 13 day session in Brooklyn, where she recorded 24 songs live with 28 musicians including her band, The Faculty, alongside choirs, horn and string sections. For her most recent release, Krystle decided to go in a new direction, playing every instrument and singing all vocals & back up vocals herself, “playing bass, drums, lap steel, piano, guitar, and vocals directly to analog tape. Three the Hard Way was Produced by Krystle Warren and Ben Kane (D’Angelo, Emily King, PJ Morton).

Krystle Warren, thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

We’ve been playing various tracks from the album on the radio show, and Krystle shared music from the album last year on the show.

Some of the reviews:

OKAY Player wrote:
It was only a few months back that Krystle Warren, a midwestern musician with a taste for brawny, soul-rattling blues and gospel, graced us with gratitude on the singer’s first single off today’s offering, Three The Hard Way.

On “Thanks and Praise,” Warren’s sound is indebted to (and a lush extension of) spirited, slow-churn church grooves that have spent the last century empowering and emboldening protest and activism. Her new album, out today with production and engineering from Ben Kane (D’Angelo’s Black Messiah, Emily King’s The Switch) and Warren herself, cuts with encouraging wit against a sparse backdrop of country twang and handclap punctuation, a big, boisterous voice doing the heavy-lifting and heart-swelling.”

Impose Magazine wrote:
The devastating & mournful “Red Clay” recalls the horrific 1921 massacre of African Americans in Tulsa by the hands of the KKK that is painful reminder of an evil that persists in America, as evident by the last week’s tragic events at a neo-Nazi/KKK rally in Charlottesville, VA. Warren’s reiterations of “in the wet red clay” & pondering how evil can kill innocence are underlined with rhythm strums of sorrow that reiterates the concept that there is no place for hate in the world.

And through the entire album cycle, Krystle’s harmonies are a constant that keeps everything fluttering between the lessons of earth’s humble ground & inspirations & mythologies brought about by skies’ heavens. The art & act of waking up to the world & beyond is heard in the steps that follow “Get a Load”, to the psych-swimming “Learn to Bend”, right before you are taken to the tambourine shaking chapel of “Move” that closes out Three the Hard Way with something to wake up anyone may have fallen asleep in the back pews. Krystle leaves the audience with a message to get pro-active in your communities, to take a stand socially, politically, in any way you can make a difference to make our world a more loving place.

Krystle’s own notes on Three the Hard Way:

Three the Hard Way wasn’t supposed to be a political album. It was never my intention to delve into religion, socio-economics, depression…In fact, when Kane first suggested we work together, after I answered defensively that, yes, I had been writing new stuff, long story, and that the songs were all in my head, I said, Let’s make a happy record. And yet, and yet. Heading into the studio a year and a half ago, driving over an hour from my home in Yvelines to Villetaneuse in the early thaw of winter, our recording began as the world’s papers with any common sense at all published a steady stream of, What the FUCK Has The U.S. Done NOW! We couldn’t help but be affected by the uncertainty. It was all around us—still is.

I believe the first session started with “Get a Load”, or at least, attempted to. I had just completed “So We Say” the night before/that very morning, and was eager to lay it. “So We Say” took shape after everyone else went to bed, and I sat alone in the kitchen, plucking away at my guitar, swigging off a bottle of red, thinking about the The Challenger explosion. It was all over the news that day. I was a youngster when it happened, but I remember the image well. The thirtieth anniversary’s coverage provided deeper insight into the whys and hows. I felt disgusted by it all. People rise and fall in pieces, but that’s the price for being free… So began the first tune of the album.

It’s an odd feeling being of the time, artistically—that is to say, one who is reflecting the world around them, by accident, with purpose. Countless quotes exist attributed to various famous folk saying things to the effect of, If you’re not doing this, then you’re doing that, and that’s shitty. I don’t agree with that sentiment as it pertains to artistic expression. Not everyone should hold a megaphone. Pete Seeger, early Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Neil Young—hey, that’s all well and good. The general message is also extremely self-righteous. I don’t like being told what to do, do you?

Likewise, I feel that it’s best to be informed before throwing in your two cents, otherwise, you’re just feeding into the cacophony of yells and screams that currently passes for debate. The world has always been an awful place. Some of us are waking up to that reality now. I couldn’t have written Three the Hard Way five years ago, because I wouldn’t have known what to say, let alone how to say it. I’m here now, taking it all in, and weeping, and writing, and singing, listening, learning, getting through.

10:57

8. Krystle Warren – “Learn To Bend”
from: Three The Hard Way / Parlour Door Music / August 18, 2017
[Produced by Krystle Warren and Ben Kane (D’Angelo, Emily King, PJ Morton). Recorded, engineered, and mixed by Ben Kane. Written & performed by Krystle Warre. Mixed at The Garden, Brooklyn. Mastered & cut by Alex DeTurk at Masterdisk. Last year in Krystle Warren premiered this song and her other new songs from this album at the Middle of the Map Fest in a packed room at Californos in Westport and later at The Polsky Theatre for the Performing Arts Series of Johnson County Community College. For this record Krystle decided to play every instrument and vocals & back up vocals, “playing bass, drums, lap steel, piano, guitar, and vocals directly to analog tape. She and Ben Kane recorded in Villetaneuse, France, a small town on the outskirts of Paris in a vintage 70s era studio that offered just the right, rich sound to suggest the musical foundation for the record, and to do justice to the duo’s carefully balanced arrangements.” On the radio show last year Krystle shared inspirations for this record, early gospel recordings, that crossed over into Jazz from Pharoah Sanders, Edwin Hawkins, and The Swan Silvertones. Originally from KC, Krystle learned to play the guitar by listening to Rubber Soul & Revolver from The Beatles. Krystle graduated from Paseo Arts Academy in 2001 and began her musical career in collaborating with area jazz and pop musicians. After living in San Francisco and NYC, Krystle was signed to a French label, Because Music, and moved to Paris to release “Circles” in 2009. Krystle played French and British television programs, including Later with Jools Holland, garnering critical acclaim and traveling all over the world with Rufus Wainwright, Nick Cave, Norah Jones, and Joan As Police Woman. Krystle created, Parlour Door Music, to release “Love Songs: A Time You May Embrace” a recording from a 13-day session in Brooklyn, where she recorded 24 songs live with 28 musicians including her band, The Faculty, alongside choirs, horn and string sections.]

11:00 – Krystle Warren – “Station I.D.”

11:00 – Interview with Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear

We’re thrilled to welcome back to the show, for their 6th appearance on Wednesday MidDay Medley, Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear. Madisen Ward and Ruth Ward were with us for our 500th show, so we feel incredibly blessed to have them back for our 700th show. Between these two shows, they have skyrocketed out of Kansas City, garnering international acclaim, and new fans from all over the world. They signed with Glassnote Records and recorded their debut full length album in Nashville with acclaimed producer Jim Abiss. They performed their debut single “Silent Movies” on The Late Show with David Letterman, they’ve toured across the United States, and Europe, more than once. They were featured on CBS Sunday Morning, NBC’s The Today Show, and “Later With Jools Holland and played Bonnaroo, Pilgramage, and the Newport Folk Festival, and the Ryman Theatre, in Nashville. Ruth Ward has continually performed throughout her life, mostly in coffee shops and open mics, for over 30 years, even recording a solo record. In the midst of this she got married and became a mom, and was busy raising a family. Madisen Ward was born in Oklahoma, and grew up in the outskirts of Kansas City, Missouri. He graduated from William Chrisman High School in 2007. Madisen’s journey to become a musician, was “melodically passed down” through the songs of his mother, where Madisen grew up watching his mom perform at local coffee shops. Eventually he began to learn to play the guitar, and poured his talent for writing into the music to create original songs. They began playing shows together, playing Madisen’s original songs along with the occasional cover of a classic track, reinterpreted in their own incredibly beautiful performance of two voices and two guitars in harmony and orchestration. Their debut album, The Skeleton Crew, was released by Glassnote Records, May 9, 2015 and was our most played record that year and was #1 on our 115 Best Recordings of 2015. Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear are currently working on their 2nd album.

Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear, will play Yardley Hall, 12345 College Blvd, Overland Park, Kansas, on Saturday, December 2 at 8:00 PM.

Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear thanks for being with us on WMM.

We first played music from Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear on this radio show in early May of 2013 after our mutual friend Joel Nanos of Element Recording sent us a copy of their independent EP, “We Burned The Cane Field” where they first recorded Madisen’s original songs.

When Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear opened for BB King at The Midland, 96.5’s The Buzz’s Lazlo Geiger saw them and he was blown away. He contacted his friend, Daniel Glass, founder of Glassnote Records who traveled to Kansas City to meet the band.

11:08

9. Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear – “Cannibal” (Live)

11:20

10. Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear – “How It Goes” (Live)

Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear, will play Yardley Hall, 12345 College Blvd, Overland Park, Kansas, on Saturday, December 2 at 8:00 PM.

11:25

11. Be / Non – “Journey”
from: A Mountain of Yeses / Unipegadong / 2009

12. The Magnetic Fields – BBC Radiophonic Workshop
from: Holiday / Merge / 1994

11:26 – Interview/Story – Scott Hobart

Singer-songwriter and guitarist Scott Hobart is a multi-talented artist. Known for his acclaimed honky-tonk country band, Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys (Bloodshot Records). Scott also works as the Coterie Theatre’s Resident Technical Director. He has also composed music and performed in the Coterie’s “Night of The Living Dead.” Scott met his friend Byron Collum at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1989. Eventually, they moved to Collum’s hometown of Green Bay, WI and formed the ‘post-hardcore power-trio’ GIANTS CHAIR in 1993. The band moved back to Kansas City became part of the burgeoning, mid-90’s KC rock scene – sharing bills with Germbox, Season To Risk, Molly McGuire and Shiner. After being signed to Caulfield Records out of Lincoln NE. on the strength of their debut 7″ single, GIANTS CHAIR recorded 2 critically-acclaimed full-length albums and toured the U.S. twice. GIANTS CHAIR sorted ended things in 1997 but have gotten back together here and there.

Recently the band released two new songs and are working on material for their 3rd studio album. Giants Chair play miniBar, Thursday, Sept. 21,at 8:00 PM with ExAcrobat and SWEATS from Lincoln.

Scott Hobart thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

13. Giants Chair – “Featureless Horizon”
from: The Streets – Single / Giants Chair / June 15, 2017
[Recorded May 2017 at Weights & Measures Soundlab, Kansas City, Missouri. Engineered and produced by Duane Trower. Kansas City based. Giant’s Chair was a band from fall of 1993 to the summer of 1997.]

[Giants Chair play miniBar, Thursday, Sept. 21, at 8:00 PM with ExAcrobat and SWEATS from Lincoln.]

11:36 – Underwriting

11:38 – Interview/Story – Necia Gamby

Necia Gamby is Licensed Massage Practitioner at own practice, NRGinMOTION. Shoe also serves as a licensed Massage Therapist at Alpha Chiropractic Center Inc. and at at Spa On Penn. She has been in practice 36 years. She uses Swedish (classical) massage technique. Over the years she has studied and practiced Hatha Yoga and is currently studying TaiChi. She founded and directed the Heartland School of Massage from 1988-1996. She has studied and incorporated Shiatsu, trigger point technique, lomi-lomi and a host of other philosophies and techniques into her massage style. She was an instructor for Johnson County Community College’s Certified Massage Program for 6 years. She taught Basic Swedish technique and Business Practices. She is an avid reader and especially loves science fiction and Korean dramas. Necia is the daughter of a KC Jazz pianist, and the mother of a graphic artist and MC for the acclaimed KC based hiphop duo SoundsGood and engineer with the 64111 Clinic.

Necia Gamby, thanks for being us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

11:39 – Necia’s Story

11:44

14. SoundsGood – “Best Song Ever (featuring iD)”
from: Goodbye / Innate Sounds / March 1, 2012
[The 3rd SoundsGood and final album. A collection of tracks that finalize the SoundsGood sound. Vocals – Joe Good, Beats – Miles Bonny.]

11:49 – Interview/story – Nico Gray

We welcome back to the show, our friend Nico Gray, who joins us as “Guest Producer” for our second hour. Nico has worked as a writer, performance artistm and as an actor with The Kansas City Rep, Gorilla Theatre, the 8th Street Cafe Thetre, Actor’s Craft, and was recently a featured performer in Big Bang Buffet’s Black Sheep Rising. Nico has also worked for Theatre League, The Midland Theatre and is currently a marketing and advertising consultant who does work with Union Station. Rooted in KC, Nico grew up with radio. Nico writes that, “Music has always served as the ‘passport’ through spiritual journeys that have transplanted him to the brownstones of Chicago, the rooftops of Paris, the sea-side of Marseille and the balconies of NYC. ”

Nico Gray welcome back to Wednesday MidDay Medley.

11:50 – Nico’s Story

11:52

15. The Velvet Underground – “Heroin”
from: The Velvet Underground & Nico / Verve / March 12, 1967
[The Velvet Underground & Nico is the debut album by The Velvet Underground, with the first professional line-up of the Velvet Underground: Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker. German singer Nico was also featured, having occasionally performed lead vocals for the band. This resulted of the instigation of their mentor and manager, Andy Warhol, and his collaborator, Paul Morrissey. Nico sang lead on three of the album’s tracks—”Femme Fatale”, “All Tomorrow’s Parties” and “I’ll Be Your Mirror”—and back-up on “Sunday Morning”. In 1966, as the album was being recorded, this was also the line-up for their live performances as a part of Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Though the record was a commercial failure upon release and was almost entirely ignored by contemporary critics, The Velvet Underground & Nico is now widely recognized as one of the greatest and most influential albums in the history of popular music. In 1982, musician Brian Eno famously stated that while the album initially only sold approximately 30,000 copies, “everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.” In 2003, it ranked 13th on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It was added to the 2006 National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress. Many sub-genres of rock music and forms of alternative music were significantly informed by the album.]

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

Next week on Wednesday, September 27, Brenton Cook, Dedric Moore and Steve Tulipana join us to share music and information about the Outer Reaches Festival, Friday and Saturday, September 29th and 30th, at recordBar, 1520 Grand Blvd.

Our Script/Playlist is a “cut and paste” of information.
Sources for notes: artist’s websites, bios, wikipedia.org

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

Show #700