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

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Music Of The Movement
+ Marion Merritt + Betse Ellis +
Sterling Witt

As Pete Seeger wrote: “Songs gave them the courage to believe they would not fail.” WMM features music of and inspired by The Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter Movement.

1. “Main Title Instrumental – It’s Showtime Folks”
from: Orig. Motion Picture Soundtrack All That Jazz / Casablanca / Dec. 20, 1979
[WMM’s Adopted Theme Song]

2. Sweet Honey in The Rock, Aaron Neville, Lamar Campbell & Spirit of Praise – “Ella’s Song”
from: Soundtrack to Boycott / HBO / February 13, 2001
[Song written by Bernice Johnson Reagon, one of the founders of Sweet Honey in The Rock. Boycott is a 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.]

10:06 – 2020 Spring Fund Drive Edition Pledge Break #1

Guest Fund Drive Co-Hosts: Betse Ellis and Marion Merritt

Betse Ellis is originally from Fayetteville, Arkansas. She received her Bachelors of Arts in Music and a Bachelors of Arts in English, from the University of Missouri – Kansas City. She has been playing the Violin for over 40 years, with over 20 years playing fiddle and also working as a teacher of music. Betse was one of the founding members of the critically acclaimed and internationally known band, The Wilders. Betse has released two solo records, and for the last several years is recording and performing with her partner, multi-instrumentalist Clarke Wyatt, as Betse & Clarke. Betse Ellis is also part of the Short Round Stringband, the 5-piece band that last year released a 14-track album called, Ain’t No Part of Nothin’ that is a musical tribute to Bill Monroe.

Betse Ellis, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

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 16 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. With her partner Ann Stewart, Marion is the proprietor of Records With Merritt, at 1614 Westport Rd. in Kansas City, Missouri. Records With Merritt features new vinyl releases, in-store performances from young and upcoming bands, holds meetings for a vinyl listening club, and was once the location for a wedding, and a 30th birthday party. More information at: http://www.recordwithmerritt.com

Marion Merritt, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Non-Commercial, Community Radio, means that three times a year, we interrupt our regularly scheduled programming, to ask YOU our beautiful-listeners, to help us continue 90.1 FM’s unique mission an, 24-7 programming. 90.1 FM KKFI is celebrating our 32nd year on the airwaves. While the spirit of this station is kept alive by hundreds of volunteers who passionately donate their time and abilities to keep the transmission of our 100,000-watt-signal alive. We are a operated by a not-for-profit organization, incorporated over 40 years ago, called The MidCoast Radio Project. We’re non-profit, but we still have to pay the electric bill, the rent on our fully accessible production studios and offices, insurance, staff, royalties, production expenses. Even though we have hundreds of committed volunteers, who donate thousands of hours every year, producing radio shows, answering phones, creating websites, producing benefits, rewiring the board, setting up our computer system, we still need YOU, our listener.

YOU are the reason we are able to stay alive. Volunteers are waiting to hear from YOU right now. It only takes a few minutes. Call 888-931-0901. You can also visit us at http://www.kkfi.org, or call 888-931-0901 to support Kansas City Community Radio 90.1 FM.

Last year on WMM conducted 127 interviews, with 209 special guests.

10:14 – Music Of The Movement

3. 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. Born James Solomon McDonald, March 21, 1940, Solomon Burke died October 10, 2010. He was an American preacher & singer, who shaped the sound of rhythm & blues as one of the founding fathers of soul music in the 1960s and a “key transitional figure in the development of soul music from rhythm & blues. During the 55 years that he performed professionally, Burke released 38 studio albums on at least 17 record labels and had 35 singles that charted in the US, including 26 singles that made the Billboard R&B charts. In 2001, Burke was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a performer. His album Don’t Give Up on Me won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 45th Grammy Awards in 2003. By 2005 Burke was credited with selling 17 million albums.]

4. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings – “This Land is Your Land”
from: Naturally / Daptone / 2005 [written by Woody Guthrie.]
[In November 2016, Sharon Jones suffered a stroke while watching the 2016 United States presidential election results and another the following day. Jones remained alert and lucid during the initial period of her hospital stay, jokingly claiming that the news of Donald Trump’s victory was responsible for her stroke. She died on November 18, 2016, in Cooperstown, New York, aged 60. Sharon Lafaye Jones was born May 4, 1956 and died this year on November 18, 2016. She was an American soul and funk singer. Although she collaborated with Lou Reed, David Byrne and others, she is best known as lead singer of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, a soul and funk band based in Brooklyn, New York. Jones experienced breakthrough success relatively late in life, releasing her first record when she was 40 years old. In 2014, Jones was nominated for her first Grammy, in the category Best R&B Album, for Give the People What They Want. Jones was born in Augusta, Georgia, the daughter of Ella Mae Price Jones and Charlie Jones, living in adjacent North Augusta, South Carolina. Jones was the youngest of six children; her siblings are Dora, Charles, Ike, Willa and Henry. Jones’s mother raised her deceased sister’s four children as well as her own. She moved the family to New York City when Sharon was a young child. As children, she and her brothers would often imitate the singing and dancing of James Brown. Her mother happened to know Brown, who was also from Augusta.Jones grew up in the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. In 1975, she graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn. She attended Brooklyn College. A regular gospel singer in church, Jones often entered talent shows backed by local funk bands in the early 1970s. Session work then continued with backing vocals, often credited to Lafaye Jones, but in the absence of any recording contract as a solo singer, she spent many years working as a corrections officer at Rikers Island and as an armored car guard for Wells Fargo, until receiving a mid-life career break in 1996 after she appeared on a session backing the soul and deep funk legend Lee Fields. Sharon Jones was part of the very beginning of Daptone Records Daptone Records’ first release was a full-length album by Sharon Jones. A new band, the Dap-Kings, was formed from the former members of the Soul Providers and the Mighty Imperials. Some of the musicians went on to record for Lehman’s Soul Fire label, while some formed the Budos Band, an Afro-beat band. From the original Soul Providers, Roth (also known as Bosco Mann) on bass, guitarist and emcee Binky Griptite, percussionist Fernando Velez, trumpet player Anda Szilagyi and organist Earl Maxton were joined by original Mighty Imperials saxophonist Leon Michels and drummer Homer Steinweiss, plus Neal Sugarman from Sugarman 3, to form The Dap-Kings. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, the released the album Dap Dippin’ with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings in May of 2002, , for which they received immediate attention and acclaim from enthusiasts, DJs and collectors. Next they released, Naturally (2005), 100 Days, 100 Nights (2007) and I Learned the Hard Way (2010). They are seen by many as the spearhead of a revival of soul and funk.]

10:24 – Pledge Break #2

Our WMM Spring Fund Drive Team: Marion Merritt and Betse Ellis

10:32 – Underwriting

10:34 – Music Of The Movement

5. Bobby Watson & The I Have a Dream Project–”Check Cashing Day” [feat. Glenn North]
from: Check Cashing Day / Lafiya Music / Aug. 28, 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.]

6. Krystle Warren – “Move!”
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 Warren. 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 Johnsons 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.]

10:44 – Pledge Break #3

Our WMM Spring Fund Drive Team: Marion Merritt and Betse Ellis

Thank you to: Elizabeth Mayer, K.C. Compton, John Long, Garth Matthes, Matt Kesler, Kathi Callahan Welch, Jack Phillips, Joel Nanos

10:52 – Music Of The Movement

7. Radkey – “Ain’t No Sunshine”
from: “Ain’t No Sunshine” – Single / Radkey / April 7, 2020
[Written by Bill Withers. Isaiah, Dee, and Solomon Radke of the critically acclaimed rock trio Radkey joined us live in our 90.1 FM studios on September 5, 2018. Radkey was formed in 2010 in St. Joseph, where the brothers were raised. The family moved to Kansas City. The band has released two full-length recordings — “Dark Black Makeup” in 2015 and “Delicious Rock Noise” in 2016 — plus multiple EPs and singles, and were part of a MasterCard advertising campaign on digital billboards in NYC along with a national television commercial that aired during the 2018 Grammy Awards that brought the band to the attention of Jack White who asked the band to tour with him. In 2018 the band went back on the road with The Damned throughout the United States. In December they went back into the studio to record with producer Bill Stevenson of the California punk rock group Descendents. In early 2019 they played shows in Amsterdam and Stockholm. In 2018 the band released “Basement,” “St. Elwood,” “Rock & Roll Homeschool,” as well as several other singles. On February 22, 2019, Radkey released “No Strange Cats…P.A.W.” a 7-song EP is essentially a collection of the band’s most recent singles. It comes after the January 11, 2019 release of No Strange cats…Spiders – EP a 6 song EP of several new songs mixed with several singles from late 2018.]

[Radkey plays RADKEY LIVE AND LOUD – LIVE STREAMING FROM RECORDBAR’S STAGE, Friday, June 12, 2020 at 8 PM – 10 PM, recordBar, 1520 Grand Boulevard, KCMO. The stream will be free on Facebook Live, IG Live and youtube. We are requesting donations through this page. We’ll be back open in late July. Stay safe, stay healthy.]

8. Hi-Lux – “Revolution”
from: Revolution / Get What You Give – Single / The Record Machine / March 6, 2020
[This KC based band is lead by singer Julia Haile, with Tim Braun on guitar, Nick Howell on keys, Dan Loftus on bass and Kian Bryne on drums. Hi-Lux is a Modern-Soul band that blends and bends the boundaries between soul, rock n roll, reggae, and funk. This group aims to create music that pays tribute to their myriad of influences (Amy Winehouse, The Meters, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings) but also claims a spotlight of its own in the musical world. After a string os single releases, including one on 7” vinyl through Sunflower Soul Records, followed by the release of their self-titled EP, Hi-Lux has introduced an eclectic and impressive collection of songs to give the world a small taste of what’s to come. Hi-Lux is on a journey of musical discovery, mixing old and new to create something unique.]

9. Sterling Witt – “Werewolf”
from: Something’s Awry / Grand River Records Records / April 10, 2020
[All songs written by Sterling Witt. Copyright 2020 Disheartened Music (ASCAP). Produced by Sterling Witt. Recorded by Joel Nanos at Element Recording Studios, Kansas City Missouri. Sterling Witt on vocals & guitar, Kitten A. Boggs on bass & vocals, Evan Verploegh on drums. Grand River Records PO BOX 193 , Freeman MO 64746. http://www.SterlingWitt.com http://www.GrandRiverRecords.com ]

11:00 – Station ID

11:00 – Interview with Sterling Witt

KC based artist & musician Sterling Witt who joins us to share music and information about his new recording, “Something’s Awry” – twelve terrifying songs about monsters, cryptids, demons, parasites and the most unfortunate situations. The 12 songs are based on characters Sterling is writing and editing into a new book that relates to the album. ”Something’s Awry: Ting Tong and Other Terrifying Tales,” features art work by Witt. More info at: http://www.sterlingwitt.com

Sterling Witt Thank you for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Sterling Witt is an artist and musician. He lives in Missouri at the Art Farm near Freeman, MO (about 45 min south of KC).

Something’s Awry – Produced by Sterling Witt – Recorded by Joel Nanos at Element Recording Studios, Kansas City Missouri.

Sterling Witt – vocals, guitar, Kitten A. Boggs – bass, vocals , Evan Verploegh – drums

Grand River Records, PO BOX 193, Freeman MO 64746

http://www.SterlingWitt.com http://www.GrandRiverRecords.com

“Originality is a hard thing to come by these days; and not a word we use lightly, but it has to be said – Sterling Witt is IT.” -Indie Music Magazine

Since 2004 Sterling Witt has released five full-length albums and one 8-song EP, along with several singles. Witt’s latest album, “Satyagraha” was produced by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago, Illinois. Sterling is currently preparing for his first museum show at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri.

Sterling Witt Discography

April 2020 – Something’s Awry
Oct 2015 – Satyagraha
Oct 2012 – Sterling Loves U
Aug 2009 – Shadows & Secrets
Aug 2006 – Sea Things
Oct 2004 – Self Portrait
Jan 2009 – Skeleton

Sterling told Nick Spack of The Pitch KC, “I’m in the final stages of writing and editing a book right now that relates to my album,” Witt says. “The album has 12 songs and the book has 24 stories and poems. Half of those stories I turned into songs to make the album Something’s Awry. – I was still writing the stories—half of which turned out to be poems that rhyme,” Witt continues. “All those poems sounded like they could be songs to me and my first thought was to keep the words to the songs in the same order as the poems, so that the story could be understood from listening to the song.”

Witt says that Something’s Awry, the album, can be thought of as being like an amped up audio book, with all the musical arrangements dictated by the words: “There are many oddities in the music and vocal melodies that happen just once. Maintaining the stories was the only rule I gave myself while turning them into songs: The words made me do it.”

The Art Farm is an isolated oasis in the country designed for making art and music. Sterling does not have Internet or TV.

Since 2004 Sterling Witt has released six full-length albums and one 8-song EP, along with several singles. Witt’s last album, “Satyagraha” was produced by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago, Illinois

Sterling Witt Thanks for being with us on WMM

Sterling Witt’s Something’s Awry is available now at sterlingwitt.bandcamp.com, with vinyl and compact disc versions coming later this year.

11:12

10. Sterling Witt – “Kelpie”
from: Something’s Awry / Grand River Records Records / April 10, 2020
[All songs written by Sterling Witt. Copyright 2020 Disheartened Music (ASCAP). Produced by Sterling Witt. Recorded by Joel Nanos at Element Recording Studios, Kansas City Missouri. Sterling Witt on vocals & guitar, Kitten A. Boggs on bass & vocals, Evan Verploegh on drums. Grand River Records PO BOX 193 , Freeman MO 64746. http://www.SterlingWitt.com http://www.GrandRiverRecords.com ]

11:15 – Pledge Break #4

This is WMM’s Spring Fund Drive Show with Marion Merritt & Betse Ellis.

Thank you to: Jennifer C. Owen, Joyce Downing, Bob Walkenhorst, Katherine Torbett, Matt Richey, Jon Cupit, Joelle St. Pierre, Kieth Clark, Jan Kohl

Earlier in the show we heard Krystle Warren. We were the first to play her music on the radio. Mark interviewed Krystle on KKFI in early 2002. During a winter snow storm, at a huge party where Krystle played with longtime friend Solomon Dorsey on bass, in a packed, smoke filled apartment, near Community Christian Church, Mark waited hours for a 2 song demo, that contained a song called “Chanel #5.” Krystle has since gone on to tour all over the world, but maintains contact with her hometown of KC. Krystle’s critically acclaimed album, Three The Hard Way was #1 on WMM’s 117 Best Recordings of 2017. WMM was the first to play tracks from Krystle’s album.

KKFI’s Mission Statement: KKFI is the Kansas City area’s independent, noncommercial community radio station. We seek to stimulate, educate and entertain our audience, to reflect the diversity of the local and world community, and to provide a channel for individuals and groups, issues and music that have been overlooked, suppressed or under-represented by other media.

KKFI’s Philosophy Statement: KKFI is committed to diversity in programming and discourse and seeks to create a climate of mutual respect and collaboration among volunteers and staff.

11:23 – Music Of The Movement

11. The Staple Singers – “When Will We Be Paid”
from: Single / Stax (Fantasy / Ace) / 1967
[The Staple Singers were an American gospel, soul and R&B singing group. Roebuck “Pops” Staples (December 28, 1914 – December 19, 2000), the patriarch of the family, formed the group with his children Cleotha (April 11, 1934 – February 21, 2013),[Pervis (b. 1935), and Mavis (b. 1939). Yvonne (October 23, 1937 – April 10, 2018) replaced her brother when he was drafted into the U.S. Army, and again in 1970. They are best known for their 1970s hits “Respect Yourself”, “I’ll Take You There”, “If You’re Ready (Come Go with Me)”, and “Let’s Do It Again”. While the family name is Staples, the group used “Staple” commercially. // First child to Roebuck “Pops” Staples and his wife Oceola Staples, Cleotha was born in Drew, Mississippi in 1934. Two years later, Roebuck moved his family from Mississippi to Chicago. Roebuck and Oceola’s children, son Pervis and daughters, Mavis and Yvonne, were born in Chicago. Roebuck worked in steel mills and meat packing plants while his family of four children grew up. The family began appearing in Chicago-area churches in 1948. Their first public singing appearance was at the Mount Zion Church, Chicago, where Roebuck’s brother, the Rev. Chester Staples, was pastor.[6] They signed their first professional contract in 1952. During their early career, they recorded in an acoustic gospel-folk style with various labels: United Records, Vee-Jay Records (their “Uncloudy Day” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” were best sellers), Checker Records, Riverside Records, and then Epic Records in 1965. “Uncloudy Day” was an early influence on Bob Dylan, who said of it in 2015, “It was the most mysterious thing I’d ever heard… I’d think about them even at my school desk…Mavis looked to be about the same age as me in her picture (on the cover of “Uncloudy Day”)…Her singing just knocked me out…And Mavis was a great singer—deep and mysterious. And even at the young age, I felt that life itself was a mystery.” // The Staples move to Epic saw a run of albums, including the live in-church Freedom Highway album produced by Billy Sherrill; the title track of which was a civil rights movement protest song penned by Pops Staples. It was on Epic that the Staple Singers developed a style more accessible to mainstream audiences, with “Why (Am I Treated So Bad)” and “For What It’s Worth” (Stephen Stills) in 1967. In 1968, the Staple Singers signed to Stax Records and released two albums with Steve Cropper—Soul Folk in Action and We’ll Get Over, Pervis returning for them. After Cropper left Stax, Al Bell produced their recordings, conducting the rhythm sessions at the famed Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and cutting the overdubs himself with engineer/musician Terry Manning at Memphis’s Ardent Studios, moving in a more funk and soul direction. // “For most of this decade, Roebuck Staples—born December 12, 1915, about two weeks after Frank Sinatra—has been the oldest performer with direct access to the hit parade by some twenty-five years, so here’s your chance to mind your elders. It’s Mavis’s lowdown, occasionally undefined growl that dominates, of course; you should hear how secular she gets with an O.V. Wright blues that got buried on The Staple Swingers. But Pops’s unassuming moralism sets the tone and his guitar assures the flow.” —The Best of the Staples Singers review in Christgau’s Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981) // The Staple Singers’ first Stax hit was “Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom-Boom)” in early 1971. Their late 1971 recording of “Respect Yourself”, written by Luther Ingram and Mack Rice, peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard R&B chart and No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. Both hits sold over one million copies and were each awarded a gold disc by the RIAA. The song’s theme of self-empowerment had universal appeal, released in the period immediately following the intense American civil rights movement of the 1960s. In 1972, “I’ll Take You There” topped both Billboard charts. In 1973, “If You’re Ready (Come Go With Me)” reached No. 9 on the Hot 100 and No. 1 on the R&B chart. // After Stax’s 1975 bankruptcy, The Staple Singers signed to Curtis Mayfield’s label, Curtom Records, and released “Let’s Do It Again”, produced by Mayfield; the song became their second No. 1 pop hit in the U.S., and the album was also successful. In 1976, they collaborated with The Band for their film The Last Waltz, performing on the song “The Weight” (which The Staple Singers had previously covered on their first Stax album). However, they were not able to regain their momentum, releasing only occasional minor hits. The 1984 album Turning Point featured a cover of the Talking Heads’ “Slippery People” (it reached the Top 5 on the Dance chart). In 1994, they again performed the song “The Weight” with country music artist Marty Stuart for MCA Nashville’s Rhythm, Country and Blues compilation, somewhat re-establishing an audience. The song “Respect Yourself” was used by Spike Lee in the soundtrack to his movie Crooklyn, made in 1994. // In 1999, The Staple Singers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Pops Staples died of complications from a concussion suffered in December 2000. In 2005, the group was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Cleotha Staples died in Chicago on February 21, 2013, at the age of 78, after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for over a decade. Mavis Staples has continued to carry on the family tradition and continues to add her vocal talents to both the projects of other artists and her own solo ventures. She appeared at Glastonbury in 2015, and her 2016 album Livin’ on a High Note includes a simple acoustic version of a Martin Luther King sermon in the track “MLK Song”. Yvonne Staples died on April 10, 2018 at the age of 80.]

12. Mavis Staples – “Eyes On The Prize”
from: We’ll Never Turn Back / Anti / April 24, 2007
[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, Recordedin the run up to the Presidential election of Barrack Obama. Mavis Staples, marched, sang & protested alongside Dr. Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. We’ll Never Turn Back is the seventh studio album by American gospel and soul singer Mavis Staples. Recorded in 2007 and produced by roots rock and blues musician Ry Cooder, it is a concept album with lyrical themes relating to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Upon its release, We’ll Never Turn Back received positive reviews from most music critics. It was also named one of the best albums of 2007 by several music writers and publications. “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize” is a folk song that became influential during the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. It is based on the traditional song, “Gospel Plow,” also known as “Hold On,” “Keep Your Hand on the Plow,” and various permutations thereof. An early reference to the older song, “Gospel Plow,” is in Alan Lomax’s 1949 book “Our Singing Country.” The book references a 1937 recording by Elihu Trusty of Paintsville, Kentucky, which is in the Library of Congress (Ref No .1397 A1). Lomax’s references for Gospel Plow cite two earlier works. The first is from English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians published in 1917, indicating that Gospel Plow dates from at least the early twentieth century. The second reference is to a 1928 book, American Negro Folk-Songs, which shows an African-American heritage for the original song. The lyrics to the modern Civil Rights version of the song, “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize” are often attributed to Alice Wine from Johns Island, South Carolina. Mrs. Wine was a member of the Moving Star Hall and The Progressive Club on Johns Island. The book Ain’t You Got the Right to the Tree of Life by Guy and Candie Carawan. documents songs of the Moving Star Hall and the lives of African Americans on Johns Island in the early sixties. It is doubtful that Mrs. Wine actually composed the lyrics herself. More likely she had heard the revised refrain and variations on the verses of the older song from the congregation at the praise hall. The leading “Paul and Silas” stanzas in the modern “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize” lyrics were already present in some versions of the older “Keep Your Hand on the Plow.” Our Singing Country[1] shows these lyrics were already in use in 1949 and before. Odetta used them in her 1960 Carnegie Hall appearance and recording. Mrs Wine is credited by Candie Carawan only with having passed onto Guy Carawan the revision of the title from “Keep Your Hand on the Plow” to “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize.” Lyrics for traditional American folk songs and African-American spirituals are often changed, improvised and traded between songs by different artists and at different performances. This was and is especially true in the call and response of African American religious music. For example, Mahalia Jackson, in her 1958 performance of “Keep Your Hand on the Plow”, begins with the couplet “Mary had three links of chain, Every link bearin’ Jesus name.” Bob Dylan also sings these lyrics in his upbeat version of “Gospel Plow.” Carl Sandburg, in his 1927 book The American Songbag,[7] attributes these lyrics to yet another song entirely, “Mary Wore Three Links of Chain.” Modern choral arrangements of this song sound entirely different from either the Eyes-Prize or Hand-Plow songs.[8] Both Sandberg in the preface to his book and folk singer Pete Seeger in the opening remarks to his Carnegie Hall performance of “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize” note the malleability of American and African-American folk music. No one artist can be historically credited with “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize.]

11:30 – Underwriting

11:32 – Pledge Break #5

This is WMM’s Spring Fund Drive Show with Marion Merritt, & Betse Ellis.

Thank you to: Joy Baker, Marcia Pomeroy, Pat Abts, Charlie Colborne, Rhonda Lyne, Deloris Jankovich, Nancy Nicolay, Natasha Derakhshanian, Elaine Meizlich, Necia Gamby, Kimberly DeVries, Leo Wetherill, Mike McCoy, Jon D. Barnhart, Claire McDaniels, William Smith, Mike Walker, Fran Stanton

WMM offers loads and loads of information about what is going on in the community. Not only do we interview nearly 200 guest each year, not only do we play nearly 1000 different songs with nearly half of those being locally produced, but we also shine a light on area not-for-profit theatre companies, art museums & galleries, area festivals, service organizations, area record labels and record stores, the area music scene, arts scene, theatre scene, literary arts scene, political action scene.

In just this past year, we’ve featured segments shining a light on: The Black Archives of Mid America, Olathe Public Library’s Music Series, InterUrban ArtHouse Queer Story Telling, Middle of The Map Fest, Outer Reaches Fest, Troost Fest, North KC Music Fest, Porch Fest KC, Crossroads Music Fest, Manor Fest, Lawrence Field Day Fest, KC PrideFest, Midwest Music Foundation, MidCoast Takeover, Playlist Play, Kansas City Public Library, GLAMA, MOCSA, Topeka Women’s Correctional Facility, The Midwest Innocence Project, Record Store Day, Folk Alliance International Conference, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., George Washington Carver, Kansas City Art Institute, Bach Aria Soloist, KC Gamelan Genta Kasturi, Owen Cox Dance Group, American Jazz Museum, Never Records, KC Fringe Theatre Fest, Late Night Theatre, Girls Rock! and the Annual Girls Rock! Camp, The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Apocalypse Meow, Union Station, Plaza Art Fair, Center Cut Records, Black Site Records, Haymaker Records, The Record Machine, Datura Records, Too Much Rock, Revolution Records, Sister Anne’s Records, Mills Record Company, Josey Records, Recoprds With Merritt, Squeezebox Theatre, Crossroads KC, The Midland Theatre, Johnson County Performing Arts Series, Shelf Life, The Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, The Band That Fell To Earth A Tribute To David Bowie, The Kauffman Center for The Performing Arts, UMKC Conservatory of Music.

11:39 – Music Of The Movement

13. 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.]

14. Tramaine Hawkins, Ella Mitchell, Billy Porter & Chorus -“Rocka My Soul”
from: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre “Revelations” / V2 / 1998
[Revelations is the signature choreographic work of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. It was first produced by Alvin Ailey Dance Theater in New York City, New York on January 31, 1960. Revelations tells the story of African-American faith and tenacity from slavery to freedom through a suite of dances set to spirituals and blues music. It’s been performed in over 70 countries in the half century since then and has been described as “the most widely seen modern dance work in the world.” The finale song of the three part “Revelations” is “Rocka My Soul In The Bosom Of Abraham” and it has been described by writer Juliana Lewis-Ferguson as a, “spiritually powerful conclusion to the suite and a purely physical release of emotion.”]

11:46 – Pledge Break #6

This is WMM’s Spring Fund Drive Show with Marion Merritt, & Betse Ellis.

Thank you to all who donated. Over 63 people donated and we raised, $3723.00.

11:53 – Music Of The Movement

15. The Freedom Affair – “Imagine”
from: “Imagine” – Single / Sunflower Soul Records / March 20, 2020
[Music & Lyrics by John Lennon. The Freedom Affair is a project of Chris Hazelton of Sunflower Soul Records and Chris Hazelton’s Boogaloo 7. The Freedom Affair is: Misha Roberts on vocals, Seyko Groves on vocals, Paula Saunders on vocals, Cole Bales on guitar, Branden Moser on guitar, Chris Hazelton on bass, Dave Brick on drums, Pete Carroll on trumpet, and Brett Jackson on saxophone. Additional musicians include: Matt Bennett on violin, and Alyssa Bell in viola. Arranged, Produced, Recorded, & Mixed by Chris Hazelton. Mastered by Adam Boose at Cauliflower Audio. The Freedom Affair and their track “Rise Up” were selected to be part of Colemine Records 3xLP box set, “Soul Slabs Vol. 2” a Record Store Day Exclusive, released April 13, 2019. Colemine Records writes: “The Freedom Affair is a freight train of Kansas City soul! Dirty, funky drums, gritty horns, and the combined vocals of Misha Roberts, Seyko Groves, and Paula Saunders to put this band over the top. Politically charged soul music for the dancefloor!”]

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

11:58 – Arts Calendar

Next week on Wednesday, June 17 we’ll play from 25 area bands & artists as we feature: Our Favorite MidCoastal Releases of 2020 …So far! We’ll hear from Una Walkenhorst, Blackstarkids, The Republic Tigers, Ivory Blue, Ebony Tusks, Fritz Hutchison, Katy Guillen & The Drive, Hermon Mehari, Betse & Clarke, Fullbloods, Sam Wells, Pedaljets, Miki P & The Swallowtails, Radkey, Saint Sé, David Burchfield, The Freedom Affair, Sterling Witt, Quiet Takes, Miss Boating, Hi-Lux, Brandon Phillips & The Condition, MGDs, Nan + The One Nite Stands, Plus, we’ll talk with members of the band Oh Dear Oh My.

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 #841