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, March 1, 2023

Sweet Honey In The Rock + Tim Miller + Cardio Party

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

2. Monta – “Looking Back”
   from: “Looking Back” – Single / The Record Machine / February 27, 2023
   [This new single follows “Everybody’s Baby” that the band released on January 27, 2023. The band writes, “Looking Back” focuses on sentimental feelings on repeat, lost to the fantasy of past freedoms while the present moment blurs by on the wayside. Bubbling synth pop with waves of introspection. About Monta: It’s a strange time to be making music at all. In the midst of this bizarre attention economy, it’s hard to retrain our minds to sit still for an entire song. We are in constant states of flux. Kansas City’s resident post-punkers Monta find themselves in that same state of change now. The band is finding freedom in the moment, wherever it takes them. // Monta means “to climb higher.” Through lineup changes and scenes ebbing and flowing, this band continues that climb. Founded by brothers Dedric and Delaney Moore, Monta (originally Monta At Odds) has grown into its own community with a rotating cast of musicians and characters. Krysztof Nemeth and Lucas Behrens play guitars. Dedric Moore experiments with synthesizers and electronics. On drums, Matthew Heinrich is the heartbeat of the band; keeping everyone in time and allowing for spontaneous musical moments. After exploring the far reaches of sound through psych-rock freakouts, the band is now turning their attention towards melody. Joined by songwriter and vocalist Mikal Shapiro, Monta is now able to take their noisy, pulsing soundscapes and pair those with pop hooks. With friends and other collaborators making appearances, Monta expand and contract to fit the need of the song. // This shift towards melody is audible in their newer material. “Everybody’s Baby” is a dark-wave rager, perfect for the back room of a dimly-lit club. “Looking Back” is an uplifting synth pop groove mixed with contemplative thoughts about the past. // Peak of Eternal Light, released in 2021, alternates between dreamy post-punk and dark synth pop with no missteps in between. Dedric remarks that the band is in the process of “simplifying the song down to what it needs.”The band has honed-in on this approach, and are making some of their most interesting material to date.Their songs beg us to dance away the darker moments of our lives. By dredging up these murky memories and setting them against a backdrop of groovy, angular post-punk, Monta helps us to make sense of this cold, bleak world. In a cultural ocean with ever-changing waves, it’s nice to know that some things are still built to last. Monta is here to stay, even though they won’t ever remain the same. More Information at: kosmiccity.com / therecordmachine.co]

[Monta play Volume 1 of Dreams Never End Concert series by Cosmic City, at recordBar, 1520 Grand Blvd, KCMO, on May 26, 2023 with Carrellee, Emmaline Twist, and Morgue VVitch.]

3. Major Matt Mason USA – “Victims of The Storms”
   from: “Victims of The Storms” – Single / Olive Juice Music / February 23, 2022
   [Matt Roth on guitar & vocals, Brian Hurtgen on drums, and Dane Bridges on bass. Recorded and mixed by Paul Malinowski at Massive Audio (Shawnee, KS) Produced by Matt Roth and Paul Malinowski
   copyright 2023. (Claws Beat Skin BMI). // Major Matt Mason USA previously released, “Stupid Feelings: on May 6, 2022. Major Matt Mason released “Endless Summer” on November 18, 2020. Major Matt Mason USA is the performing name for musician, poet, and producer Matt Roth. Originally from Shawnee, Kansas, Matt cut his teeth playing guitar for local Lawrence, KS freak out and math rock bands Magic Nose and Dracomagnet in the early 1990s. // In 1994 Matt moved to New York City where he became active in the anti-folk and DIY music scene of New York’s East Village. Centering around the infamous Monday night, open mic, Antihoots at the Sidewalk Cafe, the scene was an early stomping ground for an array of artists including Beck, Regina Spektor, The Moldy Peaches, Langhorne Slim, John S. Hall (King Missile), Jeffrey Lewis, Shilpa Ray, Kimya Dawson, Diane Cluck, and many more. // In 1998 MMM released his debut solo album Me Me Me in the US. The album was licensed for the UK and Europe on Teenage Fanclub drummer Francis MacDonald’s label, Shoeshine Records. He would continue to release two more albums with Shoeshine: 2002’s Honey Are you Ready for the Ballet and 2004’s Bad People Rule The World. In 2005 Matt released a one-off project under the moniker of Kansas State Flower and in 2007 he returned as Major Matt Mason USA with the album Senile Pie Strive Pip Melancholy. // In 2001 he formed the band Schwervon! with Nan Turner. Schwervon! would go on to release five albums and a handful of singles, including a 7” on, Pavement member, Bob Nastanovich’s label Broker’s Tip Records. // During his time in New York, he established Olive Juice Music, a recording studio, independent record label, and online record distro headquartered in his apartment in the Lower East Side. Olive Juice Music would go on to host the OJ All Day Music Fest, for three years, as well as the OJ Distro, a hub for over three hundred independent releases in the early days of online mailorder. OJ Studios has produced recordings for many notable artists including: Kimya Dawson, Daniel Johnston, Jeffrey Louis, Adam Green (Moldy Peaches), Toby Goodshank, The Lovely Eggs, L.D. Beghtol (Magnetic Fields), Dan Fishback, Paleface, Phoebe Kreutz, Elastic No No Band and more. // In 2012 Matt moved back to Shawnee, Kansas and re-inserted himself into the Kansas City Music/ Poetry Scene. In 2015 he started a poetry blog entitled Beef Jerky Clouds and in 2017 formed a side project, Broken Heart Syndrome, featuring Pat Tomek of The Rainmakers on drums. // [Major Matt Mason USA continues to perform as a solo act and as a band. Through his combined projects he has shared the stage, opening, for luminaries such as Belle and Sebastian, Guided By Voices, Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), The Vaselines, The Wedding Present, Daniel Johnston, Lucy Dacus and many more. // As of the fall of 2019 Major Matt Mason USA has been performing with Brian Hurtgen on drums and more recently Dane Bridges on Bass. More info at: http://www.majormattmasonusa.com]

4. The War and Treaty – “Ain’t No Harmin’ Me”
   from: Lover’s Game / Mercury Nashville – UMG / March 10, 2023
   [We first met The War and Treaty right before their Official Showcase at Folk Alliance International Conference on Friday, February 16, 2018. We first played them on February 7, 2018. The War and Treaty released their full length debut album, “Healing Tide” on August 10, 2018. Michael Trotter Jr & Tanya Blount-Trotter are from Albion, Michigan. For Michael Trotter Jr., the journey began in 2004, when he arrived in Iraq, an untested soldier stricken by fear and self-doubt. His captain made it his personal mission to see to Trotter’s survival. The unit was encamped in one of Saddam Hussein’s private palaces, and in a forgotten corner in its basement, they found a black upright piano that once belonged to the dictator himself. When Trotter shared the fact he could sing, he was encouraged to teach himself to play piano on that confiscated keyboard. “I wrote my first song after that captain was killed,” Trotter recalls. “I sang it for his memorial in Iraq.” Soon after it became his mission to sing at the memorial services for those that had fallen. For the next three years, he sang songs that brought solace and comfort to the members of his unit. His efforts eventually garnered wider recognition as well. He came in first place in “Military Idol,” the army’s version of “American Idol,” during a competition held in Baumholder, Germany. Following his discharge, he was featured on the Hope Channel program “My Story, My Song.” Then he met Tanya Blount. Blount’s musically influences include Mahalia Jackson, Sister Odette and Aretha Franklin. The two fell in love, got married and used the experiences they had gained to create a new musical collaboration. The couple then secured the services of musicians whose skills add a distinctive sound to The War and Treaty’s blend of roots music, blue grass, folk, gospel and soul. Their 2017 EP Down to the River was released July 21, 2017. Recorded in Albion, Michigan, Down to the River boasts a sound that’s both stirring and sensual, driven by joy, determination and an unceasing upward gaze. The music is visceral but never morose, flush with emotion but void of despair… a style that touches on a variety of genres, but never finds itself confined to anyone. The arrangements are uncluttered– harmonies, basslines, guitar and mandolin licks, settle drum patterns and keyboards create an immensely moving soundscape — but the sentiments and emotions are fully realized and soar with a steady, chilling assurance. “The recording process wasn’t like anything I ever experienced,” Tanya recalls. “This EP has allowed me to breathe musically. I feel like all I have wanted to express for the past ten years has come forth with what we’ve done. The combination of heart, soul and the overwhelming amount of love that Michael and I have for one another comes across in this record.“ “I was sitting on the banks of the Euphrates River in Baghdad dreaming about one day being able to play and sing professionally for people all around the world,” Michael reflects. “As we recorded our music, I constantly had flashbacks of those desert dreams. I thought to myself that this is actually the perfect ending to usher in a new beginning in my life.” ]

[The War and Treaty play Boulevardia June 16, 2023 at Crown Center.]

5. The Freedom Affair – “Make Me Surrender (Instrumental)”
   from: FREEDOM IS LOVE INSTRUMENTALS / Sunflower Soul Records / Feb. 17, 2023
   [The Freedom Affair are proud to present “Freedom Is Love Instrumentals” as a follow-up to the 2020 debut album of the same title. Ranging from driving funk, to luscious soul, with a tinge of gospel, listeners are now able to explore the complex accompaniment that backed the powerhouse trio of ladies featured on the original album. “Freedom Is Love” was recorded and produced by Chris Hazelton, utilizing the best of vintage and new recording technologies to create an authentic experience, befitting of a soul record that would have been relevant 50 years ago as much as it will be 50 years from now. The Freedom Affair’s debut single “Rise Up” was released by Loveland, Ohio’s Colemine Records in June 2019 and has appeared in Netflix’s “Self Made” as well as the worldwide spot for Apple’s iWatch Series 6. // The Freedom Affair is: Cole Bales on guitar & sitar; Branden Moser on guitar; Chris Hazelton on bass guitar, organ, tambourine, glockenspiel, & chimes;
   Dave Brick on drums; Pete Carroll on trumpet; Brett Jackson on tenor sax, baritone sax, & tambourine. Additional Musicians: Pat Conway on congas, Alyssa Bell on viola, Elizabeth Codd on violin, Matt Bennett on violin. John Wickersham on timpani, Pamela Baskin-Watson on piano, and Nick Howell -on tambourine. All Horn & String Arrangements by Chris Hazelton except: “Heartaches Don’t Come Easy” and “Give A Little Love” by Pete Carroll & Brett Jackson, “Don’t Shoot” by Chris Hazelton & Alyssa Bell. Produced, Recorded, & Mixed by Chris Hazelton. Assistant Produced by Dave Brick. Rhythm Section on Track 10 recorded by Chad Meise. Mastered by JJ Golden at Golden Mastering license]

[The Freedom Affair play Boulevardia June 16, 2023 at Crown Center.]

6. Paris Williams – “LONDON, TOKYO (feat. Sam Wells)” (radio edit)
   from: REBEL HEART / Bitter Sweet Sounds / January 31, 2023
   [Paris Williams is a Rapper/Producer originally from Muskegon, MI. Previously Paris Williams released the single, Hopscotch” on June 21, 2022. He released,“Chunky”on April 20, 2022. He released the single, “Sunsets & Solariums (feat. Bloom Allen)” on October 21, 2021 through Bittersweet Sounds. From Shuttlecock Music Magazine: “Co-produced by Williams, Bloom Allen, and Internet Brad, the track features a sublime mixture of bright, inviting rhymes and the type of nocturnal rhythms you can do schoolwork to, or whatever that YouTube stream is. The single is backed by another track called “As Of Late,” which Williams accurately described at a recent show as (paraphrasing) ‘two minutes of straight bars.’ More info at: allmylinks.com/popstarparis]

[Paris Williams will be our guest on WMM next week on March 8, 2023.]

7. Danielle Ate the Sandwich – “Other Cards To Play”
   from: Over Again (24 Hour Album) / Danielle Ate the Sandwich / February 26, 2023
   [The 6 songs on this album were written and recorded in 24 hours on February 25th-26th, 2023, during Danielle Ate the Sandwich’s 8th annual 24 Hour Album. This project challenges the artist to write, record, produce, and release a new album in just twenty four hours, live streaming the process to her fans. Patrons of Danielle Ate the Sandwich tuned in from all across the world to suggest ideas and offer support with Danielle during live streams held throughout the 24 hours. Life is short! Stay up all night and make stuff! // On February 20, 2022 Danielle Ate The Sandwich released the 7-track release, “Continued Curfew (24 Hour Album 2022)”. Danielle Ate The Sandwich released the 7-song album, 24 HOUR ALBUM (2021), on April 25, 2021. The 7 songs on this album were written and recorded in 24 hours on April 24th-25th, 2021, during Danielle Ate the Sandwich’s 6th annual 24 Hour Album. On May 28, 2021 Danielle Ate the Sandwich released, It’s Not a Burden (Original Songs from the Documentary Film) on Youngest Daughter Records. It’s Not A Burden is a powerful and brilliant film about the joys and pain of raising elderly parents. The songs are produced by Joanna Katcher. // Danielle Ate The Sandwich released the single, “A Weight, A Wall” on June 1, 2021. Danielle Ate The Sandwich released the single, “Goodbye to You” on August 22, 2021. More info at: http://www.danielleatethesandwich.com.]

[Danielle Ate the Sandwich will travel to New York to teach and perform at The Ashokan Center for Uke Fest, May 26th-29th! Information and registration: https://ashokancenter.org/product/uke-fest-2023%5D

10:30 – Underwriting

10:32 – Interview with Tim Miller

Tim Miller is an internationally acclaimed performance artist and gay rights activist. Tim has performed in such venues as the Yale Repertory Theatre, the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He has sold out shows from London to DC to Australia to Los Angeles. He addresses issues of gender, immigration, homophobia, and censorship. As one of the “NEA Four,” who successfully sued the federal government for violating their First Amendment rights when their funding was rescinded in the early 1990s, Miller has always played an important role in defending queer artistic expression on stage. Tim is cofounder of the two most important performance spaces in the country: PS 122 now known as, Performance Space New York and Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, California. Tim Miller’s autobiographical explorations into identity, politics, and art through the lens of his own experiences lead to visceral, humorous, and poignant performances. Tim Miller is the author of Shirts & Skin, Body Blows: Six Performances, and 1001 Beds: Performances, Essays, and Travels. Tim Miller’s newest book, A Body in the O, Performances and Stories was released last year from University of Wisconsin Press.

Tim Miller is currently serving as Artist in Residence at the University of Missouri at Columbia through March 5, 2023. Tim Miller’s new performance, A BODY IN THE O will be presented Thursday, March 2, at 7:30 PM, in Studio 4, McKee Gymnasium, 672 Hitt St., Columbia, Missouri. More info at: http://www.timmillerperformer.com

Tim Miller, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Tim Miller recently flew into the midwest from California to be a part of a Residency at The University of Missouri, but before traveling to Columbia, Tim first stopped off in at Kansas University in Lawrence, Kansas. Tim has written about his mom and family being from Kansas, and his mom’s love of sunflowers.

Congratulations to Tim Miller on his new book, A Body in The O. It is important, and funny, and subversive, and a guidebook for queer performance artists everywhere, and high school speech and forensics team members.

The cover of Tim’s book is a photograph shot by Dona Ann McAdams of Tim in 1984, after he had returned to the West Coast after living in NYC. Tim was wearing hot pants and a crop top and he climbed up from the back of the giant HOLLYWOOD sign, in the Hollywood Hills where he stood inside the letter O.

Tim talked about how The wooden O was how Shakespeare described his globe theatre.

Tim Miller writes in his new book how solo theatre performers are the first responders.

Informed by Tim’s own queer sense of justice, his experiences with women’s studies, and serving time in a punk band, Tim’s work in theatre, he found the tools, to tell the stories about his life and connect them to the world around us.

Mark Manning writes: “I first met Tim Miller in 1992. He led performance art workshops for gay men in Kansas City, while you were here to also perform your piece “My Queer Body” at the Granada Theatre in Kansas City, Kansas. And was Grand Marshall in our Gay Pride Parade.”

“Tim Miller, for me you have been a teacher, and guide. In 1990 when I wrote and performed my first performance piece, in an art space in Kansas City, about being in a “gay bashing,” I didn’t know where I fit in, your work, and your sense of community helped me understand that I was part of something bigger. That the personal is political. I searched out opportunities to find your writings, see the artist of the NEA 4 live on stage, and even ritualize the works by Karen Findley.”

As one of the “NEA Four,” who successfully sued the federal government for violating their First Amendment rights when their funding was rescinded in the early 1990s. Tim has written a lot about the Supreme Court, and has had his own up-close and personal experience with the United States Supreme Court. Recently, with the appointment of three justices shoved onto the court by Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell, our Supreme Court has started taking away rights and liberties from US Citizens. We asked Tim about his observations of the current Supremes.

Tim Miller travels all over the world performing his works, teaching workshops, doing residencies in Colleges and Universities, often in smaller communities. Still he encounters audiences that have never heard a gay person tell their story, out loud, in a theatre or space.

Tim Miller writes that is ultimately it is ALL About LOVE.

Tim’s book is dedicated Alistair McCartney Tim’s husband. You experiences with immigration, and marriage equality are some of the stories you share in A Body In The O.

Tim Miller’s newest book, A Body in the O, Performances and Stories was released from University of Wisconsin Press.

Tim Miller, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Tim Miller is currently serving as Artist in Residence at the University of Missouri at Columbia through March 5, 2023. Tim Miller’s new performance, A BODY IN THE O will be presented Thursday, March 2, at 7:30 PM, in Studio 4, McKee Gymnasium, 672 Hitt St., Columbia, Missouri.

More info at: http://www.timmillerperformer.com

10:50

8. Overcoats – “Never Let You Go”
   from: Winner / Never Fall Back Records / April 7, 2023
   [Overcoats is the New York-based female duo of Hana Elion and JJ Mitchell. // The third full-length from Overcoats, Winner takes place in the kind of New York City spaces meant for unencumbered dreaming: fire escapes and rooftops, downtown late at night, the majestic Manhattan skyline as glimpsed from the George Washington Bridge. But in paying homage to the city that formed them, singer/songwriters Hana Elion and JJ Mitchell set their storytelling against a sonic backdrop more reminiscent of wide-open landscapes—an unbridled and euphoric sound that evokes the wild rush of hitting the road with your closest confidant, with no particular destination in mind. // Produced by two-time Grammy-winner Daniel Tashian (a co-producer on Kacey Musgraves’s widely acclaimed Golden Hour), Winner marks an evolution of the graceful musicality first displayed on Overcoats’ debut album YOUNG (a 2017 release that earned praise from outlets like the New York Times and NPR Music, who placed it at #4 on its best-of-the-year list). As a bold departure from YOUNG’s sparse electronic pop and the atmospheric indie-rock of The Fight (a 2020 release that nabbed them a Breakthrough Artist nomination from the American Association of Independent Music), the album encompasses a warm and luminous sound sculpted from a tightly curated mix of elements: earthy guitar tones, elegantly rugged textures, the duo’s signature heavenly harmonies. // Produced by Daniel Tashian except “Horsegirl” produced by Jackson Phillips & “Attention” produced by Nick Lobel. Co-produced by Mikey Reaves on “Never Let You Go” & “Vagabond” // Engineered by Konrad Snyder at The Study in Nashville, TN // Mixed by Lars Stalfors (“Horsegirl”, “New Suede Shoes”, “Green Eyes”, & “Vagabond” // Mixed by Tony Maserati (“Never Let You Go” & “Better Off”) // Mixed by James Krausse (“Want You Back”, “Say My Name”, “Attention”, “Don’t You Wanna”, & “Winner” // Mastered by Ruairi O’Flaherty at Nomograph Mastering in Los Angeles, CA . // Their debut album YOUNG was released on April 21, 2017. We played “Nighttime hangover” on March 8, 2017. Their captures a sound rich in minimalism and melody: songs of connection and tension, on the depths of love and challenges of family. Overcoats’ music draws strength from vulnerability, finding light through darkness, and the catharsis of simple, honest songwriting. YOUNG is about a transformation: the passage into womanhood, sung through the shared experience of two best friends. YOUNG was written by Overcoats and co-produced by Nicolas Vernhes (Daughter, The War On Drugs, Dirty Projectors, Cass McCombs) and experimental R&B artist Autre Ne Veut, with additional production from Myles Avery and mixing by Ben Baptie (Lapsley, Lianne La Havas, Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson). All songs written by Hana Rose Elion, Justine Mitchell and Adley Arthur Atkin.][Overcoats played Middle of The Map Fest]

9. Lonnie Fisher – “Beautiful Star”
   from: BEAUTIFUL STAR / Lonnie Fisher / February 9, 2022
   [Last year, Lonnie Fisher’s 8-song, solo album FAMOUS GIRL was part of WMM’s 120 Best Recordings of 2022. FAMOUS GIRL was released January 19, 2022 and was engineered by Ed Rose and Duane Trower with contributions from: Chris Nunez. Tim Jenkins, Tim Manning, and Julia Reynolds. On October 22, 2021 with his band, Lonnie Fisher And The Funeral released, HAUNTED with Lonnie Fisher on lead vocals, 5 String Guitar & Keyboards; Tim Jenkins on guitars; Chris Nunez on drums, Tim Manning on bass, & Julia Reynolds on vocals & keyboards.Lonnie Fischer played a solo album release show for his new album BEAUTIFUL STAR at The Brick, 1727 McGeee Street, KCMO, on Friday, December 23, at 8:00 PM with The Criterz and Killer City. More information at: http://www.lonniefisher.bandcamp.com.]

10. John Vanderslice – “Crystals 26”
    from: “Crystals 26” – Single / Tiny Telephone / February 15, 2023
    [John Vanderslice was born May 22, 1967 in Gainesville, Florida. He is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and recording engineer. He is the owner and founder of Tiny Telephone, an analog recording studio with locations in San Francisco Mission District and North Oakland. He released 10 full-length albums and 5 remix records and EPs on Dead Oceans and Barsuk Records and has collaborated with musicians such as The Mountain Goats, St. Vincent, and Spoon. // Since 2014, Vanderslice has been a full-time record producer at Tiny Telephone and has worked with Frog Eyes, Samantha Crain, the Mountain Goats, and Grandaddy. He has previously worked with Sophie Hunger, Bombadil, Strand Of Oaks and Spoon. // Vanderslice grew up in rural North Florida before his family moved to Maryland when he was 11. In 1989, he graduated with a degree in economics from the University of Maryland, where he also studied art history. Vanderslice moved to San Francisco in 1990. While supporting himself as a waiter, Vanderslice took classes at University of California, Berkeley, with the intention of becoming an English teacher. Vanderslice then spent five years as a member of the experimental band Mk Ultra, with whom he released three albums in the 1990s. The last of these, The Dream Is Over, received a 9.2 from Pitchfork. // In 1997, he founded Tiny Telephone, a 3,000 sq. ft., two-room recording studio in the Mission District of San Francisco. The studio was initially used as a rehearsal space before being developed as a full-time, all-analog recording studio. Bands who have recorded in the studio include Death Cab for Cutie, Sleater-Kinney, Okkervil River, Deerhoof, The Mountain Goats, The Magnetic Fields, Tune-yards, and Spoon. He opened Tiny Telephone’s Oakland studio in late 2015. // In 2000, Vanderslice released his first solo album, Mass Suicide Occult Figurines, and briefly gained some national media attention for the single “Bill Gates Must Die” after concocting a hoax in which Microsoft supposedly threatened legal action over the song; Vanderslice had trouble manufacturing the CD because the artwork resembled that of a Windows installation disc, and at least one manufacturer was wary of legal action. During the controversy, he was interviewed by Spin, Wired, and the San Francisco Chronicle. // Many songs on the 2005 album Pixel Revolt referenced the September 11, 2001 attacks and the Iraq War and were more overtly political in their lyrical content. The album earned an 8.3 rating on Pitchfork and was cited for its “meticulous arrangements” with “everything in its right place”, and declared an “excellent album”. The album’s ending resolves the narrator’s struggles with acute depression (“Dead Slate Pacific”) and suicidal thoughts (“The Golden Gate”) with a love song to psychotropic drugs (“CRC 7173, Affectionately”). // The title of Vanderslice’s 2007 album, Emerald City, references both the nickname of the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad and the name of the city in The Wizard of Oz. He has said about the album: “I was so beaten down after the 2000 election and after 9/11 and then the invasion of Iraq, Afghanistan; I was so depleted as a person after all that stuff happened, that I had to write my way out of it. I really had to write political songs because for me it is a way of making sense and processing what is going on.” Emerald City achieved a score of 82/100 on Metacritic. Entertainment Weekly called the album “a gleaming gem” that doesn’t disappoint. Billboard’s review of the record called Vanderslice an “always perceptive lyricist”. Calling Vanderslice a “master story-teller”, Matt Fink of Paste said that Emerald City was “vividly imagined yet subtle in tone, with conflicted character sketches unfolding around somber synth melodies, creaky electronic effects, and fuzzy acoustic guitar strums.” // In 2009, with Romanian Names, Vanderslice broke away from overtly political lyrical content characteristic of previous albums and turned his focus to personal reflections on romance and a modern person’s relationship to the natural landscape. Maintaining his commitment to fully analog production, Vanderslice recorded guitar and piano tracks for this album in his analog basement studio of his San Francisco home. He completed further instrumentation and production at his own Tiny Telephone recording studio with producer Scott Solter. // In 2010, Vanderslice released a free EP called Green Grow The Rushes. // A full album, White Wilderness, was released on January 25, 2011, on Dead Oceans. Here, Vanderslice forwent his usual meticulous process of manipulating and heavily over-dubbing tracks in the recording studio, in favor a pared-down production style. He recorded the album live with Minna Choi and the 19-member Magik*Magik Orchestra, the house orchestra of Tiny Telephone, in three days at Berkeley’s historically-renowned Fantasy Studios. Vanderslice wrote acoustic versions of each song, while Choi wrote all orchestral arrangements. The collaboration resulted in a looser sound that maintained the structural complexity and pop sensibility of Vanderslice’s previous songwriting.Lyrically, Vanderslice reflects on his trajectory as a musician and performer and draws inspiration from the California landscape. “The Piano Lesson” recounts early memories of learning to play the piano as a child, while “After It Ends” imagines a performer destroying and escaping his venue at the end of a show. The romping “Convict Lake” is an autobiographical account of an overdose on LSD during a camping trip at this Sierra Nevada, California, lake. It was produced and recorded by John Congleton. // In January 2012, Vanderslice left his record contract with Dead Oceans. He created a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to start his own label and reached his $18,500 goal within hours of starting the campaign,[26] which ultimately resulted in his ninth album, Dagger Beach. // With Dagger Beach, Vanderslice pushed experimentation with analog production techniques to the forefront of his songwriting. For some songs, including “Harlequin Press” and “Damage Control”, he tried to avoid familiar song structures by writing over improvised drum parts played by longtime collaborator Jason Slota. On the album, Vanderslice revisits the theme of navigating the California landscape as a metaphor for personal relationships: “Raw Wood” reflects on solo camping in Wildcat camp of Point Reyes National Park, while “North Coast Rep” describes a disintegrating friendship by way of a found photograph of the Sonoma, California, landscape. // In conjunction with Dagger Beach, Vanderslice released his own full cover version of David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs. The idea for the cover album came in August 2012, when Vanderslice performed Diamond Dogs in full at the Vogue Theater in San Francisco, followed by a screening of Michel Gondry’s cult classic, The Science of Sleep. After intensive rehearsing for a single show with a limited audience, Vanderslice decided to channel his creative efforts with Bowie’s original material into an entire cover version of the album. It was released on limited edition vinyl in June 2013. Using the original album as a backbone to experiment and improvise in the recording studio with collaborators, Vanderslice altered lyrics, song structures, chord progressions, and titles of many of the songs. // With full control of the production and distribution of his self-released albums and a commitment to quality control, Vanderslice had both Dagger Beach and Diamond Dogs pressed on 200-gram vinyl by audiophile Quality Record Pressings plant. In response to widespread music file sharing and in an effort to control sound quality of distributed files, he has made high-quality music files of many self-released songs freely available online.// In an interview with The New Yorker, Vanderslice stated that a near-death experience in 2014, in which the van he was touring in almost flipped on Interstate 80 in Ohio, prompted him to quit touring and making records. Surviving the incident was a life-altering experience: “After that happened, maybe a second later, I was like, I’m done. I don’t want to die in a van. It wasn’t sad, it wasn’t celebratory. It was just like, eh, I had a good run.” // Vanderslice is a proponent of using analog instruments and recording equipment to produce a richer, more raw sound, which he has sometimes called “sloppy hi-fi”. He has collaborated closely with engineer/producers in the production of his albums, including John Congleton, Scott Solter, and John Croslin.// Vanderslice was a contributing producer on the Spoon album, Gimme Fiction, and also produced The Mountain Goats albums We Shall All Be Healed, The Sunset Tree, and Heretic Pride. In March and April 2009, he toured alongside The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle in the “Gone Primitive Tour”. These shows featured Vanderslice and Darnielle each playing acoustic sets and then performing material together. // On several occasions, Vanderslice has chosen bands to tour with him who have gone on to widespread recognition and critical respect, including Sufjan Stevens, Okkervil River, The Tallest Man On Earth, and St. Vincent. // Vanderslice is influenced by film and is a fan of David Lynch, whose work is referenced in his song “Promising Actress”. He is a prolific amateur photographer, and has taken publicity photos for Thao Nguyen, The Mountain Goats, Will Sheff of Okkervil River, and Mirah. He has also had his work used as album artwork by Matt Nathanson, Carey Mercer of Frog Eyes, and Mobius Band, as well as for his own 2009 release, Romanian Names.]

11:00 – Station ID

11. Cardio Party – “Sphinx of Black Quartz”
    from: Emergentsia EP / Cardiac Records / November 1, 2022
    [Anthony Cruz & Olivia “Liv” Wyrick are the musicians that make up the band Cardio Party, an electronic duo creating dreamy soundscapes balanced with energetic choruses, pieced together like poetry, sharing a glimpse into their hearts & souls. Both raised in Wichita, Kansas, Anthony and Liv met in middle school where they bonded over their shared musical preferences. In 2012, they found their niche producing electronic music. Both adept at music production of all kinds, Anthony’s primary focus is mixing and mastering, while Liv focuses on composition and sound design. In 2021, the duo released a new song every month, culminating in their album CALISTHENICS. In 2022, they released their EP, EMERGENTSIA. They are currently working on their next album, ALLOSTATIS releasing a new single every month in 2023. More info at: soundcloud.com/cardioparty]

11:03 – Interview with Anthony Cruz & Olivia “Liv” Wyrick

Anthony Cruz & Olivia “Liv” Wyrick are the musicians that make up the band Cardio Party, an electronic duo creating dreamy soundscapes balanced with energetic choruses, pieced together like poetry, sharing a glimpse into their hearts & souls. Both raised in Wichita, Kansas, Anthony and Liv met in middle school where they bonded over their shared musical preferences. In 2012, they found their niche producing electronic music. Both adept at music production of all kinds, Anthony’s primary focus is mixing and mastering, while Liv focuses on composition and sound design. In 2021, the duo released a new song every month, culminating in their album CALISTHENICS. In 2022, they released their EP, EMERGENTSIA. They are currently working on their next album, ALLOSTATIS releasing a new single every month in 2023. More info at: soundcloud.com/cardioparty

Anthony Cruz & Olivia “Liv” Wyrick Thank you for being with us on WMM

Anthony Cruz & Olivia “Liv” Wyrick are the musicians that make up the band Cardio Party, an electronic duo creating dreamy soundscapes balanced with energetic choruses, pieced together like poetry, sharing a glimpse into their hearts & souls.

Both raised in Wichita, Kansas, Anthony and Liv met in middle school where they bonded over their shared musical preferences.

In 2012, they found their niche producing electronic music.

Both adept at music production of all kinds, Anthony’s primary focus is mixing and mastering, while Liv focuses on composition and sound design.

In 2021, the duo released a new song every month, culminating in their album CALISTHENICS.

In 2022, they released their EP, EMERGENTSIA.

They are currently working on their next album, ALLOSTATIS releasing a new single every month in 2023. More info at: soundcloud.com/cardioparty

Anthony Cruz & Olivia “Liv” Wyrick Thank you for being with us on WMM

Cardio Party are currently working on their next album, ALLOSTATIS and are releasing a new single every month in 2023. More info at: soundcloud.com/cardioparty

11:18

12. Cardio Party – “Pick Up The Phone” – Single
    from: “Pick Up The Phone” – Single / Cardiac Records / March 1, 2023
    [Anthony Cruz & Olivia “Liv” Wyrick are the musicians that make up the band Cardio Party, an electronic duo creating dreamy soundscapes balanced with energetic choruses, pieced together like poetry, sharing a glimpse into their hearts & souls. Both raised in Wichita, Kansas, Anthony and Liv met in middle school where they bonded over their shared musical preferences. In 2012, they found their niche producing electronic music. Both adept at music production of all kinds, Anthony’s primary focus is mixing and mastering, while Liv focuses on composition and sound design. In 2021, the duo released a new song every month, culminating in their album CALISTHENICS. In 2022, they released their EP, EMERGENTSIA. They are currently working on their next album, ALLOSTATIS releasing a new single every month in 2023. More info at: soundcloud.com/cardioparty]

13. Yo La Tengo – “Fallout”
    from: This Stupid World / Matador Records / February 10, 2023
    [Yo La Tengo (YLT; Spanish for “I’ve got it”) is an American indie rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan (guitars, piano, vocals), Georgia Hubley (drums, piano, vocals), and James McNew (bass, vocals). In 2015, original guitarist Dave Schramm rejoined the band and appears on their fourteenth album, Stuff Like That There. // Despite achieving limited mainstream success, Yo La Tengo has been called “the quintessential critics’ band” and maintains a strong cult following.[3] Though they mostly play original material, the band performs a wide repertoire of cover songs both in live performance and on record. // Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley formed the band as a couple in 1984. They chose the name Yo La Tengo, Spanish for “I have it”. The name came from a baseball anecdote that occurred during the 1962 season, when New York Mets center fielder Richie Ashburn and shortstop Elio Chacón found themselves colliding in the outfield. When Ashburn went for a catch, he would scream, “I got it! I got it!” only to run into Chacón, a Venezuelan who spoke only Spanish. Ashburn learned to yell, “Yo la tengo! Yo la tengo!” instead. In a later game, Ashburn happily saw Chacón backing off. He relaxed, positioned himself to catch the ball, and was instead run over by left fielder Frank Thomas, who understood no Spanish and had missed a team meeting that proposed using the words “Yo la tengo!” as a way to avoid outfield collisions.[5] After getting up, Thomas asked Ashburn, “What the hell is a yellow tango?” // Kaplan and Hubley placed an advertisement to recruit other musicians who shared their love for bands such as the Soft Boys, Mission of Burma, and Arthur Lee’s Love.[3] The group’s debut recording was a 7″ single entitled “The River of Water” backed with a cover of Lee’s “A House Is Not a Motel”, released in late 1985 with Dave Schramm on lead guitar and Dave Rick on bass. After recording “Private Doberman” for inclusion on a Coyote Records compilation entitled Luxury Condos Coming to Your Neighborhood Soon, Rick left the band and was replaced by Mike Lewis, the founding bass player of Boston garage-punk bands DMZ and Lyres, who was also a member of Brooklyn garage rock band the A-Bones throughout his tenure in YLT. // In 1986, Yo La Tengo released their first LP, Ride the Tiger on Coyote Records. Produced by former Mission of Burma bassist Clint Conley who also took over bass duties on three songs, the album “marked Yo La Tengo as a band with real potential” according to reviewer Mark Deming. Kaplan was credited as “naive guitar” on the sleeve, and in the liner notes for the 1993 reissue of the album on City Slang Records, went so far as to say “Dave’s guitar playing is inarguably the best thing about the record.” // Schramm and Lewis left the band after the album’s release, with Kaplan subsequently taking on the role of lead guitar and Stephan Wichnewski joining to play bass. The group’s next album New Wave Hot Dogs (1987) sold poorly, but, in the words of Mark Deming, “was a quantum leap over the sound of their debut.” // The release of President Yo La Tengo in 1989 did much to establish the band’s reputation among rock critics including Robert Christgau who praised the “mysterioso guitar hook” in the first song titled “Barnaby, Hardly Working”. Produced by Gene Holder of The dB’s, the album was the band’s last release on Coyote. Despite the positive reception of the album, sales were still poor and Wichnewski left the band not long after. Hubley and Kaplan carried on as a duo and began playing two-electric-guitar shows. Kaplan, though typically a pragmatist, started carrying a bug trapped in amber in his pocket for luck. // Yo La Tengo reunited with Dave Schramm in 1990 to record Fakebook, an album of mostly acoustic tunes, including covers of Cat Stevens, Gene Clark, the Kinks, Daniel Johnston, among others, with five original songs by the band themselves, including an acoustic version of Barnaby Hardly Working. Again produced by Gene Holder, the album’s folk sound was a change of pace for the band. Years later, Kaplan recalled that the album was “just me and Georgia looking for an excuse to record with Dave Schramm and Al Greller” who played guitar and double bass on the album, respectively. // In 1991, with Dave Schramm in tow, Yo La Tengo collaborated with Daniel Johnston on the song “Speeding Motorcycle” which was released as a single. The band also released a 7″ single on Bar/None Records with the song “Walking Away from You” backed with a cover of Beat Happening’s “Cast a Shadow.” Gene Holder produced the single and played the bass. The That Is Yo La Tengo EP released later that year included some tracks that would end up on the group’s next LP. // After the release of That Is Yo La Tengo, James McNew (who also records under the solo moniker Dump) began playing bass with the band, forming the trio that continues to make up the band today. According to McNew, “I originally signed on as a fill-in for a short US tour, and a 4-week summer tour of Europe with Eleventh Dream Day. One night after a show in Munster, I was to look after our box of merchandise while Ira and Georgia went gallovanting through the town, meeting their policemen. Needless to say, during our soundcheck in Hamburg the next day, it suddenly dawned on me that I had left the box filled with copies of this EP back at the club in Munster. Oh man, was I in trouble… Sure… blame it on the rookie.” // The band recorded May I Sing with Me in Boston with Holder producing and Lou Giordano engineering. The album was released on Alias Records in 1992. Three of the album’s eleven songs (“Swing for Life”, “Out the Window” and “Five-Cornered Drone”) were carried over from the That Is Yo La Tengo EP and feature Holder on bass. The Upside-Down EP was released on CD in support of the album, rounding out the band’s releases on Alias. // In 1993, Yo La Tengo began their partnership with Matador Records, releasing a 7″ and CD5 of the song “Shaker” which the band recorded with John Siket in New Jersey. The following LP, 1993’s Painful, was also the beginning of the band’s fruitful creative partnership with producer Roger Moutenot, who has produced all of their subsequent albums up until 2013’s Fade, which was produced by John McEntire. Painful is the first Yo La Tengo album to feature James McNew on every song. Ira Kaplan explains: “I think this group really started when we made the record Painful. . . . Painful was the first record that we made as the three of us, and I think it sounds different from the things that came before it. Even though I can see connections with the earlier records and things we’ve done since, it really seems like mostly we’ve built on that record. Anything from before then is really, really different to me. Since Painful, I think we’ve gotten more confident and more willing to trust ourselves and trust each other, and probably better at dealing with things that go wrong.” // Rob Sheffield, writing in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide remarked that McNew “became an essential part of the sound on Painful, the 1993 album that kept every promise Yo La Tengo ever made and blew their previous highlights away.” Critical reaction was quite positive, with reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine calling it “a subtly addicting album.” Robert Christgau also praised the group once again, writing in his review that Yo La Tengo is “always friendly. This is not the forbidding experimentation of an aspiring vanguard. This is the fooling around of folks who like to go out on Saturday night and make some noise—and then go home humming it.” The band released Electr-O-Pura in 1995 to similar acclaim. For the first time, all songs were credited to the band as a whole rather than individual members; this became the norm for all future releases. // The band’s 1997 LP I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One synthesized the group’s eclectic combination of folk, punk rock, shoegazing, long instrumental noise-jams, and electronic music into a sprawling, multi-faceted style. Critical reaction was extremely positive; Pitchfork awarded the album a 9.7 out of 10, and AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that it was “arguably Yo La Tengo’s finest and most coherent album to date.” Kaplan recalled a turning point in the band’s musical progression: “I think after Electr–O-Pura we’ve had a direction of trying not to worry too hard about what the next album is going to sound like. Everything we’ve ever played on we just do whatever seems right at the moment, we just write a bunch of songs, and then go one baby step at the time and just do what seems right.” // With their critical reputation higher than ever before, the band toured extensively and their fan base continued to grow. In 1998, they collaborated with Jad Fair and released the album Strange but True to mixed reviews. Yo La Tengo had a cameo role as a Salvation Army band in the 1998 Hal Hartley film The Book of Life, and feature on its 1999 soundtrack release.[17] The band entered the studio again in late 1999 to record their ninth LP. And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out was released in February 2000 to a warm reception. The album features some intimate songs with hushed, varied instrumentation and includes the 17-minute meditation “Night Falls On Hoboken”. // In 2001, Yo La Tengo recorded an instrumental score for eight short undersea documentaries by Jean Painlevé, entitled The Sounds of the Sounds of Science. The program debuted at the San Francisco Film Festival and has been performed live approximately twelve times. The band also released an EP with covers of Sun Ra’s “Nuclear War” in late 2002. // The band’s tenth LP, Summer Sun, was released in 2003. Although the album received generally favorable reviews, some critics found the album’s quiet atmosphere “underwhelming.” Others criticized the band for a perceived lack of invention. When asked about the album’s quiet nature, Kaplan stated,”We made a decision at the last second just to leave the loud songs off. We were looking at the material we recorded and just trying to put out the best record that we could. At a certain point, we just thought it seemed right to put out the quiet ones. I’ve been aware that there’s been some surprise about that and people saying it’s even quieter than the last record, which has sort of taken me by surprise.” // Yo La Tengo collaborated with Yoko Ono on the 2003 charity album Wig in a Box: Songs from and Inspired by Hedwig and the Angry Inch in support of the Harvey Milk High School. The band put together their first “best of” compilation entitled Prisoners of Love: A Smattering of Scintillating Senescent Songs: 1985–2003 which was released in 2005. They composed scores for four more films, 2005’s Junebug and Game 6, and 2006’s Shortbus and Old Joy. Their scores for these four films were collected on the 2008 compilation They Shoot, We Score. // Their eleventh LP, I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass, was released in 2006 to universal acclaim. Informed by their soundtrack work, the arrangements included more strings and horns than any of the band’s previous albums. Kaplan told an interviewer: “I think we gained an element of comfort with using that kind of instrumentation, and it became something we could draw on for our other songs.” In addition, the album was book-ended with two guitar jams lasting over ten minutes each. // In 2006, the band released Yo La Tengo Is Murdering the Classics, a compilation of their live impromptu cover-song performances on the New Jersey freeform radio station, WFMU. As part of the station’s annual fundraising marathon, listeners who call in to pledge money to the station may request a favorite which the band will then perform on the spot. In late 2007, the band began performing acoustically for “The Freewheelin’ Yo La Tengo” tour. Audiences were encouraged to request songs and ask questions which, Kaplan stated, the band tried to answer “in a strategic manner so that the answers to the questions will lead to the next song.” // In March 2008, Yo La Tengo performed under the alias “Condo Fucks” at Brooklyn’s Magnetic Field. As Condo Fucks, the band released an album of cover songs, Fuckbook, on Matador in March 2009. // Popular Songs, the band’s 12th album, was released on Sept. 8, 2009. The album was recorded in the band’s rehearsal space in New Jersey and features two songs with elaborate string sections (composed by jazz composer Richard Evans). It entered the Billboard chart at No. 58, the highest entry of the band’s career thus far. // In 2009, Yo La Tengo contributed to Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox, a tribute album for New Zealand rock and roll musician Chris Knox who suffered a stroke in June 2009. Yo La Tengo covered Knox’s song “Coloured”. All proceeds from the album go towards Knox’s recovery. Also in 2009, Yo La Tengo contributed a cover of the song “Gentle Hour” to the AIDS benefit album, Dark Was the Night, produced by the Red Hot Organization. // Preceding their album Popular Songs, Yo La Tengo released an EP entitled Here to Fall Remixes in the summer of 2010. Remixes of their single Here to Fall were done by De La Soul, RJD2, and Pete Rock. This was Yo La Tengo’s third out-of-the-box remix EP in 14 years, following the Autumn Sweater and Danelectro Remix EPs. // In 2012 Yo La Tengo recorded a cover of Todd Rundgren’s “I Saw the Light” for a fund raising cd titled “Super Hits Of The Seventies” for radio station WFMU. In August 2012, they announced the release of an EP in September 2012 to be followed by a full-length album in January 2013. The EP includes three versions of the song “Stupid Things”: the single version, a remix by EYƎ, and the original 12-minute instrumental version. // In 2014 they toured and performed live onstage as film maker Sam Green live narrated an evolving version of his new film The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller in Austin, Burlington, Detroit, Ithaca, Portland, New Orleans and Vancouver. // In 2014, they played an Indiana-based Night Ranger cover band Bobby Night Ranger in the final episode of season 6 of the television series Parks and Recreation. // On August 28, 2015, Yo La Tengo released Stuff Like That There, an album (and “a sequel of sorts to Fakebook”) of re-recorded versions of some of their old songs as well as covers, including songs by The Cure, Hank Williams, and Sun Ra. // In 2016, the band released Murder in the Second Degree, a second compilation of their live impromptu cover-song performances on the New Jersey freeform radio station, WFMU. // In 2017, the band played two dates in New York City with Robyn Hitchcock. The performances included the Hitchcock album “Black Snake Diamond Role” in its entirety, as well as collections of classic Hitchcock songs and covers of other artists. // In 2018, Yo La Tengo released their 15th studio album, There’s a Riot Going On, which Pitchfork decided ‘reflects the group’s greatest and most instantly recognizable strengths’. // In 2020, Yo La Tengo released We Have Amnesia Sometimes which was recorded over a 10-day period from late April to early May amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The album consists of five instrumental, ambient compositions which were recorded with one microphone in the room and the band spread out adhering to social distance protocols laid out by Governor Murphy of New Jersey. // On February 10, 2023, the band will release their seventeenth studio album This Stupid World. // Yo La Tengo have always had the core members Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley. They have had 14 bass players. James McNew has been the bass player since 1992’s May I Sing With Me.]

14. Iris DeMent – “How Long”
    from: Working On A World / FlariElla / February 24, 2023
    [Iris DeMent’s upcoming 7th full length album, WORKING ON A WORLD was stalled partway through by the pandemic, the record took six years to make with the help of three friends and co-producers: Richard Bennett, Pieta Brown, and Jim Rooney. It was Pieta Brown who gave the record its final push. “Pieta asked me what had come of the recordings I’d done with Jim and Richard in 2019 and 2020. I told her I’d pretty much given up on trying to make a record. She asked would I mind if she had a listen. So, I had everything we’d done sent over to her, and not long after that I got a text, bouncing with exclamation marks: ‘You have a record and it’s called Workin’ On A World!’” With Bennett back in the studio with them, Brown and DeMent recorded several more songs and put the final touches on the record in Nashville in April of 2022. // DeMent sets the stage for the album with the title track in which she moves from a sense of despair towards a place of promise. “Now I’m workin’ on a world I may never see ‘ Joinin’ forces with the warriors of love / Who came before and will follow you and me.” “Goin’ Down To Sing in Texas” is an ode not only to gun control, but also to the brave folks who speak out against tyranny and endure the consequences in an unjust world. // On October 6, 2020 iris DeMent released her single “Going Down To Sing In Texas.” Stereogum on October 13, 2020 wrote: Other than a handful of guest appearances, Americana legend Iris DeMent hasn’t released new music since her 2015 album The Trackless Woods, a collection of Anna Akhmatova poems set to original music. But DeMent is back today in a big way with “Going Down To Sing In Texas,” a lengthy rambler that’s a lot more serious than its casual, jazzy piano groove lets on. Over the course of nine minutes, DeMent addresses police brutality, George W. Bush (“What’s the deal with all these war criminals who get to walk around free?”), Islamophobia, progressive protesters (“I’m so proud of all of these young people for taking it to the streets”), gun control, Jeff Bezos (“Ain’t we all just a little bit tired of greedy people getting a free pass?”), the Chicks, the Squad, and Jesus Christ (“He spoke truth to power, he stood up for the poor/ The church today wouldn’t even let him through the door”) among other things.It’s a hell of a song, clear and direct yet artful in its conversational ease. Never forget that DeMent can go toe to toe with songwriting legends like her old duet partner John Prine. 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.”]

[Iris DeMent plays Knuckleheads 2715 Rochester Street, KCMO on Thursday, March 23, 2023 at 7:30 PM with guest Ana Egge opening the show.] [Iris DeMent joins us LIVE on WMM on March 22.]

11:30 – Underwriting

15. Sweet Honey In The Rock – “Sweet Sweet Honey”
    from: #LoveinEvolution / Appleseed Records / August 12, 2015
    [The renowned female African-American a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock shows off a new four-voice line-up that continues it’s ongoing evolution. Their first first studio recording in nine years, #LoveInEvolution’s breathtaking layers of voices often carry a strong sense of social and ecological urgency on original songs such as “Second Line Blues,” which challenges the current eruption of racial violence, and “Oh, Sankofa,” an angry summation of the last century of historical injustice against blacks. But there are also uplifting songs of life’s positives (“This Place Inside Where I Can Rest,” “A Prayer for the World: Song 23,” and the delightful single “IDK, But I’m LOL”) and rearranged traditional and cover songs relevant to the CD’s theme of improving individual and global existence while enduring the strains of daily life. Now in their 42nd year, Sweet Honey in the Rock has toured from Australia to Zimbabwe, performed in the White House at the request of President and First Lady Obama, accrued numerous honors, and established itself as an inspiring, empowering musical force worldwide. // Female centered and led, African-American a cappella ensemble. A Grammy Award-winning (and many times nominated) troupe who express their history as women of color. Founded in Washington in 1973 by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon who was teaching a vocal workshop with the Washington, D.C. Black Repertory Company. She was a Baptist minister’s daughter who had been on the front lines of the civil rights movement. In the 1960s, Reagon performed at schools, prisons and political rallies with the Freedom Singers in support of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. They performed “We Shall Not Be Moved” at the 1963 March on Washington. Reagon retired from the group in 2004 and was replaced by two singers in a lineup that is forever changing. (There have been more than 30 singers working in Sweet Honey over the years.) The ensemble has together worked from four women, to the difficult five-part harmony, with a sixth member translating with sign language. Their name was derived from a song, based on Psalm 81:16, which tells of a land so rich that when rocks were cracked open, honey flowed from them. Sweet Honey in the Rock has been producing music for more than 30 years. Although the members of the group have changed over 3 decades, their music has consistently combined contemporary rhythms and narratives with a musical style rooted in the Gospel music, spirituals and hymns of the African-American Church. They’ve addressed topics including motherhood, spirituality, freedom, civil rights, domestic violence, immigration issues, and racism.] [In 2008 Sweet Honey In The Rock joined forces with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for an historic collaboration, “Go In Grace.” Choreographed by Ailey dancer Hope Boykin, the work featured new music by Sweet Honey, who performed on stage with members of the Ailey troupe. Through song and dance he audience was taken on a journey into the challenges and joys of one special family. “Go with Grace” was part of the 35th anniversary celebration for Sweet Honey In The Rock, and the 50th anniversary celebration for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Sweet Honey In The Rock performed with Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre at The Midland Theatre in Kansas City.][On January 30, 2013 Sweet Honey In The Rock played the Muriel Kauffman Theatre at Kauffman Center For the Performing Arts.] [On February 23, 2018, Sweet Honey In The Rock played White Recital Hall at UMKC Conservatory of Music.]

[Sweet Honey in The Rock mark their 50th Anniversary with a three year celebration honoring their storied past and course for the future. The Ensemble play The Folly Theatre, 300 West 12th Street, KCMO, Friday, March 3, at 8:00 PM. More info at: http://www.follytheater.org]

11:35 – Interview with Aisha Kahlil of Sweet Honey In The Rock

Our next guest Aisha Kahlil possesses a dynamic, innate power and range in jazz, blues, traditional, contemporary, and African vocal styles and techniques. She joined Sweet Honey in The Rock in 1981. She has been part of 25 of the ensemble’s 27 album releases. Aisha Kahlil has also released her own solo album, and has worked extensively as a singer, dancer, teacher and acclaimed actress. Her original composition “Wodaabe Nights” was featured in the film soundtrack “Africans in America,” and her composition “Fulani Chant” was included in the film soundtrack “Down in the Delta,” directed by Maya Angelou, and the soundtrack “Climb Against the Odds produced by the Breast Cancer Fund. Ms Kahlil’s film credits include “Beloved” starring Oprah Winfrey and directed by Jonathan Demme, and with Sweet Honey in the Rock and James Horner, has written and recorded original music for the soundtrack of the TNT film, “Freedom Song,” starring Danny Glover and directed by Phil Robinson. SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK has been one of the most resilient and longstanding female ensembles in the history of contemporary music. the group performed at the White House at the request of President and Mrs. Obama during his first 100 days in office, they have toured in Europe, Australia and Africa, and served as artistic ambassadors for US Embassies based in Ethiopia, Peru, Jamaica, Swaziland and Belize.They are a three-time Grammy Award–nominated troupe who express their history as black women through song, dance, and sign language. Sweet Honey in the Rock was founded in 1973 by Bernice Johnson Reagon. Although the members have changed over five decades, the group continues to sing and perform worldwide. Over the decades, more than 20 individuals have lent their voices to Sweet Honey in the Rock. Sweet Honey in The Rock play The Folly Theatre, 300 West 12th Street, KCMO, Friday, March 3, at 8:00 PM. More info at: http://www.follytheater.org

Aisha Kahlil Thank you for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Ms. Kahlil’s interest in music was evident at an early age. She was a member of local choirs in her native Buffalo, New York, and during her high school years performed as a vocalist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in several productions, including Porgy and Bess, Carmen Jones, and The Messiah. During this time she also sang the role of Monica in a special WGBH production of Menotti’s The Medium, and performed at Carnegie Hall in Julius Eastman’s avant-garde composition The Thruway. She worked concurrently with the Studio Arena Theatre where she was awarded a full scholarship, and The Buffalo Black Drama Workshop, where she became interested in the music of such jazz artists as John Coltrane, Leon Thomas, Betty Carter, Yma Sumac, and Pharoah Sanders.

By the time she entered college as a theatre student at Northeastern University in Boston, it was clear that Ms. Kahlil had an intuitive inclination for vocal jazz. Although her formal training had been in European classical music, she began experimenting with innovative, improvisational vocal techniques. During the same period, she studied voice and music theory at the New England Conservatory of Music, and performed with Ebony Jua, a local jazz ensemble that toured the east coast music circuit. While at Northeastern, Aisha directed M(ego) and the Green Ball of Freedom, Where we at? , a play by Martie charles, and performed and directed Sister Sonji, by Sonia Sanchez.

Following her studies, Ms. Kahlil spent three years in the Bay area, where she worked as a vocalist and dancer with the Raymond Sawyer Theatre and Halifu Productions, while performing and recording with the avant-garde jazz trio Infinite Sound. She then returned to Boston, and there worked with such groups as Stan Strickland and Sundance and The Art of Black Dance and Music, in addition to teaching at the Institute for Contemporary Dance, The Joy of Motion, the Boston Center for the Arts, and as a consultant to the Boston public school system.

Ms. Kahlil’s artistic pursuits have taken her to New York City, where she studied extensively at the Alvin Ailey School, and with Frank Hatchett, Pepsi Bethel, Fred Benjamin, and Emiko and Yasuko Tokunaga. She also appeared in the Joseph Papp off Broadway production of The Haggadah, co – composed and performed in the musical Two Thousand Seasons, and danced with such companies as Titos Sampas’sTanawa. During this time, she also performed with Talib Kibwe( T.K. Blue) and Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand), and with Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra.

Since her arrival in Washington, D.C., she has worked with the D.C. Black Repertory Theatre and with Brother Ah and the Sounds of Awareness, and has been a featured artist in the Smithsonian Institution’s Jazz in the Palm Court, in which she presented a special performance of the music of Gertrude “Ma” Rainey; the Queen Mother of the Classic Blues, to rave reviews. Aisha has taught and performed for the African Heritage Dancers and Drummers, as a dancer in Kankouran, and taught at the Dance Place. She also served as artistic director for the Youth Ensemble of Dancers and Drummers at the Levine School of Music, directed and choreographed for the First World Dance Theatre, and co directed and performed for the First World Productions, where she also co wrote with Nitanju Bolade Casel the original production Bright Moments in Great Black Music.
As a member of Sweet Honey in the Rock, Ms. Kahlil has been voted Best Soloist by the Contemporary A Capella Society, for her work on her composition Fulani Chant, and also for her rendition of See See Rider. Her original composition Wodaabe Nights has been featured in the film soundtrack Africans in America, and her composition Fulani Chant has been included in the film soundtrack Down in the Delta, directed by Maya Angelou, as well as the soundtrack Climb against the Odds, a film produced by the Breast cancer Fund. Ms Kahlil’s film credits include Beloved, starring Oprah Winfrey and directed by Jonathan Demme, and with Sweet Honey in the Rock and James Horner, has written and recorded original music for the soundtrack of the TNT filmFreedom Song, starring Danny Glover and directed by Phil Robinson. In 2005, Aisha was a finalist with her own band MyKa and the whole World Band in the annual contest Battle of the Bands, sponsored by Discmakers, and is a winner in the International Songwriting Competition’s (ISC) performance category with her original song, The Jewel Light.

Aisha has toured with her band in the islands of Hawaii; performing at the Four Seasons Lodge at Koele, at Cassanova’s, and at Studio Maui, where she also taught workshops in vocal improvisation and movement. She has recently presented her signature workshops at the Kripalu Yoga Institute. Journey to My-Ka is her first solo release, and is a compilation of her own original compositions and arrangements.

Sweet Honey in the Rock is an all-woman, African-American a cappella ensemble. They are an American three-time Grammy Award–nominated troupe who express their history as black women through song, dance, and sign language.[1] Originally a four-person ensemble, the group has expanded to five-part harmonies, with a sixth member acting as a sign-language interpreter. Although the members have changed over five decades, the group continues to sing and perform worldwide.

Sweet Honey in the Rock was founded in 1973 by Bernice Johnson Reagon, who was teaching a vocal workshop with the Washington, D.C. Black Repertory Company. Reagon retired from the group in 2004. The name of the group was derived from a song, based on Psalm 81:16, which tells of a land so rich that when rocks were cracked open, honey flowed from them. Johnson has said that this first song in which four women blended their voices was so powerful, that there was no question what the name of the group should be. The ensemble’s most powerful messages are proclaimed through an enormous catalog of songs addressing the world’s woes. They are currently occupied with immigration injustices, congressional greed and lack of compassion for citizens, the environmental imbalance, racial issues and women’s issues.

Sweet Honey in the Rock has received several Grammy Award nominations, including one for their children’s album, Still the Same Me which received the Silver Award from the National Association of Parenting Publications. They contributed their version of Lead Belly’s “Grey Goose” for from the compilation album Folkways: A Vision Shared which won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album.

Their vocals appeared in a number of animated counting cartoons on the long-running PBS series Sesame Street, and the group was the subject of the 2005 documentary Sweet Honey in the Rock: Raise Your Voice.

The group has ventured through 20 vocalists since its creation. Embarking on a new chapter in their musical journey, Sweet Honey In The Rock now includes four core vocalists—Louise Robinson, Carol Maillard (both founding members), Nitanju Bolade Casel, and Aisha Kahlil. Shirley Childress, an American Sign Language Interpreter, performed live with the group from 1981 until her passing in 2017.

Influences: Sweet Honey in the Rock has been making music since the mid-1970s. Although the members of the group have changed over time, their music has consistently combined contemporary rhythms and narratives with a musical style rooted in the Gospel music, spirituals and hymns of the African-American Church. The ensemble composes much of their own music. They have addressed topics including motherhood, spirituality, freedom, civil rights, domestic violence, immigration issues, and racism. In their latest album, “#LoveinEvolution,” they address the additional topics of police shootings, specifically the Charleston church shooting, and the environment.

Members: Over the decades, more than 20 individuals have lent their voices to Sweet Honey in the Rock. Beginning as a quartet, the group is now composed of six African-American women (including a professional American Sign Language interpreter who accompanies the group on concert tours).

Current group members:
Nitanju Bolade Casel
Aisha Kahlil
Louise Robinson (an original ensemble member)
Carol Lynn Maillard (an original ensemble member)
Barbara Hunt (sign language interpreter)
Rochelle Rice
Christie Dashiell
Romeir Mendez (bassist)

Previous group members
Ysaye Maria Barnwell
Bernice Johnson Reagon (founder)
Shirley Childress Saxton (sign language interpreter) (B.1947-D.2017)
Arnae Batson
Mie
Dianaruthe Wharton
Evelyn Maria Harris
Rosie Lee Hooks
Ayodele Harrington
Ingrid Ellis
Tia Juana Starks
Patricia Johnson
Yasmeen Williams
Laura Sharp
Tulani Jordan Kinard
Helena Coleman
Geraldine Hardin
Akua Opokuwaa
Navasha Daya (special guest for “40 and Fierce Tour”)

On June 22, 2010, the group released the song “Are We a Nation?”, their response to Arizona’s controversial immigration law, SB-1070. An official music video of the song was released online on July 2, 2010. Directed by James Lester, the video was shot in New York City at Tainted Blue Recording Studio during a live recording session of the song. Amanda Navarro researched and provided the video’s archival images and Russel Soder was the cinematographer. Ramon Hervey II served as the project’s executive producer. The band donated a portion of the proceeds from the sales of “Are We a Nation?” to the Center for Community Change, an organization founded in 1968 to honor the life of Robert F. Kennedy. Sweet Honey in the Rock also joined The Sound Strike, boycotting performances within Arizona in protest of the law.

Sweet Honey in the Rock Discography
Sweet Honey in the Rock (1976)
B’lieve I’ll Run On… See What the End’s Gonna Be (1978)
Good News (1981)
We All… Every One of Us (1983)
The Other Side (1985)
Feel Something Drawing Me On (1985)
Breaths… The Best Of (1988)
Live at Carnegie Hall (1988)
All for Freedom (1989)
In This Land (1992)
Still on the Journey: The 20th Anniversary Album (1993)
I Got Shoes (1994)
Sacred Ground (1995)
Selections 1976–1988 (1997)
…Twenty Five… (1998)
Still the Same Me (2000)
Freedom Song (2000)
The Women Gather (2003)
Alive in Australia (2003)
Endings & Beginnings (2004)
Raise Your Voice (2005) [soundtrack]
Experience…101 (2007)
Go in Grace (2008)
“Are We a Nation?” (2010)
A Tribute — Live! Jazz at Lincoln Center (2013)
“Silent Night” (2014)

LoveInEvolution (2016)

Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards – 2008 – Best Musical Album For Children – Experience… 101
Grammy Awards – 2000 – Best Musical Album For Children – Still the Same Me

Sweet Honey in The Rock play The Folly Theatre, 300 West 12th Street, KCMO, Friday, March 3, at 8:00 PM. More info at: http://www.follytheater.org

Aisha Kahlil Thank you for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Sweet Honey in The Rock play The Folly Theatre, 300 West 12th Street, KCMO, Friday, March 3, at 8:00 PM. More info at: http://www.follytheater.org

11:47

16. Sweet Honey In The Rock – “IDK, But I’m LOL!”
    from: #LoveinEvolution / Appleseed Records / August 12, 2015
    [The renowned female African-American a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock shows off a new four-voice line-up that continues it’s ongoing evolution. Their first first studio recording in nine years, #LoveInEvolution’s breathtaking layers of voices often carry a strong sense of social and ecological urgency on original songs such as “Second Line Blues,” which challenges the current eruption of racial violence, and “Oh, Sankofa,” an angry summation of the last century of historical injustice against blacks. But there are also uplifting songs of life’s positives (“This Place Inside Where I Can Rest,” “A Prayer for the World: Song 23,” and the delightful single “IDK, But I’m LOL”) and rearranged traditional and cover songs relevant to the CD’s theme of improving individual and global existence while enduring the strains of daily life. Now in their 42nd year, Sweet Honey in the Rock has toured from Australia to Zimbabwe, performed in the White House at the request of President and First Lady Obama, accrued numerous honors, and established itself as an inspiring, empowering musical force worldwide. // Female centered and led, African-American a cappella ensemble. A Grammy Award-winning (and many times nominated) troupe who express their history as women of color. Founded in Washington in 1973 by Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon who was teaching a vocal workshop with the Washington, D.C. Black Repertory Company. She was a Baptist minister’s daughter who had been on the front lines of the civil rights movement. In the 1960s, Reagon performed at schools, prisons and political rallies with the Freedom Singers in support of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. They performed “We Shall Not Be Moved” at the 1963 March on Washington. Reagon retired from the group in 2004 and was replaced by two singers in a lineup that is forever changing. (There have been more than 30 singers working in Sweet Honey over the years.) The ensemble has together worked from four women, to the difficult five-part harmony, with a sixth member translating with sign language. Their name was derived from a song, based on Psalm 81:16, which tells of a land so rich that when rocks were cracked open, honey flowed from them. Sweet Honey in the Rock has been producing music for more than 30 years. Although the members of the group have changed over 3 decades, their music has consistently combined contemporary rhythms and narratives with a musical style rooted in the Gospel music, spirituals and hymns of the African-American Church. They’ve addressed topics including motherhood, spirituality, freedom, civil rights, domestic violence, immigration issues, and racism.] [In 2008 Sweet Honey In The Rock joined forces with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for an historic collaboration, “Go In Grace.” Choreographed by Ailey dancer Hope Boykin, the work featured new music by Sweet Honey, who performed on stage with members of the Ailey troupe. Through song and dance he audience was taken on a journey into the challenges and joys of one special family. “Go with Grace” was part of the 35th anniversary celebration for Sweet Honey In The Rock, and the 50th anniversary celebration for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Sweet Honey In The Rock performed with Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre at The Midland Theatre in Kansas City.][On January 30, 2013 Sweet Honey In The Rock played the Muriel Kauffman Theatre at Kauffman Center For the Performing Arts.] [On February 23, 2018, Sweet Honey In The Rock played White Recital Hall at UMKC Conservatory of Music.]

[Sweet Honey in The Rock mark their 50th Anniversary with a three year celebration honoring their storied past and course for the future. The Ensemble play The Folly Theatre, 300 West 12th Street, KCMO, Friday, March 3, at 8:00 PM. More info at: http://www.follytheater.org]

17. Janelle Monáe – “Float (feat. Seun Kuti & Egypt 80)”
    from: “Float (feat. Seun Kuti & Egypt 80)” – Single / Badboy Records / February 16, 2023
    [From Forbes.com, Feb 16, 2023 by Chris Malone Méndez: “Janelle Monáe Returns To Music With New Single ‘Float’. Since the release of their 2018 album Dirty Computer, Janelle Monáe has been demonstrating their talents in other media from the screen to the page. They appeared in hit movies like Moonlight, Hidden Figures, and more recently, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Last year, they released their first-ever book, The Memory Librarian, consisting of short stories set in the cyberpunk world of Dirty Computer. All the while, fans have wondered when — or if — Monáe would ever return to music, the arena where audiences everywhere first met the tuxedo-clad artist over a decade ago. // Today, Monáe is back with a new single titled “Float,” marking their first new music since the 2021 protest anthem “Say Her Name (Hell You Talmbout).” To bring the song to life, Monáe recruited Seun Kuti, the youngest son of Nigerian musical pioneer Fela Kuti, and his Afrobeat band Egypt 80 as featured guests. The track was released via Monáe’s Wondaland Records label and was produced by Snoh Aalegra collaborator Sensei Bruno and Wondaland signees Nate “Rocket” Wonder and Nana Kwabena. // “Ahhhh it feels good to be releasing music!!” the singer wrote on social media celebrating the song’s release. “Sending love and waves to everyone who takes the time to listen! I pray you hold these words close to your heart cause they came straight from mine.” // Monáe has been teasing an official return to music for a while, and “Float” appears to be only a taste of what’s to come. The cover art for “Float” features a tracklist obstructed largely by an orange vinyl record, leaving not much visible other than “Side A” and “Side B.” Details around the singer’s impending fifth studio album remain light, but given the now-customary five-year intervals between projects, fans can likely expect the LP to be released sometime this year.// Janelle Monáe Robinson was born on December 1, 1985 in Kansas City, Kansas and was raised in a working-class community of Kansas City, Quindaro. Her mother, Janet, worked as a janitor and a hotel maid. Her father, Michael Robinson Summers, was a truck driver. Monáe’s parents separated when Monáe was a toddler and her mother later married a postal worker. Monáe has a younger sister, Kimmy, from their mother’s remarriage. // Monáe was raised Baptist and learned to sing at a local church. Her family members were musicians and performers at the local AME church, the Baptist church, and the Church of God in Christ. Monáe dreamed of being a singer and a performer from a very young age, and has cited the fictional character of Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz as a musical influence. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which Monáe bought two copies of with her first check, was another source of inspiration. She performed songs from the album on Juneteenth talent shows, winning three years in a row. // As a teenager, Monáe was enrolled in the Coterie Theater’s Young Playwrights’ Round Table, which began writing musicals. One musical, completed when she was around the age of 12, was inspired by the 1979 Stevie Wonder album Journey Through “The Secret Life of Plants”. // Monáe attended F. L. Schlagle High School, and after high school, moved to New York City to study musical theater at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, where she was the only black woman in her class. Monáe enjoyed the experience, but feared that she might lose her edge and “sound, or look or feel like anybody else”. In a 2010 interview Monáe explained, “I felt like that was a home but I wanted to write my own musicals. I didn’t want to have to live vicariously through a character that had been played thousands of times – in a line with everybody wanting to play the same person.” // After a year and a half, Monáe dropped out of the academy and relocated to Atlanta, enrolling in Perimeter College at Georgia State University. She began writing her own music and performing around the campus. In 2003, Monáe self-released a demo album titled The Audition, which she sold out of the trunk of a Mitsubishi Galant. During this period, Monáe became acquainted with songwriters and producers Chuck Lightning and Nate Wonder. The three would eventually form the Wondaland Arts Collective. She worked at an Office Depot but was fired for answering a fan’s e-mail using a company computer, an incident that inspired the song “Lettin’ Go”, which in turn attracted the attention of Big Boi. // Janelle Monáe Robinson (/moʊˈneɪ/; born December 1, 1985) is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, actress, and record producer. Monáe is signed to Atlantic Records, as well as to her own imprint, the Wondaland Arts Society. Monáe has received eight Grammy Award nominations. Monáe won an MTV Video Music Award and the ASCAP Vanguard Award in 2010. Monáe was also honored with the Billboard Women in Music Rising Star Award in 2015 and the Trailblazer of the Year Award in 2018. In 2012, Monáe became a CoverGirl spokesperson. Boston City Council named October 16, 2013 “Janelle Monáe Day” in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, in recognition of her artistry and social leadership. // Monáe’s musical career began in 2003 upon releasing a demo album titled The Audition. In 2007, Monáe publicly debuted with a conceptual EP titled Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase). It peaked at number two on the US Top Heatseekers chart, and in 2010, through Bad Boy Records, Monáe released a first full-length studio album, The ArchAndroid, a concept album and sequel to her first EP. In 2011, Monáe was featured as a guest vocalist on fun.’s single “We Are Young”, which achieved major commercial success, topping the charts of more than ten countries and garnering Monáe a wider audience. Her second studio album, The Electric Lady, was released in 2013 and debuted at number five on the Billboard 200, serving as the fourth and fifth installments of the seven-part Metropolis concept series. // In 2016, Monáe made her theatrical film debut in two high-profile productions; Monáe starred in Hidden Figures as NASA mathematician and aerospace engineer Mary Jackson, and also starred in Moonlight. Hidden Figures was a box office success, while Moonlight won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 89th annual ceremony. Monáe’s third studio album, Dirty Computer, also described as a concept album, was released in 2018 to widespread critical acclaim; it was chosen as the best album of the year by several publications and earned Monáe two nominations at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. The album debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 and was further promoted by Monáe’s Dirty Computer Tour, which lasted from June to August 2018.]

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

Big THANK YOU to all of our wonderful listeners and friends who generously and thoughtfully donated to support KKFI 90.1 FM – Kansas City Community Radio during our Wednesday MidDay Medley broadcast today! Through the airwaves, and through social media, a total of 55 people donated a total of $3149.00 to allow us to continue our mission. THANK YOU to my incredible co-hosts: Betse Ellis & Marion Merritt, and special guest J Kelly Dougherty, and very special guest Hermon Mehari for sharing your brilliance with our listeners. Thank you to Scott Bunte, Lincoln Dreher and Darryl Oliver for taking our donations over the phones.

Next week on March 8, WMM plays more New & MidCoastal Releases PLUS we talk with Paris Williams about his new EP REBEL HEART released on January 31, 2023. we also talk with Frank Loose of Get Smart, Patrick Sumner and Aaron Rhoades about KC Punk Shindig, March 11 at 7:00 PM. At Farewell, 6515 Stadium Drive, KCMO presented by Bent Edge and Shuttlecock. We also talk with IVORY BLUE!!!

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

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Show #983