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

New & MidCoastal Releases
+ Claire Adams + Frank Alvarez + Wick Thomas

1. “It’s Showtime Folks”
from: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to All That Jazz / Casablanca / December 20, 1979
[WMM’s theme song]

2. Mavis Staples – “Can You Get to That (Live)”
from: Live in London / Anti / February 8, 2019
[New Live album released just prior to her 80th birthday, and 10 years after her last live album, Mavis Staples Live: Hope at the Hideout, from 2008. A follow up to her 16th studio solo album, “If All I Was Was Black, from 2017. For Live in London, Mavis recorded with her touring band: Rick Holmstrom on guitar, music direction & backing vocals; Jeff Turmes on bass & backing vocals; Stephen Hodges on drums; Vicki Randle on backing vocals; and Donny Gerrard on backing vocals. This live album celebrates music from her last 5 studio albums, released in the last nine years, with songs written by Jeff Tweedy, M. Ward, Benjamin Booker, Ben Harper, Curtis Mayfield, Talking Heads, Roebuck “Pops” Staples, Justin Vernon. This track was written by George Clinton & Ernie Harris and recorded for “Maggot Brain,” the third studio album by the Funkadelic, released in 1971. Mavis Staples is a legend. She is a gospel R&B singer, actress and civil rights activist, born in Chicago, Illinois on July 10, 1939. She has recorded and performed with her family’s band The Staple Singers. She began her career with her family group in 1950. Initially singing locally at churches, appearing on a weekly radio show, the Staples scored a hit in 1956 with “Uncloudy Day” for the Vee-Jay label. When Mavis graduated from what is now Paul Robeson High School in 1957, The Staple Singers took their music on the road. Led by family patriarch Roebuck “Pops” Staples on guitar and including the voices of Mavis and her siblings Cleotha, Yvonne, and Purvis, the Staples were called “God’s Greatest Hitmakers.” With Mavis’ voice and Pops’ songs, singing, and guitar playing, the Staples evolved from enormously popular gospel singers (with recordings on United and Riverside as well as Vee-Jay) to become the most spectacular and influential spirituality-based group in America. By the mid-1960s The Staple Singers, inspired by Pops’ close friendship with Martin Luther King, Jr., became the spiritual and musical voices of the civil rights movement. They covered contemporary pop hits with positive messages, including Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” and a version of Stephen Stills’ “For What It’s Worth”. Mavis!, the first feature documentary about Staples and the Staple Singers, directed by Jessica Edwards, had its world premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March 2015. Mavis! was screened in theaters and on HBO in February 2016. Staples was briefly married to Spencer Leak in 1964; they divorced when Staples would not end her music career to stay home. She has no children. In the 2015 documentary Mavis! she reveals that Bob Dylan once proposed to her, and she turned him down. This song was oroginally included on Mavis Staples’ 2013 release One True Vine, her 13th studio album, and the second on which she collaborated with record producer and Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy. Tweedy also played most of the instruments on the album, with the exception of the drums, which were played by his son, Spencer Tweedy. The album was recorded at the Wilco Loft in Chicago, and while working on it, Staples commuted back and forth between the Loft (on Chicago’s North Side) and her home on Chicago’s South Side.]

3. Shy Boys – “Dim The Light”
from: Dim The Light / Brick By Brick – Single / Polyvinyl Record Co. / February 15, 2019
[New single release and follow up to the band’s second album and Polyvinyl debut, Bell House. Shy Boys line-up consists of brothers Collin Rausch and Kyle Rausch, Konnor Ervin, Kyle Little and Ross Brown. The group formed shortly after the trio became roommates in 2012. Kyle Rausch and Konnor Ervin were already band mates in the indie-pop band The ACBs and Collin had been playing for years in the Kansas City area in various bands. The three shared a love for 1960s era pop rock and soon started writing their own music. In 2014 they released the self-titled Shy Boys on High Dive Records. The album received generally positive reviews and the single “Bully Fight” was featured on Spin.com. In June 2014 the band recorded and released two more singles and one of them, “Life Is Peachy,” was featured on Stereogum. On April 4th, 2018, it was announced that the band had signed to Polyvinyl Record Co.]

[Shy Boys play recordBar, 1520 Grand Ave, KCMO, Friday, February 22, at 8:00 PM, with Natural Man, and The Creepy Jingles.]

4. Kasey Rausch – “City Strangers”
from: Born Near The Waters / Independent / November 24, 2004
[From http://www.kaseyrausch.com: Released on the night of her 30th birthday, “Born Near the Waters…” is the first full album released by Kasey Rausch. It was recorded by Mike West at the 9th Ward Pickin’ Parlor in New Orleans, Louisiana over three hot muggy days – July 3, 4 & 5 2004. Breaks from the studio were spent on top of the now infamous levy broken by the forces of Hurricane Katrina. Kasey’s husband, Travis Huffhines (mandolin) and two of her dear friends, Mikal Shapiro (harmonies, percussion, clarinet) and Joel Kraft (vocals), recorded by day and gigged by night. The result is a raw, un-mastered recording that reflects the once youthful songwriting and vocal styles of Rausch. Guest musicians include Grammy nominee Gina Forsyth on fiddle, Mike West on banjo, mandolin, acoustic guitar and Katie West on upright bass (Truckstop Honeymoon). // Kasey Rausch is a 5th generation songwriter & musician, co-producer/host of roots music radio show River Trade Radio on KKFI 90.1FM Kansas City Community Radio and former host of Campfire on DittyTV (Memphis, TN). Her family and musical roots can be found in Parkville, Kansas City, the Missouri Ozarks, Winfield, Kansas (home of the legendary Walnut Valley Festival) and deep Southeast Texas. She tours nationally with pedal steel and guitar master Marco Pascolini as The Country Duo and plays locally with classic country honky tonkers The Naughty Pines and songwriter Scott Stanton. Rausch’s third album, Guitar in Hand (originally released on MudStomp Records 2014), debuted at #3 on the Roots Music Reporting charts and was voted one of the top three albums of the year by readers of The Pitch, KC’s weekly entertainment guide. She was named 2016 Best of the Northland Artist, 2013’s Female Performer of the Year by The Farmer’s Turnpike on KMXN 92.9 FM and is a four-time Pitch Music Award Nominee.]

[Kasey Rausch plays a Songwriters Serenade with Rex Pryor and John Keck, Thursday, February 21, at 7:00 PM at Madrigall, 1627 Oak St, KCMO. Hosted by John L. Keck, “Songwriters Serenade” is an evening of performance in a listening environment with original music in the round.]

5. Laura Spiegel – “Strand of Life (“Viroid”)”
from: Unseen Worlds / Unseen Worlds / January 18, 2019 Reissue
[Laurie Spiegel’s second full-length album, Unseen Worlds, arrived just over ten years after her debut album. Having realized the pieces found on The Expanding Universe (1980) on an instrument no longer available to her, the GROOVE System at Bell Laboratories, Spiegel moved on to composing and developing for the Alles Machine, alphaSyntauri, McLeyvier and various other instruments before creating an instrument entirely her own. Spiegel created “Music Mouse – An Intelligent Instrument” on a Macintosh 512k so that she could have an instrument that was not general purpose but a small, specialized, and well defined musical instrument for and by her that she did not have to compromise on or risk losing access to it. While it was a very personal instrument for Spiegel, demand among friends and colleagues nevertheless grew until “Music Mouse – An Intelligent Instrument” became a commercial product for the Macintosh, Amiga, and Atari personal computers with a devoted popular following that continues to this day, despite the obsoletion of those platforms. At the time of her Unseen Worlds album’s original release in 1991, the issuing record label turned out to be going out of business, dissolved and disappeared, sending the album immediately into obscurity. Outside of a private CD edition issued by Spiegel on her own Aesthetic Engineering label in 1994, this new edition represents the first proper commercial release of Unseen Worlds. “Unseen Worlds is not so much based on melody and rhythm as it is on textures, pulses, and sonic environments. Sometimes dark, sometimes light, its drama pulls in the adventurous listener who wants to take a musical journey. Using computer software she wrote in order to implement a unique musical vision, Unseen Worlds blends the artistic and the technical, the cerebral and the sensual, and revives the virtually abandoned tradition of electronic music. Unseen Worlds is the work of a sonic explorer whose music can both challenge and caress. Those looking for other worlds of sound can put on headphones and find them here.” – Craig Anderton // All compositions composed, produced, mixed, and coded by Laurie Spiegel. Mastered by Paul Zinman]

6. Mess – “Cave”
from: “Cave” – Single/ Mess / August 27, 2018
[First single from band’s upcoming debut full length album, ‘Learning How To Talk.’ This Kansas City based band was formed by: Allison Gliesman, Kevin Briody, Tanner Pinkerton & Evan Velasquez. This track was produced by Patrick Robinson, mixed by Braxton Matlock,and mastered by Troy Glessner (spectre).]

[Mess play recordBar, 1520 Grand Blvd, KCMO, Tuesday, February 26, at 8:00 PM, opening for Soccer Mommy with Hovvdy.]

[Mess play a ‘Learning How To Talk’ Record Release Show, Saturday, March 30, at 7:00 PM, at The Rino, 314 Armour Rd, North Kansas City, MO. with Weathered, LK Ultra, and witchhazel]

7. Mae C – “Anxious”
from: “Anxious” – Single / Mae C / April 10, 2017
[Follow up to her 2016 EP Warning Sign of True Love. Influenced by Hip Hop, Rock, Jazz, Soul & R&B, Mae C is making her mark as an independent artist in the Kansas City music scene. A self-acclaimed black girl nerd, she originally planned on becoming an engineer and studied computer design at Lincoln University of Missouri. After leaving Lincoln to pursue her true passion of singing and songwriting, she finds that her techy side impacts how she writes music. “As a kid, I was always picking things apart and figuring out how to put them back together,” she said. “As an artist, I do the same thing – I pick apart my favorite singers to discover what made them great so I can walk in their footsteps.” With Kansas City becoming a place of movement for arts and entertainment, Mae C says now is the time to reinvent the wheel, break barriers, build bridges, but most of all support each other. “Supporting each other is the secret to rising to the top and putting the town on the map”, says Mae C. She aspires to inspire other artists to capitalize in their craft by not putting themselves in a box. “I’m an African American woman, but I refuse to allow anyone to use that against me. I’m an artist & proud black girl and I deserve a chance at every opportunity just as anyone else,” she said..]

[Mae C. plays The Riot Room, 4048 Broadway, KCMO, Saturday, February 23, at 8:00 PM. with Trxz Jones, They Call Me Sauce, JaySol Music, Guest DJ: DJ G3wizz, and Special Guest: Jo Blaq.]

8. Mercury Rev – “Reunion feat. Rachel Goswell”
from Bobbie Gentry’s the Delta Sweete Revisited / Partisan Records / February 8, 2019
[Rachel Ann Goswell was born May 16, 1971. She is an English singer-songwriter and musician who rose to prominence as vocalist and guitarist of the shoegaze band Slowdive, which formed in 1989. Goswell, along with Neil Halstead, Ian McCutcheon and former Chapterhouse member Simon Rowe became Mojave 3 when Slowdive transitioned to a more country/folk rock style. She released a solo album in 2004, titled Waves Are Universal on 4AD Records. // It slipped out of a Mississippi of hot biscuits, genteel table manners and working-class sense, suddenly overturned by a grave sinning and suicide. Carried on an evening breeze of strings and a supple, foreboding voice like sensually charged breath, “Ode to Bilie Joe”—Bobbie Gentry’s 1967 debut as a singer-songwriter and a Number One single for three weeks in the late Summer of Love—was the most psychedelic record of that year not from San Francisco or London, as if Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Brian Wilson had conspired to make a country-rock Pet Sounds. Except Gentry, just 23 when she wrote the song, got there first, in miniature. // Gentry’s hit was a revolutionary act, a quietly thorough feminism in vision, deed and success amid the strict, paternal order of the country-music industry. And it was her license to thrill again. In October, 1967, while “Billie Joe” was still in the Top Five, Gentry began recording The Delta Sweete, a connected set of a dozen songs that extended the narrative dynamics of that single with personal reflection and set her folk-siren charisma in a richer frame of dream-state orchestration, swamp-rock guitars and big-city-R&B horns. // In her eight original songs for the album, Gentry drew from her childhood and church life on her grandparents’ farm in Chickasaw County, Mississippi: the girl-ish craving for a beautiful dress in “Reunion”; the rise-and-shine of “Mornin’ Glory”; the stern Sunday lessons in “Sermon,” based on a traditional hymn also known as “Run On.” The covers were boldly chosen: Mose Allison’s chain-gang blues “Parchman Farm”; “Tobacco Road”’s litany of trial; the Cajun pride in Doug Kershaw’s “Louisiana Man”. Gentry also turned them to new purpose and even gender. “Gonna get myself a man, one gonna treat me right,” she sang in Jimmy Reed’s “Big Boss Man” with heated assurance. // But The Delta Sweete—released in March, 1968, only three months after Dylan’s John Wesley Harding and right as the Byrds came to Nashville to cut Sweetheart of the Rodeo—was too soon in its precedence. Gentry’s LP, the first country-rock opera, was ignored on arrival, not even cracking Billboard’s Top 100. It was as if Billie Joe had risen out of the Tallahatchie River and thrown that record off the bridge instead. // This Delta Sweete is her long-delayed justice—Mercury Rev’s committed and an affectionate resurrection of an album that anticipated by three decades their own pivotal expedition through transcendental America, 1998’s Deserter’s Songs. From their recording lair in New York’s Catskill Mountains, the founding core of Jonathan Donahue and Grasshopper with Jesse Chandler (previously in the Texas group Midlake) honor Gentry’s foresight and creative triumph with spacious invention and hallucinatory air. And they are not alone. Gentry’s stories and original resolve are brought to new vocal life and empowerment by a vocal cast of women from across modern rock and its alternative paths: among them, Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval; Laetitia Sadier, formerly of Stereolab; Marissa Nadler; Margo Price, the fiery new country star with a punk-rock heart; and Norway’s Susanne Sundfør, who cuts through “Tobacco Road” with arctic-Nico poise. Phoebe Bridgers, whose first record was a softly stunning 2015 single for Ryan Adams’ PAX AM label, hovers through the acid- western suspense of Gentry’s “Jessye’ Lisabeth” with floating calm, like a comforting angel. // On the 1968 LP, Gentry opened with a call to jubilant order, “Okolona River Bottom Band,” like she was leading a barn-dance union of the early Rolling Stones and Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five. Norah Jones takes that entrance here with her own sultry command, like Sarah Vaughan at the head of a slow-blooming choir. In “Sermon,” Price—who has known real struggle up close—sings like a survivor through Mercury Rev’s explosion of color and groove: a specialty throughout the band’s history as recently as 2015’s The Light in You, going back through All Is Dream in 2001, the whirling iridescent soul of 1995’s See You on the Other Side and the sumptuous turbulence of the 1992 single “Car Wash Hair.” // Gentry is still very present in the changes. Her seesaw of pride and hurt in the melancholy blur of “Penduli Pendulum” (“When goodbye serves as/My one amusement”) is even more explicit with the seasoned intimacy of Vashti Bunyan—a once-elusive voice from Britain’s psychedelic-folk boom—set against the younger, brighter arc of Kaela Sinclair, now in the electronic project M83. And in “Courtyard,” a despairing finale of strings and guitar arpeggios on Gentry’s LP, Mercury Rev build a striking Delta Krautrock in which the English singer Beth Orton wanders, like Gentry, through a ruin of profound loss and treasured memory. // “Ode to Billie Joe” was not on the ‘68 Delta Sweete. But Mercury Rev go back to that dinner table with Lucinda Williams of Lake Charles, Louisiana, and it is an inspired bond, calling up the ghosts and questions of a South still very much with us. Indeed, Gentry—who retired from recording and performing in the Seventies—reportedly lives only a couple hours’ drive from the bridge that made her famous, while the spirits she set loose in The Delta Sweete are as restless and compelling as they were 50 years ago. This album is a loving tribute to that achievement, one of the greatest albums you have never heard. It is also a dozen new ways to walk that land. -David Fricke]

9. Calvin Arsenia – “Tip Toe”
from: Cantaloupe / Bullseye Records / September 15, 2018 (KC Release)
[Calvin’s first release on Bullseye Records. Calvin Arsenia came home to KC in 2014 after living in Edinburgh, Scotland, and has released the EPs, Moments, Prose, 2017’s Catastrophe. He released the EP Caviar to special guests who attended his Wickstock West show in West Bottoms. Standing at 6 foot 6 inches, Arsenia’s powerful vocals span a 3.5 octave range, while playing piano, banjo, guitar & harp. Calvin has played Folk Alliance International, KC Fringe Fest, Apocalypse Meow, The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, The Kauffman Center For The Performing Arts, Middle of the Map Fest., The Folly Theatre. He undertook a three month US/European Outlyre Tour where he has played San Francisco, Portland, Vancouver, NYC, Boston, Edinburgh, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Switzerland, Lyon and Paris.]

[Calvin Arsenia plays the Crossroads Hotel, 2101 Central Street, KCMO, Thurs, Feb 21, at 7:00 PM.]

[Calvin Arsenia plays Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, 4420 Warwick Boulevard, KCMO, Thursday, February 28, 2019 at 6:00 PM.]

10:29 – Underwriting

Claire Adams (Photo by Anna Selle)

10. Claire Adams – “Enough”
from: Into The Blue / Independent / December 12, 2015
[Claire Adams on voice & guitar, Nick Bell Conductor, Christina Wince on flute, Teri Quinn on clarinet, Brandon Crawford on bass clarinet, Mark Lauer on bassoon, Jen Oliverio on trumpet, Austin Pfeiffer on trombone, Joseph Felton on tuba, Erik Hassell pn violin, Alyssa Bell on viola, Eman Chalshotori on cello, Sarah Lahasky on double bass, and Stephanie Williams on drum set. Songs composed by Claire Adams “In the Blue” arrangement by Peter Lawless; “Enough” arrangement by Teri Quinn. Recorded by Duane Trower at Weights and Measures Soundlab in Kansas City, MO. Artwork by Katelyn Boone.] [ Aside from her work with Katy Guilllen & The Girls, Claire also released the 5-song EP Waiting for The Winds to Change / on October 24, 2017 featuring new recordings of original songs by Claire Adams on vocals, guitar, & bass; Katy Guillen on guitar & harmony vocals; Lennon Bone on drums. Recorded, mixed & mastered by Duane Trower at Weights + Measures Soundlab, Kansas City, MO. More info at: http://www.claireadamsmusic.com]

[Claire Adams performs with KC based string quartet, Friday, February 22, at 8:00 PM at The Rino, 314 Armour Rd, North Kansas City. Alyssa Murray opens the evening.]

Alyssa Bell and Claire Adams on the February 20, 2019 edition of Wednesday MidDay Medley.

11:35 – Interview with Claire Adams & Alyssa Bell

Claire Adams is a critically acclaimed bassist, guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In the last year we have played musical tracks from Appropriate Grammar, Claire Adams and the Crowded Stage, The Classical Revolution, and Katy Guillen & The Girls all recordings and performing projects where Claire was essential, as a singer, songwriter and musician. Claire Adams has released multiple EPs and albums with each of these musical entities, while also releasing her very own solo EPs and solo albums too. Over the last 10 years Claire has traveled all around the world performing music, and “honing her melodic instincts and vision” in multiple genres of rock, blues, folk, americana, pop, jazz, and big band. At the center of all of this work is Claire’s beautiful and expressive voice, and her generous spirit and openness to collaborate, allowing oportunites for new younger musicians and producers to gain experience. Claire Studied Music Business at Belmont University and grew up in Topeka, Kansas.

Kansas City based Alyssa Bell is part if the string quartet Rewound. She is the Founder and Executive Director for Classical Revolution KC. Alyssa also serves as Adjunct Professor of High Strings at Northwest Missouri State University. Alyssa received her Master of Music in Performance/ Viola at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland and her undergraduate degree in Music education at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance.

Claire Adams and Alyssa Bell join us to share information about their new show, Friday, February 22, at 8:00 PM at The Rino, 314 Armour Rd, North Kansas City, where she plays with the Kansas City based string quartet, Rewound, performing her original songs as arranged by Peter Lawless. Special guest Alyssa Murray opens the show.

Claire Adams and Alyssa Bell, thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

We just heard Enough from the vinyl release Into The Blue, which was Claire’s last 2015 collaboration with Peter Lawless and The Classical Revolution.

The Classical Revolution was a natural out-growth of your recordings as Claire and The Crowded Stage.

Claire and The Crowded Stage was where you first collaborated with Katy Guillen and Stephanie Williams your co-horts from Katy Guillen & The Girls.

For Claire’s new show on Friday, February 22, at 8:00 PM at The Rino, 314 Armour Rd, North Kansas City, she will perform with the Kansas City based string quartet, Rewound,

Rewound is Carmen Dieker on violin, Alyssa Bell on viola, and Ezgi Karakus on cello.

Claire is performing her original songs as arranged by Peter Lawless.

Peter Lawless is one of the founding members of The B’Dina’s, a band that included Katy Guillen on guitar & vocals, Peter Lawless on bass, saxophone, & vocals. Katelyn Jamison on keyboard & vocals, and Tess Jehle on drums & vocals, and released 3 EPs and one full length album between 2010 and 2014. Meredith McGrade was part of the original line up for their debut EP release. Peter Lawless and Katelyn Jamison play with Found A Job. Katelyn Jamison and Tess Jehle were part of the band Dream Wolf from 2010 to 2014. Tess Jehle is drummer for the band Dynamite Defense

On Friday night at The Rino – Special guest Alyssa Murray opens the show.

10:53

Claire Adams and Alyssa Bell thank you for being with us on WMM.

Claire Adams performs with KC based string quartet, Friday, February 22, at 8:00 PM at The Rino, 314 Armour Rd, North Kansas City. Alyssa Murray opens the evening. More information at: http://www.claireadamsmusic.com

10:55

11. The AM Trio – “Fall Awake”
from: As of Now / Independent / June 30, 2015
[Alyssa Murray (Vocalist/Pianist/Songwriter), Joel Stratton (bass), and Josh Blythe (drums/vocals) have crossed paths and joined forces to create unique, multi-dimensional songs. Murray’s writing style has drawn comparison to Joni Mitchell as well as Fiona Apple.]

[Alyssa Murray opens for Claire Adams when she performs with KC based string quartet, Friday, February 22, at 8:00 PM at The Rino, 314 Armour Rd, North Kansas City.]

11:00 – Station ID

Alyssa Bell, Wick Thomas, and Claire Adams on the February 20, 2019 edition of Wednesday MidDay Medley.

12. Vedettes – “Train”
from: EPHEMERAL / Vedettes / March 1, 2019
[First single from the band upcoming EP Release Ephemeral, which contains five studio-recorded and mastered tunes, recorded and mixed by Paul Malinowski from May to December 2018 at Massive Sound in Shawnee, Kansas. This Lawrence, Kansas based 4-piece band was formed in 2015 with Heather Lofflin on lead vocals & guitar; Lizz Weiler on bass, & backup vocals; Ben White on lead guitar & backup vocals. More information at: http://www.vedettes.com]

[Vedettes play A Tribute to Queen presented by I Heart Local Music at The Granada Theatre, 1020 Massachusetts St. in Lawrence, KS on Friday, February 22 at 7:00 PM, with PartyParty, Katlyn Conroy, Nick Carswell, Wick & The Tricks, Vibralux, Dick Von Dyke, Mean Melin and CindAIRella.]

11:06 – Interview with Wick Thomas

Wick Thomas

Wick Thomas grew up in Drexel Missouri and graduated from UMKC. Wick is an urban pioneer who is also a gardener, a student, a teacher, a librarian and an activist. Wick was voted Best Activist by The Pitch Magazine. Wick has help organize LGBTQIA youth groups on college campuses and in High Schools, he served as President of EQUAL and won an award from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Wick spent many years working for the Kansas City Public Library and then the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. Recently Wick was a guest artist for The Band That Fell To Earth – A Tribute To David Bowie at recordBar. Appropriately Wick interpreted the Bowie classic, “Rebel Rebel.” Wick Thomas, is lead singer for the punk rock band Wick and The Tricks. In late 2017, Wick & The Tricks, released a 7-inch vinyl, 4-song EP debut called “Not Enough,” on Black Site Records.

Wick Thomas joins us to share details about A Tribute to Queen presented by I Heart Local Music at The Granada Theatre, 1020 Massachusetts St. in Lawrence, Kansas, on Friday, February 22 at 7:00 PM. The special evening will feature performances by: Wick & The Tricks, PartyParty, Katlyn Conroy, Nick Carswell, Vedettes, and Vibralux. There will also be a drag performance by: Dick Von Dyke, and a special air guitar tribute to Queen by: Mean Melin and CindAIRella, also known as Eric Melin and Beth Melin. More information at: http://www.iheartlocalmusic.com

Wick Thomas, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

It was great seeing Wick performing on night one of The Band That Fell To Earth Tribute to David Bowie, Friday, January 19th, at recordBar, 1520 Grand Ave, KCMO. Wick performed “Rebel Rebel” which has become an anthem of gender bending and non-binary identification, can you tell us about your experience interpreting that song?

Now Wick is jumping from David Bowie to Freddie Mercury playing A Tribute to Queen at The Granada Theatre, 1020 Massachusetts St. in Lawrence, Friday, Feb 22 at 7:00 PM.

Presented by I Heart Local Music. More information at: http://www.iheartlocalmusic.com

Wick & the Tricks is now a 5-piece w/ Wick Trick on vocals, Chris (Bardell) Stallion on guitar, Noah Cassity on guitar, Promise Clutter on bass, George Henry Valyer IV on drums.

11:14

13. Wick & The Tricks – “KCBB”
from: Not Enough 7″ Vinyl EP / Black Site / October 14, 2017
[4-piece band with Wick Trick on vocals & sleaze, Chris Stallion on guitar, Jane Asylum on bass & vocals, and JoJo Tornado on drums. The new EP was recorded and mixed by Justin Mantooth at Westend Recording Studios.] [Wick & the Tricks played a Record Release Show, Saturday, October 14, at 8:00 pm at Davey’s Uptown Rambler’s Club, 3402 Main Street, KCMO, with Red Kate, The Quivers, and The Midnight Devils.]

[Wick & The Tricks play A Tribute to Queen presented by I Heart Local Music at The Granada Theatre, 1020 Massachusetts St. in Lawrence, KS on Friday, February 22 at 7:00 PM, with PartyParty, Katlyn Conroy, Nick Carswell, Vedettes, Vibralux, Dick Von Dyke, Mean Melin and CindAIRella.]

11:15

In 2006, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force gave Thomas a Creating Change Award for establishing a chapter of the Gay-Straight Alliance in 2004 while he was a student at Paola High School. He’s also been involved in bike activism, has volunteered for the ACLU and Greenpeace, and founded the local environmental group TWIG (Think Work Inspire Grow).

Wick Thomas is also involved in Shadow-casting for The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Wick and The Tricks are playing Unholy Masquerade, Saturday, March 2, at 8:30 PM at Davey’s Uptown Rambler’s Club, 3402 Main St, KCMO

Fally Afani is the founder of I Heart Local Music

I Heart Local Music presents A Tribute to Queen at The Granada Theatre, 1020 Massachusetts St. in Lawrence, Kansas, on Friday, February 22 at 7:00 PM. The special evening will feature performances by: Wick & The Tricks, PartyParty, Katlyn Conroy, Nick Carswell, Vedettes, and Vibralux. There will also be a drag performance by: Dick Von Dyke, and a special air guitar tribute to Queen by: Mean Melin and CindAIRella, also known as Eric Melin and Beth Melin. More information at: http://www.iheartlocalmusic.com

11:23

14. Queen – “Another One Bites The Dust”
from: Bohemian Rhapsody (The Original Soundtrack) / Hollywood Records / Oct. 19, 2018
[The Soundtrack to the Queen biopic contains several greatest hits plus 5 songs from the band’s dramatic Live Aid performance now available for the first time. The film includes a faithful recreation of the Live Aid performance. Bohemian Rhapsody was nominated for Best Film, Best Actor for Rami Malek, and Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Editing categories. // “Another One Bites the Dust” is a 1980 song by British rock band Queen. Written by bass guitarist John Deacon, the song featured on the group’s eighth studio album The Game (1980). The song was a worldwide hit, charting number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks, from 4 October to 18 October (their second number-one single in the country). The song spent fifteen weeks in the Billboard top ten (the longest running top ten song of 1980), including thirteen weeks in the top five, and 31 weeks total on the chart (more than any other song in 1980). It reached number two on the Hot Soul Singles chart and the Disco Top 100 chart, and number seven on the UK Singles Chart. The song is credited as Queen’s best-selling single, with sales of over 7 million copies. This version was ranked at number 34 on Billboard’s All-Time Top Songs. The song won an American Music Award for Favorite Rock Single and also garnered a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.]

11:27 – Underwriting

15. Lenny Lashley’s Gang Of One – “All Are Welcome”
from: All Are Welcome / Pirates Press Records / February 15, 2019
[Lenny Lashley is a household name in New England. Whether it’s performing on stage or slinging drinks at The Midway Cafe in Jamaica Plains, Massachusettes, Lenny is a star – regaling the world with Boston history and decades of tour stories like no one else can. His voice is as Boston as it gets – and as identifiable as any other frontman out there. Lenny’s even narrated movies and done voiceover gigs to help him sustain being a diehard rock and roller. A longtime fixture in the Boston punk scene, Lenny has been playing and touring for 20 years. After a traumatic run of Europe in ’08 (resulting in a mental breakdown) and a few years of reflection, Lenny has re-emerged onto the scene with more energy and clarity than ever before, playing solo acoustic shows, making cameos with Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and even joining the Boston powerhouse Street Dogs. Lenny Lashley’s Gang Of One and the new album, All Are Welcome is aimed to take Lenny’s prowess and message to a larger audience. The underlying message that this release conveys could not be better timed, as the world is desperately in need of a voice of reason.]

[Lenny Lashley’s Gang Of One plays Sister Anne’s – Records & Coffee, at 901 East 31st St, in KCMO, Friday, February 22, at 6:30 PM, with The Uncouth and Red Kate, hosted by Teenage Heart Records.]

11:33 – Interview with Frank Alvarez

Frank Alvarez on the February 20, 2019 edition of Wednesday MidDay Medley.

I first met Frank Alvarez in the mid 1990s. Frank was working as a manager and music buyer for Recycled Sounds at Westport Road & Main Street. Before that Frank ran his own record store, Abba Zappa. When Recycled Sounds closed in 2006, Frank was part of a special radio show we produced on Wednesday MidDay Medley, featuring testimonials from past and present Recycled Sounds employees, and playlist created by Recycled Sounds Staff reflecting stories of the time Prince came into the store, or the multiple bus trips the store organized to see The Pixies, or the many cultural events that were connected to this special place. The Radio show also included live interviews with Frank, Kasey Rausch, Kurt von Schlemmer, Iris DeMent and Anne Winter herself, who helped to produced and coordinate the show.

It seemed like the end of an era for music. The end of vinyl. The end of brick and morter music stores. Frank went on to work for Vinyl Renaissance, one of the only record stores left in the metro, besides Zebedee’s on 39th, It’s A Beautiful Day, and Vinyl Underground at Seventh Heaven. Seven years passed, and then something happened, vinyl made a comeback. Mills Records Company opened in 2013, Records With Merritt opened in 2014, Zebedee’s closed and reopened as Revolution Records in the Crossroads, Josey Records opened at 19th & Oak St.; FM Music opened on East 18th St; Brothers Records & Music opened on Johnson Drive in Mission; and Gotwhatulike at 11601 Hickman Mills Drive opened in July 2014. Record Stores were opening and thriving again, creating that needed community space for music lovers, bands, and vinyl collectors.

Last Fall, Frank Alvarez and longtime friend James Oshel opened Sister Anne’s – Records and Coffee, at 901 East 31st Street, in Kansas City. Sister Anne’s sells used records, new local releases, posters, stereos, and coffee, and was named after Anne Winter who owned Recycled Sounds, one of Kansas City’s most treasured record stores, where both Frank and James worked. Since then their business is growing. They have welcomed many in-store concerts, and this weekend are presenting, Lenny Lashley’s Gang Of One, on Friday, Feb. 22, at 6:30 PM, with The Uncouth and Red Kate, hosted by Teenage Heart Records.

Frank Alvarez thanks for being with us again on WMM

Frank Alvarez & James Oshel of Sister Anne’s – Records and Coffee, 901 East 31st Street, in KCMO. (Photo by Aaron Rhodes)

Sister Anne’s – Records and Coffee is two blocks west of Troost, at 901 East 31st Street.

James Oshel and Frank Alvarez had talked about starting a record store when they were roommates and working together at Recycled Sounds. When Recycled Sounds closed, in 2006, Frank Alvarez went to work at Vinyl Renaissance, and Jim Oshel at Broadway Cafe.

10 years passed by, and then the owner of Windhorse Tattoo, Mark Galloway, who had worked with Jim Oshel at Mercy Seat Tattoo, let his friend know he was moving and there would be extra space in the building. This was the spark that ignited Oshel and Alvarez moving into action to open their own place.

Frank Alvarez and Jim Oshel decided to open a record store and a coffee house and were motivated to name after Anne Winter, owner of Recycled Sounds, who died in 2009.

Recycled Sounds operated from 1988 to 2006. Anne Winter and husband Kurt Von Schlemmer, were integral to the Kansas City Music scene. Anne Winter was a co-founder of the Kansas City Free Speech Coalition, and the brain child behind the annual Culture Under Fire, a week and sometimes two week festival of music, art, performance, guest speakers and writing and publishing events centered around the 1st Amendment and freedom of speech. Recycled Sounds was home to many bands and a meeting place.

Frank told Aaron Rhodes in a Pitch Kansas City article published on December 26, 2018, “I want to do what Anne taught us to do,” Alvarez says. “She taught us to just be good people, help people find the music they’re looking for, provide a space in Kansas City where they can find out about music, come in and talk about music, and just do what we can for the whole scene.”

Frank ran his own record store, Abba Zappa, three blocks away from Recycled Sounds. As is usually the case record stores are generally friendly with each other, as studies prove that the more record stores in a community the more business for all. Frank and Anne were friends. Frank had been second guessing his decision to run his own store when at one point Anne Winter visited Anna Zappa and offered to buy him out, bringing his inventory , and he himself into Recycled Sounds. Alvarez accepted the offer.

Lenny Lashley’s Gang Of One plays Sister Anne’s – Records & Coffee, at 901 East 31st St, in KCMO, Friday, February 22, at 6:30 PM, with The Uncouth and Red Kate hosted by Teenage Heart Records.

11:42

16. Red Kate – “Urban Church”
from: Red Kate – Stiff Middle Fingers split 7″ / Black Site Records / April 8, 2017
[L. Ron Drunkard on bass & lead vocals, Andrew Whelan on drums & vocals, Brad Huhmann on guitar, Desmond Poirier on guitar & vocals. Recorded at Weights & Measures Soundlab, with engineer Duane Trower. 2nd release on KC’s coop record label, Black Site after the release of Red Kate’s 2nd LP, unamerican activities. Cover art designed by Shaun Hamontree, who is also Red Kate’s new rhythm guitarist.]

11:44 – More Interview with Frank Alvarez

Frank told Aaron Rhodes of The Pitch Kansas City, (When Anne hired me), “At that point, I was about 10 years in the game already, and I thought, ‘I know everything,’” Alvarez says. “I went to work for her and learned so much more.”

Anne Winter was one of the people who helped start 90.1 FM KKFI. She served on the Board of Directors and hosted Kansas City first ever Punk Rock show on the radio called Little “Orphan Annie.” Alvarez told Aaron Rhodes about the wide variety of music that could be found at Recycled Sounds. “There was someone there that specialized in every kind of music,” he says. “There was the hip-hop person, the punk rock person, there was a person that knew classic rock. Every base was covered.”

Frank Alvarez and Jim Oshel have been working diligently, building up the physical space and inventory, installing turn tables with coffee and espresso machines for their new business of Sister Anne’s – Records and Coffee. They are open from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM.The shop is hosting in-stores. Their opening featured Hipshot Killer and Emmaline Twist. Sister Anne’s – Records and Coffee has a big back room that serves as an all-ages venue.

Aaron Rhodes in his Pitchweekly feature called the Sister Anne’s “Winterlike — warm, friendly, knowledgeable.” “This is the only thing I’ve done since 1985,” Alvarez says. “I get up and come to a record store. That’s what I do.”

Sister Anne’s hosts the SPINE WEST COAST TOUR KICK OFF, presented by Kansas City Hardcore, in an ALL AGES show tonight, Wednesday, February 20 at 6:30 with Spine, Devils Den, Constraint (from Kentucky), Brute Force (from St. Louis), and Crisis Actor.

Lenny Lashley’s Gang Of One plays Sister Anne’s – Records & Coffee, 901 East 31st St, Fri, Feb 22, at 6:30 PM, w/ The Uncouth and Red Kate hosted by Teenage Heart Records. More information at: http://www.sisterannes.com

17. The Uncouth – “Matter of Time (Radio Edit)”
from: “Matter of Time” – Single b/w “All You Fascists” / Teenage Heart Records / Aug, 2018
[Hard hitting Oi! band from KCMO, with CJ Wilson on lead guitar & vocals, Cody Blanchard on lead vocals & guitar, Steve Gardels on bass, and Todd Rainey on drums. “Just A Matter Of Time” written by The Uncouth, “All You Fascists” written by Woody Guthrie. Recorded at Element Recording. Pressed by Gotta Groove Records. Copyright by Know Your Roots Publishing. Producer Johnny Starke. Recorded and mastered by Joel Nanos. Kansas City’s The Uncouth are back again with their third release. Manufactured in the USA on high quality vinyl in Clear, White, and Black wax. Test Pressing four packs include all three limited colors and one of our super limited test pressings straight from the pressing plant.]

[The Uncouth plays Sister Anne’s – Records & Coffee, at 901 East 31st St, in KCMO, Friday, February 22, at 6:30 PM, with Lenny Lashley’s Gang Of One, and Red Kate, hosted by Teenage Heart Records.]

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

Next week on February 27, Nico Gray joins us in our second hour at Guest Producer. In our first hour at 10:30 we will be joined by singer songwriter Julia Othmer, who plays Knuckleheads in the Garage, Thursday, February 28, at 8:30 pm.

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 #774