WMM welcomes Minor Gold + Aaron Rhodes + Nicolette Paige + Scott Hrabko + Juneteenth Tribute

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

Wednesday, June 19, 2024

WMM welcomes Minor Gold + Aaron Rhodes + Nicolette Paige + Scott Hrabko + Juneteenth Tribute

Mark spins More New and MidCoastal Releases from: Krystle Warren, Nicolette Paige, Burning Bush, Erin Eades, Scott Hrabko, The Blast Monkeys, The Bad Ideas, The Utilitarians, Minor Gold, Cat Power, The Flaming Lips, and Curtis Mayfield.

WMM starts the show with music from Curtis Mayfield & Krystle Warren in honor of Juneteenth the celebration of the dismantling of chattel slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, slaves in Texas were informed of their freedom by Union soldiers led by Major General Gordon Grange. This was 2 years after the passage of the Emancipation Act in 1863 and 2 months after the Confederacy surrendered on April 9, ending the Civil War. At the time, around 4 million people were enslaved domestically. The celebrations that started in Galveston, Texas, began to grow year after year. Over 100 years later, Texas would become the first state to declare June 19 a state holiday in 1980. In 2021, Juneteenth became a federal holiday. 

At 10:10 Tracy McNeil and Dan Parsons of the Australian duo Minor Gold join us to talk about when they wrote their first song together in 2020, seeking refuge on the Parsons’ sub-tropical Queensland homestead, they got to work. At a time when the rest of the world came to a stop, the magic of Minor Gold had just begun. Until then, both artists had been at the helm of their respective solo careers. Their debut album Minor Gold was released August 11, 2023, has been called, “a sunbathed slice of ’70s Americana pop.” Minor Gold perform in concert Wednesday Night, June 19, at 7:00pm at Waldo Pizza, 7433 Broadway, KCMO as part of The Waldo Folk series. More information at: http://www.minorgoldmusic.com

At 10:30am Mark talks with Aaron Rhodes, founder and Editor in Chief of Shuttlecock Music Magazine, and Talent Buyer & Marketer at Farewell KCMO. Aaron Rhodes joins us to share details about his new band Burning Bush and their debut 6-song EP, DEMO 2024 that was released May 8, 2024. Aaron also shares details about Farewell KCMO and Howdy, and Summer Kamp IV, Saturday, June 22, 2024, where The Bad Ideas will be hosting in honor of Britt Adair with The Uncouth, Reacharounds, The Utilitarians, Violet Approach, and DJ Pez! The show will start at Farewell, 6515 Stadium Dr, Kansas City, MO and alternate between the two venues. More information at: http://www.shuttlecockmusic.com

Made with Square InstaPic

At 11:00am Nicolette Paige Davis shares details about the Kansas City Urban Farm Co-Op – Summer Solstice & Power To The People Celebration on Saturday, June 22, 10:00am to 10:00pm, at 5051 East Gregory Blvd, KCMO. This is a fundraiser with donations accepted at the door! This celebration will host a variety of activities with featured artists including: Jenna Bodensteiner opening the day with a Rhythm & Rootz ceremonial dance; Xion Sound Waves (a healing sound choir); Kansas City Rumba; Nicolette Paige; DJ Simba; Live paintings by Feliz Kehinde; Open Sessions poetry jam hosted by Breasia; and MORE! There will also be a FREE PRODUCE giveaway, free workshops, KC Vendors, an exotic petting zoo, henna by Madison Skye, and authentic Jamaican cuisine by Neptis Reggae! The Kansas City Urban Farm Co-Op is the largest Black owned orchard in Kansas City. More information at: http://www.KCUFC.org

At 11:30 Scott Hrabko is back with more music from his new musical project, “Other Cats, Other Bags Volume III,” released on May 27, 2024. It’s a multi-volume project culled from recording sessions Scott did at home with a few longtime Rabbits (his backing band mates) and some new friends from the KC music community, that Scott has been wanting to record with for some time. Each volume features cover art from artists Scott knows and loves who are still going strong. Scott Hrabko is an independent singer-songwriter who has followed his own mercurial muse since the town’s late 1980s indie rock scene. “Hrabko’s rootsy songs are filled with trap doors, hidden nooks, and secret passageways. They’re like those dreams within comfortably familiar houses that suddenly have brand new rooms.” Mike Warren – No Depression. More info at: http://www.scotthrabko.bandcamp.com and http://www.scotthrabko.com

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

Show #1051

WMM Playlist from June 12, 2024

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

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

WMM Serves Music of Boulevardia + Chris Haghirian + Krystle Warren

  1. “Main Title Instrumental – It’s Showtime Folks”
    from: Orig. Motion Picture Soundtrack All That Jazz / Casablanca / December 20, 1979
  1. Friendly Thieves – “Get it Yourself”
    from: “Get it Yourself” – Single / Friendly Thieves / June 7, 2024
    [New single from five-piece alt-funk band, Friendly Thieves who are: Sam Wells on lead vocals, Jamae Breeze on lead guitar, Sam Millard on bass, John Goss on drums, and Ben Baker on saxophone. // Friendly Thieves released their debut album Til Death on October 31, 2023. // From Michelle Bacon’s piece in http://www.bridge909.org: Friendly Thieves describes themselves as if “Alabama Shakes and Young The Giant had a Vulfpeck-inspired love child,” and well, that’s pretty spot on. Their single captures that intersection of vibrant indie-rock energy and exceptional musicianship, with an intriguing funk aroma. // The bands show at ULAH is their only KC show so far this year before the ban sets off on tour to Austin, Chicago, Denver, and Nashville. // Sam Wells released her debut EP, FOR THE DEFLATED on French Exit Records on December 31, 2020. Sam Wells is a Kansas City, based singer songwriter who has shared stages with Betsy Phillips, Kelly Hunt, Andrew Ryan, The Zack Pietrini Band, and The Phantastics. She was featured as a composer and performer in the Kansas City Repertory Theater production of “Ghost Light” performed on the lawn of The Nelson Atkin Museum of Art in October, 2020. Sam has also performed in Troostival (2020), Kansas City Porchfest (2019) and Jamdemic. In 2019, Wells released her debut single “Lesson Learned.” In early 2020 Wells released her second single “Sugar” producer and engineered by Riley Corbin at the Lawrence Kansas Public Library recording studio. It was only a decade ago, Sam Wells sat in her bedroom learning the Corrine Bailey Ray classic “Put Your Records On”. This was all it took to ignite a lifetime love affair with music. With her smooth and sultry voice and the warm tones of a baritone ukulele, she shares stories of love, loss and everything in between. Originally from Phoenix, Arizona, Sam Wells has lived in Lawrence, but now calls KC home. Sam Wells also contributed to The Black Lives Matter Compilation from French Exit Records that featured tracks from 22 acts from the area, and was released on July 6, 2020. Sam contributed the song, “Dear Black People”. On WMM we featured tracks from: Blackstarkids, Daniel Gum, Crystal Rose, UpKeep, Bream, Heavy Surface, Palace Intrigue, Self Harmony, and Sam Wells. All proceeds donated to One Struggle KC’s Liberation Fund, a Black-led coalition of KC activists seeking to connect the struggles of oppressed communities, locally & globally. French Exit Records launched in 2018, and is an independent music label based out of Kansas City, Missouri founded by Brad Girard. French Exit Records has released albums for No Magic and Raymond, and has organized live events. ]

[Friendly Thieves play at Boulevardia Friday, June 14, at 5:05 on the Visit Missouri Stage.]

10:04 – Intro / Interview with Chris Haghirian

Thanks for tuning into WMM on 90.1 FM KKFI. I’m Mark Manning. Today on WMM we are serving up music from the 9th annual Boulevardia Festival including: The Roseline, Kemet Coleman, Friendly Thieves, Supermassive Black Holes,Laura Noble, Bears and Company, Flight Attendant, Milky Chance, Kate Cosentino, Good Morning Kevin featuring Mura Masa & Big Freedia, Back Alley Brass Band, Paul Cauthen, Stik Figa, Thundercat, Ultimate Fakebook, and Krystle Warren!

At 11:00 am, Krystle Warren joins us for our second hour. Krystle Warren will perform LIVE from the 90.1 FM Studios. Krystle Warren is one of our most played artists and most frequent guests. Now based in France, Krystle Warren is back in Kansas City to play Boulevardia, Saturday, June 15 at 8:45pm on the Elevate Stage, at Crown Center. Krystle Warren will also play the Percheron Rooftop Series tomorrow night on Thursday, Jun 13, 2024, at 7:00 PM on the rooftop of the Crossroads Hotel.

Joining us for the entire show is our special guest, Chris Haghirian host & Producer of Eight One Sixty, heard Tuesday nights at 6:00 PM, on 90.9 The Bridge. Chris worked for The Kansas City Star for over 20 years. Chris studied Journalism / Advertising at The University of Kansas. Chris also studied Photography at Kansas City Art Institute. Chris works for Spray KC. Chris organizes multiple concert series throughout the metro, and music stages for Plaza Art Fair, Innovation Fest, and The Middle of The Map Fest.

Chris Haghirian joins us to share details about Boulevardia, Friday, June 14, & Saturday, June 15, at Crown Center, 2396 Grand Boulevard, with over 70 national, regional & local acts, 23 DJs, 5 music stages, with nearly 50 Brewing Companies, dozens and dozens of Restaurants & Food Trucks, Multiple merchants in the Makers Market, plus a Skating Party, The Silent Disco, and various VIP Experiences.

Boulevardia has become one of the city’s largest showcases of local music with over 60 local performers included in this year’s lineup. Musical performances cross over genres and showcase the rich talent KC has to offer. The 2-day street festival is near the intersection of Pershing & Grand Boulevard, encompassing Crown Center & Washington Square Park. The event features a craft beer & food sampling experience & music, all in a unique urban setting. More info at: http://www.boulevardia.com

Chris Haghirian thanks for being with us on WMM

Bnoulevardia – Friday, June 14

VISIT MISSOURI STAGE
5:05pm – Friendly Thieves
6:25pm – Pom Pom Squad
7:50pm – Hanson
9:30pm – Milky Chance

ELEVATE STAGE
5:00pm – Bobby Watson
6:15pm – Laura Noble
7:30pm – Jass
8:45pm – Bears and Company
10:00pm – Ha Ha Tonka

PROPAGANDA3 PARK STAGE
4:20pm – Dames of The Dead
5:30pm – Infinity
6:40pm – WEDA Skirts
7:50pm – Flat Susan
9:00pm – The Roseline
10:10pm – Starhaven Rounders

HOLLADAY HILL STAGE
5:45pm – Lava Dreams
7:00pm – Kadesh Flow
8:15pm – LYXE
9:30pm – Flight Attendant

MONSTER ENERGY SILENT DISCO
5:00pm – Zimmerman
5:00pm – Sana
5:00pm – DJ EJ
7:00pm – Twinnflame
7:00pm – Dewey
7:00pm – SHEPPA
7:00pm – Jingram
7:00pm – DJ ON10
9:00pm – DJ P (Daniel James Phillips)
9:00pm – Dom Chronicles
9:00pm – DJ Joe & Ice Kole

10:09

  1. Laura Noble – “Touch The Sky”
    from: “Touch The Sky” – Single / Noble Nation Records / March 22, 2020
    [Kansas City based Dominican Republic singer Laura Noble has had the opportunity to perform cover and original songs in major cities including Queens & Manhattan, NY, Minneapolis, MN, Denver, CO, Fort Myers, FL, Denver, CO, Atlanta, GA, Baltimore, MD and others. She’s been performing with live bands for 10+ years at festivals, high budget weddings, and corporate events. She has done the National Anthem and God Bless America at major sporting games and events like the KC Royals, Sporting KC and MMA fight tournaments..]

[Laura Noble plays Boulevardia, Friday, June 14, at 6:15 PM on Elevate Stage]

  1. Bears And Company – “After The Quake”
    from: South of The Mountain / Bears and Company / April 28, 2013
    [Bears and Company were formed in June 2011. Bears and Company is a progressive/indie rock band out of Kansas City, Missouri. Each member comes from different musical backgrounds and collectively they craft a unique taste for those with open mouths. They are a band that share a story worth listening to, and paint a constant raging tone to illustrate such. This quintuplet is a band that gets in your face and will have you screaming every word in company. They create sound for honest connection, and work restlessly to break any and all resistance. The Bears started when songwriters, Alexander McClain (Guitar/Vocals) and Logan Tyler (Vocals/Bass) got together in the winter of their first and last year of college and began working on the songs and ideas of Bears and Company. Not long after McClain’s long time friend and past bandmate, Allan Latini (Drums) joined the band out of great desire to be a part of a hard hitting project. As a Trio the band played multiple shows, wrote, and recorded an unreleased E.P. and in time decided that it was time to step up their song direction and guitar section. Zach Knoll (Guitar) became the missing piece of the puzzle after a couple sessions. Charisma came completely natural for the four piece and things took off immediately. They began writing their debut full length record, South of the Mountain, in the fall of 2011 and returned to the studio to record with producer Aaron Crawford (The Beautiful Bodies, We Are Voices, Flee the Seen, Now Now Sleepyhead) in the fall of 2012.]

[BEARS AND COMPANY play Boulevardia, Friday, June 14, at 8:45 PM on Elevate Stage]

  1. The Roseline – “Aloneness”
    from: Keystone of the Heart / RPH Records / February 2, 2024
    [Keystone of the Heart is the eighth album from the Lawrence, Kansas based band. The Roseline features: Colin Halliburton on lead vocals, Bradley McKellip on guitar, Heidi Gluck on Keyboards & backing vocals, Colin Jones on bass, Jim Piller on drums, and Chase Horseman on Mellotron. Engineered, produced, and mixed by Joel Nanos at Element Recording Studios in Kansas City, KS Mastered by Carl Saff at Saff Mastering in Chicago, IL. // Keystone of the Heart, is arguably their most distilled, elegant, and emotionally resonant album of their career. Halliburton describes it as “a protest record which protests the dissolution of a marriage, the slog of existence in late stage capitalism, and grotesque hatred and violence.” While this certainly sounds clunky and heavy-handed, Halliburton knows when to inject some levity and humor. Songs which appear dour and grim in the early verses always seem to find some hope and light by their end. Keystone of the Heart offers pure aural aloe for troubled times. // The Roseline played an Album Release Show at The Bottleneck con February 2, 2024 with Suzannah Johannes and Empty Moon. The band will be traveling back to Scandinavia in March.// The Roseline’s 7th album CONSTANCY was released November 5, 2021, was #1 on WMM’s 120 Best Recordings of 2021. // The Roseline are a Lawrence, KS, based alt-country, Americana, rock band, formed by Colin Halliburton with friends in 2005. The Roseline released their 6th album GOOD / GRIEF on April 3, 2020. The Roseline released BLOOD on September 29, 2017; and TOWNIE on June 19, 2015. The band has toured the US and parts of Europe. Halliburton has completed two European solo tours thus far, taking him through Poland, Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands. // . The Roseline founder and principal songwriter, Colin Halliburton, began the project as an acoustic folk trio. It has since evolved into the five-piece heartland rock band of its current form. // Kind foreign press and high charting on the Euro Americana Chart (“Lust for Luster,” “Blood,” “GOOD/GRIEF” and “Constancy” all charted in the top 10) led to a deal in the Benelux with Dutch label King Forward Records. The band also released “Vast as Sky” in 2012 with the Bay Area label Ninth Street Opus (home to Sarah Lee Guthrie and Carrie Rodriguez). Aside from those, the project has largely been a truly DIY, independent venture. // The Roseline has had the good fortune of landing placements in indie movies and major network television shows such as ABC’s “Nashville” and “Resurrection,” as well as USA’s “Queen of the South,” Netflix’s “Virgin River” and MTV’s “Teen Mom.” The band’s work has been featured on NPR, “Pop Matters,” “American Songwriter,” “The Bluegrass Situation” and “No Depression,” among others. Colin Halliburton joined us on WMM on March 25, 2020. More info at: https://roselinemusic.com/%5D

[The Roseline play Boulevardia, Friday, June 14, at 9:00 PM on Propaganda 3 Park Stage.]

  1. Flight Attendant – “Therapy Couch (Radio Edit)”
    from: “Therapy Couch (Radio Edit)” / Flight Attendant / June 23, 2023
    [“Flight Attendant delivers an experience,” – Rolling Stone Magazine. Flight Attendant belongs to that breed of rock bands made in Nashville, USA; where their sound is nothing less than a sonic unicorn. Blending sounds of grunge with power-pop hooks, viola and light synth textures, they have begun to create a hypnotic sound and energy all of their own. Glide Magazine says that Lead Singer Karalyne, “Commands your attention like Freddie Mercury working the crowd in an arena.” Flight Attendant band has been compared to Haim and Fleetwood Mac, or as TurnuptheVolume puts it, “Think Warpaint having a dance with Best Coast,” – This “Nashville based eclectic-indie band….is ready for take off”, Velvet Thunder]

[Flight Attendant play Boulevardia, Friday, June 14, at 9:30 PM on Holladay Hill Stage.]

. Milky Chance – “Living in a Haze (feat. The Beaches) (clean edit)”
from: “Living in a Haze (feat. The Beaches)”- Single / Muggelig Records GnbH / Mar. 29, 2024
[They won’t tell you this, but Milky Chance — the unassuming German duo of childhood friends Clemens Rehbein and Phillipp Dausch — are one of the biggest bands in the world. As they get ready to share the idiosyncratic and inventive pop songs that populate their new album Living In A Haze, they proudly boast over 10 million monthly Spotify listeners, an enviable touring resume (including festivals like Coachella, Reading & Leeds, and Lollapalooza), an upcoming schedule of 2023 dates that represent their biggest headline shows of their career, and a global audience stretching from the US and Mexico to the EU, Australia, and beyond. Over the course of their decade-plus as a band, they’ve proven themselves to be an elusive entity: the rare organism that has evolved to survive and thrive in an increasingly precarious music industry. In an era where there’s no shortage of hucksters offering shaky advice to burgeoning musicians, Milky Chance are resistant to offering any kind of careerist insight on longevity. Instead, Rehbein offers a more straightforward philosophical suggestion: “The best thing we ever did for ourselves, artistically, was maintain a real sense of naivety. Maybe it’s because we met so young but playing music together feels just like that: Playing. Whatever we’re doing, we try to let a childlike intuition, serendipity, and sense of discovery lead the way.” Right as the band started, their runaway hit “Stolen Dance” — which just surpassed over 1 billion streams on Spotify — gifted Rehbein and Dausch with a platform far beyond what the duo could have imagined when they first recorded the track on a minimal home setup. But that kind of success breeds pressure from all sorts of stakeholders to recreate a once-in-a-lifetime moment. Not that Milky Chance let that get to them. “While we were vaguely aware that there were expectations to follow-up the success of that first album,” says Dausch, “we were largely able to ignore it. Probably because we were so young and things like playing festivals or going into the studio were still so new and exciting. Most of the other noise passed us by.” While they’re justifiably proud of their studio work following “Stolen Dance” — their 2014 debut Sadnecessary broke them as a global streaming and touring act, while 2017’s Blossom and 2019’s Mind The Moon found them building outwards from an established identity and taking advantage of new resources to collaborate with heroes like Jack Johnson and Ladysmith Black Mambazo — their recent decision to go independent has given Milky Chance a new lease on life. They’ve been able to experiment with their release approach, sharing two versions of their travel-inspired Trip Tapes, official collections of remixes, demos, and covers that originally featured as part of the soundtrack to their viral Road Tripping Radio series. They’ve also been able to further promote ecological sustainability, whether through their Milky Change initiative, which plants trees to offset the carbon footprint of touring, or through implementing more sustainable practices into how they source their merch. However, their new sense of freedom is best exemplified by the freewheeling exploratory verve that runs through Living In A Haze. For some acts, being unleashed artistically might mean endless run-times, dense noise collages, or a more hostile approach to their audience. But Milky Chance’s version of experimentalism is writing the tightest, most groove-forward pop song imaginable — and then going back and distorting each sound into its wildest, most unrecognizable iteration. Take album opener and lead single “Living In A Haze,” an economical haymaker of a track: Its “don’t bore us get to the chorus” structure unfolds with an enigmatic but intuitive logic, going from elegiac triplet guitar figure to a tight, post-Strokes rhythmic feel that provides the ideal musical metaphor to accompany Rehbein’s dreamy delivery. “I wish I was a disco boy,” he sings as the song’s tension finally uncoils with a percussive momentum that beckons listeners to join in. “I should be dancing the pain away.” Milky Chance have gotten so good at recording breezy off-kilter pop songs that, like two basketball players dramatically upping the stakes in a game of HORSE, they are now challenging themselves to do it in as bizarre a way as possible. On Living In A Haze, it sounds better than anything they’ve ever done. Operating from an eclectic moodboard of influences — which, in brief, includes: reggae-pop alchemists like Bob Marley, The Police, and Sublime; a vast array of global pop icons including Burna Boy, Stromae, and Rosalía; the emotive deep house of Fred again…; and the moody, neon-streaked Euphoria soundtrack — Milky Chance pack every song on Living In A Haze with delectable noises and the freight train hooks that have become their signature. Afrobeat rhythms power both “Flicker In The Dark” and “Feeling For You” — on the first providing a canvas on which to liberally splatter earthy acoustic textures and a cartoonishly colorful guitar solo, on the second lending a swiveling counterpoint to Rehbein’s narcotized vocal. The impish and irresistible “Colorado” — which makes a reprise here after a 2021 single release — is a labyrinth of twisting guitar riffs, echoing vocal ad-libs, and funhouse synth fanfares that still demands repeat listens. And “Better Off” is 80s pastiche constructed with both reverence and glee, its goth bassline and new wave keyboards showing that Milky Chance learned all the right lessons when they covered The Weeknd and Soft Cell as part of their Trip Tape series. Recorded at Jazzanova Recording Studios in Berlin with an array of collaborators — including production help from DECCO, Jonas Holle, Tobias Kuhn, Dennis Neuer, and guests including Malian artist Fatoumata Diawara and Canadian singer Charlotte Cardin — Living In A Haze ultimately works because it applies the band’s endless musical curiosity to the propulsive logic of the best club music. “In order to really connect with an audience, particularly in a live setting, music needs a sense of physicality and movement,“ says Rehbein. Milky Chance find unique ways to put this edict into practice, whether it’s the seamless synthesis of Laurel Canyon-steeped folk pop and deep house on “Synchronize” or the refreshingly subtle contours of “Like A Clown’s” poolside filter disco. On “History Of Yesterday,” they marry a UKG shuffle with sunny atmospherics and cascades of reverberating piano that culminate in perhaps the band’s breeziest chorus to date. However, all the studio ingenuity in the world doesn’t take you very far if it’s used on a lackluster song. Luckily, Living In The Haze provides an abundance of proof that Milky Chance are dedicated to mastering their songcraft. Want a compact pop gem packed with yearning and melodic sophistication? They’ve got “Purple Tiger” and its delightful call-and-response chorus. What about a singalong-igniting, lighters-aloft love song? They’ve got the undeniable strummer “Favorite Song.” What about something ambitious that points to heretofore unseen artistic avenues for the band’s future? There’s the sparse, delicately unfolding album closer “Frequency Of Love,” whose sub-bass textures and auto-tune choirs end things with an emotional flourish and teases the promise of Milky Chance songs to come. There’s a creative restlessness that permeates Living In A Haze. Milky Chance seem eager to avoid repeating themselves, lest they become stuck in their ways and lose the joyous spark that drew them together as teenaged music students. Over the past decade, that intrepid spirit has served Milky Chance well. Living In A Haze is not the culmination or endpoint of the band’s musical journey, but another chapter in it — one that vibrates with possibility and passion. It’s a thrilling juncture for band and listener alike.

[Milky Chance play Boulevardia, Friday, June 14, at 9:30 PM on the Visit Missouri Stage.]

10:28 – Underwriting

Thanks for tuning into WMM on 90.1 FM KKFI. I’m Mark Manning. Today on WMM we are serving up music from the 9th annual Boulevardia Festival.

Chris Haghirian joins us to share details about Boulevardia, Friday, June 14, & Saturday, June 15, at Crown Center, 2396 Grand Boulevard, with over 70 national, regional & local acts, 23 DJs, 5 music stages, with nearly 50 Brewing Companies, dozens and dozens of Restaurants & Food Trucks, Multiple merchants in the Makers Market, plus a Skating Party, The Silent Disco, and various VIP Experiences.

Boulevardia has become one of the city’s largest showcases of local music with over 60 local performers included in this year’s lineup. Musical performances cross over several genres and showcase the rich talent KC has to offer. The two-day urban street festival is near the intersection of Pershing and Grand Boulevard, encompassing Crown Center and Washington Square Park. The event features a craft beer and food sampling experience and music, as well as interactive activities, entertainment, and shopping, all in a unique urban setting. More info at: http://www.boulevardia.com

Chris Haghirian thanks for being with us on WMM

Boulevard – Saturday, June 15

VISIT MISSOURI STAGE
1:05pm – Selekto Show
2:25pm – The Phantatics
3:45pm – Kate Cosentino
5:05pm – Post Sex Nachos
6:25pm – Big Freedia
7:25pm – Sass-A-Brass
8:05pm – Paul Cauthen
9:45pm – Thundercat

ELEVATE STAGE
1:15pm – Tiki Brawlers
2:30pm – Danny Santell
3:45pm – Stranded In The City
5:00pm – Zee Underscore
6:15pm – The Whips
7:30pm – Black Alley Brass Band
8:45pm – Krystle Warren
10:00pm Ultimate Fakebook

PROPAGANDA3 PARK STAGE
2:00pm – Supermassive Black Holes
3:10pm – The Swallowtails
4:20pm – The Cowardly Lions
5:30pm – Kirstie Lynn & Galen Clark
6:40pm – Marty Bush
7:50pm – The MGDs
9:00pm – OLE 60
10:10pm – The Burney Sisters

HOLLADAY HILL STAGE
2:00pm – Jamogi
3:15pm – Asia Tsion
4:30pm – IVORY BLUE
5:45pm – Love, Mae C.
7:00pm – Broderick Jones
8:15pm – Stik Figa
8:15pm – Leonard Dstroy
9:30pm – Mary and The Matrix

MONSTER ENERGY SILENT DISCO
1:00pm – BLVDIA Skate Party
3:00pm – SIRQUEEN
3:00pm – Kay Fan
3:00pm – DJ Missy E
3:00pm – DJ Diehard
5:00pm – DJ MOHEAT
5:00pm – TIBERIAS
5:00pm – Yung Maple
7:00pm – DJ EJ
7:00pm – DJ ON10
7:00pm – DJ Dawna
7:00pm – Lana Luxx
9:00pm – DJ Joe & Ice Kole
9:00pm – ASSJAMZ
9:00pm – DJ NE$$

10:34

  1. Supermassive Black Holes – “Wiser”
    from: Stop Safely Now / Supermassive Black Holes / October 27, 2023
    [Recorded, engineered, mixed & mastered by Duane Trower at Weights & Measures Soundlab. Supermassive Black Holes are: Alexis Barclay on bass guitar & vocals; John Johnson on electric, acoustic guitar, synthesizer, kazoo & vocals; Matt Davis on drums, piano & vocals; and Chad Brothers on electric & acoustic guitar & vocals. Song written by Chad Brothers. Supermassive Black Holes were formed in 2010 during the legendary Monday jam nights at Crosstown Station. Supermassive Black Holes are a genre-bending psychedelic rock band from KC known for their mesmerizing live performances. Fresh off the release of their new album “Stop Safely Now”, these musical stalwarts are eager to share their latest songs and sounds with lovers of psychedelic and progressive rock music. Their unique chemistry, honed over 13 years of collaboration, pushes the boundaries of sonic expression, creating a listening experience that captivates audiences. They’ve been described as a stoner rock lounge act or punk rock jam band. Their musical style is rich with electric guitar, rock-steady bass and powerful drums, and draws comparisons to bands like My Morning Jacket, Ween, Guided by Voices, and The Stone Roses. ]

[Supermassive Black Holes play Boulevardia, Sat, June 15, 2:00 PM on Propaganda 3 Park Stage.]

  1. Kemet Coleman – “Android (feat. FlareThaRebel & Kadesh Flow)”
    from: “Android (feat. FlareThaRebel & Kadesh Flow)”– Single / Kemet Creative / April 26, 2024
    [Kemet Coleman is a Kansas City based musicians and is a member of the Hip-Hop duo COA (Center of Attention) and is the lead singer of the Funk/Rap/Soul band The Phantastics. Kemet is also a core element of The Marcus Lewis Big Band for Brass & Boujee. Kemet is a two time Pitch Music Award nominee for “Best Hip-Hop Act.” Kemet is known for his unprecedented collaborations with UMKC, KC Streetcar and The Kansas City Royals. He is also highly regarded for his impresario role within the Sly James for Mayor Campaign in the 2010-2011 where he created the first ever KC mayoral candidate rap song. A UMKC alumnus, Kemet, created “Gold and Blue” for UMKC’s sports teams, which has garnered thousands of plays on YouTube and has been featured on prime-time television commercials for the university. In 2020 Coleman contributed his song, “The Virus” to the compilation, Kansas City Syzygy, music created by over 25 KC-based musicians in the middle of the map of a pandemic. All proceeds donated to KC Tenants, a local nonprofit organized to ensure that everyone has a safe, accessible, affordable home. Kemet Coleman released, BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL on Aug. 1, 2020. Kenet Coleman released the single “Eyes On The Sr\treet” on May 21, 2021.] [The Phantastics released their single “All That Fine”on May 6, 2022. The Pjhantastics are an 8 member band from KC formed in December of 2010. Kemet the Phantom on lead vocals; Leigh Gibbs on lead vocals; JJ Cantrell on lead guitar & vocals; Danny Florez on electric bass; Ashley Thompson on drums, DJ Mitchell on saxophone; Ryan Jamaal Davis on Trombone and rap vocals; Austin Quick on keyboards. The Phantastics specialize in genre-blending dance floor activators. In 2015, the music group was crowned “Kansas City’s best party band” by the KC Star. Musicianship and diversity are at the core of their success. Rock, Rap, Dance, Funk, Jazz & Soul are all incorporated into their music. “The band that can do it all”, according to I Heart Local Music, has shared the stage with some of music’s most legendary acts including George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic. On Oct. 18, 2019 The Phantastics released LIVE AT THE PLAZA ART FAIR. On Aug. 24, 2018 The Phantastics released the EP, LIFE OF THE PARTY. On Dec. 14, 2013 The Phantastics released their debut album THE CLOSER. Info at: http://www.thephantastics.com]

[The Phantastics play Boulevardia, Saturday, June 15, 2:25 PM on the Visit Missouri Stage.]

  1. Kate Cosentino – “Swim”
    from: “Swim” – Single / Kate Cosentino / February 3, 2024
    [One oif six new singles Kate Cosentino has released so far this year. Kare Costentino Well-versed in the art of puns and guitar-shredding, Kate Cosentino’s music is something of jazzy sleekness atop the lyrical precision of witty slam poetry. Whether you saw her rock the stage as a part of Niall Horan’s team for Season 23 of The Voice or saw one of her many goofy social media posts, Cosentino’s fun-loving personality, unique sense of style, and witty songwriting shine through in everything she does everything she does.]

[Kate Cosentino plays Boulevardia, Saturday, June 15, 3:45 PM on the Visit Missouri Stage.]

  1. Good Morning Kevin – “Wiggle it (feat. Mura Masa & Bid Freedia)”
    from: “Wiggle it (feat. Mura Masa & Bid Freedia)” / Good Morning Kevin / February 2, 2024
    [New Short Form Series ‘Good Morning Kevin’ Launched on Social Media by ex-Pixar Animator, Andrew Gordon and his new company The Other Studio. Created by Pixar veteran Andrew Gordon, he rewrites the social media script with new characters destined for the big screen. Gordon is renowned for animated personalities like Monsters Inc.‘s Mike Wazowski, moving forward with Good Morning Kevin. His latest venture embraces social media with an animated bear that is launched into outer space by Pete Plainer, the CEO of Kadabra and forced to create viral content through interactive missions. // Big Freedia released the album Central City on June 23, 2023. Raised on Josephine Street in uptown New Orleans, Big Freedia, born Freddie Ross, was raised by his mother, a hairdresser, and stepfather, a truck driver for Coca-Cola. When Freddie was 15, the family moved to a more upscale neighborhood in New Orleans. Freddie—along with his brother Adam and sister Crystal Ross—were immersed in music at home by their mother, who often sang along to her Gladys Knight and Patty LaBelle records around the house. But it was the Baptist church choir where a young Freddie flourished. ”My mother made sure I never missed practice,” recalls Freedia. It’s no wonder that by the time he was 18, Freedia moved from member to director of the choir. Big Freedia is known as the Queen of Bounce, at the forefront of the Bounce rap movement (a subgenre of hip-hop born out of New Orleans and known for its call and response style and lightening speed booty-shaking dance). Though gay and proud, Big Freedia asserts that her (Freedia is a he but uses the feminine pronoun for her stage persona) sexuality has little to do with her music and rejects the term Sissy Bounce (the queer brand of Bounce). “All Bounce is Bounce,” he insists. “There’s no need to separate it out. All types of people—gay, straight, rich, poor, black, white come to my shows. People just wanna get out and shake their azzzz and have a good time!” And therein lies the beauty of Big Freedia: She can rock a pair of dangling gold earrings and light up a blunt and chop it up with the hardest rapper around. She’s not a gay artist, but rather an artist who happens to be gay. Big Freedia has gone from a local New Orleans phenomenon to a national one after appearing on the HBO series ‘Treme’ [as herself] and in 2010, she released her debut EP on Scion A/V Presents: Big Freedia, produced by NOLA producer BlaqNmilD. The EP featured notables “Excuse” and “Almost Famous; other fan-favorites include “Gin in my System” “Azz Everwhere” and “Y’all Get Back Now.” Shefollowed that up by releasing “Nah Who Mad” and “Booty Whop,” and she was featured on Spank Rock’s “Everything is Boring and Everyone is a Fucking Liar” LP, on the track “Nasty.” She was also featured on “Peanut Butter” with RuPaul. Freedia made her network television network debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! She appeared on “Last Call with Carson Daly,” FADERTV, PITCHFORK TV and has been lauded in press outlets such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Fader, RollingStone.com, SPIN, OffBeat, Chicago Tribune.]

[Big Freedia plays Boulevardia, Saturday, June 15, at 6:25 PM on the Visit Missouri Stage.]

  1. Back Alley Brass Band – “Second Line”
    from: Last Chance To Dance – EP / Back Alley Brass Band / April 19, 2024
    [The Back Alley Brass Band released their debut full-length studio album Back Alley Brass Band on March 25, 2022. The Back Alley Brass Band is a Kansas City take on a funky brass band. The 10-piece band is a hard hitting music power house that starts a party wherever they play. 
Trumpets: Justin Crossman, Tom Lawlor Saxes: Eric Rothmier, Alex Toepfer Bones: Matt Hubbell, Matt Fillingham, Chacko Finn Sousa: Patrick Yeh Drums: Daniel McDill Aux Percussion: Jeremey ReynoldsMore information at: http://www.backalleybrass.com ]

[The Back Alley Brass Band plays Boulevardia, Saturday, June 15, at 7:30 PM on the Elevate Stage.]

  1. Paul Cauthen – “25 Tequilas”
    from: “25 Tequilas” – Single / Velvet Rose Records / September 15, 2023
    [Paul Cauthen is a true force of nature. His ability to captivate audiences with his soulful sound and larger-than-life personality has become lore amongst those that have witnessed it. Also doesn’t hurt to have a generational set of pipes to top it all off. Hailing from East Texas, Cauthen embodies the spirit of the Lone Star State, earning a reputation for doing things his own way. Born into a family of preachers, Cauthen’s upbringing heavily influences his deep-rooted connection to music. With a voice that resonates with raw emotion, he aims to transport listeners, inviting them on a journey through love, heartbreak, and the pursuit of personal freedom. Cauthen’s journey has been one of resilience, perseverance and sheer independence. Turning down major label deals at various points in his career, Cauthen has valued forging his own path and betting on himself over all else. With multiple releases this year including the genre bending Hometeam and raucous Wild Man, Cauthen has continued to explore new sonic territory fearlessly, while unapologetically defying expectations and creating music that resists categorization. As he embarks on the This Road I’m On Tour, his biggest headline tour to date, Cauthen brings his long time live band, the Hot Grease Fire, and a collection of hits and new tracks begging to be played for his hungry audiences. He also brings his trademark dance moves, so make sure you’re ready to get down if you come to a Paul Cauthen show.]

[Paul Cauthen plays Boulevardia Saturday, June 15, at 8:05 on the Visit Missouri Stage.]

  1. Stik Figa – “uknowhut (ft. The Expert & Blu) (radio edit)”
    from: “uknowhut” – Single / Rucksack Records / April 12, 2023
    [ On October 6, 2023 Stik Figa released “Say Dat!” as the lead single from the upcoming project with Leonard Dstroy with songs written by Stik Figa. and produced by Leonard Dstroy. // on August 25, 2023 Stik Figa released the 5-track EP THE FORGOTTEN. // On March 15, 2024 Stik Figa released to 7-track EP, SOIL SONGS.// Stik Figa is rapper from Topeka, KS who cut his teeth on the Kansas City rap scene for close to a decade. Making a name for himself as a charismatic performer and premier lyricist in the region, releasing 9 solo albums and multiple collaborations // Later partnering with notable independent hip-hop label Mello Music Group releasing collaboration with L’Orange, “The City Under the City” and straight forward hip-hop album Central Standard Time. More info at: http://www.stikfiga785.bandcamp.com]

[Stik Figa plays Boulevardia Saturday, June 15, at 8:15 on the Holladay Hill Stage.]

11:00 – Station ID

  1. Krystle Warren – “Born In The Fall”
    from: A Time to Keep Love Songs EP / Parlour Door Music / August 12, 2011
    [Originally from KC, Krystle learned to play the guitar by listening to Rubber Soul & Revolver from The Beatles. Krystle graduated from Paseo Arts Academy in 2001 and began her musical career in collaborating with area jazz and pop musicians. After living in San Francisco and NYC, Krystle was signed to a French label, Because Music, and moved to Paris to release “Circles” in 2009. Krystle played French and British television programs, including Later with Jools Holland, garnering critical acclaim and traveling all over the world with Rufus Wainwright, Nick Cave, Norah Jones, and Joan As Police Woman. Krystle created, Parlour Door Music, to release “Love Songs: A Time You May Embrace” a recording from a 13-day session in Brooklyn, where she recorded 24 songs live with 28 musicians including her band, The Faculty, alongside choirs, horn and string sections.]

[Krystle Warren plays Percheron Rooftop Series on Thursday, Jun 13, 2024, at 7:00 PM.]

[Krystle Warren plays Boulevardia, Sat, June 15 at 8:45pm on the Elevate Stage, at Crown Center.]

11:03 – Interview with Krystle Warren (and Chris Haghirian)

Thanks for tuning into WMM on 90.1 FM KKFI. I’m Mark Manning. Today on WMM we are serving up music from the 9th annual Boulevardia Festival.

Chris Haghirian is with us to share details about Boulevardia, Friday, June 14, & Saturday, June 15, at Crown Center and Washington Square, with over 70 national, regional & local acts, 23 DJs, 5 music stages.

Chris Haghirian, thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

And we are so excited to welcome back to the show, KC born and internationally known singer songwriter Krystle Warren who is back in KC from her home in France. Krystle is one of our most played artists of all time on the radio show. Krystle is also one of our most frequent guests.

Krystle Warren began performing in her native KC at the age of 16. Krystle graduated from Paseo Arts Academy and in 2001 began her musical career collaborating with area jazz and pop musicians. After moving to New York City in 2003 she started busking on the streets and later formed her regular band, The Faculty. After an independent EP DIARY, recorded late night at Electric Lady Studio, Krystle Warren and The Faculty recorded their debut album CIRCLES. Because Music bought CIRCLES and Krystle was signed to the Paris based music label who sent her a one-way ticket. Krystle Warren & The Faculty released the album CIRCLES in 2009. Their epic sophomore release, LOVE SONGS… followed in 2011, and contained twenty-four songs about love and was recorded in New York City over the span of two weeks, with close to thirty musicians. Around this time, Krystle joined forces with one of her musical idols, Rufus Wainwright, on his world tour as opener and bandmate. Krystle Warren then released her solo album THREE THE HARD WAY, in 2017 where Krystle played every instrument. On May 31, 2019 Krystle Warren & The Faculty released heir single “Rising” written especially for Ava DuVernay’s critically acclaimed television mini series WHEN THEY SEE US. When her band’s full length album was put on hold, Krystle released the 4-song EP THE CREW on September 15, 2020. Krustle released the single “Macca” on May 22, 2023, and the single “La Dolce Vita” on March 1, 2024. Her band The Faculty is getting set to release their album, EXTENDED PLAY.

Krystle Warren plays Percheron Rooftop Series on Thursday, Jun 13, 2024, at 7:00 PM. Krystle Warren plays Boulevardia, Saturday, June 15 at 8:45pm on the Elevate Stage, at Crown Center. Krystle will be sharing glimpses of Extended Play, Krystle Warren & The Faculty’s upcoming album release. More info at: http://www.krystlewarren.com

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

Joining Krystle is Jean Fabien Dijoud also known as “Jeff.”

Welcome home!

Last Summer, Krystle Warren & Solomon Dorsey headlined the KC Folk Fest 2023 on Saturday, May 20, in Washington Square Park, Kansas City, MO.

Krystle has brought along her friend Jeff from France

Earlier this year Krystle Warren & The Faculty released the 6:16 minute single “LA DOLCE VITA” on March 1, 2024.

Krystle Warren’s song, “Macca” was recorded on the heels of sessions for the band’s upcoming full length album EXTENDED PLAY.

Krystle says that the song, “became equal parts: a love letter to (Paul McCartney) and a note of encouragement to me. Which is a wonderful thing if you think about it.”

Following their double album LOVE SONGS (2012) “Macca” was recorded on the heels of sessions for the band’s upcoming full length album EXTENDED PLAY.”Macca” arrived unexpectedly.

“A Pal contacted me to help work on the music for an advertisement he was piecing together. My job was to find a melody and put words to it, so I set up my mic and started trying out ideas. And then POW! ‘ ‘Hang then upon the moon…’ – it sounded so distinctly Paul. Immediately I worried that the client would accept my buddy’s submission; thankfully, they didn’t.”

The “Paul” Krystle is referring to is Paul McCartney.

“He is such a huge inspiration for me. As a songwriter – my love of melody, the little quirks that come out lyrically – that’s all thanks to him. And singing that chorus — it evoked for me those gorgeous ballads he composed in the 80s – ‘Wanderlust,” ‘Tug of War’…There’s a bit of Wings there as well, I think, with a nod to ‘I’m Carrying.’

“What’s wild to me is that, though I decided. ‘This is for Paul,’ it became equal parts: a love letter to him, and a note of encouragement to me. Which is a wonderful thing when you think about it: Paul’s music so often encourages us to keep going, keep trying, and in using his language (so to speak), unwittingly, he was giving me strength.”

11:13

  1. Krystle Warren (on vocals) & Jean Fabien Dijoud (on guitar) – “Macca” (LIVE)
    [The single “Macca” was released on May 22, 2023.]

Krystle Warren plays Percheron Rooftop Series on Thursday, Jun 13, 2024, at 7:00 PM.

Krystle Warren plays Boulevardia, Saturday, June 15 at 8:45pm on the Elevate Stage, at Crown Center.

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

Also with us Chris Haghirian joins us to share details about Boulevardia, Friday, June 14, & Saturday, June 15, at Crown Center, 2396 Grand Boulevard, with over 70 national, regional & local acts, 23 DJs, 5 music stages.

Chris Haghirian, thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Krystle Warren & The Faculty Discography

Krystle Warren & The Faculty has released the EP “Diary” on May 1, 2007

Krystle Warren released “The Up Series – EP” on November 10, 2008

Krystle Warren releases the 13-song Album CIRCLES on March 13, 2009

Krystle Warren & The Faculty released “A Time To Keep – Love Songs EP”, Aug. 12, 2011

Krystle Warren & The Faculty released the double album 24-song “Love Songs” released on vinyl in Europe on April 9, 2012 as “Love Songs: A Time to Embrace,” and “Love Songs: A Time to Refrain from Embracing. ” And released on separate digital and CD albums in the United States as: “Love Songs: A Time to Embrace,” on March 13, 2012 and “Love Songs: A Time to Refrain from Embracing” on February 27, 2015

Krystle Warren released the album THREE THE HARDWAY on August 18, 2017

Krystle Warren & The Faculty released the single “Rising” on May 31, 2019

Krystle Warren & The Crew released the 4-song EP, THE CREW on September 15, 2020

Krystle Warren & The Faculty released the single “Macca”on May 22, 2023

Krystle Warren & The Faculty released the single “LA DOLCE VITA” on March 1, 2024

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

From Diary EP to Extended Play A Truncated History of Krystle Warren & The Faculty
From http://www.krystalwarren.com written by Phil Anderson:

Krystle Krystle Warren met Solomon Dorsey some weekend at a high school debate competition in KC. After she had trounced Solomon’s debate partner, the two ended up in an open classroom where they began playing music—Krystle had brought her guitar and was practicing chords, and Solomon, then an accomplished violinist, cellist, bassist, and singer likely had some sort of instrument on him, and even if he didn’t he had his voice.

Due to some specific details we’re not going to get into, Krystle was already living on her own; she was eighteen and he was seventeen. But she had a friend who had an apartment near hers, and this friend was having a party. “Wanna go?” she asked Solomon. And, as Solomon puts it, he has seen or spoken to Krystle every single day of his life since.

So when Solomon decided to attend the jazz program at New School in New York, he asked Krystle, “Wanna go?” And a few months after he moved, Krystle showed up. On her first night in the city, Solomon introduced her to Zach Djanikian, a saxophonist he’d become fast friends with at school. They lived in the same dorm, and Zach and Solomon took Krystle to a practice room in the basement and the three of them played musical games. According to Zach, “We’d sing as many melodies as we could over four open strings of the upright bass, plucked successively. ‘Norwegian Wood’ and the theme to ​Family Matters​ were a couple favorites.”

This led to busking as a trio, and each of them was hustling for gigs. An Italian restaurant that featured live music gave Krystle a regular night, and she often had Solomon and Zach play with her. Zach’s friend from Philadelphia, Ben Kane, would come to these nights, and he brought Mike Riddleberger.

In Philly, Zach was in a band called The Brakes, and Ben Kane was producing an album for Zach’s band in a windowless apartment that he shared with Riddleberger. Kane and Riddleberger had become friends a year earlier at NYU, bonding over their love of D’Angelo’s album ​Voodoo​. Riddleberger says that even though he saw Krystle perform, he didn’t speak to her until after she saw him play with his band, Quintus. Zach had brought her, and she approached him after the show to play in a band she was starting.

The Faculty was formed with Krystle, Solomon, Zach, Riddleberger, and Dave Moore, a keyboardist from Kansas who was at New School, too. While the four boys had classes and gigs, Krystle floated around New York and made a lot of friends. She busked and wrote songs, and, with the help of her band members and Ben Kane, who had an internship at ElectricLady Studios and was sneaking them in at odd hours, Krystle turned those songs into an EP called DIARY.

And it was a diary. The songs were about her daily experiences in this new place and with these new people. “I’ve Seen Days” has a title that implies a reflection, but it’s about how the world is new to her, how she’s “a frightened child” in a new city. “The New Astrologer” is about a new and exciting love, one that remains a good friend of hers. “A Song For Holly” is a letter to family explaining her new quotidien life (“your big sister / out in New York on some subway / your big sister, out trying to get paid”). And “Central Park” is a document of a night she had in Central Park with Zach and his boyfriend (now husband) Jesse, and how she is coming to embrace this new city, these new people, and this new chapter of her life.

If DIARY, the Faculty’s first recordings, is Krystle’s “Songs of Innocence,” then EXTENDED PLAY, the Faculty’s latest, is Krystle’s “Songs of Experience.”

Diary led to CIRCLES, which Ben Kane co-produced with Voodoo engineer Russell “The Dragon” Elevado. Circles was bought by Because Music in France, and Krystle had her next move. She stayed in France even when her relationship with Because ended because she found Vanessa, and Vanessa was worth staying in France for. But Krystle still recorded ​LOVE SONGS in New York, a double album that invokes a Blakean duality with its two subtitles, “A Time to Refrain from Embracing” and “A Time You May Embrace.” LOVE SONGS was produced with most of the Faculty (Zach was on tour with Amos Lee) and a slew of guest musicians in Brian Bender’s Brooklyn studio. Bender’s assistant, Jonathan Anderson, would later go on to replace Dave Moore on keys in the Faculty.

The Faculty has always been a tenuous project for everyone involved because of the distance and the schedules. While everyone remains close friends, the band members are spread across the globe. Krystle in France. Riddleberger in NYC and Zach in Woodstock. Solomon and Jonathan in LA. And then they are all working musicians, touring, recording, and collaborating with an impressive list of artists. Musicians like: D’Angelo, Hercules and Love Affair, Donald Fagen and the Nightfliers, Joan As Policewoman, Jose James, Emily King, Janet Jackson, Ron Sexsmith, The Dixie Chicks, Amy Helm, Stevie Wonder, Taylor Swift, Rufus Wainwright, Kylie Minogue, Sara Bareilles, Natalie Merchant, Kesha, Bleachers, Emylou Harris, Amos Lee, Lana Del Rey, Broken Social Scene, Teddy Thompson, Lakecia Benjamin, Jenny Lewis, that’s less than the half of it.

So they have been busy, and they have gained a lot of experience since the days of sneaking into ElectricLady late night or playing for meager pay and free wine at an East Village Italian resto. And while DIARY and CIRCLES and LOVE SONGS were recorded with everyone in the same room (THREE THE HARDWAY was just Krystle & Kane together), EXTENDED PLAY was recorded disparately and assembled together by the steady hands and ears of Kane and Krystle. There is distance between the musicians in the recording process, but there is still a close emotional connection that can be heard in these songs.

And Krystle is writing with a close emotional connection to the distant past. The songs that make up Extended Play are songs of experience—the lyrics reflect on a crush from high school, a departed musical hero, and others who live in memory. There is nostalgia in ​EXTENDED PLAY and a forlornness. These songs are filled with references, musical and otherwise, to those who have inspired Krystle over the years, from Les Mis​ (specifically the song adopted by ACT UP) to Gregory Djanikian, Zach’s poet father, and Audre Lord.

Krystle describes “When I Look Back,” the last song of ​Extended Play​, as “an apology to my teenage self.” Seventeen years ago she was writing songs about what happened day-of because being young is about immediacy and living in the present tense. Now the songs are about years past because life slows down, and we are allowed the time to “look back.”

But as Krystle sings in “Rising,” “Future lingers while past is present.” She’s writing about the past because we are all our collected histories—or as she puts it in “When I Look Back”: “there’s still something of her that stays.” The future, of course, still lingers, always there waiting for us, for the next move. The album ends with a recording of Audre Lorde’s gravelly voice. She says,

“I’m going on to something else, the shape of which I have no idea. ‘Only thing I know, is it’s going to be quite different. What I leave behind has a life of its own. I’ve said this about poetry… Well in a sense, I’m saying it about the very artifact of who I have been.”

Krystle Warren & The Faculty still have more to come. They have built seventeen years of memories, experiences, recordings, and shows, and with the release of ​Extended Play​, they continue to show a commitment to growing as musicians together, even if apart.

Written by Phil Anderson

Krystle Warren and 90.1 FM KKFI

Krystle Warren has been a LIVE guest on Wednesday MidDay Medley 18 times.

Mark first interviewed Krystle Warren for The Tenth Voice, back 2002. Mark first interviewed Krystle Warren for The Tenth Voice, back 2002. Mark waited several hours, during a winter snow storm, at a huge party, where Krystle played with her band including her longtime friend Solomon Dorsey on bass, in a packed, smoke filled apartment near Community Christian Church across the hall from where Solomon lived, to be given a 2 song demo CD, that contained Krystle’s first recorded music, including a song called “Chanel #5.” Krystle has since gone on to be known all over the world, but still maintains contact with her hometown of Kansas City.

Krystle was on WMM on June 29, 2016 as “Guest Producer” to share inspirations for her new record, THREE THE HARD WAY playing early gospel recordings, that crossed over into Jazz from: Pharoah Sanders, Edwin Hawkins, and The Swan Silvertones. Krystle’s critically acclaimed album, Three The Hard Way was #1 on WMM’s 117 Best Recordings of 2017. Wednesday MidDay Medley was the first to play tracks from Krystle’s album, before it was released. Krystle came on the show months before the release, to share music that was the inspiration for the recording. Released on Parlour Door Music, on August 18, 2017 and Produced by Krystle Warren and Ben Kane. Recorded, engineered, and mixed by Ben Kane. Written & performed by Krystle Warren. Mixed at The Garden, Brooklyn. Mastered & cut by Alex DeTurk at Masterdisk. In 2015 in Krystle Warren premiered new songs from this album at the Middle of the Map Fest in a packed room at Californos in Westport and later at The Polsky Theatre for the Performing Arts Series of Johnsons County Community College. For this record Krystle decided to play every instrument and vocals & back up vocals, “playing bass, drums, lap steel, piano, guitar, and vocals directly to analog tape. She and Ben Kane recorded in Villetaneuse, France, a small town on the outskirts of Paris in a vintage 70s era studio that offered just the right, rich sound to suggest the musical foundation for the record, and to do justice to the duo’s carefully balanced arrangements.” On the Wednesday MidDay Medley radio show in 2016 Krystle shared inspirations for this record, early gospel recordings, that crossed over into Jazz from: Pharoah Sanders, Edwin Hawkins, and The Swan Silvertones.
Krystle was on the show on Oct. 16, 2019 with Brad Cox when she was in KC to present LoveSongs with Owen/Cox Dance Group at Oct 19 & 20, 2019 at Polsky Theatre at JCCC.

We talked with Krystle on September 23, 2020 about The Crew EP where Krystle and friends recorded unique versions of four classic songs with the hope of encouraging the rallying cries of the moment: the movement of the people. Warren embarked on the project after her newest album, with her band The Faculty, was stalled due to COVID-19

On May 24, 2023 Krystle Warren was our Guest Producer playing music that inspired the single, “Macca” from Krystle Warren & The Faculty. Krystle will played tracks from Paul McCartney, Chet Atkins, and Stevie Wonder..

11:26

  1. Krystle Warren – “Sunbeams”
    from: A Time to Keep Love Songs EP / Parlour Door Music / August 12, 2011
    [Originally from KC, Krystle learned to play the guitar by listening to Rubber Soul & Revolver from The Beatles. Krystle graduated from Paseo Arts Academy in 2001 and began her musical career in collaborating with area jazz and pop musicians. After living in San Francisco and NYC, Krystle was signed to a French label, Because Music, and moved to Paris to release “Circles” in 2009. Krystle played French and British television programs, including Later with Jools Holland, garnering critical acclaim and traveling all over the world with Rufus Wainwright, Nick Cave, Norah Jones, and Joan As Police Woman. Krystle created, Parlour Door Music, to release “Love Songs: A Time You May Embrace” a recording from a 13-day session in Brooklyn, where she recorded 24 songs live with 28 musicians including her band, The Faculty, alongside choirs, horn and string sections.]

[Krystle Warren plays Percheron Rooftop Series on Thursday, Jun 13, 2024, at 7:00 PM.]
[Krystle Warren plays Boulevardia, Sat, June 15 at 8:45pm on the Elevate Stage, at Crown Center.]

11:30 – Underwriting

11:32 – Interview with Krystle Warren (and Chris Haghirian)

Thanks for tuning into WMM on 90.1 FM KKFI. I’m Mark Manning. Today on WMM we are serving up music from the 9th annual Boulevardia Festival.

Chris Haghirian is with us to share details about Boulevardia, Friday & Saturday, June 14, & 15, with over 70 national, regional & local acts, 23 DJs, 5 music stages.

Chris Haghirian, thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Also with us is Krystle Warren, in KC from France with Jean Fabien Dijoud aka”Jeff.”

Krystle Warren plays Percheron Rooftop Series on Thursday, Jun 13, 2024, at 7:00 PM.

Krystle Warren plays Boulevardia, Sat June 15 at 8:45pm on the Elevate Stage.

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

Boulevard – Saturday, June 15

VISIT MISSOURI STAGE
1:05pm – Selekto Show
2:25pm – The Phantatics
3:45pm – Kate Cosentino
5:05pm – Post Sex Nachos
6:25pm – Big Freedia
7:25pm – Sass-A-Brass
8:05pm – Paul Cauthen
9:45pm – Thundercat

ELEVATE STAGE
1:15pm – Tiki Brawlers
2:30pm – Danny Santell
3:45pm – Stranded In The City
5:00pm – Zee Underscore
6:15pm – The Whips
7:30pm – Black Alley Brass Band
8:45pm – Krystle Warren
10:00pm Ultimate Fakebook

PROPAGANDA3 PARK STAGE
2:00pm – Supermassive Black Holes
3:10pm – The Swallowtails
4:20pm – The Cowardly Lions
5:30pm – Kirstie Lynn & Galen Clark
6:40pm – Marty Bush
7:50pm – The MGDs
9:00pm – OLE 60
10:10pm – The Burney Sisters

HOLLADAY HILL STAGE
2:00pm – Jamogi
3:15pm – Asia Tsion
4:30pm – IVORY BLUE
5:45pm – Love, Mae C.
7:00pm – Broderick Jones
8:15pm – Stik Figa
8:15pm – Leonard Dstroy
9:30pm – Mary and The Matrix

MONSTER ENERGY SILENT DISCO
1:00pm – BLVDIA Skate Party
3:00pm – SIRQUEEN
3:00pm – Kay Fan
3:00pm – DJ Missy E
3:00pm – DJ Diehard
5:00pm – DJ MOHEAT
5:00pm – TIBERIAS
5:00pm – Yung Maple
7:00pm – DJ EJ
7:00pm – DJ ON10
7:00pm – DJ Dawna
7:00pm – Lana Luxx
9:00pm – DJ Joe & Ice Kole
9:00pm – ASSJAMZ
9:00pm – DJ NE$$

11:41

  1. Thundercat – “Them Changes”
    rom: Drunk / Brainfeeder / February 24, 2017
    [Stephen Lee Bruner (born October 19, 1984), better known by his stage name Thundercat, is an American musician, singer, record producer, and songwriter from Los Angeles. First coming to prominence as a member of crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies, he has since released four solo studio albums and is noted for his work with producer Flying Lotus and his appearances on Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly. In 2016, Thundercat won a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Performance for his work on the track “These Walls” from To Pimp a Butterfly. In 2020, Thundercat released his fourth studio album, It Is What It Is, which earned him a Grammy Award for Best Progressive R&B Album. // Raised in Compton and other parts of Los Angeles, Bruner was born into a family of musicians, including his father Ronald Bruner Sr., a drummer, and his mother Pam, a flautist and percussionist. His father played drums for The Temptations, The Supremes, and Gladys Knight, amongst others. After Bruner Sr. got sober from cocaine, the children would watch him play gigs at the Crenshaw Christian Center. Bruner attended Locke High School, playing in the school’s jazz band. His teacher, Reggie Andrews, produced and co-wrote the Dazz Band’s 1982 single “Let It Whip” and collaborated with Rick James. Andrews re-introduced Bruner to Kamasi Washington; the two had originally met as children, through their fathers’ membership in a gospel fusion band. The reunited duo would sneak into jazz concerts, driving around in a worn-down 1982 Ford Mustang to do so. They would later get to play the same venues as the performers they watched. They also did sessions with Bruner’s cousin Terrace Martin in Washington’s father’s garage during this time. // Bruner began playing the bass at an early age, listening to bass players such as Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller for inspiration. By the age of 15, he had a minor hit in Germany as a member of the boy band No Curfew. A year later, he joined his brother Ronald Jr. as a member of the Los Angeles crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies, replacing former bass player Josh Paul. Bruner’s earliest studio album appearances include playing electric bass on Kamasi Washington’s Live at 5th Street Dick’s and The Proclamation. // Erykah Badu was credited with helping Bruner find his stage presence and identity as Thundercat. Around this time, Bruner would play in live bands for Raphael Saadiq and Snoop Dogg, and both would make quips about his playing style. Bruner credited Flying Lotus with pushing him to start singing and making his own projects. // In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked him as one of the greatest bass players of all time. // In 2004, Bruner collaborated with Kamasi Washington, as well as Cameron Graves and Ronald Jr., under the name The Young Jazz Giants. The group later united with Terrace Martin and five other Los Angeles jazz musicians to form the West Coast Get Down collective, with whom they recorded several albums. // Along with his band duties, Bruner is also a session musician, acclaimed for his work on Erykah Badu’s New Amerykah (2008) and fellow Brainfeeder artist Flying Lotus’ Cosmogramma (2010), Until the Quiet Comes (2012), and You’re Dead! (2014). // Bruner was a major contributor to Kendrick Lamar’s critically acclaimed album To Pimp a Butterfly in 2015, and has been described as being “at the creative epicenter” of the project. Longtime Thundercat collaborators Flying Lotus, Kamasi Washington, and Terrace Martin were also major contributors to the album. // Bruner was a frequent collaborator on Mac Miller’s tracks. On August 6, 2018, Bruner played bass during Miller’s Tiny Desk Concert, during which the two played their collaborative track, “What’s the Use?” In 2022, he collaborated with virtual band Gorillaz on their single “Cracker Island”, the first single and title track for their album of the same name. The song was released on April 30, 2022.]

[Thundercat plays this year’s Boulevardia, Saturday, June 15 at 9:45 PM on the Visit Missouri Stage.]

11:44 – More Interview with Krystle Warren (and Chris Haghirian)

Thanks for tuning into WMM on 90.1 FM KKFI. 
I’m Mark Manning. Today on WMM we are serving up music from the 9th annual Boulevardia Festival.

Chris Haghirian is with us to share details about Boulevardia, Friday, June 14, & Saturday, June 15, at Crown Center and Washington Square, with over 70 national, regional & local acts, 23 DJs, 5 music stages.

Also with us is our friend Krystle Warren, back home in in KC from her home in France with Jean Fabien Dijoud aka Jeff.

Krystle Warren plays Percheron Rooftop Series on Thursday, Jun 13, 2024, at 7:00 PM.

Krystle Warren plays Boulevardia, Saturday, June 15 at 8:45pm on the Elevate Stage, at Crown Center.

Chris Haghirian and Krystle Warren Jean Fabien Dijoudthank you for being or special guests

For WMM, I’m Mark Manning. Thanks for listening!

11:53

19. Ultimate Fakebook – “Tell Me What You Want”
from: This Will Be Laughing Week / Sony Music / July 18, 2000
[If rock and roll is dead, somebody forgot to tell Ultimate Fakebook. Not rap-metal or dance-pop or alt-country, but rock and roll: that musical vehicle for the uniquely American sense of freedom; that now middle-aged but still transcendent form with the power to bring to life a dream, a personality, even an entire world view in the space of a three-minute song. Bill McShane, Eric Melin, and Nick Colby – the three members of Manhattan, KS trio Ultimate Fakebook – remember when music could lift you up rather than just beat you senseless. They grew up in Middle America as fans of musicians who seemed more or less just like them, not polished products of some distant entertainment factory. In their good-natured and unassuming way, Ultimate Fakebook are on a mission: to bring back the warmth, humor, compassion, and exhilarating energy of great rock and roll.]

[Ultimate Fakebook plays Boulevardia on Saturday, June 15, at 10:00 PM on the Elevate Stage]

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

For WMM, I’m Mark Manning. Thanks for listening!

Next week on Wednesday, June 19 we welcome Tracy McNeil and Dan Parsons of the Australian duo Minor Gold who talk with us Live about their show Wednesday Night, June 19, at 7:00pm at Waldo Pizza, 7433 Broadway, KCMO as part of The Waldo Folk series. // Also next week journalist, club promoter and punk rock band member Aaron Rhodes joins us to share details about his new band and about what is going on at Farewell KC and Howdy, two East KC clubs Aaron helps keep going. // Nicolette Paige joins us to talk about her cooperative Farm, // and Scott Hrabko is back with more music for his new EP series..

THANK YOU to our incredible KKFI Staff; Director of Development & Communications – J Kelly Dougherty, Volunteer Coordinator – Darryl Oliver, Chief Operator – Chad Brothers, KKFI Accounting & Administration – Shaina Littler

This radio station is more than the individual hosts of each individual radio show. Instead it is about a collective spirit of hundreds of hardworking people, unselfishly setting aside ego, to work for the greater good of community building and the gigantic goal of keeping our airwaves free, non-commercial, and open to all! Congratulations and thank you to all programmers & volunteers who went the extra effort to keep our station alive.

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
https://www.soundcloud.com/wednesdaymiddaymedley
http://www.bandcamp.com/wednesdaymiddaymedley
http://www.instagram.markthomasmanning

Show #1050

WMM Serves Music of Boulevardia + Chris Haghirian + Krystle Warren

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

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

WMM Serves Music of Boulevardia + Chris Haghirian + Krystle Warren

WMM spins music of the bands and artists from the 9th annual Boulevardia Beer & Music Festival including: The Roseline, Kemet Coleman, Friendly Thieves, Supermassive Black Holes,Laura Noble, Bears and Company, Flight Attendant, Milky Chance, Kate Cosentino, Good Morning Kevin featuring Mura Masa & Big Freedia, Back Alley Brass Band, Paul Cauthen, Stik Figa, Thundercat, Ultimate Fakebook, and Krystle Warren!

Chris Haghirian joins us to share details about Boulevardia, Friday, June 14, & Saturday, June 15, at Crown Center, 2396 Grand Boulevard, with over 70 national, regional & local acts, 23 DJs, 5 music stages, with nearly 50 Brewing Companies, dozens and dozens of Restaurants & Food Trucks, Multiple merchants in the Makers Market, plus a Skating Party, The Silent Disco, and various VIP Experiences. Boulevardia has become one of the city’s largest showcases of local music with over 60 local performers included in this year’s lineup. Musical performances cross over several genres and showcase the rich talent KC has to offer. The two-day urban street festival is near the intersection of Pershing and Grand Boulevard, encompassing Crown Center and Washington Square Park. The event features a craft beer and food sampling experience and music, as well as interactive activities, entertainment, and shopping, all in a unique urban setting. http://www.boulevardia.com

Chris Haghirian is host & Producer of Eight One Sixty, heard Tuesday nights at 6:00 PM, on 90.9 The Bridge. Chris worked for The Kansas City Star for over 20 years. Chris studied Journalism / Advertising at The University of Kansas. Chris also studied Photography at Kansas City Art Institute. Chris works for Spray KC. Chris organizes multiple concert series throughout the metro, and music stages for The Plaza Art Fair, The Innovation Fest, and The Middle of The Map Fest.

At 11:00 am, Krystle Warren joins us for our second hour. Krystle Warren will perform LIVE from the 90.1 FM Studios. Krystle Warren is one of our most played artists and most frequent guests. Now based in France, Krystle Warren began performing in her native KC at the age of 16. Krystle graduated from Paseo Arts Academy and in 2001 and began her musical career collaborating with area jazz and pop musicians. Krystle Warren & The Faculty released the album CIRCLES in 2009. Their epic sophomore release, LOVE SONGS… followed in 2011, and contained twenty-four songs about love and was recorded in New York City over the span of two weeks, with close to thirty musicians. Around this time, Krystle joined forces with one of her musical idols, Rufus Wainwright, on his world tour as opener and bandmate. Krystle Warren released her solo album THREE THE HARD WAY, in 2017 where Krystle played every instrument. Krystle Warren plays Percheron Rooftop Series on Thursday, Jun 13, 2024, at 7:00 PM. Krystle Warren plays Boulevardia, Saturday, June 15 at 8:45pm on the Elevate Stage, at Crown Center. Krystle will be sharing glimpses of Extended Play, Krystle Warren & The Faculty’s upcoming album release. More info at: http://www.krystlewarren.com

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

Show #1050

WMM Playlist from May 29, 2024

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, May 29, 2024

WMM is Spinning Records With Marion Merritt

Today, we welcome back to the show, Marion Merritt as our special “Guest Producer” to share sonic discoveries and information from her musically-encyclopedic-brain. Marion Merritt has an empathic ability to know what music you’re seeking. She’s our most frequent contributor to WMM She grew up in Los Angeles and St. Louis and went to college in Columbia, MO. She studied art & musical engineering, and is a avid lover of classic films. She saw Talking Heads on their 1st tour at One Block West in 1978. For 20 years she’s been sharing her sonic discoveries and information from her musically-encyclopedic brain. Marion also writes about new releases as a contributor The Pitch. With partner Ann Stewart, Marion is the proprietor of Records With Merritt, a minority owned business at 1614 Westport Rd. in KC. More info at: http://www.recordswithmerritt.com.

Marion will spin tracks from: Ana Frango Elétrico, Shabaka with Moses Sumney, Shabaka with Floating Points & Laraaji, Phosphorescent, DIIV, Isobel Campbell, Beth Gibbons, Kamasi Washington, Fay Victor & Herbie Nichols, Gloria Coleman Quartet with Pola Roberts, Leyla McCalla, Valerie June, Swamp Dogg, Kleenex, Lucy Rose, Ghost Funk Orchestra, Mdou Moctar, and The Lostines. 

Marion Merritt welcome back to Wednesday MidDay Medley

  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]
  1. Dimitri From Paris – “Prologue”
    from: Sacrebleu / Yellow Productions – Atlantic / June 11, 1996
    [Debut studio albumm from Dimitri from Paris was born Dimitrios Yerasimos, on October 27, 1963. He is a French music producer and DJ of Greek descent. His musical influences are rooted in 1970s funk and disco sounds that spawned contemporary house music, as well as original soundtracks from 1950s and 1960s movies such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s, La Dolce Vita and The Party, which were sampled in his album Sacrebleu. Dimitri fused these sounds with electro and block party hip hop he discovered in the 1980s. // Contrary to his musical pseudonym, Dimitri was born not in Paris but born in Peckham, South London, to Rûm parents (Greeks of Turkey), Dimitri grew up in France where he discovered DJing at home, using whatever he could find to “cut and paste” samples from disco hits or in to montages heard on the radio, blending them together to make tapes. This early experimentation helped him launch his DJ career. // He started out by DJing at the French station Radio 7, before moving on to Skyrock and finally to Radio NRJ, Europe’s largest FM radio network, in 1986. There, he introduced the first ever house music show to be broadcast in France, while simultaneously producing under the direction of sound designer Michel Gaubert, runway soundtracks for fashion houses such as Chanel, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Hermès and Yves Saint-Laurent. He also released two solo EPs from 1993 to 1994 and contributed to the Yellow Productions compilation La Yellow 357. // In 1996, Dimitri gained worldwide recognition with the release of his first full album, Sacrebleu, released on Yellow Productions. A blend of diverse influences including jazz, original film soundtracks, samba, and organic house, Sacrebleu sold 300,000 copies worldwide and was named Album of the Year by UK’s Mixmag magazine. // In 2000, Dimitri followed Sacrebleu up with A Night at the Playboy Mansion (Virgin) and Disco Forever (BBE), followed by My Salsoul in 2001, After the Playboy Mansion in 2002. In 2003, Cruising Attitude was released, to be closely followed by his first outing on UK’s premier dance music label Defected: Dimitri from Paris In the House. // He has followed a somewhat glamorous musical path by recording soundtracks and advertising campaigns for fashion houses Chanel, Jean-Paul Gautier and Yves Saint Laurent and remixing hundreds of artists as diverse as Björk, The Cardigans, James Brown, Michael Jackson, New Order and Quincy Jones. He also did the music for the anime Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase and mixed the soundtrack for the French luxury dessin animé Jet Groove produced by Method Films. // 2005 saw Dimitri go back to his Funk and Disco roots, with Japanese hip hop producer and über collector DJ Muro for Super Disco Friends a double CD mixdown. In 2006 he offered his House of Love outing to Valentine’s Day’s lovers. Later on Dimitri produced Los Amigos Invisibles “Super Pop Venezuela” album which grabbed a nomination for a Grammy Award. // 2007 saw the release of the Cocktail Disco project with longtime partner BBE, a handful of disco classics remixes and other surprises down the line. // 2009 saw the release of the Night Dubbin’, a post-disco R&B compilation remix album.]
  1. Ana Frango Elétrico – “Electric Fish”  
    from: Me Chama De Gato Que Eu Sou Sua / RISCO – Mr Bongo / Oct. 20, 2023 [2024 on vinyl]
    [Ana Frango Elétrico is the most effervescent and innovative voice to surge up from Brazil’s new wave. Already with two critically acclaimed albums and a swathe of award-winning production turns under their belt, Ana will present their most confident and accomplished work to date on October 20th: Me Chama De Gato Que Eu Sou Sua / Call Me They That I’m Yours. Gesturing to a tradition of Brazilian boogie music, but bouncing with modern pop ebullience, the album sees the Rio artist evolve from a captivating upstart into a surefooted scene leader in full stride. // At just 25, the prolific artist and producer has already garnered worldwide admirers. Ana’s sophomore Little Electric Chicken Heart was nominated at the 2020 Latin Grammys, and found support in the shape of Gilles Peterson and The Needle Drop – as well as from major global media. Since then, standalone singles “Mama Planta Baby” and “Mulher Homem Bicho” have received the WME ‘Best Music Producer’ Award, recognising Ana’s deep passion for music production – a passion which has led to collaborations with nascent Brazilian stars Dora Morelenbaum, Illy and Sophia Chablau. Most recently, Ana was hailed for their co-production of Bala Desejo’s 2022 Latin Grammy-winning album Sim Sim Sim. // With a string of celebrated collaborations and productions added to their CV since Little Electric Chicken Heart, it is unsurprising that Me Chama De Gato Que Eu Sou Sua finds Ana at their most assured and full-voiced. A fresh swagger – first teased on 2020’s disco stomper “Mulher Homem Bicho” – is immediately present. Album opener “Electric Fish”, with Nile Rodgers bass and shimmering backing vocals, sets a buoyant tone. “Boy of Stranger Things” is its bombastic counterpart. It’s the grooviest Ana has ever sounded. And the most brazen. Lyrically, where Ana was once oblique on personal matters, they are now forthright – lucidly exploring their gender identity, citing accessible cultural reference points (from Stranger Things to Camel Blue cigarettes), and often singing in English. “I’m the boy of the Stranger Things/ I’m not the girl that you think”, they proclaim over funk organ and syncopated percussion. Both sonics and sentiment are rooted in disco – certainly the expansive arrangements and unabashed grooviness; but also Ana taps into disco’s history as music of queer expression. // “I started this album in 2021 with the intention of showing, in means of sound, understandings and feelings about queer love, subjectively exposing myself,” the non-binary artist states – before qualifying that though “feeling was its driving force, the album is really about musical production.” // It is this counterpoint – between “exposing” oneself, and honing a distinctive “production” value – that makes for their most clear and cohesive album to date. Like many of the greats, Ana has that ineffable gift of sounding like themselves regardless of the genre they are exploring. Their distinctive conversational voice is more present in the mix than before – and thematic throughlines of identity, sex and relationships invites you to listen closely – becoming their confidante as they lead you restlessly from genre to genre. // “There’s so many references to different decades,” Ana explains. “Seventies drums with eighties processing … Going back, getting beyond … Testing the limits of organic sounds”. Characteristically playful, on Me Chama, Ana takes vivid and rewarding detours through funk-inflected R&B (“Dela”) and art pop (“Dr. Sabe Tudo”). “Nuvem Vermelha” is a cinematic chanson with lush strings that recalls Arthur Verocai. Then, “Coisa Maluca” loafs with the indie insouciance of Canadian slacker Mac Demarco. Later, “Let’s Go Before Again”, is a full-on drum machine workout evocative of Stereolab. “Even if people don’t find my own references here, they’ll find theirs,” observes Ana. “Maybe that’s this record’s biggest goal.”]
  1. Shabaka – “I’ll Do Whatever You Want [feat. Floating Points & Laraaji]”
    from: Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace / Impulse Records / April 12, 2024
    [Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace is the solo debut studio album of London jazz musician Shabaka Hutchings, working under the name Shabaka. The album was preceded by two singles, “End of Innocence” and “I’ll Do Whatever You Want”. // The album follows Hutchings’s hiatus from the saxophone and the end of his bands Sons of Kemet and the Comet Is Coming, and sees him focusing on different types of flutes, including the shakuhachi and the svirel, as well as the clarinet. // The album was recorded in Van Gelder Studio in 2022. Hutchings shared producing duties with Dilip Harris, and brought in a long list of collaborators including his own father Anum Iyapo, André 3000, Laraaji, and Floating Points. Musically, it focuses on jazz and new age music. Critical reception for the album was positive, highlighting the boldness of Hutchings’s shift in style. // On January 1, 2023, Hutchings announced his intention to take an indefinite hiatus from playing the saxophone, explaining later in the year that his enthusiasm for the instrument had waned after years of intense touring. This also coincided with the end of his two bands, Sons of Kemet and the Comet Is Coming. Hutchings’s last live saxophone performance was on 7 December 2023, where he played John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. // Hutchings’s new musical interests lied primarily with the flute and similar instruments, having started with them in 2019 after acquiring his first shakuhachi. Subsequent instruments Hutchings picked up include Mayan Teotihuacan drone flutes, Brazilian pifanos, Native American flutes, Slavic svirels, and South American quenas. The move coincided with an increase in attention on jazz flute following the release of André 3000’s 2023 album New Blue Sun, on which Hutchings contributed shakuhachi to one track. // Hutchings announced the album on 28 February 2024, set for a release on April 12, by Impulse! Records. On the same day, he released its lead single, “End of Innocence”, along with a music video directed by Phoebe Boswell. “End of Innocence” sees Hutchings playing the clarinet, with a band consisting of pianist Jason Moran, drummer Nasheet Waits, and percussionist Carlos Niño. // The second single, “I’ll Do Whatever You Want”, was released on March 21. Hutchings cowrote the song with Laraaji and Floating Points. It features Hutchings on shakuhachi, André 3000 on drone flute, Laraaji’s wordless vocals, Floating Points on Rhodes Chroma synthesizer and vibraphone, Esperanza Spalding and Tom Herbert on bass, Dave Okumu on guitar, Marcus Gilmore on drums, and Niño on percussion. Hutchings said the song is “about surrender and the intimate space we go to within the grasp of possession.” Other musicians on the record include Moses Sumney, Brandee Younger, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Saul Williams, Lianne La Havas, and Elucid. // Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace is Hutchings’s solo debut studio album, following his 2022 solo EP Afrikan Culture, which also centered Hutchings’s woodwind play. The titles of both releases are connected; in Hutchings’s words, they’re mean to be read as “Afrikan Culture, comma, Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace”, with his next album being “the next sentence in a long form poem that encapsulates, hopefully, all the solo records of my career.” The song names on the album were extracted from a poem written for the album.]
  1. Shabaka – “Insecurities (feat. Moses Sumney)” 
    from: Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace / Impulse Records / April 12, 2024
    [Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace is the solo debut studio album of London jazz musician Shabaka Hutchings, working under the name Shabaka. The album was preceded by two singles, “End of Innocence” and “I’ll Do Whatever You Want”. // The album follows Hutchings’s hiatus from the saxophone and the end of his bands Sons of Kemet and the Comet Is Coming, and sees him focusing on different types of flutes, including the shakuhachi and the svirel, as well as the clarinet. // The album was recorded in Van Gelder Studio in 2022. Hutchings shared producing duties with Dilip Harris, and brought in a long list of collaborators including his own father Anum Iyapo, André 3000, Laraaji, and Floating Points. Musically, it focuses on jazz and new age music. Critical reception for the album was positive, highlighting the boldness of Hutchings’s shift in style.]
  1. Phosphorescent – “Revelator”
    from: Revelator / Verve Records / January 24, 2024
    [Matthew Houck, f is Phosphorescent. The Alabama native, now resides in Brooklyn has delivered 5 albums as Phosphorescent since his 2003 debut. Houck has a highly distinctive artistic voice, but also a refreshing, rolled-sleeves approach to his expression, and if he had his way, he’d have twice as many albums under his belt by now. // Matthew Houck on Voices, Guitars, Percussion; Jo Schornikow on Synths; Scott Stapleton on Synth, Piano; Jack Lawrence: Bass, Synthbass, Theravox; Noah Denney on Percussion; Ethan Ballinger on Guitar; Jim White on Drum Kit; Bobby Hawk on Strings, and Ricky Ray Jackson on Guitar, Pedal Steel]
  1. DIIV – “Brown Paper Bag”
    from: Frog in Boiling Water/ Fantasy Records / May 24, 2024 
    [Frog In Boiling Water, produced by Chris Coady, was a four-year process that nearly broke the band before the album was completed. With an aim to push their sound, make a record that challenged them, and treat the band as a democracy for the first time, DIIV began an ambitious journey, both individually and collectively. This journey left their relationships with one another fraying, with the many complex dynamics of family, friendship and finances entangled, coupled with suspicions, resentments, bruised egos and anxious questions. They ultimately found their way through, and the result is 10 songs that mine a new lyrical and musical depth, those two halves mirroring one another inside a reflective and immersive whole. It is a mesmeric testament to enduring, to envisioning anything else on the other side while you remain here, in the slowly heating water of right now. // Frog in Boiling Water, both the title and the themes of the record, reference “The Boiling Frog” in Daniel Quinn’s The Story of B. The band explains, “If you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will of course frantically try to clamber out. But if you place it gently in a pot of tepid water and turn the heat on low, the frog will sink into a tranquil stupor, exactly like one of us in a hot bath, and before long, with a smile on its face, it will unresistingly allow itself to be boiled to death.” // “We understand the metaphor to be one about a slow, sick, and overwhelmingly banal collapse of society under end-stage capitalism, the brutal realities we’ve maybe come to accept as normal. That’s the boiling water and we are the frogs. The album is more or less a collection of snapshots from various angles of our modern condition which we think highlights what this collapse looks like and, more particularly, what it feels like.” ]

10:31 – Underwriting

8. Isobel Campbell – “Dopamine”
from: Bow to Love / Cooking Vinyl / June 14, 2024
[Isobel Campbell was born April 27, 1976. She is a Scottish singer, songwriter and cellist. She rose to prominence at age nineteen as a member of the indie pop band Belle & Sebastian, but left the group to pursue a solo career, first as The Gentle Waves, and later under her own name. She later collaborated with singer Mark Lanegan on three albums. Her latest studio album, There Is No Other, was released in 2020. // Campbell’s music has been described as either indie pop, chamber pop or singer-songwriter. Regardless of genre, Campbell makes gentle and sombre music, often using classical instruments. // From 1996–2002 Isobel Campbell oplayed with Belle & Sebastian. // Belle & Sebastian was formed in 1996 by Stuart Murdoch and Stuart David; Campbell had met Murdoch at a New Year’s Eve party at age nineteen, and then participated in a recording session with Murdoch and David sponsored by Stow College’s Music Business Administration curriculum. They named themselves Belle & Sebastian after a children’s book of the same name.[1] Murdoch was the lead singer on the first two albums, with Campbell playing cello, percussion and singing backing vocals. A classically trained cellist, Campbell also played keyboards. She also took lead vocals on a few songs from the band, and co-wrote their top-20 UK single “Legal Man”. // Their follow-up was The Boy with the Arab Strap which contained the track “Is It Wicked Not to Care?” where for the first time Campbell sang lead vocals. The band’s next album was Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant. The album introduced many stylistic changes, such as a larger string section and more of the members singing lead vocals; Campbell sings on “Family Tree”, and performs a duet with Stevie Jackson on “Beyond the Sunrise”. // Most of 2002 was spent on touring and recording a soundtrack album, Storytelling (for Storytelling by Todd Solondz). Campbell left the band in spring of 2002, in the middle of their North American tour.]

  1. Beth Gibbons – “Floating On A Moment”
    from: Lives Outgrown / Domino / April 14, 2024
    [Lives Outgrown is the debut solo studio album by English musician Beth Gibbons, released on 17 May 2024 through Domino Recording Company. The album was produced by Gibbons, James Ford and Lee Harris. It was preceded by the singles “Floating on a Moment”, “Reaching Out” and “Lost Changes”. // Gibbons wrote the album over a decade, with topics including “motherhood, anxiety, menopause, and mortality”. Gibbons said that the album was directly influenced by the deaths of family and friends over the preceding several years and she “realised what life was like with no hope” // eth Gibbons (born 4 January 1965) is an English singer-songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist for the band Portishead, who have released three albums. She released an album with Rustin Man, Out of Season, in 2002, and a recording of Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2019. She released a solo album in 2024 titled Lives Outgrown. // Gibbons was born in Exeter, Devon, England and raised on a farm with three sisters. Her parents divorced when she was young. She attended St Katherine’s School in Pill, Somerset, in North Somerset. // At 22, she moved to Bath, then Bristol to pursue her singing career, where she met Geoff Barrow, her future collaborator in Portishead, on an Enterprise Allowance course in 1991. // With Adrian Utley, Gibbons and Barrow released the first Portishead album Dummy in 1994 and have produced two other studio albums, a live album, and various singles in the years since. // She has also collaborated on a separate project with former Talk Talk bassist Paul Webb (Rustin Man). Before she joined Geoff Barrow in Portishead, she had auditioned for the singer’s slot in .O.rang, the group formed by Webb after Talk Talk’s late-Eighties departure from EMI, but Portishead’s sudden success pre-empted matters. In October 2002, they released the album Out of Season in the United Kingdom under the name Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man. The album peaked at number 28 in the UK Albums Chart. It was released in the United States a year later: while touring in North America, Variety favourably described her performance with Rustin as “Billie Holiday fronting Siouxsie and the Banshees”. // In June 2013, Gibbons announced plans for a new solo album with Domino Records. She contributed vocals to a cover of the song “Black Sabbath” with the British metal band Gonga, released on April 24, 2014. // In 2018, Gibbons contributed vocal performances, along with Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins, to the Spill Festival held in Ipswich in an audio installation entitled ‘Clarion Calls’, which uses the voices of 100 women to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. // In 2014, Gibbons performed Symphony No. 3 by Henryk Górecki with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Krzysztof Penderecki. Gibbons sang in Polish. The performance was released in 2019; reviewing the album for Pitchfork, Jayson Greene wrote: “Part of the tension comes from hearing her untrained voice scale these rocky heights. Her vibrato, tight and trilling and barely controlled, sounds an awful lot like someone fighting off a panic attack. This would get her dismissed from a traditional opera audition, probably, but it is magnificently effective at sending raw shudders through what can be a pretty well-worn work.” In 2022, Gibbons featured on the track “Mother I Sober” from Kendrick Lamar’s album Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers. For her collaboration in the album she received a nomination for Album of the Year at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards as a featured artist and songwriter. On February 7, 2024, Gibbons announced the release of her first solo studio album in over 20 years. The album, titled Lives Outgrown, was released May 17, 2024. It was announced alongside a single titled “Floating on a Moment”, with its second single “Reaching Out” being released later that year on 10 April. // She has cited Nina Simone, Bono of U2 for his performance on The Joshua Tree, Otis Redding and Jimmy Cliff as musical inspirations. She has covered Janis Joplin songs and enjoys the music of Janis Ian.]
  1. Kamasi Washington – “Interstellar Peace (The Last Stance)”
    from: Fearless Movement / Young Records / May 3, 2024
    [Kamasi was born in LA California, on February 2, 1981 to musical parents and educators, and was raised in Inglewood, California. He is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, producer, and bandleader. Washington is known mainly for playing tenor saxophone. He is a graduate of the Academy of Music of Alexander Hamilton High School in Beverlywood, Los Angeles. Washington next enrolled in UCLA’s Department of Ethnomusicology, where he began playing with faculty members such as Kenny Burrell, Billy Higgins and band leader/trumpeter Gerald Wilson. Washington features in the album Young Jazz Giants in 2004. He has played along with a diverse group of musicians including Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Horace Tapscott, Gerald Wilson, Lauryn Hill, Nas, Snoop Dogg, George Duke, Chaka Khan, Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Mike Muir, Francisco Aguabella, the Pan Afrikaan People’s Orchestra and Raphael Saadiq. Washington ventured into big band music when he joined the Gerald Wilson Orchestra for their 2006 album In My Time. Washington played saxophone on Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly. His debut solo recording, The Epic, was released in May 2015 to critical acclaim. His second studio album, Heaven and Earth, was released in June 2018, with a companion EP titled The Choice released a week later. // Turning his attention to dance for his latest album, Fearless Movement out this May on Young, Kamasi Washington resumes his ongoing study of music as a means of connection. His 2015 album The Epic, as well as 2018’s Heaven and Earth were received by critics and audiences as a reimagination of modern jazz showcasing Washington’s larger-than-lift compositions full of celestial grandeur and his distinct blend of jazz, Latin, funk, classical, hip-hop and soul. Fearless Movement, however, offers something different: terrestrial rhythms and collaborations from rappers, musical icons and even Washington’s own daughter. Features include: Thundercat, Taj Austin, Ras Austin, Patrice Quinn, DJ Battlecat, Brandon Coleman, D-Smoke, George Clinton, Bj the Chicago Kid, Andre 300]
  1. Kamasi Washington – “The Visionary (feat. Terrace Martin)”
    from: Fearless Movement / Young Records / May 3, 2024
    [Kamasi Washington was born in LA, California, on February 2, 1981 to musical parents and educators, and was raised in Inglewood, California. He is a jazz saxophonist, composer, producer, and bandleader. Washington is known mainly for playing tenor saxophone. He is a graduate of the Academy of Music of Alexander Hamilton High School in Beverlywood, LA. Washington next enrolled in UCLA’s Department of Ethnomusicology, where he began playing with faculty members such as Kenny Burrell, Billy Higgins and band leader/trumpeter Gerald Wilson. Washington features in the album Young Jazz Giants in 2004. He has played along with a diverse group of musicians including Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Horace Tapscott, Gerald Wilson, Lauryn Hill, Nas, Snoop Dogg, George Duke, Chaka Khan, Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Mike Muir, Francisco Aguabella, the Pan Afrikaan People’s Orchestra and Raphael Saadiq. Washington ventured into big band music when he joined the Gerald Wilson Orchestra for their 2006 album In My Time. companion EP titled The Choice released a week later.]

10:57 – Station ID

  1. Fay Victor & Herbie Nichols SUNG – “Life Is Funny That Way”
    from: Life Is Funny That Way / Tao Forms / April 5, 2024
    [= Herbie Nichols SUNG = Fay Victor on voice, lyrics, arrangements, bandleader; Michaël Attias on alto & baritone saxophones; Anthony Coleman on piano; Ratzo Harris on bass; and Tom Rainey on drums. // Life Is Funny That Way is the major new work from acclaimed and singular singer-soundartist-lyricist-bandleader Fay Victor. It is both a loving celebration and thorough reconsideration of jazz composer Herbie Nichols’ rich legacy & a powerful work of art from a formidably talented and forthright black woman. This landmark work is also the first time that a full program of lyrics have been written & recorded for Nichols’ compositions. Victor’s innovative arrangements are brought to vibrant life by Herbie Nichols SUNG, a dedicated and profoundly gifted quintet of veteran jazz performers. // Nearly 30 years ago while living in the Netherlands, Victor discovered and was captivated by Nichols’ music in the collection of her future husband. She first began to explore the concept of singing this tremendous work with Dutch pianist Misha Mengelberg and then together with trombonist and one-time Nichols collaborator Roswell Rudd. // It was in 2013 that Fay Victor formed the Herbie Nichols SUNG project with American players and began to present it regularly in NYC, adding to a European trio version that had already toured the continent. This deep and extensive artistic journey which Victor embarked on, alongside leading other acclaimed bands and recording projects of all- original material, led to the involvement of the TAO Forms label. Its creative director drummer Whit Dickey not only shared a great appreciation of Nichols’ singular work as a composer, but was also a long-time fan of the exceptionally gifted Victor. // Recalling her first experience of hearing Nichols’ music, Victor says, “I put the record on and it sounded very strange to me. But then I heard “House Party Starting”. That was the one, that just sent something through my soul. I was blown away by that composition, and decided then and there that I want to learn this, I want to be able to sing this. And at that moment, I couldn’t. There was definitely some technical work I needed to do. It was great to have that challenge, and I was determined.” [ “Tonight” is Victor’s ultimate realization. } // A decade later and clearly ready, Life Is Funny That Way was recorded with the long-devoted veterans of Herbie Nichols SUNG: Michaël Attias (alto & baritone saxophones), Anthony Coleman (piano), Ratzo Harris (bass), and relatively new addition Tom Rainey (drums). A tremendous group to be sure; united by their mutual love of both Nichols’ writing and Victor’s estimable artistry. // She and her band’s work was exquisitely captured & mixed by engineer Andy Taub at his Brooklyn Recording studio. // The source material comes from Nichols’ Blue Note sessions of 1955-56, plus three compositions not recorded in his lifetime. // The album’s material is wide-ranging in mood, from the puckish opening title track and abstracted “The Culprit Is You” (both with the full band) to the dark voice-alto-bass explorations of “Bright Butterfly” and a ghostly voice-alto-piano reworking of “The Spinning Song”, aptly titled “Descent Into Madness”. // “Shuffle Montgomery” has Victor scatting ebulliently over the full band with Attias on baritone, while “Twelve Bars”, another tune unrecorded by Nichols, is a feature for the piano trio. // In addition to fêting Nichols, Victor takes the opportunity to celebrate the person who gave him his greatest exposure. Billie Holiday was the first to write lyrics for one of his tunes, “Serenade”, making it one of her signature works: “Lady Sings The Blues”. As Victor explains, “I chose to include this song because I think about the audience a lot. If anybody knows Nichols at all, they know this song. But the other thing is that when Billie sang his song, she didn’t sing his bridge. So I wanted to sing the lyrics with his bridge. That was important to me. I wanted people to know what the complete composition sounded like. Those are great lyrics Billie Holiday wrote and it’s also an homage to her because sometimes I feel that she doesn’t get her full due in terms of how incredible a musician she was, how visionary she was.” // All compositions by Herbie Nichols. // All lyrics & arrangements by Fay Victor. // Recorded & Mixed by Andy Taub at Brooklyn Recording. // Mastered by Paul Wickliffe at Skyline Underground. // Produced by Fay Victor.]
  1. Gloria Coleman Quartet – “Que Baby (feat. Pola Roberts)” 
    from: Soul Sisters / Impulse / May 21, 1963 [Reissued on 2024 Verve]    
    [Soul Sisters is an album by American jazz organist Gloria Coleman featuring Pola Roberts recorded in 1963 for the Impulse! label. The Allmusic review by Brandon Burke awarded the album 3 stars, stating “One probably doesn’t hear the name Gloria Coleman thrown around quite as often as other organists of the day. Similarly, the Impulse! label wasn’t particularly known as a home for organ combos, but perhaps that’s what makes this title the underappreciated gem that it is”. Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on May 21, 1963, with Gloria Coleman on organ, Leo Wright on alto saxophone, Grant Green on guitar, and Pola Roberts on drums. // Gloria Coleman was an American musician. Coleman played bass, piano then organ. As a jazz organist she released two albums. The first, Soul Sisters by the Gloria Coleman Quartet, was for the Impulse! Records label. It featured drummer Pola Roberts, Leo Wright and Grant Green. It was produced by Bob Thiele. The second album featured Ray Copeland, Dick Griffith, James Anderson, Earl Dunbar and Charlie Davis. Coleman wrote many songs for Bobbi Humphrey and Ernestine Anderson, among others. Coleman married saxophonist George Coleman. The couple had two children and divorced. She died on February 18, 2010.]
  1. Leyla McCalla – “Scaled To Survive”
    from: Sun Without The Heat / Anti – Records / April 12, 2024
    [Leyla McCalla on vocals, cello, banjo, guitars; Shawn Myers on percussion, drums; Nahum Zdybel on guitars; Pete Olynciw on electric bass, piano; Maryam Qudus on synthesizers, organs, backing vocals; Louis Michot on fiddle on “Tower”. Recorded and Produced by Maryam Qudus at Dockside Studios, June 20-29, 2023. Assisted by Justin Tocket. Mixed by Maryam Qudus at Best House. Mastered by Heba Kadry, NYC. All songs written by Leyla McCalla (Makala Music (BMI)) except “Love We Had” music by Ali Mohammed Birra, arrangement and lyrics by Leyla McCalla (Makala Music (BMI)) // On May 6, 2022 Leyla McCalla released Breaking the Thermometer on Anti- Records. // Leyla Sarah McCalla was born October 3, 1985. She is a classical and folk musician. She has been a cellist with the Grammy-winning string band Carolina Chocolate Drops but left that group to focus on her solo career. Both of McCalla’s parents were born in Haiti. Her father Jocelyn McCalla was the Executive Director of the New York-based National Coalition for Haitian Rights from 1988 to 2006 and is credited as translator on Vari-Colored Songs. Her mother Régine Dupuy arrived in the United States at age 5, is the daughter of Ben Dupuy who ran Haiti Progrès, a New York based Haitian socialist newspaper. McCalla’s mother went on to found Dwa Fanm, an anti-domestic violence human rights organization. McCalla was born in New York City and raised in New Jersey. She lived in Accra, Ghana for two years as a teen. After a year at Smith College, she transferred to New York University to study cello performance and chamber music. She then moved to New Orleans where she played music on the streets. We first played Leyla McCalla in 2016 the same year we saw her live at Folk Alliance International and the same year she released her critically acclaimed album Vari-Colored Songs on Music Maker Recordings on February 4, 2014. The album is a tribute to Langston Hughes which includes adaptations of his poems, Haitian folk songs sung in Haitian Creole and original compositions. McCalla says the first song she wrote for the album was Heart of Gold because it provided “a window into Hughes’ thinking”.McCalla chose to dedicate this work to Hughes because she says “reading his work made me want to be an artist.” McCalla started working on the album 5 years prior to its release. Commentators have noted the influence of Louisiana musical traditions such as old Cajun fiddle melodies and trad-jazz banjo on the album. Members of the Carolina Chocolate Drops appear on the album. Along with her solo work Leyla McCalla was part of Songs of Our Native Daughters is the debut Americana/folk album by four North American singer-songwriters collaborating as Our Native Daughters. The group includes Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell. The album was released on the Smithsonian Folkways label in early 2019. Songs of Our Native Daughters addresses American historical issues that have influenced the identity of black women, including slavery, racism, and sexism. The album features 13 songs, 11 of them written by the group’s members. It also includes a cover of a 1970s Bob Marley classic and a song that draws its lyrics from two poems.]
  1. Leyla McCalla – “Small Towns (Are Smaller for Girls)”
    from: My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall / Oh Boy Records / April 12, 2024
    [Collaborative album celebrates the Black female experience in Country & Folk music with additional contributions from Adia Victoria, Rhiannon Giddens, Saaneah Jamison, Miko Marks, Leyla McCalla, Rissi Palmer, Allison Russell, SistaStrings, Sunny War & Alice’s daughter Caroline Randall Williams, Re-recording the greatest songs from New York Times bestselling novelist, award-winning songwriter & educator Alice Randall’s catalog. Produced by Ebonie Smith (Hamilton, Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy, Janelle Monae’s Dirty Computer, Sturgill Simpson’s A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, founder & president of Gender Amplified) // Companion album to Alice Randall’s new book: My Black Country: A Journey through Country Music’s Black Past, Present and Future.]
  1. Valerie June —“Big Dream”
    from: My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall / Oh Boy Records / April 12, 2024
    [“Growing up, we all have dreams and wishes. Alice Randall’s lyrics capture the magic of our personal dreams. In the simplest way, she invites listeners to remember the power of collective dreaming. If God can be a woman in a patriarchal society, then there are no limits to what can be achieved. Balance is restored through the sacred art of dreaming, and each dream big or small helps to shape our world. I am a dreamer. Everyone on this record is a dreamer. Together we are breaking boundaries just as so many who’ve come before have done for us.” – Valerie June // On March 12, 2021 Valerie June released her 5th full length album The Moon And Stars on June Tunes – Concord records, co-produced by Jack Splash and Valerie June. // Valerie June Hockett was born January 10, 1982), known as Valerie June, is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Her sound encompasses a mixture of folk, blues, gospel, soul, country, Appalachian and bluegrass. She is signed to Concord Music Group worldwide. // Born in Jackson, Tennessee on January 10, 1982, June is the oldest of five children. As a child growing up in Humboldt, June was exposed to gospel music at her local church and R&B and soul music via her father, Emerson Hockett. As a teenager, her first job was with her father, owner of Hockett Construction in West Tennessee, and a part-time promoter for gospel singers and Prince, K-Ci & JoJo, and Bobby Womack. She helped by hanging posters in town. Her father died in late 2016. // June relocated to Memphis in 2000 and began recording and performing at the age of 19, initially with her then-husband Michael Joyner, in the duo Bella Sun. After her marriage ended, she began working as a solo artist, combining blues, gospel and Appalachian folk in a style that she describes as “organic moonshine roots music”, and learning guitar, banjo, and lap-steel guitar. She became associated with the Memphis-based Broken String Collective. // In 2009 she was a featured artist on MTV’s online series $5 Cover (following the lives of Memphis musicians attempting to make ends meet), and in 2010 she recorded the EP Valerie June and the Tennessee Express, a collaboration with Old Crow Medicine Show. // In 2011 she was honored by the Memphis and Shelby County Music Commission at the Emissaries of Memphis Music event. She raised funds to record an album with producer Craig Street via Kickstarter.com, raising $15,000 in 60 days. Later that year she relocated from Memphis to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Shortly after, record producer Kevin Augunas introduced June to Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, which led to the recording of June’s album Pushin’ Against a Stone in July 2011, which was co-written and produced by Dan Auerbach and Kevin Augunas. // In 2012, June performed with producer John Forté on a collaboration called Water Suites (on the hip-hop-blues song “Give Me Water”), and with Meshell Ndegeocello on the song “Be My Husband”. She contributed The Wandering’s 2012 album Go on Now, You Can’t Stay Here: Mississippi Folk Music Volume III. In 2012 she performed in the UK for the first time, playing at Bestival and appearing on Later… with Jools Holland. // She has received substantial radio play in Europe on BBC Radio 6, including a feature on Cerys on 6 with Cerys Matthews. Mary Anne Hobbs of XFM has said of June: “This woman has already touched my heart, she really, really has.” // In February 2013, June was invited to support Jake Bugg on the UK leg of his tour. In March 2013, June performed two nights at South By Southwest. The first performance was on March 14 as part of the Heartbreaker Banquet. On March 16, June performed again, this time as part of The Revival Tour. Rolling Stone June’s second album, The Order of Time one of the 50 Best Albums of 2017, citing “her handsomely idiosyncratic brand of Americana, steeped deep in electric blues and old-time folk, gilded in country twang and gospel yearning….a blend of spacey hippie soul, blues and folk with June’s pinched, modern-Appalachian voice at the center”. In a 2017 interview, Bob Dylan was asked what artists he listened to and respected; June was among the artists he mentioned in reply.More info at: http://www.valeriejune.com]
  1. Swamp Dogg – “Mess Under That Dress”
    from: Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th St. / Oh Boy Records / May 31, 2024
    [Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th St, his first record with Oh Boy Records that will be released on May 31. The effervescent new single which was first released in 1967 by Inez and Charlie Foxx and re-envisioned here, arrives with an official music video featuring Swamp and Lewis recording the track at Nashville’s Sound Emporium. // Last month, the feature-length documentary Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted premiered at SXSW and received raves from The Austin Chronicle and The Hollywood Reporter who called it, “a documentary that draws its voice and aesthetic from the spirit of its subject, resulting in a tight 97 minutes that feel organic and satisfying and, as befits that subject, appealingly odd.” Rolling Stone also included Swamp Dogg’s official showcase in their Best of SXSW roundup proclaiming, “Swamp Dogg sounded bold and robust, his vigor encouraging his band to ratchet up the energy… every musician on stage was locked into an undeniable groove.” // Produced by Ryan Olson (Poliça, Gayngs) and recorded with an all-star band including Noam Pikelny, Sierra Hull, Jerry Douglas, Chris Scruggs, Billy Contreras, and Kenny Vaughan, the 12-song collection is a riotous blend of past and present, mixing the sacred and the profane in typical Swamp Dogg fashion as it blurs the lines between folk, roots, country, blues, and soul. Special guests like Margo Price, Vernon Reid, Jenny Lewis, Justin Vernon, and The Cactus Blossoms all add to the excitement, but it’s ultimately the 81-year-old Swamp Dogg’s delivery—sly and playful and full of genuine joy and ache—that steals the show. // “Believe it or not, I didn’t do anything but sing these songs the way I would have sung them if it was an R&B album. That’s just the way the music comes out of me, and it would have been unholy for me to try and imitate anybody else,” explains Swamp Dogg about the making of the album. “Black music has had so many different labels put on it over the years that sometimes I’m onstage and I don’t know what the hell it is that I’m singing,” Swamp Dogg says with a laugh. “The only thing I know how to do is be myself.” // “Swamp Dogg is one of my favorite humans on the planet… How to classify him I just don’t know. He’s a soul artist, a psychedelic artist, a protest singer, he’s a man for all seasons.” – Ann Powers // Jerry Williams Jr. was born July 12, 1942. He is generally credited under the pseudonym Swamp Dogg after 1970, is an American soul and R&B singer, musician, songwriter and record producer. Williams has been described as “one of the great cult figures of 20th century American music.” // After recording as Little Jerry and Little Jerry Williams in the 1950s and 1960s, he reinvented himself as Swamp Dogg, releasing a series of satirical, offbeat, and eccentric recordings, as well as continuing to write and produce for other musicians. He debuted his new sound on the Total Destruction To Your Mind album in 1970. In the 1980s, he helped to develop Alonzo Williams’ World Class Wreckin’ CRU, which produced Dr. Dre among others. He continues to make music, releasing Love, Loss & Autotune on Joyful Noise Recordings in 2018,[3][4] and Sorry You Couldn’t Make It in 202. // Williams was born in Portsmouth, Virginia. He made his first recording, “HTD Blues (Hardsick Troublesome Downout Blues)”, for the Mechanic record label in 1954, when he was aged 12, with his parents and uncle and backing musicians, and was regularly hired to play private parties. From 1960, he released occasional singles for a variety of labels, including the self-written “I’m The Lover Man” in 1964, which was first issued on the Southern Sound label and was then picked up by the larger Loma label, almost breaking into the national Billboard Hot 100. He also wrote successfully for other musicians, including “Big Party” for Barbara and the Browns. // As Little Jerry Williams, he had his first national chart success in 1966, when “Baby You’re My Everything”, which he co-wrote and produced, was released on the Calla label and rose to #32 on the R&B chart, again just missing the Hot 100. He released several more singles on Calla through to 1967, by now credited simply as Jerry Williams, but with little commercial success, although some of his records such as “If You Ask Me (Because I Love You)” later became staples of the Northern Soul movement in the UK. // By late 1967 he started working in A&R and other duties for the Musicor label in New York. In 1968 he co-wrote, with Charlie Foxx, Gene Pitney’s up-tempo hit, “She’s a Heartbreaker”, which Williams also claimed to have produced, saying: “I produced the motherfuck out of it… [and] Charlie Foxx put me down on the label as “vocal arranger.” What the fuck is that? When they took out full-page ads in Billboard and Cashbox, there was a picture of Charlie on one side and a picture of Gene Pitney on the other and no mention of me.” // Later in 1968 Williams began working as a producer at Atlantic Records with Jerry Wexler and Phil Walden, on artists including Patti LaBelle & the Blue Belles, though he found the administration frustrating.[5] He established a songwriting partnership with Gary Anderson, who performed as Gary U.S. Bonds, and the pair wrote the R&B chart hits “To the Other Woman (I’m the Other Woman)” by Doris Duke, and “She Didn’t Know (She Kept on Talking)” by Dee Dee Warwick. He also recorded a single, “I Got What It Takes”, in a duo with Brooks O’Dell, and released two singles under his own name on the Cotillion label, a subsidiary of Atlantic. // Swamp Dogg Williams later wrote:I became Swamp Dogg in 1970 in order to have an alter-ego and someone to occupy the body while the search party was out looking for Jerry Williams, who was mentally missing in action due to certain pressures, mal-treatments and failure to get paid royalties on over fifty single records…. Most all of the tracks included were recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and Macon, Georgia, which brings me to how the name Swamp Dogg came about. Jerry Wexler, Atlantic Records v.p. and producer/innovator second to none, was recording in the newly discovered mecca of funk Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He coined the term “Swamp Music” for this awesome funk predominately played by all white musicians accompanying the R’n’B institutions e.g., Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, King Curtis… I was also using the same “swamp” players. I was tired of being a jukebox, singing all of the hits by Chuck Jackson, Ben E. King, etc., and being an R’n’B second banana. I couldn’t dance as good as Joe Tex, wasn’t pretty like Tommy Hunt, couldn’t compare vocally to Jackie Wilson and I didn’t have the sex appeal of Daffy Duck. I wanted to sing about everything and anything and not be pigeonholed by the industry. So I came up with the name Dogg because a dog can do anything, and anything a dog does never comes as a real surprise; if he sleeps on the sofa, shits on the rug, pisses on the drapes, chews up your slippers, humps your mother-in-law’s leg, jumps on your new clothes and licks your face, he’s never gotten out of character. You understand what he did, you curse while making allowances for him but your love for him never diminishes. Commencing in 1970, I sung about sex, niggers, love, rednecks, war, peace, dead flies, home wreckers, Sly Stone, my daughters, politics, revolution and blood transfusions (just to name a few), and never got out of character. Recording in Alabama and sincerely singing/writing about items that interested me, gave birth to the name Swamp Dogg. // Having adopted his moniker before Snoop Dogg was born he has claimed to be “the original D-O double G.” // In 1970 he emerged in his new Swamp Dogg persona, with two singles on Wally Roker’s Canyon label, “Mama’s Baby, Daddy’s Maybe”, again co-written with Bonds, and “Synthetic World”. He also produced the first Swamp Dogg album, Total Destruction to Your Mind. The album sleeve showed Williams sitting in his underwear on a pile of garbage. Williams’ new direction apparently followed an LSD trip, and was inspired by the radical politics of the time and by Frank Zappa’s use of satire, while showing his own expertise in, and commitment to, deep soul and R&B music. According to Allmusic: “In sheer musical terms, Swamp Dogg is pure Southern soul, anchored on tight grooves and accentuated by horns, but the Dogg is as much about message as music…” Although not a commercial success at the time, Swamp Dogg started to develop a cult following and eventually the album sold enough to achieve gold record status. Record critic Robert Christgau wrote that “Soul-seekers like myself are moderately mad for the obscure” album and has called it “legendary”. It was reissued in 2013 by Alive Naturalsound Records. // Around the same time, one of the songs Williams had co-written with Gary Bonds, “She’s All I Got”, became a top-ten R&B hit for Freddie North, and was recorded with even greater success by country star Johnny Paycheck, whose version reached #2 on the country music chart in late 1971.[7] In a later interview on NPR’s Studio 360, Williams stated he was raised on country music: “Black music didn’t start ’til 10 at night until 4 in the morning and I was in bed by then… If you strip my tracks, take away all the horns and guitar licks, what you have is a country song.” However, he also continued to write and produce deep soul songs for other musicians, including Z. Z. Hill and Irma Thomas. In 1971 in collaboration with co-producer and writer the legendary George Semper he released “Monster Walk Pt. 1 and 2” by the Rhythm ‘N’ Blues Classical Funk Band on Mankind Records label. Produced for Jerry Williams Productions, Inc.and in spite of modest sales the record once again demonstrated his entrepreneurial skill as an artist. // As Swamp Dogg, he was signed by Elektra Records for his second album, Rat On! in 1971. The sleeve showed him on the back of a giant white rat, and has frequently been ranked as one of the worst album covers of all time. Sales were relatively poor, and he joined Jane Fonda’s anti-Vietnam War Free the Army tour. His next albums Cuffed, Collared and Tagged (1972) and Gag a Maggott (recorded at the TK Studio in 1973) were released on smaller labels, though his 1974 album, Have You Heard This Story??, was issued by Island Records. In 1977 he had another minor R&B hit with “My Heart Just Can’t Stop Dancing”, credited to Swamp Dogg & the Riders of the New Funk. He continued to release albums through the 1970s and into the mid-1980s as Swamp Dogg, on various small independent labels and in a variety of styles including disco and country and maintained a healthy cult following. He also set up his own publishing and recording company, Swamp Dogg Entertainment Group (SDEG). // In 1999, “Slow Slow Disco” was sampled by Kid Rock on the track “I Got One for Ya”, sparking a revival of interest in Swamp Dogg, who began performing live gigs for the first time. Several other of his recordings were sampled, and in 2009 he released two new albums, Give Em as Little as You Can…As Often as You Have To…Or…A Tribute to Rock N Roll, and An Awful Christmas and a Lousy New Year. He also released some further singles, and a compilation album of the best of his work as both Little Jerry Williams and Swamp Dogg, It’s All Good, was released in 2009. Most of his early Swamp Dogg albums have also been reissued on CD. // Swamp Dogg released a full-length album of new songs in 2014, The White Man Made Me Do It, which Williams described as being a sort of sequel to Total Destruction To Your Mind. Shortly thereafter, Swamp Dogg teamed up with Ryan Olson from Poliça to produce the tracks for his 2018 album Love, Loss & Autotune, Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver) fine-tuning the vocal tracks. The song also features instrumentation by Guitar Shorty. The music video for “I’ll Pretend” premiered at NPR and was later featured at Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Spin and elsewhere. Swamp Dogg described the song as a character study about “a guy sitting in a restaurant by himself losing his fucking mind because he’s hoping his woman is gonna walk by, but she’s at a Ramada Inn somewhere fucking somebody else to death.” // In 2020, he released the album Sorry You Couldn’t Make It, a country-styled record recorded in Nashville with producer Ryan Olson and musicians including Justin Vernon, John Prine, and Jenny Lewis. More info at: http://www.theswampdogg.com]

18. Kleenex / LiLiPut – “Ain’t you”
from: First Songs / 2024 Kill Rock Stars 
[Kleenex/LiLiPUT (also referred to as LiLiPUT and First Songs) is a compilation album by Swiss punk rock band LiLiPUT. Released by Off Course Records in 1993, the album compiles the band’s entire recorded output, from their first recordings under the name Kleenex to their later material after changing their name to LiLiPUT. // also referred to as First Songs”, a 2LP set of 24 recordings. “First Songs” combines all the pre-1982 material, all 3 Kleenex singles, the first 2 LiLiPUT 7″’s and all the originally unreleased material prior to LiLiPUT’s debut LP. All 46 songs from the “LiLiPUT” release. // “You can’t dispute LiLiPUT’s status as pioneers of feminist art-punk. Along with fellow travelers like the Slits and the Raincoats, this (mostly) female Swiss group took advantage of punk’s anything-goes attitude and created jittery, spirited pop that was both in step with the times and completely singular. The early material is a riot of exuberant energy, taking stylistic cues from peers like Gang of Four and Wire– propulsive bass, skittering pop rhythms, slashing guitars– and adding distinctive overlapping vocal patterns, which are sung, shrieked, and hiccuped in three languages and made- up dadaistic slang. More than 20 years on, it still sounds fresh.” – Lisa Gidley.]

  1. Kleenex / LiLiPut – “Nice”
    from: First Songs / 2024 Kill Rock Stars 
    [Kleenex/LiLiPUT (also referred to as LiLiPUT and First Songs) is a compilation album by Swiss punk rock band LiLiPUT. Released by Off Course Records in 1993, the album compiles the band’s entire recorded output, from their first recordings under the name Kleenex to their later material after changing their name to LiLiPUT. // also referred to as First Songs”, a 2LP set of 24 recordings. “First Songs” combines all the pre-1982 material, all 3 Kleenex singles, the first 2 LiLiPUT 7″’s and all the originally unreleased material prior to LiLiPUT’s debut LP. All 46 songs from the “LiLiPUT” release. // “You can’t dispute LiLiPUT’s status as pioneers of feminist art-punk. Along with fellow travelers like the Slits and the Raincoats, this (mostly) female Swiss group took advantage of punk’s anything-goes attitude and created jittery, spirited pop that was both in step with the times and completely singular. The early material is a riot of exuberant energy, taking stylistic cues from peers like Gang of Four and Wire– propulsive bass, skittering pop rhythms, slashing guitars– and adding distinctive overlapping vocal patterns, which are sung, shrieked, and hiccuped in three languages and made- up dadaistic slang. More than 20 years on, it still sounds fresh.” – Lisa Gidley.]

11:30:30 – Underwriting

  1. Lucy Rose – “Light As Grass”
    from: This Ain’t The Way You Go Out / Communion / April 19, 2024
    [This Ain’t the Way You Go Out is the fifth studio album by English singer-songwriter Lucy Rose, released through Communion Records on 19 April 2024. // The album was written following Rose’s first pregnancy, after which she developed pregnancy-associated osteoporosis and broke eight vertebrae in her back. It was recorded over two days with Rose’s backing band and the producer Kwes. In comparison to Rose’s previous music, This Ain’t the Way You Go Out has been noted as more “energetic and joyful”. // Lucy Rose Parton[1] (born 20 June 1989) is an English singer-songwriter. Her career as a musician began in 2012 with her first studio album Like I Used To and she has released five more since, the latest of which, This Ain’t The Way You Go Out, was released in April 2024. She founded her own record label, Real Kind Records, in January 2020; the record label is a partnership with the UK record label, Communion. // Born in Camberley, Surrey, England, Rose’s musical origins began with her playing drums in her school orchestra; her songwriting started with her writing tunes on her family home’s piano. She is the youngest of three sisters. She later bought a guitar from a shop she passed on the way to school, taught herself and began writing material at around the age of sixteen.[citation needed] Rose never played her material for anyone until she left home after completing her A-levels. // At eighteen, she moved to London; instead of taking her place at University College London to study geography, she began experimenting and performing with other musicians. It was at this time when she met Jack Steadman, the frontman of Bombay Bicycle Club. After becoming friends, Steadman asked if she would like to perform vocals on a song he had written and was recording. The acoustic album Flaws came out with Steadman on lead vocals, and Rose performing backing vocals, most notably on the title track “Flaws”, as well as others on the album. She went on to perform some backing vocal duties on Bombay Bicycle Club’s third album, A Different Kind of Fix, and features in their fourth, So Long, See You Tomorrow. Rose also performs some backing vocal duties on the track This Sullen Welsh Heart by the Manic Street Preachers on their album Rewind the Film. In 2018 she provided backing vocals for Paul Weller’s fourteenth studio album True Meanings, and appeared on stage with him in 2019 for his Royal Festival Hall concert, Other Aspects. // A fan of tea, Rose began selling her own blend named “Builder Grey” (two part English Breakfast and one part Earl Grey) at her shows as a substitute for merchandise or CDs.]
  1. Lucy Rose – “This Ain’t The Way You Go Out”
    from: This Ain’t The Way You Go Out / Communion / April 19, 2024
  1. Ghost Funk Orchestra – “To The Moon!”
    from: A Trip To The Moon / Colemine Records / February 23, 2024
    [Coming off the heels of 2022’s A New Kind of Love, A Trip To The Moon sees GFO diving even deeper in the worlds of film music, exotica, and psychedelic surf rock. The aim is to create a layered and collaged listening experience with more elements than you could possibly pick out in a single listen. The guitars are fuzzy and flooded with spring reverb, and the horns are arranged in a studio big band fashion. It’s full of big compositions with garage rock attitude. Influences range everywhere from Eddie Palmieri and Esquivel to The Lively Ones, Dusty Springfield, and War. The tracks are tied together by real recorded transmissions from the Apollo moon missions. The concept for the album is a story about a woman stranded on earth by her cosmonaut partner, left to ponder his whereabouts and whether or not he’ll make it back from the cosmos alive. // Ghost Funk Orchestra is the brainchild of composer/multi-instrumentalist Seth Applebaum. What started as a one-man recording project has now evolved into a powerhouse live band. It’s a sonic kaleidoscope that defies genre specification, but draws heavy influence from the worlds of soul, psych rock, salsa, and beyond. Their unique blend of genres has attracted praise from the likes of NPR, Bandcamp, KUTX, Brooklyn Vegan, Earmilk, and more. Over the years they’ve had the honor of sharing the stage with the likes of Os Mutantes, Grace Potter, Marco Benevento, La Luz, Monophonics, The Nude Party, and The Jack Moves, as well as playing such legendary festivals as Montreal Jazz, Treefort, Telluride Jazz, Otis Mountain Get Down, and BRIC’s NYC Winter Jazz. Local NY blog Post-Trash described their sound as a ‘psych odyssey of traditional sounds delivered in a non-traditional fashion.’ Bandcamp’s Editorial Director J. Edward Keyes praised the band’s ability to ‘leave no funk-adjacent genre unexplored.’ Experimentation is the key, and unpredictability is what has been attracting folks from all corners of the globe to see what GFO pulls off next…]
  1. Mdou Moctar – “Imouhar ”
    from: Funeral for Justice / Matador / May 3, 2024
    [‘Funeral For Justice’ is the new album by Mdou Moctar. Recorded at the close of two years spent touring the globe following the release of 2021 breakout ‘Afrique Victime,’ it captures the Nigerien quartet in ferocious form. The music is louder, faster, and more wild. The guitar solos are feedback-scorched and the lyrics are passionately political. Nothing is held back or toned down. // Mdou Moctar immediately stands out as one of the most innovative artists in contemporary Saharan music. His unconventional interpretations of Tuareg guitar and have pushed him to the forefront of a crowded scene. Mdou shreds with a relentless and frenetic energy that puts his contemporaries to shame. More info at: http://www.mdoumoctar.com]
  1. The Lostines – “A Tear”
    from: Meet the Lostines/ 2024 Gar Hole Records / April 26, 2024
    [Camille Wind Weatherford on vocals, guitar; Casey Jane Reece-Kaigler on vocals, guitar, percussion; Ross Farbe on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, 12 string acoustic guitar, bass, drums, percussion; Sam Doores om drums, percussion, organ, rhodes, baritone guitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, harmonies; Howe Pearson on bass, drums, guitar, tubular bells, harmonies; Gina Leslie on bass, harmonies; James Wallace – rhodes, piano, organ, guitar, synth, omnichord. // All songs written by The Lostines. // Co-produced by Ross Farbe, Sam Doores, and The Lostines. Recorded and mixed by Ross Farbe. Mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk at Stereophonic Mastering. Recorded in New Orleans, Louisiana at The Tigermen Den and Deslonde Studios. Fiddles recorded at Valcour Records in Eunice, Louisiana. Photography by Horatio Baltz. Album art by Adam Zeek. Special thanks to Baby Stingray & Ernest. // Guest musicians and friends in order of appearance: Kelli Jones on fiddle on After Party, Southwest Texas; Joel Savoy on fiddle on After Party, Southwest Texas; John James on lap steel on After Party; Jordan Odom on guitar on Come Back To My Arms; Casey McAllister on keys on Southwest Texas; Peter J. Bowling on viola on Frankie & Eva, Last Night; Thomas Bowling on violin on Frankie & Eva, Last Night; Sam Hollier on cello on Frankie & Eva, Last Night; Sam Gelband on vocals on Last Night. // Although recorded in the band’s hometown of New Orleans, Meet The Lostines — the full-length debut from songwriters Casey Jane Reece-Kaigler and Camille Wind Weatherford — is an album that charts its own geography. This is where the swampland meets the sock hop. Where golden-age rock & roll crosses paths with old-school country. Where timeless American roots music drops its anchor and climbs skyward, finding some balance between the earthy and the otherworldly. // At the center of that sound are the entwined voices of Casey Jane and Camille, two longtime friends whose songs explore the uncharted territory between genres. There’s rarely a melody on Meet The Lostines that the two don’t sing together, stacking their voices into lush harmonies that recall the girl groups of the 1960s. Don’t mistake Meet The Lostines for a retro project, though. It’s a modern album that exists out of time, filled with songs about heartbreak, old relationships, new beginnings, and vulnerability. // “Our songwriting process is like a therapy session,” says Camille. “We’ll show our ideas to each other, work out our harmonies, and then bring the song to our band so they can add their influences, too. When it comes to creating the full sound of the Lostines, the band — and New Orleans as a whole — has a huge influence on that.” // Before relocating to New Orleans as young adults, Camille and Casey Jane were both raised by musical families in the Pacific Northwest. “My parents taught me to play guitar, and I grew up going to fiddle camps, too,” says Casey Jane, an Oregon native whose vocal harmonies can be heard on albums across the New Orleans americana-verse. Meanwhile, Camille grew up in Portland, where her mother regularly attended a weekly jam session with several family friends. Camille began playing guitar as a teenager and eventually headed to New Orleans, meeting up with artists like Sam Doores, Riley Downing, and Pat Reedy along the way. // “New Orleans was a magnet for both of us,” says Casey Jane. As new residents of the city, the two musicians crossed paths at a campfire hosted by a mutual friend. A spark was lit as soon as they sang together, with their voices meshing together seamlessly. Inspired, they formed their own band — one that would salute their adopted hometown of New Orleans, but also reach far beyond the city’s borders for inspiration — and got to work, unveiling their sound with EPs like The Lostines and Heart of Night before turning a new page with Meet the Lostines. // Meet the Lostines is more than a full-length introduction. It’s an invitation to enter the Lostines’ world: a place where baritone guitars are coated in spring reverb, where orchestral strings swoon and sway, where Cajun fiddle solos share the spotlight with Theremin and upright piano. Many of these songs take place at night, and Meet the Lostines unfolds like a soundtrack to the wee small hours. “After the Party” takes the listener for a midnight walk along the levy overlooking the Mississippi River and the Industrial Canal, with fiddle and pedal steel guitar providing the soundtrack. “Neon Lights” looks back at an overnight drive from Los Angeles to Denver, with a bouncing chorus that’s every bit as luminous as the title suggests. “Full Moon Night” twinkles like a sky full of stars, rooted in a storyline about desire, longing, and the lure of a past relationship. // With contributions from some of New Orleans’ brightest lights, including Sam Doores (The Deslondes), Ross Farbe (Videoage), Howe Pearson and Gina Leslie (too many to count), Meet the Lostines is also the work of a community. Skyway Man camped out at the recording studio for a week, playing multiple instruments on multiple songs. K.C. Jones and Joel Savoy contributed dueling Cajun fiddles to “Southwest Texas” and “After the Party.” Jordan Odom played electric guitar on “Come Back To My Arms,” Casey McAllister played keys on “Southwest Texas,” and Ross pulled double-duty as the album’s lead guitarist and engineer in addition to mixing and co-producing the record with Sam and The Lostines. Casey Jane and Camille may have been the captains, but this was a team effort. // “We are fortunate to be surrounded by friends who are incredible musicians and songwriters, and we all influence one another,” says Casey Jane. “A lot of our bandmates are in our friends’ bands, as well, and there’s something that feels very cohesive about that, because there’s so much collaboration.” Collaboration. That’s the glue that holds Meet The Lostines together. It’s an album that bridges the gaps between genres, created by two songwriters who’re happy to build their own world. ]
  1. Noel Coward – “The Party’s Over Now”
    from: Noel Coward in New York / drg / 2003 [orig. 1957]

Marion Merritt thank you for being out Guest Producer on WMM

Marion Merritt is founder of Records With Merritt, a small, independent, minority owned business, at 1614 Westport Rd., in KCMO. More info at: http://www.recordswithmerritt.com

Next week on Wednesday, June 5, is my birthday! For this special Wednesday MidDay Medley live radio broadcast, I will share tracks from some of my favorite recordings representing different seasons of my life. I will spin influential recordings from: The Beatles, The Carpenters, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, The B-52’s, Prince, The Ramones, David Bowie, The Velvet Underground, Talking Heads, The Smiths, The Clash, Patti Smith, LaBelle, Joni Mitchell, Iris DeMent, Mavis Staples, The Magnetic Fields, and Krystle Warren. // At 11:00, Peregrine Honig and Izzy Vivas will share details about The West 18th Street Fashion Show happening Saturday, June 8, at 7:30pm at 116 W 18th Street, KCMO. This year’s theme is Summer in Slumberland. More Information at: west18thstreetfashionshow.com

THANK YOU to our incredible KKFI Staff; Director of Development & Communications – J Kelly Dougherty, Volunteer Coordinator – Darryl Oliver, Chief Operator – Chad Brothers, KKFI Accounting & Administration – Shaina Littler

This radio station is more than the individual hosts of each individual radio show. Instead it is about a collective spirit of hundreds of hardworking people, unselfishly setting aside ego, to work for the greater good of community building and the gigantic goal of keeping our airwaves free, non-commercial, and open to all! Congratulations and thank you to all programmers & volunteers who went the extra effort to keep our station alive.

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
https://www.soundcloud.com/wednesdaymiddaymedley
http://www.bandcamp.com/wednesdaymiddaymedley
http://www.instagram.markthomasmanning

Show #1048

WMM is Spinning Records With Marion Merritt

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, May 29, 2024

WMM is Spinning Records With Marion Merritt

Mark welcomes Marion Merritt, of Records With Merritt, who joins us as “Guest Producer” to share sonic discoveries and information from her musically-encyclopedic-brain. Marion Merritt has an empathic ability to know what music you’re seeking. For 20 years Marion has been serving as co-producer of our show. She’s our most frequent contributor to WMM. Marion grew up in Los Angeles and St. Louis and went to college in Columbia, MO. She studied art & musical engineering, and is a avid lover of classic films. She saw Talking Heads on their 1st tour at One Block West in 1978. Marion also writes about new releases as a contributor to The Pitch. With partner Ann Stewart, Marion is the proprietor of Records With Merritt, a minority owned business at 1614 Westport Rd. in Kansas City, Missouri. More info at: http://www.recordswithmerritt.com.

Marion will spin tracks from: Ana Frango Elétrico, Shabaka with Moses Sumney, Shabaka with Floating Points & Laraaji, Hermanos Gutiérrez, Phosphorescent, DIIV, Isobel Campbell, Beth Gibbons, Kamasi Washington, Fay Victor & Herbie Nichols, Gloria Coleman Quartet with Pola Roberts, Leyla McCalla, Valerie June, Swamp Dogg, Kleenex, Lucy Rose, Ghost Funk Orchestra, Mdou Moctar, and The Lostines.   

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

Show #1048

WMM Playlist from May 22, 2024

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, May 22, 2024

Betse & Clarke + Danny Santell + The Swallowtails + Erin Keller & Golden Spirit Children’s Choirs

  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]
  1. The Freedom Affair – “If You Don’t Want Me”
    from: “If You Don’t Want Me” – Single / Sunflower Soul Records / May 15, 2024
    [The Freedom Affair is a 9 piece soul juggernaut from Kansas City, MO. The band formed in 2017 with a vision to write original soul music inspired by the traditions of the genre’s past with a universal message looking toward the future. Their new single “If You Don’t Want Me” features: Shon Ruffin on vocals, Seyko Groves on vocals, Paula Saunders on vocals, Cole Bales on guitar, Branden Moser on guitar, Chris Hazelton on bass, Dave Brick on drums, Pete Carroll on trumpet, Brett Jackson on tenor Sax, Pat Conway on congas, and Nick Howell on tambourine. Written, Recorded & Mixed by Chris Hazelton. Mastered by JJ Golden // With their debut album FREEDOM IS LOVE, The Freedom Affair has received critical acclaim and have established themselves as a force in the soul music scene across the states and abroad. Keep your eyes and ears open for their songs and album art featured in the series Bel-Air, an Apple commercial, a Netflix series, etc… This band is just getting started. // The Freedom Affair’s live shows have proven to be soul-stirring, transformative events moving audiences both physically and emotionally to joy. // The Freedom Affair released their debut album Freedom Is Love on September 25, 2020. from The album explores themes of love, heartache, empowerment, and togetherness through a varying landscape of hard-hitting funk, luscious soul, and everything in between. The album was recorded and produced by Chris Hazelton, utilizing the best of vintage and new recording techno-logies 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. For the debut record The Freedom Affair was: Misha Roberts on vocals; Paula Saunders on vocals; Seyko Groves on vocals; Cole Bales on guitar, sitar (Track 3); Branden Moser on guitar; Chris Hazelton on bass guitar, organ (Tracks 1, 2, 9, & 10), Tambourine (Track 1), Glockenspiel (Track 3), & Chimes (Track 4); Dave Brick on drums; Pete Carroll on trumpet; Brett Jackson on tenor sax, baritone sax (Tracks 1 & 5), & tambourine (Tracks 5, 6, & 8). Additional Musicians: Pat Conway on Congas (Tracks 1, 3, & 6), Alyssa Bell on viola (Tracks 3, 4, & 7), Elizabeth Codd on violin (Tracks 3 & 4), Matt Bennett on violin (Tracks 3 & 7), John Wickersham on timpani (Track 4), Pamela Baskin-Watson on piano (Track 10), Nick Howell on tambourine (Track 10), The Freedom Family Choir (Track 10): Misha Roberts, Erica Hazelton, Seyko Groves, Paula Saunders, Jordyn Saunders, Cole Bales, and Chris Hazelton. 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 & Allyssa 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. Cover Artwork by Matthew “Mo” Manley. Front cover photograph of civil rights protesters in Kansas City, MO (April 9th, 1968). The Freedom Affair and their track “Rise Up” were selected to be part of Colemine Records 3xLP box set, “Soul Slabs Vol. 2” a Record Store Day Exclusive, released April 13, 2019. Colemine writes: “The Freedom Affair is a freight train of KC soul! Dirty, funky drums, gritty horns, and the combined vocals of Misha Roberts, Seyko Groves, and Paula Saunders to put this band over the top. Politically charged soul music for the dancefloor!”]

[The Freedom Affair play The Smoky Hill River Festival, Friday, June 14, and June 15, 2024 at Oakdale Park in Salina, Kansas with Monophonics and more.]

  1. Ivory Blue – “Bad Dreams”
    from: “Bad Dreams” – Single / IVORY BLUE / June 7, 2024
    [IVORY BLUE released the single “Batter Up” on April 22, 2024. IVORY BLUE released the single “Flashback” on March 15, 2023 // IVORY BLUE released the single “Howl” on February 16, 2024. // IVORY BLUE released their second full length album, STARLIT LOVE CHILD, on November 17, 2023. The 10-track album was in the top five of Wednesday MidDay Medley’s 120 Best Recordings of 2023, and in the “Best of” lists at 90.9 The Bridge and other radio stations around the world. For STARLIT LOVE CHILD, IVORY BLUE served as songwriter, producer, and vocalist. // On October 27, 2023 IVORY BLUE released the sIngle “Ghost of Life.” This single followed IVORY’s previous releases,”In A World Like This” from September 22, 2023, ”The Best of Life” from August 4, 2023 and “Control” from May 26, 2023. IVORY released the single “All Outta Love” on February 24, 2023. IVORY BLUE released their full length debut album COMPOUND LOVE on February 25, 2022. COMPOUND LOVE was in the Top Ten of WMM’s 120 Best recordings of 2022. For COMPOUND LOVE, IVORY BLUE served as songwriter, producer, vocalist and played all instruments with the exception of: Lester Estelle on drums, Klaartje Van Lue on piano, Craig Kew on bass, Lennon Bone on drums, and Marco Pascolini on pedal steel guitar. Nick Poortman served in mixing, with Kurt Festge who also served in mixing & Mastering. IVORY BLUE’s debut EP, Ready Get Set was released in June 2015. While the EP helped spread the word and give IVORY BLUE attention from regional radio and TV stations, a big break would come in 2017. In 2017 Ivory was among 1800 artists/bands that competed in neXt2Rock. Ivory won local & regional challenges and advanced to nationals in Los Angeles to win the top prize. // IVORY BLUE has played Crossroads Music Festival, The Middle of the Map Festival, The Westport Roots Festival, the KCPT Screening of “Real Boy” at The Kansas City Public Library, and Kauffman Stadium. // Ivory Blue was born in 1986 in Peoria Illinois, as Devin James Miclettet. Ivory’s birth mother put them up for adoption at the age of four. Ivory speaks about how it was difficult to find trust in people offering their home to someone denied it for so long, Ivory lived with eight different families, before running away at 15. // Ivory has talked with us about how in their life they have turned to music to express pain. Ivory spent most of their childhood looking for a family. In 2010 Klaartje Van Lue saw Ivory performing in a YouTube video and contacted them, flying Ivory to Kansas City, and adopting Ivory into the Van Lue family. During the past 10 years Ivory came out as “Non-Binary Transgender”. // As a multi-instrumentalist, Ivory began refining their performance style, using digital looping pedals to stack harmonies and guitar parts live on stage, giving their solo shows the feel of a full band. In 2011, Ivory settled in Kansas City, MO and quickly began attracting an intense regional following for their strong vocals and incisive, deeply personal lyrics. // By 2013, IVORY BLUE was playing regularly in and around Kansas City and the first EP ‘Ready Get Set’ was released. in 2015. IVORY BLUE released the video of “Family Table” directed by Mikal Shapiro, on August 21, 2021 and the audio track was released on September 7, 2021. IVORY BLUE released the single “Good Changes” on Oct 26, 2021. Ivory Blue released the singles: “Heavy,” “Bad Weather,” “It Must Have Been Me,” “Compound Love,” and “The Start” on December 14, 2021. IVORY BLUE released their debut album COMPOUND LOVE on February 25, 2022. IVORY BLUE released the single “Red Light” on July 29, 2022. IVORY BLUE released the single “Starlit Love Child” on October 28, 2022. IVORY BLUE released the single “All Outta Love” on February 24, 2023. More info at: https://ivorybluemusic.com%5D

[IVORY BLUE plays Art On The Side Festival, 118 N Main Street, LIBERTY, MO on June 1, 2024]

[IVORY BLUE plays Arts In The Park Festival, 1002 Clark Ferguson Dr, NKC, MO, June 7, 2024.]

[IVORY BLUE plays Boulevardia, 2396 Grand Blvd, KCMO on Saturday, June 15, 2024.]

[IVORY BLUE travels to Europe, June 16 – June 30 and has a sold-out show in Belgium on June 21.]

  1. Lava Dreams – “Driver”
    from: “Driver” – Single / Lava Dreams / May 24th, 2024
    [Lava Dreams releases their first new music of the year – a single titled “DRIVER.” The alternative pop anthem – produced by Spencer Hoad and written by Lava Dreams – brandishes hard-hitting drums, funky bass lines, and powerful vocals. Fans are being encouraged to pre-save the song on their preferred streaming platform, and the pre-save link can be found at LavaDreamsMusic.com. That same day of May 24th, Lava Dreams is giving a show at miniBar to celebrate the release – complete with performances from them and their band, as well as: Moon 17, Malek Azrael & the Vibes, and Danny Santell. Well-loved Kansas City emcee Flare tha Rebel will host the event, which is 21 and up. Tickets can be purchased through MiniBarKC.com or at the door, night-of. Doors open at 7 and music starts at 8:00pm.]

[Lava Dreams plays Minibar, Fri, May 24 at 8:00 pm w/ Danny Santell, Malek Azrael & The Vibes.]

  1. The Swallowtails – “Cocoon”
    from: LUCKY PENNY EP / The Swallowtails / February 20, 2024
    [The independent acoustic band, experimenting in the rock/pop genres while performing on what are traditionally folk/classical instruments, enter a new era having produced the entirety of this project themselves, with the songwriting matter touching on life’s big changes, challenges, and the realizations that time will heal. // “Since becoming a duo, it was time for us to reinvent our sound again. The songwriting on this EP is split between Rachel and myself, and this is Rachel’s debut release as a writer and singer. We spent all of January 2024 finishing the arrangements, recording and mixing the mini-record. It was a much needed release of energy for both of us, and we are definitely looking forward to adding these songs into our live sets and performing new material.”– Miki P, songwriter, singer and musician in The Swallowtails. // Est. in 2018, The Swallowtails are a Kansas City based musical duo comprised of musicians Miki P on guitar/vocals and Rachel Lovelace on bassoon/vocals. Their vision is to write honest, heartfelt songs that feel like you’re coming home to an old friend. As recording and performance artists, they have been showcased throughout Kansas City, performing at the Folly Theatre, Boulevardia Music Festival, The Kansas City Public Library as part of the 2023 Art in the Loop: Celebrate project, and most recently at Green Guitar Folk House opening for The Wildwoods. Their songwriting was awarded Best Song by a KC Band in 2023 by the Pitch Magazine for their tune “Take it Slow.” // Live video’s will be released on The Swallowtails YouTube page in support of the EP, the live session was filmed at West Bottoms Whiskey Co. // Swallowtails will be featuring the new EP at the Folk Alliance International Conference February 21st-25th. Both Miki & Rachel have earned scholarships to attend the conference. // Swallowtails embark on their 4th year entering NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest featuring a song off the EP, called “I’m on Fire” posted to NPR’s official contest site. // The Swallowtails have recently been approved as part of KCAIC Touring Artists Roster, through the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission. // On May 22, 2023 The Swallowtails released their 7-track EP THE WORLD STILL SPINS from Rachel Lovelace on bassoon, Adee Dancy on cello & vocals, and Miki P on guitar & lead vocals. Miki P is a self-taught musician/multi-instrumentalist & songwriter driving the Swallowtails into a creative collaboration like any other. Miki P was born in Kansas City, KS. Miki P started playing guitar in middle school. She taught herself to play the drums, while listening to Mitch Mitchell, Keith Moon and Ringo Starr. Miki P performed “She Loves You” at her 7th grade talent show. In 9th grade she joined a teen-band called American Slim as drummer & vocalist, and she wrote songs for their full-length album Irreplaceable released in 2017, followed by a single “Queen of Hearts” released April 11, 2018. American Slim played Middle of the Map Fest, Crossroads Music Fest, Kauffman Stadium, Arrowhead Stadium, and The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art before officially ending in 2018. At 21, Miki P began work on her debut solo-record, DOME OF SWALLOWS, that was released August 2, 2018. She then formed Miki P and the Swallowtails who released their first EP, Swallowtail in 2019, In 2021 Miki P released the 6-song EP, DON’T LOSE HOPE, created in covid isolation, in Miki P’s home space. Sitting & working from Miki’s computer, she composed and recorded 80% of the EP, working through the music like a journal entry, creating each song from her internal hurricane of emotions. All songs written, recorded, played, & mixed by Miki P. Recorded & Mixed with Emma Klien & Jake Hilger. Mastered by Joel Nanos. Miki P released her single “Your Love” on June 24, 2022. Miki P’s released the single “Peter Parker!” on March 18, 2022. // More info at: http://www.mikipmusic.com]

[The Swallowtails play Manor Fest 6 on Friday, May 24, at 6:30 PM at Flagship Books, 600 Ohio Ave., KCK in Strawberry Hill with Grady Philip Drugg, and Dalima Kapten]

[The Swallowtails play Boulevardia, on Sat, June 15, at Crown Center, 2396 Grand Blvd, KCMO.]

[The Swallowtails play Lemonade Park, 1628 Wyoming Street, KCMO on Saturday, June 29 at 7:00pm with West End Junction, and Kirstie Lynn & Galen Clark.]

10:17 – Interview with The Swallowtails

Miki P was born in Kansas City, KS. And started playing guitar in middle school. She taught herself to play the drums, while listening to Mitch Mitchell, Keith Moon and Ringo Starr. In 9th grade she joined a teen-band called American Slim as drummer & vocalist, and she wrote songs for their full-length album Irreplaceable released in 2017, followed by a single “Queen of Hearts” released April 11, 2018. // At 21, Miki P began work on her debut solo-record, DOME OF SWALLOWS, that was released August 2, 2018. She then formed Miki P and the Swallowtails who released their first EP, Swallowtail in 2019.

Rachel Lovelace attended the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts and moved from Jacksonville Florida to Kansas City in 2015 to study at UMKC and UMKC Conservatory of Music in Jazz Studies/Performance. Rachel has worked at Kansas City Young Audiences, loves rock climbing, has a dog named Peanut. and has been a part of the Swallowtails from the beginning.

The Swallowtails, just recently released their new EP, LUCKY PENNY on Feb. 20, 2024.

The Swallowtails play Manor Fest 6 on Friday, May 24, at 6:30 PM at Flagship Books, 600 Ohio Ave., KCK in Strawberry Hill with Grady Philip Drugg, and Dalima Kapten.

The Swallowtails play Boulevardia, on Saturday, June 15, at Crown Center, 2396 Grand Boulevard, KCMO.

The Swallowtails play Lemonade Park, 1628 Wyoming Street, KCMO on Saturday, June 29 at 7:00pm with West End Junction, and Kirstie Lynn & Galen Clark.

Miki P. and Rachel Lovelace, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley.

Formed in 2018, The Swallowtails are a KC based musical duo comprised of musicians Miki P on guitar & vocals and Rachel Lovelace on bassoon & vocals.

“Since becoming a duo, it was time for us to reinvent our sound again. The songwriting on this EP is split between Rachel and myself, and this is Rachel’s debut release as a writer and singer.

We spent all of January 2024 finishing the arrangements, recording and mixing the mini-record. It was a much needed release of energy for both of us, and we are definitely looking forward to adding these songs into our live sets and performing new material.” – Miki P, songwriter, singer and musician in The Swallowtails.

10:22

6. The Swallowtails – “Who’s Gonna Be There” (LIVE) 
 originally released: “Who’s Gonna Be There” – Single / The Swallowtails / March 20, 2023

10:17 – More Interview with The Swallowtails

Miki P. and Rachel Lovelace, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley.

Shows:
The Swallowtails play Manor Fest 6 on Friday, May 24, at 6:30 PM at Flagship Books, 600 Ohio Ave., KCK in Strawberry Hill with Grady Philip Drugg, and Dalima Kapten.

The Swallowtails play Boulevardia, on Saturday, June 15, at Crown Center.

The Swallowtails play Lemonade Park, 1628 Wyoming Street, KCMO on Saturday, June 29 at 7:00pm with West End Junction, and Kirstie Lynn & Galen Clark.

More Bio:
Est. in 2018, The Swallowtails are a Kansas City based musical duo comprised of musicians Miki P on guitar/vocals and Rachel Lovelace on bassoon/vocals. Their vision is to write honest, heartfelt songs that feel like you’re coming home to an old friend. As recording and performance artists, they have been showcased throughout Kansas City, performing at the Folly Theatre, Boulevardia Music Festival, The Kansas City Public Library as part of the 2023 Art in the Loop: Celebrate project, and most recently at Green Guitar Folk House opening for The Wildwoods. Their songwriting was awarded Best Song by a KC Band in 2023 by the Pitch Magazine for their tune “Take it Slow.” // Live video’s will be released on The Swallowtails YouTube page in support of the EP, the live session was filmed at West Bottoms Whiskey Co. //

Swallowtails featured their new EP at the Folk Alliance International Conference February 21st-25th. Both Miki & Rachel have earned scholarships to attend the conference. /

Swallowtails embarked on their 4th year entering NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest featuring a song off the EP, called “I’m on Fire” posted to NPR’s official contest site.

The Swallowtails have recently been approved as part of KCAIC Touring Artists Roster, through the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission.

On May 22, 2023 The Swallowtails released their 7-track EP THE WORLD STILL SPINS was recorded, mixed, & mastered at Element Recording Studio by Joel Nanos, with Miki P on drums, guitars, & vocals; Adee Dancy on cello & vocals; Rachel Lovelace on bassoon; with John O’Keefe on bass. Each member is an integral part of the Kansas City music scene, writing, arranging, performing, and collaborating original music for their own groups and several other projects in the metro.

On March 30, 2022, The Swallowtails released the single, “Who’s Gonna Be There”.

Miki P is a self-taught musician/multi-instrumentalist & songwriter driving the Swallowtails into a creative collaboration like any other. Miki P was born in Kansas City, KS. Miki P started playing guitar in middle school. She taught herself to play the drums, while listening to Mitch Mitchell, Keith Moon and Ringo Starr. Miki P performed “She Loves You” at her 7th grade talent show. In 9th grade she joined a teen-band called American Slim as drummer & vocalist, and she wrote songs for their full-length album Irreplaceable released in 2017, followed by a single “Queen of Hearts” released April 11, 2018. // At 21, Miki P began work on her debut solo-record, DOME OF SWALLOWS, that was released August 2, 2018. She then formed Miki P and the Swallowtails who released their first EP, Swallowtail in 2019, In 2021 Miki P released the 6-song EP, DON’T LOSE HOPE, created in covid isolation, in Miki P’s home space. Sitting & working from Miki’s computer, she composed and recorded 80% of the EP, working through the music like a journal entry, creating each song from her internal hurricane of emotions. All songs written, recorded, played, & mixed by Miki P. Recorded & Mixed with Emma Klien & Jake Hilger. Mastered by Joel Nanos. Miki P released her single “Your Love” on June 24, 2022. Miki P’s released the single “Peter Parker!” on March 18, 2022. An inspired musician, Miki has a rare capability to not only be able to share her life experiences and lessons learned through her voice & lyrics, but also through every instrument she performs on. Always a student, she both performs and records on guitar, drums, percussion, piano, bass and ukulele. Miki P is a songwriter with a unique ability to command any room she performs in. A natural talent paired alongside a drive to connect with others, Miki is a touring musician carrying on elements of rock & pop. Settled with a message resonating loud and clear to people from all walks of life through her imaginative, fun, and confessionally honest songwriting, Miki sings of love in all its forms.// More info at: http://www.mikipmusic.com]

Miki P, and Rachel Lovelace, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley.

The Swallowtails play Manor Fest 6 on Friday, May 24, at 6:30 PM at Flagship Books, 600 Ohio Ave., KCK in Strawberry Hill with Grady Philip Drugg, and Dalima Kapten.

The Swallowtails play Boulevardia, on Saturday, June 15, at Crown Center, 2396 Grand Boulevard, KCMO.

The Swallowtails play Lemonade Park, 1628 Wyoming Street, KCMO on Saturday, June 29 at 7:00pm with West End Junction, and Kirstie Lynn & Galen Clark.

More info at: http://www.the swallowtails.com

10:30 – Underwriting

  1. Joni Mitchell – “God Must Be A Boogie Man”
    from: Mingus / Asylum / June 13, 1979
    [Mingus is the tenth studio album by Canadian musician Joni Mitchell. It was released on June 13, 1979, and was her last studio album for Asylum Records. The album is a collaboration between Mitchell and Charles Mingus. It was recorded in the months before and after Mingus’ death in January 1979 and is wholly dedicated to him. The album is one of Mitchell’s most experimental and jazz-centric works. Mingus originally wrote six compositions (entitled “Joni I-VI”) for Mitchell to write lyrics for; three of these pieces were included on the album. Two other tracks written exclusively by Mitchell are included, alongside a new version of Mingus’ standard “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat”, featuring lyrics written by Mitchell. In addition to these, five spoken word tracks (denoted as “raps”) are dispersed throughout the album. // Mitchell is backed on the album by Jaco Pastorius (who had also contributed to Mitchell’s two previous albums) on fretless bass, Wayne Shorter on saxophone, Herbie Hancock on electric piano, Peter Erskine on drums and Don Alias on percussion. Mingus received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics and peaked at number 17 in the US. “The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines” was released as a single to promote the album, but did not chart. Mitchell would tour to promote the album through 1979–80; performances from these concerts would be documented on the live album Shadows and Light // Joni Mitchell wrote: “The real difficulty for me [in writing this song – Ed] was that the only thing I can believe is what happened to me firsthand, what I see and feel with my own eyes. I had a block for three months. It’s hard for me to take someone else story and tell only his story in a song. Charlie [Mingus – Ed] assailed me with historical information about Lester Young [in whose memory “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” was written – Ed] and his family background, concerning his early playing days. He used to tap dance in his family band with his father and mother. He was married to a white woman, traveling through the South in a time when that was just taboo. So I had all these details, but I still couldn’t, with any conscience, simply write a historical song. The something very magical happened. One night Don Alias and I were on the subway, and we got off, I don’t know why, two stops early. We came up into this cloud of steam coming out of a New York manhole. Two blocks ahead of us, under these orangeish New York lights we see a crowd gathered. So we head toward the crowd. It’s a group of black men surrounding two small black boys. It’s about midnight, and the two boys are dancing this very robotlike mime dance. Immediately I’m thinking about Lester Young. They were dancing under one of those cloth awnings that goes out to the curb of a bar. I look up – and the name of the bar is the Pork Pie Hat and there were big blown up pictures of Lester Young all around the place. It was wild. So that became the last verse of the song. In my mind, that filled in a piece of the puzzle. I had the past and the present, and the two boys represented the future. To me the song then had a life of its own.”]

[Erin Keller presents The Golden Spirit Fundraising Event, a performance of critically acclaimed Joni Mitchell album “Mingus,” with Patrick Ketter on saxophone, Angela Ward on keyboards, Adam Schlozman on guitar, Matt Leifer on drums, and Forest Stewart on bass, on Saturday, May 25, at 7:00pm, at Unity Temple on the Plaza, 707 West 47th, St., KCMO. Info at: http://www.eventbrite.com/…/golden-spirit-fundraising…%5D

10:37 – Interview with Erin Keller

Erin Keller has performed in the Grammy Award–winning KC Chorale for 16 years, KC Civic Opera, New Ear, OwenCox Dance Group, all the while doing solo & collaborative projects with top musicians. Seven years ago, Erin was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. She has been on chemo since her diagnosis, constantly fighting all the symptoms that come with being on chemo. On January 26, 2024 Erin released her new recording, SONGS FOR TIMES LIKE THESE, with the James Ward Band. Recently Erin Keller announced the creation of a new nonprofit, Golden Spirit Children’s Choirs, a new after-school program for children in KCMO Public Schools that focuses on social emotional, music, and poetry learning objectives. You can learn more at: http://www.goldenspiritsings.org. Erin Keller presents The Golden Spirit Fundraising Event, a performance of critically acclaimed Joni Mitchell album “Mingus,” with Patrick Ketter on saxophone, Angela Ward on keyboards, Adam Schlozman on guitar, Matt Leifer on drums, and Forest Stewart on bass, on Saturday, May 25, at 7:00pm, at Unity Temple on the Plaza, 707 West 47th, St., KCMO. Info at: http://www.eventbrite.com/…/golden-spirit-fundraising…

Erin Keller thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

We just heard, “God Must Be A Boogie Man” from Joni Mitchell’s tenth studio album MINGUS released June 13, 1979. MIGUS is a collaboration between Mitchell and Charles Mingus. It was recorded in the months before and after Mingus’ death in January 1979 and is wholly dedicated to him. The album is one of Mitchell’s most experimental and jazz-centric works. Mingus originally wrote six compositions (entitled “Joni I-VI”) for Mitchell to write lyrics for; three of these pieces were included on the album.

Mitchell is backed on the album by Jaco Pastorius (who had also contributed to Mitchell’s two previous albums) on fretless bass, Wayne Shorter on saxophone, Herbie Hancock on electric piano, Peter Erskine on drums and Don Alias on percussion.

Erin Keller presents The Golden Spirit Fundraising Event, a performance of critically acclaimed Joni Mitchell album “Mingus,” with Patrick Ketter on saxophone, Angela Ward on keyboards, Adam Schlozman on guitar, Matt Leifer on drums, and Forest Stewart on bass, on Saturday, May 25, at 7:00pm, at Unity Temple on the Plaza, 707 West 47th, St., KCMO. Info at: http://www.eventbrite.com/…/golden-spirit-fundraising…


Recently Erin Keller announced the creation of a new nonprofit, Golden Spirit Children’s Choirs, a new after-school program for children in KCMO Public Schools that focuses on social emotional, music, and poetry learning objectives. You can learn more at: http://www.goldenspiritsings.org.

Erin Keller has performed in the Grammy Award–winning KC Chorale for 16 years, KC Civic Opera, New Ear, OwenCox Dance Group, the band Blackout Gorgeous, the folk/free improvisational ensemble, Prometheus Io, a West African High Life Ensemble, and the Balkan brass band, Gora Gora Orkestar, all the while doing solo & collaborative projects performing jazz standards & improvisation works with top musicians in KC & Denver. Erin’s voice is born out of an uncommon musical perspective, with a huge range of not only pitch, but also in execution of style and expression. Six and a half years ago, Erin was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. She has been on chemo since her diagnosis, constantly fighting all the symptoms that come with being on chemo. During the Covid pandemic, Erin worked to create safe outdoor concerts for local performers & audiences. Since then, she has worked on multiple music projects including the upcoming release of her new recording, SONGS FOR TIMES LIKE THESE, with the James Ward Band doing original songs written & produced by Erin Keller and recorded by Chad Meise. Erin Keller & the James Ward Band played an Album Release Dinner Matinee Show, Friday, January 26, 2024, at 6:00pm, at The Ship, 1221 Union Avenue, KCMO.

Songs For Times Like These features Erin Keller on vocals, with the James Ward Band

James Ward on electric bass,
Jaylen Ward on drums & cymbals,
Angela Ward on keyboard,

Along with Chad Meise on electric guitar.
Recorded & mixed by Chad Meise. Mastered by Collin Jordan.
Artwork by David Ford. Photos & Graphics by Kayla Haskins.

Erin Keller & the James Ward Band play an Album Release Dinner Matinee, Fri, Jan. 26, at 6:00pm, at The Ship, 1221 Union Avenue, KCMO. More info at: http://www.theshipkc.com

Erin Keller and The JWB latest album “Songs for Times Like These” is political, funny, groovy, and thought-provoking. If you feel like the world is making you crazy, you might feel very seen and heard at this show! The songs are about humanity coming together in unity and love to make the world a better place. The JWB featuring James, Angela, and Jaylen Ward always lay down a funky groove you can dance and/or relax to. It will be a very special night!

How do you choose the songs for the record?

Six and a half years ago, Erin was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. She has been on chemo since her diagnosis, constantly fighting all the symptoms that come with being on chemo.

During the Covid pandemic, Erin worked to create safe outdoor concerts for local performers & audiences. Erin organizing shows for Raj Ma Hall and World Culture KC, a COVID SAFE outdoor series featuring world class musicians from right here in KC.

More Bio:

Kansas City based vocalist Erin Keller is originally from Waukee, Iowa. She was born in August, in 1980. Erin has been singing on a professional level for 30 years. Erin sang with the internationally competitive Des Moines Children’s Choir for 5 years, and 3 years in All-State choir in high school, which helped her earn a voice performance degree from the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, in 2002.

UMKC Conservatory of Music brought Erin to Kansas City, where she made friends and built collaborations with KC Civic Opera, KC Choral, Own Cox Dance Ensemble…

…but then Erin decided to get her Masters Degree and she left KC for Boulder, Colorado The University of Colorado and then later Denver where she worked in public schools.

After Colorado, Erin returned to KC. Erin performs with the Grammy-Award winning Kansas City Chorale. Erin has also worked as a featured soloist with Owen Cox Dance Ensemble, New Ear, KC jazz musicians, the big band at University of Colorado, a West African Highlife Ensemble, the Balkan brass band Gora Gora Orkestar.

Erin also has experience writing her own music, singing in rock, folk, and free improv settings and she more recently earned a Master’s in Music Education from the University of Colorado at Boulder. In Colorado she worked for two years in public schools teaching music and moved back to KC to continue her career as musician and educator.

In April 2016 Erin released her solo album, “Distracted,” and has been playing live shows while also being upfront and honest about her recent cancer diagnosis where she has received multiple rounds of chemo treatments.

Distracted was also recorded with Chad Meise.

Immediately after the album was released Erin was diagnosed with liver cancer and began treatments, while going through a divorce, and moving to a new home.

Erin Keller thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Erin Keller presents The Golden Spirit Fundraising Event, a performance of critically acclaimed Joni Mitchell album “Mingus,” with Patrick Ketter on saxophone, Angela Ward on keyboards, Adam Schlozman on guitar, Matt Leifer on drums, and Forest Stewart on bass, on Saturday, May 25, at 7:00pm, at Unity Temple on the Plaza, 707 West 47th, St., KCMO. Info at: http://www.eventbrite.com/…/golden-spirit-fundraising…

10:50

  1. Erin Keller & The James Ward Band – “You Can Feel It In The Air”
    from: Songs For Times Like These / Erin Keller / January 26, 2024
    [Erin Keller on vocals, James Ward on electric bass, Jaylen Ward on drums & cymbals, Angela Ward on keyboard, Chad Meise on electric guitar. Recorded & mixed by Chad Meise. Mastered by Collin Jordan. Artwork by David Ford. Photos & Graphic design by Kayla Haskins. // On May 9, 2016 Erin Keller released her debut solo album, DISTRACTED. // Erin Keller is originally from Waukee, Iowa. She was born in 1980. Erin has been singing on a professional level for 30 years. Erin sang with the internationally competitive Des Moines Children’s Choir for 5 years, and 3 years in All-State choir in high school, which helped her earn a voice performance degree from the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, in 2002. Erin peforms with the Grammy-Award winning Kansas City Chorale. Erin has also worked as a featured soloist with Owen Cox Dance Ensemble, New Ear, KC jazz musicians, the big band at University of Colorado, a West African Highlife Ensemble, the Balkan brass band Gora Gora Orkestar. Erin also has experience writing her own music, singing in rock, folk, and free improv settings and she more recently earned a Master’s in Music Education from the University of Colorado at Boulder. In Colorado she worked for two years in public schools teaching music and moved back to KC to continue her career as musician and educator.]

[Erin Keller presents The Golden Spirit Fundraising Event, a performance of critically acclaimed Joni Mitchell album “Mingus,” with Patrick Ketter on saxophone, Angela Ward on keyboards, Adam Schlozman on guitar, Matt Leifer on drums, and Forest Stewart on bass, Saturday, May 25, at 7:00pm, at Unity Temple on the Plaza, 707 W. 47th, KCMO. http://www.eventbrite.com/…/golden-spirit-fundraising…%5D

  1. Charlie Parr – “Little Sun”
    from: Little Sun / Smithsonian Folkways / March 22, 2024
    [The eighteenth album from prolific Minnesota-based singer, songwriter and guitarist Charlie Parr. Of the new track “Boombox,” Parr reflects, “In this neighborhood, music is eternal and transcendent and surrounds us at all times, whether we’re listening or not. And it affects each of us differently, and that’s a gift. Listening to music can be interactive, even if you’re alone. I want to listen intentionally.” // Notably Parr’s first ever album to not be recorded entirely live, Little Sun was produced by close friend and collaborator Tucker Martine (Sufjan Stevens, The Decemberists, My Morning Jacket) in Portland, OR during the worst snowstorm the city had seen in decades. Across these eight tracks, Parr offers a clarifying work that reflects on the world and people around him. In addition to Parr (vocals, guitar, harmonica), the album features highly acclaimed guitarist Marisa Anderson as well as background vocals from Anna Tivel along with Andrew Borger (drums, percussion), Asher Fulero (piano, Hammond, keys) and Victor Krummenacher (electric bass, upright bass, bass VI). // Reflecting on the project, Parr shares, “Up until this very album, my recordings have always been done live, with few if any overdubs and nearly always the first take—leave all the mistakes, missed lyrics, extraneous noise, and whatever else might happen there for the ages. Most records have been recorded in roughly the time that it took to play the songs. And that’s been fine, actually. Here’s a new way for me, though: here’s an album that was recorded live but in collaboration with producer Tucker Martine, who’s become a friend and trusted musical ally. You’ll hear what happened, so I don’t need to describe it to you, but I’m very grateful for the opportunity to work with this very talented group of musicians.” // Charlie Parr has been on the road supporting his new album song March 2 and has already play over 35 shows in 35 cities]

[Charlie Parr plays recordBar, 1520 Grand Blvd, KCMO, on Saturday, May 25 at 7:00 pm with Betse & Clarke opening. More info at: http://www.therecordbar.com]

11:00 – Station ID

  1. Betse Ellis – “Don’t You Want To Go
    from: Don’t You Want To Go / Free Dirt / April 21, 2009
    [Producer, and arranged by Betse Ellis. Recorded & Mixed by, Producer – Mike West. // Originally from Fayetteville, Arkansas, Betse Ellis is one of the founding members of one of Kansas City’s treasured bands The Wilders, an acoustic honky-tonk band, that toured nationally and internationally for 15 years, and released 10 albums. In 2011 the band ended. // Renowned fiddler Betse Ellis, a founding member of “hillbilly riot” band The Wilders, is sure to impress you with her musical versatility on her debut solo album, Don’t You Want to Go. Her unique approach to American traditional music is presented in a host of different musical styles, ranging from stunning tributes to Ozark elders in fiddle tunes and song (“Bear Creek Sally Goodin’”), electrifying vocals on blues standards (“Looking the World Over”), original high energy old-time fiddle tunes (“Run!”), and epic, lushly orchestrated original songs with string sections arranged and performed by Ellis herself (“Another Night Gone,” “Don’t You Want to Go”). In the move from band member to band leader, Ellis confirms that she is indeed one of the most multi-talented musicians on the old-time & alt.country music scenes. // One if the side projects of The Wilders was a band called The Whittlers, made of up of Phil Wade and Tom Livesay who recorded 4 full-length albums from 2000 to 2004 while they worked together at the Kansas City Art Institute. The Whitlers were the first to record the song “Another Night Gone,” written by Betse Ellis, and released on their final album, “Nobody’s Happy” from 2004, with Tom on vocals, Ike Sheldon on piano, Phil Wade on guitar. The track was recorded as a surprise for Betse.]

[Betse & Clarke play recordBar, 1520 Grand Blvd, KCMO, on Saturday, May 25 at 7:00 pm opening for Charlie Parr. More info at: http://www.betseandclarke.com]

11:04 – Interview with Betse Ellis & Clarke Wyatt

There is hardly anything more iconic in American Folk music than the fiddle and banjo. A sharp contrast in sound, construction and heritage, yet these two instruments seem like the perfect pair. This is where Betse Ellis and Clarke Wyatt began their musical story.

This duo from the heartland (Kansas City, Missouri) has its roots in Ozark old time music, honoring traditional songs and tunes that resonate with human experience. However, if you ever saw or listened to The Wilders, then you know that Betse is also a force to be reckoned with, stomping her boots and pushing her fiddle beyond old country into the realms of punk, honky tonk, and beyond. Her singing has power, from hollering to pathos as called for by the song.

Clarke meets her out there in the void, beyond musical boundaries and categories with a background in jazz piano, guitar, bass, drums, and banjo. It’s rare to find a duo that you can take with you to meet your grandmother Sunday morning at church after staying up all night with them Saturday night getting rowdy on the other side of town. Betse Ellis and Clarke fit that bill.

A new chapter in their musical exploration is emerging, featuring Clarke on electric guitar, and Betse taking the fiddle to new sonic scenes. More emphasis on original material and improvisational routes invites you to come along on a new adventure.
Betse & Clarke play recordBar, 1520 Grand Blvd, KCMO, on Saturday, May 25 at 7:00 pm opening for Charlie Parr. More info at: http://www.betseandclarke.com

Betse Ellis and Clarke Wyatt thanks for being with us in WMM

We just heard, “Don’t You Want to Go” from album of same title, Betse’s first solo album, available everywhere.

New direction in our music

Personal history with Charlie Parr (Betse toured with him twice and we have both spent time with him since then)

History with KKFI

BETSE & CLARKE’S VERY BRIEF BIO:

Their music is familiar… and totally different; a fiddle and banjo duo with a sense of adventure. Old time music and song celebrated alongside inventive new compositions: a passion for the depth of tradition and a look to new creative paths.

LONGER BIO:

Regular folks, exceptional music: This duo from the heartland (Kansas City, Missouri) has its roots in Ozark old time music, honoring traditional songs and tunes that resonate with human experience.

For each concert setting, Betse & Clarke take an audience on a musical field trip. Betse Ellis plays powerful and beautiful old time fiddle tunes, sings traditional Ozark songs, and shares her own songs with themes relating to human experience. Expect her to tell some stories along the way, featuring personal moments with her fiddle mentor Violet Hensley. Long known for her energetic style in her former band The Wilders, Betse’s earned a level of maturity while maintaining her contagious enthusiasm. Clarke Wyatt is an engaging finger-style banjo player, drawing inspiration from great traditional and inventive banjoists of earlier decades such as Mike Seeger and John Hartford. His guitar style is rooted in old time traditions, with sparks of ingenuity inspired by the likes of Norman Blake. The combination of deep reverence for tradition and commitment to creativity makes this duo a captivating act to witness. They are dedicated instructors as well as performers and enjoy teaching at camps and workshops as well as private instruction. While tradition is important to Betse & Clarke, they are musical innovators and are inspired to make music beyond the old time genre. Over the last year, Clarke has developed a compelling electric guitar technique and is working on a series featuring his drum kit practice with a variety of talented electric guitarists. Betse is working on free improvisation and new compositions on her fiddle, sometimes on an electric five-string.

Together since 2014, this musical couple has traveled across the United States, Canada, Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Scotland.

Performance Highlights: Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival ~ Walnut Valley Music Festival ~ John Hartford Memorial Festival ~ Portland Old Time Music Gathering ~ Ozark Folk Center ~ Guinness International Bluegrass Festival (Co. Waterford, Ireland) ~ Bluegrass Music Festival at Ulster American Folk Park, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland) ~ Moniaive Michaelmas Bluegrass Festival (Dumfries, Scotland) ~ House concert tours for Home Routes (Canada) ~ Folk Alliance International Conference (as official showcase artists and music camp teaching staff)

Farewell Trion from Winter, which you also have

11:13

  1. Betse & Clarke – “Farewell Trion”
    from: Winter / Betse & Clarke / June 4, 2020
    [A collection of songs and tunes, including original compositions, traditional songs and fiddle tunes, and modern songs re-envisioned. This recording was compiled during winter 2020, with a feeling of introspection. Songs under copyright were properly licensed for this digital release. Regular folks, exceptional music: This duo from the heartland (Kansas City, Missouri) has its roots in Ozark old time music, honoring traditional songs and tunes that resonate with human experience. New compositions add compelling elements to their musical tapestry. Follow up to the duo’s 2017 release, Tunes We Like released only in analog on cassette. Betse & Clarke are a traditional and future folk duo with Betse Ellis on fiddles, violins, viola & vocals and Clarke Wyatt on banjos, guitar, cello, multi-instruments. Betse & Clarke have played and toured around the world. Individually their musical roots go deep in the KC music scene. Clarke Wyatt is a founding member of Mr. Marco’s V7, and Betse Ellis is a founding member of The Wilders. Last year Betse & Clarke released ”River Still Rise,” originals and reworked traditional compositions presented “to be enjoyed as a musical adventure, much like the river exploration of the famous duo Lewis & Clark, an inspiration for the band”]

[Betse & Clarke play recordBar, 1520 Grand Blvd, KCMO, on Saturday, May 25 at 7:00 pm opening for Charlie Parr. More info at: http://www.betseandclarke.com]

11:16 – More Interview with Betse & Clarke

We are talking with Betse Ellis and Clarke Wyatt

Betse Ellis. Originally from Fayetteville, Arkansas, Betse received her Bachelors of Arts in Music and a Bachelors of Arts in English, from the University of Missouri – Kansas City. She has been playing the Violin for over 40 years, with over 20 years playing fiddle and also working as a teacher of music. Betse was a founding member of the acclaimed internationally known band, The Wilders. Betse has released two solo records, and records and performs with the band Little Miss Dynamite, and The Starhaven Rounders and with her husband, multi-instrumentalist Clarke Wyatt, as Betse & Clarke.

Clarke Wyatt is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, recording & video engineer. Clark was born in Texarkana Texas and raised in East Texas, and KCMO. Clarke began music studies at age 5. Clarke studied at Goddard College. He teaches private banjo, piano, and music theory lessons. Clarke performs in the duo Betse & Clarke w/ Betse Ellis.
Notable past performances include Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival, Augusta Heritage Center, John Hartford Memorial Festival, Walnut Valley Festival, Portland Old Time Gathering, St. Joseph Symphony Orchestra (banjo with a symphony), official show-case artist at Folk Alliance International 2015 & 2017, Ozark Folk Center w/ Betse & Clarke and Violet Hensley.

Betse Ellis and Clarke Wyatt thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley.

Little Miss Dynamite is a 4 piece string band w/ Beth Watts Nelson on lead vocals & banjo, Betse Ellis (of The Wilders, Betse & Clarke) on fiddle, Brandon Day (of The Matchsellers) on bass, & Caleb Gardner (of Konza Swamp) on mandolin, guitar & vocals. releasing a debut 6-song EP of original music featuring stringed instruments & vocal harmony titled “Grow Up” Engineered & Mixed by Clarke Wyatt, Gnomes and Goats Studio.

CLARKESINSPACE is an ongoing project by Clarke Wyatt: multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, recording and video engineer. Clarke is a lifelong creator of original music. He has written string quartets, original compositions and songs, studio project parts and production, and video creations. And that’s just the start. His latest project in the works is called “Guitar Party”, where he plays drum kit with electric guitarists (sometimes switching places if the guitarist is also a drummer). It’s the beginning of a video series, first created for youtube, with options for multiple media.

Betse Ellis and Clarke Wyatt thanks for being with us in WMM

Betse & Clarke play recordBar, 1520 Grand Blvd, KCMO, on Saturday, May 25 at 7:00 pm opening for Charlie Parr. More info at: http://www.betseandclarke.com

11:25

  1. Clarke Wyatt – “Green Eyes”
    from: CLARKES IN SPACE / Clarke Wyatt / March 19, 2024
    [CLARKESINSPACE is an ongoing project by Clarke Wyatt: multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, recording and video engineer. Clarke is a lifelong creator of original music. He has written string quartets, original compositions and songs, studio project parts and production, and video creations. And that’s just the start. His latest project in the works is called “Guitar Party”, where he plays drum kit with electric guitarists (sometimes switching places if the guitarist is also a drummer). It’s the beginning of a video series, first created for youtube, with options for multiple media.

[Betse & Clarke play recordBar, 1520 Grand Blvd, KCMO, on Saturday, May 25 at 7:00 pm opening for Charlie Parr. More info at: http://www.betseandclarke.com]

11:29 – Underwriting

  1. Danny Santell – “Song About Girls”
    from: “Song About Girls” – Single / Danny Santell / May 24, 2024
    [Danny Santell is a musician, songwriter & record producer based in Kansas City. Originally from The Bronx NYC now living on The Paseo, Danny Santell began his introduction into the music industry at the age of 19, signing to Universal Records (A&M Octone Records.) He has toured across the US and Canada with the likes of Paramore, Switchfoot, Linkin Park, & shared festival stages with Jay-Z and Stevie Wonder with his band Paper Tongues. His most recent project DON’T SEND ME FLOWERS was released February 1, 2024 and blends Latin fusion hip-hop beats with rock ‘n’ roll guitars, and that sweet KC soulful speakeasy vibe that you’ll only find at 4:00 am on 18th & Vine.]

[Danny Santell plays Minibar, Friday, May 24 at 8:00 pm w/ Lava Dreams, Malek Azrael & The Vibes. ]

[Danny Santell plays Boulevardia, on Saturday, June 15, at Crown Center, 2396 Grand Blvd, KCMO. More info at: http://www.boulevardia.com]

11:34 – Interview with Danny Santell

Danny Santell is a musician, songwriter & record producer based in Kansas City. Originally from The Bronx NYC now living on The Paseo, Danny Santell began his introduction into the music industry at the age of 19, signing to Universal Records (A&M Octone Records.) He has toured across the US and Canada with the likes of Paramore, Switchfoot, Linkin Park, & shared festival stages with Jay-Z and Stevie Wonder with his band Paper Tongues. His most recent project DON’T SEND ME FLOWERS was released February 1, 2024 and blends Latin fusion hip-hop beats with rock ‘n’ roll guitars, and that sweet KC soulful speakeasy vibe that you’ll only find at 4:00 am on 18th & Vine.

Danny Santell plays Minibar, Fri, May 24 at 8:pm w/ Lava Dreams, Malek Azrael & The Vibes.

Danny Santell plays Boulevardia, on Saturday, June 15, at Crown Center, 2396 Grand Blvd, KCMO. More info at: http://www.boulevardia.com

Danny Santell , Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

We just heard your new single “Song About Girls” coming out this Friday, May 24.

Originally from The Bronx NYC now living on The Paseo. Danny Santell began his introduction into the music industry at the age of 19, signing to Universal Records (A&M Octone Records.)

11:41

  1. Danny Santell – “Don’t Send Me Flowers”
    from: Don’t Send Me Flowers / Danny Santell / April 19, 2024
    [All songs were written by Danny Santell in Kansas City Missouri, except “Feel The Vibe” Produced and Written by Marz Ferrer & Gabriel Ramirez, Mixed and Mastered by Manny Vs Wrld Ferrer. // Danny Santell is a musician, songwriter & record producer based in Kansas City. Originally from The Bronx NYC now living on The Paseo, Danny Santell began his introduction into the music industry at the age of 19, signing to Universal Records (A&M Octone Records.) He has toured across the US and Canada with the likes of Paramore, Switchfoot, Linkin Park, & shared festival stages with Jay-Z and Stevie Wonder with his band Paper Tongues. His most recent project DON’T SEND ME FLOWERS was released February 1, 2024 and blends Latin fusion hip-hop beats with rock ‘n’ roll guitars, and that sweet KC soulful speakeasy vibe that you’ll only find at 4:00 am on 18th & Vine.]

[Danny Santell plays Minibar, Friday, May 24 at 8:00 pm w/ Lava Dreams, Malek Azrael & The Vibes. ]

[Danny Santell plays Boulevardia, on Saturday, June 15, at Crown Center, 2396 Grand Blvd, KCMO. More info at: http://www.boulevardia.com]

11:45 – More Interview with Danny Santell

Danny Santell is a musician, songwriter & record producer based in Kansas City. Originally from The Bronx NYC now living on The Paseo, Danny Santell began his introduction into the music industry at the age of 19, signing to Universal Records (A&M Octone Records.) He has toured across the US and Canada with the likes of Paramore, Switchfoot, Linkin Park, & shared festival stages with Jay-Z and Stevie Wonder with his band Paper Tongues. His most recent project DON’T SEND ME FLOWERS was released February 1, 2024 and blends Latin fusion hip-hop beats with rock ‘n’ roll guitars, and that sweet KC soulful speakeasy vibe that you’ll only find at 4:00 am on 18th & Vine.

Danny Santell plays Minibar, Fri, May 24 at 8:pm w/ Lava Dreams, Malek Azrael & The Vibes.

Danny Santell plays Boulevardia, on Saturday, June 15, at Crown Center, 2396 Grand Blvd, KCMO. More info at: http://www.boulevardia.com

Danny Santell , Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

He has toured across the US and Canada with the likes of Paramore, Switchfoot, Linkin Park, & shared festival stages with Jay-Z and Stevie Wonder with his band Paper Tongues.

11:47 – Danny Santell plays LIVE in our 90.1 FM Studios.

  1. Danny Santell – “we up next kid”
    [Danny Santell is a musician, songwriter & record producer based in Kansas City. Originally from The Bronx NYC now living on The Paseo, Danny Santell began his introduction into the music industry at the age of 19, signing to Universal Records (A&M Octone Records.) He has toured across the US and Canada with the likes of Paramore, Switchfoot, Linkin Park, & shared festival stages with Jay-Z and Stevie Wonder with his band Paper Tongues. His most recent project DON’T SEND ME FLOWERS was released February 1, 2024 and blends Latin fusion hip-hop beats with rock ‘n’ roll guitars, and that sweet KC soulful speakeasy vibe that you’ll only find at 4:00 am on 18th & Vine.]

[Danny Santell plays Minibar, Friday, May 24 at 8:00 pm w/ Lava Dreams, Malek Azrael & The Vibes. ]

[Danny Santell plays Boulevardia, on Saturday, June 15, at Crown Center, 2396 Grand Blvd, KCMO. More info at: http://www.boulevardia.com]

1:51 – More Interview with Danny Santell

Danny Santell is a musician, songwriter & record producer based in Kansas City. Originally from The Bronx NYC now living on The Paseo, Danny Santell began his introduction into the music industry at the age of 19, signing to Universal Records (A&M Octone Records.) He has toured across the US and Canada with the likes of Paramore, Switchfoot, Linkin Park, & shared festival stages with Jay-Z and Stevie Wonder with his band Paper Tongues. His most recent project DON’T SEND ME FLOWERS was released February 1, 2024 and blends Latin fusion hip-hop beats with rock ‘n’ roll guitars, and that sweet KC soulful speakeasy vibe that you’ll only find at 4:00 am on 18th & Vine.

Danny Santell plays Minibar, Friday, May 24 at 8:00 pm with Lava Dreams, Malek Azrael & The Vibes.

Danny Santell plays Boulevardia, on Saturday, June 15, at Crown Center, 2396 Grand Blvd, KCMO. More info at: http://www.boulevardia.com

Danny Santell , Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Hailing from Bronx NYC. Danny began his introduction into the music industry at the age of 19, signing to Universal Records (AM Octone Records) with his band Paper Tongues. Daniel has worked with producers such as Brian West, Mark Endert, and Randy Jackson. Today Daniel is producing music for artist locally in the Kansas City & surrounding areas. Danny produces a wide range of music from Hip Hop, Pop to Rock & Roll.

Danny writes, “I began to write this song last year when I wasn’t inspired to be myself and pick up a guitar anymore. I felt I was at my lowest. Now, this music is my therapy. I can truly say I’m a human who has his ups and downs just like everybody else.”

Paper Tongues is an American alternative rock band from Charlotte, North Carolina. The band included Aswan North on lead vocals, guitarists Devin Forbes and Joey Signa, keyboardists Clayton Simon and Cody Blackler, bassist Danny Santell, and drummer Jordan Hardee –Their sound was described as fusing rock n’ roll melodies with beats, and elements of sound. With the lineup established, the band decamped to California and began recording music alongside an eclectic set of producers. In 2009, the band worked with producers like John Fields (Jimmy Eat World), Brian West (Nelly Furtado), Billy Hume (David Banner), and Mark Endert (Maroon 5) while creating their debut EP, Ride to California, which appeared // Their debut album was released on March 30, 2010. // The group formed in 2007 in Charlotte, North Carolina, when a few musicians with very different musical backgrounds met in Charlotte and ultimately decided to form a band. Including originally, Luke Hill a drummer from Fort Worth, TX who helped popularize the band locally with his passionate playing style. After meeting producer Brian West, and being invited to Los Angeles to work with him, Paper Tongues front-man Aswan North had a chance encounter with legendary musician-producer Randy Jackson in an L.A. restaurant, Jackson soon became the manager of the band. // Paper Tongues has toured with bands such as Jet, Switchfoot, Our Lady Peace, Flyleaf, Linkin Park, etc., as well as co-headlined their own tour with the Neon Trees, Civil Twilight, & the Crash Kings. Paper Tongues has also opened a Vegas show for Cage the Elephant & Muse. They have also appeared on George Lopez’s Lopez Tonight and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. // Their song “Get Higher” is featured on the 2012 season of Fox Television’s hit show, “American Idol” // Their song “Soul” is featured on Halogen TV’s Fall 2010 promo video. On Saturday February 12, 2011 they served as the headliners for WFLZ’s popular “Meet Ball” concert in Tampa, FL. // They opened for Linkin Park during the A Thousand Suns Tour for their shows in Dallas, Houston, and Phoenix.

Danny Santell, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Danny Santell plays Minibar, Friday, May 24 at 8:00 pm with Lava Dreams, Malek Azrael & The Vibes.

Danny Santell plays Boulevardia, on Saturday, June 15, at Crown Center, 2396 Grand Blvd, KCMO. More info at: http://www.boulevardia.com https://www.dannysantell.com

Danny’s wife a Hayley is the founder of MADI Apparel and Slow Motion Goods at 1659 Summit Street, Kansas City, MO. More info at: http://www.slowmotiongoods.com

11:57:26

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

Next week on Wednesday, May 29 we welcome back our WMM Co-Producer Marion Merritt of Records With Merritt who will share her latest sonic discoveries and information from her musically encyclopedic brain.

THANK YOU to our incredible KKFI Staff; Director of Development & Communications – J Kelly Dougherty, Volunteer Coordinator – Darryl Oliver, Chief Operator – Chad Brothers, KKFI Accounting & Administration – Shaina Littler.

This radio station is more than the individual hosts of each individual radio show. Instead it is about a collective spirit of hundreds of hardworking people, unselfishly setting aside ego, to work for the greater good of community building and the gigantic goal of keeping our airwaves free, non-commercial, and open to all! Congratulations and thank you to all programmers & volunteers who went the extra effort to keep our station alive.

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

https://www.soundcloud.com/wednesdaymiddaymedley

http://www.bandcamp.com/wednesdaymiddaymedley

http://www.instagram.markthomasmanning

Show #1047

WMM presents: Betse & Clarke + Danny Santell + The Swallowtails + Erin Keller

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, May 22, 2024

Betse & Clarke + Danny Santell + The Swallowtails + Erin Keller & Golden Spirit Children’s Choirs

Mark spins more New & MidCoastal Releases from: The Freedom Affair, IVORY BLUE, Lava Dreams, The Swallowtails, Erin Keller & The James Ward Band, Betse Ellis, Betse & Clarke, Clarke Wyatt, Danny Santell, Joni Mitchell, and Charlie Parr.

At 10:10 we talk with Miki P and Rachel Lovelace of The Swallowtails, who released their new EP LUCKY PENNY on February 20, 2024. Formed in 2018, The Swallowtails are a Kansas City based musical duo comprised of musicians Miki P on guitar & vocals and Rachel Lovelace on bassoon & vocals. “Since becoming a duo, it was time for us to reinvent our sound again. The songwriting on this EP is split between Rachel and myself, and this is Rachel’s debut release as a writer and singer. We spent all of January 2024 finishing the arrangements, recording and mixing the mini-record. It was a much needed release of energy for both of us, and we are definitely looking forward to adding these songs into our live sets and performing new material.” The Swallowtails play Manor Fest 6 on Friday, May 24, at 6:30 PM at Flagship Books, 600 Ohio Ave., KCK in Strawberry Hill with Grady Philip Drugg, and Dalima Kapten. The Swallowtails play Boulevardia, on Saturday, June 15, at Crown Center, 2396 Grand Boulevard, KCMO. The Swallowtails play Lemonade Park, 1628 Wyoming Street, KCMO on Saturday, June 29 at 7:00pm with West End Junction, and Kirstie Lynn & Galen Clark. More info at: http://www.mikipmusic.com

At 10:30 we talk with Erin Keller who has performed in the Grammy Award–winning KC Chorale for 16 years, KC Civic Opera, New Ear, OwenCox Dance Group, all the while doing solo & collaborative projects with top musicians. Seven years ago, Erin was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. She has been on chemo since her diagnosis, constantly fighting all the symptoms that come with being on chemo. On January 26, 2024 Erin released her new recording, SONGS FOR TIMES LIKE THESE, with the James Ward Band. Recently Erin Keller announced the creation of a new nonprofit, Golden Spirit Children’s Choirs, a new after-school program for children in KCMO Public Schools that focuses on social emotional, music, and poetry learning objectives. You can learn more at: http://www.goldenspiritsings.org. Erin Keller presents The Golden Spirit Fundraising Event, a performance of critically acclaimed Joni Mitchell album “Mingus,” with Patrick Ketter on saxophone, Angela Ward on keyboards, Adam Schlozman on guitar, Matt Leifer on drums, and Forest Stewart on bass, on Saturday, May 25, at 7:00pm, at Unity Temple on the Plaza, 707 West 47th, St., KCMO. Info at: http://www.eventbrite.com/…/golden-spirit-fundraising…

At 11:00 Mark welcomes Betse Ellis & Clarke Wyatt. This duo has its roots in Ozark old time music, honoring traditional songs and tunes that resonate with human experience. However, if you ever saw or listened to The Wilders, then you know that Betse is also a force to be reckoned with, stomping her boots and pushing her fiddle beyond old country into the realms of punk, honky tonk, and beyond. Her singing has power, from hollering to pathos as called for by the song. Clarke meets her out there in the void, beyond musical boundaries and categories with a background in jazz piano, guitar, bass, drums, and banjo. It’s rare to find a duo that you can take with you to meet your grandmother Sunday morning at church after staying up all night with them Saturday night getting rowdy on the other side of town. Betse Ellis and Clarke fit that bill. A new chapter in their musical exploration is emerging, featuring Clarke on electric guitar, and Betse taking the fiddle to new sonic scenes. More emphasis on original material and improvisational routes invites you to come along on a new adventure. Betse & Clarke play recordBar, 1520 Grand Blvd, KCMO, on Saturday, May 25 at 7:00 pm opening for Charlie Parr. More info at: http://www.betseandclarke.com

At 11:30 Mark talks with Danny Santell, musician, songwriter & record producer based in Kansas City. Originally from The Bronx NYC now living on The Paseo, Danny Santell began his introduction into the music industry at the age of 19, signing to Universal Records (A&M Octone Records.) He has toured across the US and Canada with the likes of Paramore, Switchfoot, Linkin Park, & shared festival stages with Jay-Z and Stevie Wonder with his band Paper Tongues. His most recent project DON’T SEND ME FLOWERS was released February 1, 2024 and blends Latin fusion hip-hop beats with rock ‘n’ roll guitars, and that sweet KC soulful speakeasy vibe that you’ll only find at 4:00 am on 18th & Vine. Danny and partner, Unlimited C, will perform LIVE on our 90.1 FM Studios. Danny Santell plays Minibar, Friday, May 24 at 8:00 pm with Lava Dreams, Malek Azrael & The Vibes. Danny Santell plays Boulevardia, on Saturday, June 15, at Crown Center, 2396 Grand Blvd, KCMO. More info at: http://www.boulevardia.com

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

Show #1047

WMM Playlist from April 24, 2024

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, April 24, 2024

Arson Class & Too Much Rock Single Series + Scott Hrabko + RxGhost

  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]
  1. ASPN – “In This Dream”
    from: In This Dream / ASPN / April 2, 2024
    [Producer: Logan Murphy. ASPN is a 4-piece indie-pop band from Kansas City, blending modern production with indie songwriting. Abigail Wallnerㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ on lead vocals, Mario Perales on guitars, Jacob Schneider on drums, Nick Nolte on bass. // ASPN’s journey began in 2020 when they formed as a cover band in Kansas City, Missouri. However, their desire for originality and a deeper connection with their audience drove them to fully embrace writing their own music in 2021. It was during this year that they released their debut song, “Airport.”Hastily recorded in a day (and in a basement), the single showed off the band’s talent for the dramatic – combining an emotional vocal performance with dynamic instrumentation. Not forgetting their commitment to connect with an audience, they also hosted their own live-stream to promote the single. They crafted the lighting, set design, and venue to ensure the best experience for their audience. On top of that, they made it a costume party. // Initially content with their release, ASPN recognized their need for a more polished and contemporary sound. They aimed to blend the indie elements of their previous single with the dramatic punch of modern production. Over the course of a year, they worked on defining their signature sound. In August 2022, they found that sound with “Again.” This signature sound was brimming with an expansive sense of scale and vibrancy. Coupled with an emotionally invigorating vocal performance, Again demonstrated ASPN’s ability to produce catchy indie-pop tunes. // “Again” marked the true beginning of ASPN, in more ways than one. Beyond its melodic statement, the release also coincided with a cross-country relocation for Mario for the foreseeable future. Despite being a breaking point for many bands, ASPN defied the odds, continued on, and embraced their status as being a band that literally spanned across the country. Despite the distance, they continued practicing online while still delivering the same energetic live shows with just three members (though Mario does come back on ocassion to help put on a good show). Instead of slowing down, they sped up. // In 2023, ASPN managed to write enough songs to fill up an entire album by year’s end. They previewed this debut album with the release of Raindrops (Hit Rewind). The year also marked their return to the live stage, allowing them to once again to connect intimately with their audience. // Abigail Wallner is the literal heart and soul of ASPN, Abby’s infectious energy on stage comes from her background in musical theatre. Her flair for the dramatics shines through in both her emotional lyrics and irresistible melodies. Mario Perales remains a driving force behind the band’s musical evolution, despite residing in a distant part of the country. Through his unique chord progressions and melodic solos, his impact is palpable both on and off the stage. Jacob Schneider the man of legends, our tech guru, and the Craigslist discovery – Jacob. With his electrifying drumming, he infuses the band with the blistering energy it needs, while also orchestrating our unforgettable live shows. Nick Nolte is the quintessential bassist – effortlessly cool and versatile. When not sharing spider facts, Nick’s killer bass lines and infectious grooves steal the show. Ever embracing the band’s musical growth, Nick stands as ASPN’s unwavering anchor. More info at: http://www.aspn.band]

[ASPN play The RINO, 314 Armour Rd. NKC on Thursday, April 25, at 7:00pm with Joey Crofoot.]

10:05

Thanks for tuning into WMM on 90.1 FM KKFI – Kansas City Community Radio. 
I’m Mark Manning. Today, we spins more New & MidCoastal Releases from: Arson Class, RxGhost, IVORY BLUE, The Creepy Jingles, Scott Hrabko, Jo MacKenzie, Eddie Moore, Kim Gordon, Paramore, Brittany Howard, Benny Bleu, and Gloria Jones. We started with ASPN.

At 10:30 At 10:30 Chris Kinsley of Arson Class and Sid Sowder of Too Much Rock join us to share the radio broadcast premiere of the 11th installment of the vinyl singles series, featuring the band’s “Junior” and the B-Side a cover of John Cougar’s 1976 “American Dream”. Arson Class plays a Single Release show at Sister Anne’s Records and Coffee on Friday, May 3, 2024. For more info http://www.toomuchrock.com.

At 11:00 At 11:00 members of RxGhost: Josh Thomas, James Capps, and Jeremiah James Gonzales share music from their new 13-track album, Scaffolding. RxGhost play The Brick, 1727 McGee, KCMO, on Friday, April 26, at 9:00am, with Enemy Airships, and Still Ill. More info at: rxghost.bandcamp.com

At 11:30 At 11:30 Scott Hrabko shares music from his new musical project, “Other Cats, Other Bags. Volume II,” released on April 19, 2024. It’s a multi-volume project culled from recording sessions Scott did at home with a few longtime Rabbits (his backing band mates) and some new friends from the KC music community. More info at: http://www.scotthrabko.bandcamp.com and http://www.scotthrabko.com

10:09

  1. Benny Bleu – “Say Darling Say”
    from: Banjo Jubilations / Benjamin Haravitch/ June 7, 2024
    [Benny writes: “I am one of the lucky ones. My mom sang this lullaby to me when I was little. Recast in my voice as a newlywed, I chose to adapt the lyrics to sound less commercialistic. gCGCD in the study.” // Recorded live in Ithaca NY on February 5 and 6, 2024. Benny Bleu on banjos and vocal, and Mike Brown on guitar. All songs are traditional or public domain except “Salt Spring” is by John Reischman, copyright Badger Blue Music. Recorded by Benny Bleu Haravitch. Album cover, banjo mandala by Evan Schapp at 1808 Tattoo in Naples NY. Ben Bleu is a folk musician from the Finger Lakes of New York offering sounds to help navigate the demands of modern life. More info at: http://www.bennybleu.com]

[Benny Bleu plays the Kansas City Waldo Folk Music Showcase, TONIGHT Wednesday, April 24, at 7:00pm at Waldo Pizza Tap Room, 7433 Broadway Street, KCMO in Waldo.]

  1. Kim Gordon– “Trophies (Album Version)”
    from: The Collective / Kim Gordon – Matador Records / March 8, 2024
    [Kim Gordon is an artist, musician, producer, fashion designer, writer, and actress. She is a founding member of the experimental post-punk band Sonic Youth. Following the breakup of Sonic Youth, Gordon formed the group Body/Head. A collection of her early critical art writing entitled Is It My Body? was released by Sternberg Press in January 2014. // From kimgordon.bandcamp.com: Legendary musician and multi-disciplinary artist Kim Gordon returns with her second solo album, The Collective, which will be released March 8th on Matador. Recorded in her native Los Angeles, The Collective follows Gordon’s 2019 full-length debut No Home Record and continues her collaboration with producer Justin Raisen (Lil Yachty, John Cale, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Charli XCX, Yves Tumor), with additional production from Anthony Paul Lopez. The album advances their joint world building, with Raisin’s damaged, blown out dub and trap constructions playing the foil to Gordon’s intuitive word collages and hooky mantras, which conjure communication, commercial sublimation and sensory overload. // “On this record, I wanted to express the absolute craziness I feel around me right now,” says Gordon. “This is a moment when nobody really knows what truth is, when facts don’t necessarily sway people, when everyone has their own side, creating a general sense of paranoia. To soothe, to dream, escape with drugs, TV shows, shopping, the internet, everything is easy, smooth, convenient, branded. It made me want to disrupt, to follow something unknown, maybe even to fail.” // More info at: http://www.bodyheadmusic.com]
  1. Eddie Moore – “Out of The Woods”
    from: Aperture (Live Piano Works) / Eddie Moore Music / March 5, 2024
    [All songs written by Eddie Moore. Recorded by Eddie Moore and Jaylen Ward. Mixed by Eddie Moore. Mastered by Crayge Lindesay. Album art by Jeremy Ian Thomas. This project presents snapshots into the life of Eddie Moore. The fun times riding bikes, getting lost in the woods, and spending time with loved ones. As a special solo sharing, it only felt right to capture the velvet soothing energy live on stage at Corvino’s, where experimentation and vulnerability are encouraged. // Special thanks to the Corvinos and the staff for letting me sneak in during the “off hours” and post up for a few hours in a blizzard. // When you speak to Eddie Moore you find an ocean of calm, and when you listen to Eddie Moore you find the depth of that ocean. Moore reaches from the soul with every note, in a deep way, with a tension just below the surface. His yearning for exploration and curiosity in music contribute to an ebb and flow freedom of expression. // On April 20, 2023 Eddie Moore released the single “Tuunami” Recorded & produced at Moore’s Tribe Studios, this song features Jaylen Ward on drums. Mixed & mastered by veteran KC savant Crayge Lindesay. // Eddie Moore released his critically acclaimed album INTUITION on October 28, 2022. Written & Produced by Eddie Moore. Recorded at Tribe Studios. Featuring Tim Ogutu on guitar. Mix & Mastered by Rick Carson at Make Believe Studios. Album Art by Brandon Wilson. // Eddie Moore released the single, “Love Song” (with Joel Castillo and Bree Cummings) on October 22, 2021. // Eddie Moore released “We Chillin’” on April 9, 2021. // Eddie Moore’s band We The People released their album MISUNDERSTOOD on September 25, 2020. // Eddie Moore is the recipient of the 2016 Charlotte Street Generative Performance Award for his genre bending collaborations. Raised in Houston Texas, he began his musical journey at Texas Southern University where he later earned a Bachelors in Arts and immersed himself in the Houston music scene. Eddie relocated to Kansas City to study under Bobby Watson at the University of Missouri-Kansas City where he received a M.A in Jazz Studies. 2017’s Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art “Artist in Residence” in collaboration with Rashid Johnson. In 2018 his work with The Outer Circle was nominated for an Indie Music Award for “007”. His music has been featured commercially for Sprint, Netflix’s “Queer Eye”, and Morgan Cooper’s short film “Room Tone”. Moore’ has shared the stage and recordings with Bobby Watson, Logan Richardson, Maurice Brown, Boys II Men, Brian Blade and the Fellowship, John Baptiste, Erykah Badu, Mosdef, Bilal, Ledisi, Chantae Cann, Krystal Warren, Matt Otto, Brandon Draper, Andre Hayward, Tivon Pennicott, Various Blonde, Dominique Sanders, 77 Jefferson, and the Marcus Lewis Big Band. We The People released the single, “Single Double” on June 10, 2021. Written & Produced By Eddie Moore with Moore on keyboards, key bass, & programming; Zach Morrow on drums; and Jason Emmond on bass. Recorded at Tribe Studios. Mixed by Rick Carson at Make Believe Studios. Eddie Moore joined WMM on Sept. 23, 2020 and Nov. 23, 2022. More info at http://www.eddiemooremusic.com
  1. Ivory Blue – “Batter Up”
    from: “Batter Up” – Single / IVORY BLUE / April 22, 2024
    [ IVORY BLUE released the single “Flashback” on March 15, 2023 // IVORY BLUE released the single “Howl” on February 16, 2024. // IVORY BLUE released their second full length album, STARLIT LOVE CHILD, on November 17, 2023. The 10-track album was in the top five of Wednesday MidDay Medley’s 120 Best Recordings of 2023, and in the “Best of” lists at 90.9 The Bridge and other radio stations around the world. For STARLIT LOVE CHILD, IVORY BLUE served as songwriter, producer, and vocalist. // On October 27, 2023 IVORY BLUE released the sIngle “Ghost of Life.” This single followed IVORY’s previous releases,”In A World Like This” from September 22, 2023, ”The Best of Life” from August 4, 2023 and “Control” from May 26, 2023. IVORY released the single “All Outta Love” on February 24, 2023. IVORY BLUE released their full length debut album COMPOUND LOVE on February 25, 2022. COMPOUND LOVE was in the Top Ten of WMM’s 120 Best recordings of 2022. For COMPOUND LOVE, IVORY BLUE served as songwriter, producer, vocalist and played all instruments with the exception of: Lester Estelle on drums, Klaartje Van Lue on piano, Craig Kew on bass, Lennon Bone on drums, and Marco Pascolini on pedal steel guitar. Nick Poortman served in mixing, with Kurt Festge who also served in mixing & Mastering. IVORY BLUE’s debut EP, Ready Get Set was released in June 2015. While the EP helped spread the word and give IVORY BLUE attention from regional radio and TV stations, a big break would come in 2017. In 2017 Ivory was among 1800 artists/bands that competed in neXt2Rock. Ivory won local & regional challenges and advanced to nationals in Los Angeles to win the top prize. // IVORY BLUE has played Crossroads Music Festival, The Middle of the Map Festival, The Westport Roots Festival, the KCPT Screening of “Real Boy” at The Kansas City Public Library, and Kauffman Stadium. // Ivory Blue was born in 1986 in Peoria Illinois, as Devin James Miclettet. Ivory’s birth mother put them up for adoption at the age of four. Ivory speaks about how it was difficult to find trust in people offering their home to someone denied it for so long, Ivory lived with eight different families, before running away at 15. // Ivory has talked with us about how in their life they have turned to music to express pain. Ivory spent most of their childhood looking for a family. In 2010 Klaartje Van Lue saw Ivory performing in a YouTube video and contacted them, flying Ivory to Kansas City, and adopting Ivory into the Van Lue family. During the past 10 years Ivory came out as “Non-Binary Transgender”. // As a multi-instrumentalist, Ivory began refining their performance style, using digital looping pedals to stack harmonies and guitar parts live on stage, giving their solo shows the feel of a full band. In 2011, Ivory settled in Kansas City, MO and quickly began attracting an intense regional following for their strong vocals and incisive, deeply personal lyrics. // By 2013, IVORY BLUE was playing regularly in and around Kansas City and the first EP ‘Ready Get Set’ was released. in 2015. IVORY BLUE released the video of “Family Table” directed by Mikal Shapiro, on August 21, 2021 and the audio track was released on September 7, 2021. IVORY BLUE released the single “Good Changes” on Oct 26, 2021. Ivory Blue released the singles: “Heavy,” “Bad Weather,” “It Must Have Been Me,” “Compound Love,” and “The Start” on December 14, 2021. IVORY BLUE released their debut album COMPOUND LOVE on February 25, 2022. IVORY BLUE released the single “Red Light” on July 29, 2022. IVORY BLUE released the single “Starlit Love Child” on October 28, 2022. IVORY BLUE released the single “All Outta Love” on February 24, 2023. More info at: https://ivorybluemusic.com%5D [Ivory Blue was our guest on WMM on: March 8, 2023, June 7, 2023, our 1000th show on June 28, 2023, and September 27, 2023.]
  1. Jo MacKenzie – “Newly Fallen Snow”
    from: “Newly Fallen Snow” – Single / Middle of The Map Music / April 12, 2024
    [Just a 20 year old girl who wants to make music forever. Jo Mackenzie released the single “So Much More” on February 14, 2024. // Jo Mackenzie released the 5-track EP RADIANCE, GIRL on July 15, 2022. // Jo Mackenzie released the single “The Cab Ride” on June 17, 2022. // Jo Mackenzie released the single “Radiator” on May 27, 2022. // Before that on March 11, 2022, Jo Mackenzie (producer and songwriter) released the EP, TOURIST. Jo Mackenzie and Dia Jane (singer/songwriter) released the EP, BRAINBABY on September 5, 2021. The two met at an open mic in Kansas City, Missouri, when Jo was in 8th grade and Dia was in 10th grade. Three years later, the two reconnected to started a musical project together that eventually turned into Baby and the Brain, a self-produced indie-pop band. In 2020 Kansas City based singer songwriter, Jo MacKenzie released this year now collected together in a 5 -song EP, written, performed and produced by Jo MacKenzie. Mixed by Harper James. Jo MacKenzie released her Debut EP Proud on November 17, 2018. Along with Proud, Jo Mackenzie released the single “Just Like Rain” on August 18, 2018; “I Should Come with a Warning Sign” on September 28, 2019; and “Alaska” on November 23, 2019 and the single “Suicide Season” on February 1, 2020, and the single “Lose My Face” on April 24, 2020. Info at http://www.jomackenzie.com]
  1. Brittany Howard – “Prove It to You (Radio Edit)”
    from: What Now / Island Records / February 9, 2024
    [Brittany Howard, the 5-time Grammy Award®-winning powerhouse released the single and video of “What Now?” on October 13, 2023 off her forthcoming solo album, WHAT NOW. WHAT NOW is a thriller of a title track offering a taste of what to expect on the full-length. Written & produced by Brittany with co-production from Shawn Everett (Kacey Musgraves, SZA), with whom she has a longstanding creative relationship since Alabama Shakes. Recorded at the legendary Sound Emporium and historic RCA Studio B in Nashville, Brittany’s hometown. The accompanying cinematic & action-packed video was directed by Danilo Parra (known for his work with A$AP Rocky) & produced by Adam Braun (070 Shake, P!NK). //“What Now” takes on a potent urgency fueled by its syncopated grooves, blistering guitar riffs, & fiercely honest lyrics (“I’ve been making plans that don’t include you anymore/My heart wants to stay but I don’t know what for”). “‘What Now’ is maybe the truest & bluest of all the songs,” says Howard. “It’s never my design to hurt anyone’s feelings, but I needed to say what was on my mind without editing myself. I like how it’s a song that makes you want to dance, but at the same time the lyrics are brutal.”// Brittany Howard released the album Jaime on ATO Records on September 20, 2019.]

[Brittany Howard plays The Truman, 601 East Truman Road, KCMO East Crossroads, TONIGHT, April 24, at 8:00pm with June McDoom.]

  1. The Creepy Jingles – “Repeat After Me”
    from: “Repeat After Me” – Single / High Dive Records / April 19, 2024
    [This is the second of several new singles being released by The Creepy Jingles this year. The band released “When Things Go Wrong” on February 23, 2024. The Creepy Jingles are a Kansas City based, rock and roll band that both honors and defies convention. Led by singer / song-writer Jocelyn Olivia Nixon, a transgender wordsmith who charms with razor wit and dazzles with her lyrical acrobatics. The Creepy Jingles released their album, TAKE ME AT MY WORDPLAY on March 25, 2022 through High Dive Records. Paired up with lyrics centering on themes of identity, strained relationships, social media madness, meme magic, pandemic paranoia, paid off political pundits, backyard bullies and barking up the wrong tree. Everything and the kitchen sink or swim. No stoner left unturned. The Creepy Jingles released their Debut EP on High Dive Records on May 3, 2019. The release was in the top ten of WMM’s 119 Best Recordings of 2019. ] The Creepy Jingles released their Debut EP on High Dive Records on May 3, 2019.] [ Jocelyn Olivia Nixon will be our guest on May 1, 2024]

[The Creepy Jingles play Manor Fest 6 Thursday, May 23 at 9:00pm at The RINO, 314 Armour Rd, NKC with MC Rue + Mikey, and Brian Bulger.]

10:29 – Underwriting

10:31 – Interview with Sid Sowder & Chris Kinsley

After a four-year break Too Much Rock is back with the eleventh installment of their acclaimed vinyl singles series. For this edition Too Much Rock features the Kansas City blue collar punk trio, Arson Class. This is the first vinyl release for the band.

Sid Sowder is the founder of the Too Much Rock, a music blog site he created in 1997 to share his photos, videos & comments of live music shows he attends. The Too Much Rock Singles Series is a collection of 45 rpm singles that marry great songs with great bands all for the love of vinyl. Each old-school two-song single features one unique song paired with one cover chosen by Too Much Rock who press 500 limited edition copies and then simply give them to the band. Schwervon!, Rev Gusto, Josh Berwanger Band, The Uncouth, Hipshot Killer, Witch Jail, Red Kate, Heidi Lynne Gluck, Brandon Phillips and The Condition, and in 2020 No Germ Candy have all recorded for the Too Much Rock Single Series. More info at: http://www.toomuchrock.com

Sid Sowder, thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Arson Class was formed in 2016 with brothers Chris Kinsley and Phil Kinsley and Marc Bollinger on bass.The 3-piece rock band released their self titled EP, Arson Class on May 6, 2017. They released the 5-track EP American Machine on May 6, 2018, recorded at Weights & Measures studio in Kansas City. Arson Class released the single “Rock & Roll” on November 21, 2020. The Band released their single “My Girl” on March 5, 2024.

For the Too Much Rock Single Series The A-Side features the band’s own song, “Junior.” The B-Side features a revved-up cover of John Cougar‘s 1976 deep cut “American Dream” chosen by Too Much Rock. The limited-edition 7″ single will be out May 3, 2024 at area record stores, and directly from the band in both black and ultra-limited colored vinyl.

Arson Class plays a Single Release show at Sister Anne’s Records and Coffee on Friday, May 3, 2024.

Arson Class play and, the “Lawrence Rampage” Centennial Park, 600 Rockledge Rd., Lawrence, KS. on Saturday, May 18, 29024 with Iron Guts Kelly, and D-Fibs

Arson Class play miniBar, Broadway, KCMO on Saturday, June 1, 2024 with Red Kate,and The Itch (Joplin)

Chris Kinsley thanks for being with us on Wednesday Midday Medley

The A-Side features the band’s “Junior.” It’s a highly combustible rock & roll number featuring a breakneck rhythm, a driving guitar, and an anthemic gang chorus. The B-Side features a revved-up cover of John Cougar’s 1976 deep cut “American Dream” chosen by Too Much Rock. The song looks back on a gloriously misspent youth, pushes aside the stability of a 9-to-5 future, and aims for that big break.

The limited-edition 7″ single will be available 5/3/24 at area record stores, online retailers, and directly from the band in both black and ultra-limited colored vinyl.

10:40

  1. Arson Class – “Junior” (Vinyl 7″)
    from: “Junior” Single Side A / Too Much Rock / May 3, 2024
    [Arson Class was formed in 2016 with brothers Chris Kinsley and Phil Kinsley and Marc Bollinger on bass.]

11:43 – More Interview with Sid Sowder and Chris Kinsley

We are talking with Sid Sowder is the founder of the Too Much Rock, a music blog site he created in 1997. The Too Much Rock Singles Series is a collection of 45 rpm singles that marry great songs with great bands all for the love of vinyl. Each old-school two-song single features one unique song paired with one cover chosen by Too Much Rock who press 500 limited edition copies and then simply give them to the band. More info at: http://www.toomuchrock.com

Sid Sowder, thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Also with us is the newest band to record a Too Much Rock Single…Arson Class was formed in 2016 with brothers Chris Kinsley and Phil Kinsley and Marc Bollinger on bass. The Band released their single “My Girl” on March 5, 2024.

Chris Kinsley and Phil Kinsley thanks for being with us on Wednesday Midday Medley

We just heard the Too Much Rock Single Series The A-Side features the band’s own song, “Junior.”

Arson Class plays a Single Release show at Sister Anne’s Records and Coffee on Friday, May 3, 2024.

Arson Class play and, the “Lawrence Rampage” Centennial Park, 600 Rockledge Rd., Lawrence, KS. on Saturday, May 18, 29024 with Iron Guts Kelly, and D-Fibs

Arson Class play miniBar, Broadway, KCMO on Saturday, June 1, 2024 with Red Kate,and The Itch (Joplin)

The B-Side features a revved-up cover of John Cougar‘s 1976 deep cut “American Dream” chosen by Too Much Rock. The limited-edition 7″ single will be out May 3, 2024 at area record stores, and directly from the band in both black and ultra-limited colored vinyl.

The band plans to celebrate the single’s release with a streaming premiere on The Pitch on 4/19, an interview on Wednesday Midday Medley (KKFI 90.1) on 4/24, and a key play on 90.9 The Bridge’s “Eight One Sixty” on 4/30.

Sid Sowder, Chris Kinsley and Phil Kinsley thank you for being our guest on WMM

For more information on the single visit http://toomuchrock.com. Too Much Rock can also be found on Instagram, Facebook, X, & Bluesky. Arson Class can be found on Facebook, Instagram, and Bandcamp.

10:51

11. Arson Class – “American Dream”
from: “American Dream” Single Side B (John Cougar Cover) / Too Much Rock / May 3, 2024
[Arson Class was formed in 2016 with brothers Chris Kinsley and Phil Kinsley and Marc Bollinger on bass.]

[Arson Class plays a Single Release show at Sister Anne’s Records and Coffee on Friday, May 3, 2024.]

[Arson Class play and, the “Lawrence Rampage” Centennial Park, 600 Rockledge Rd., Lawrence, KS. on Saturday, May 18, 29024 with Iron Guts Kelly, and D-Fibs.]

[Arson Class play miniBar, Broadway, KCMO on Sat, June 1, 2024 w/ Red Kate, and The Itch (Joplin).]

11:54

  1. Gloria Jones – “Tainted Love”
    from: Tainted Love – Single / Universal – UMG / January 1, 1982
    [“Tainted Love” is a song composed by Ed Cobb, formerly of American group the Four Preps, which was originally recorded by Gloria Jones in 1964. Renowned session musician and virtuoso guitarist Glen Campbell played lead guitar. A version by Impedance reached #14 on the Canadian Dance charts, April 14, 1990. // American artist Gloria Jones made the first recording of “Tainted Love” in 1964, with renowned session guitarist Glen Campbell on lead guitar. The song was written and produced by Ed Cobb and arranged by Lincoln Mayorga. It was the B-side of her 1965 single “My Bad Boy’s Comin’ Home”, which was a commercial flop, failing to chart in either the US or the UK. According to Nick Talevski, before Jones recorded the song, Cobb had offered it to the Standells, whom he managed and produced, but they rejected it. The Standells say that the song was never offered to them, and that they were not signed to Cobb’s company Greengrass Productions until 1966, some two years after Jones’s recording. // In 1973, British club DJ Richard Searling purchased a copy of the almost decade-old single while on a trip to the United States. The track’s Motown-influenced sound (featuring a fast tempo, horns, electric rhythm guitar and female backing vocals) fit in perfectly with the music favoured by those involved in the UK’s Northern soul club scene of the early 1970s, and Searling popularised the song at the Northern soul club Va Va’s in Bolton, and later, at Wigan Casino. // Owing to the new-found underground popularity of the song, Jones re-recorded “Tainted Love” in 1976 and released it as a single, but it also failed to chart. This version was released on her album Vixen and was produced by her boyfriend Marc Bolan. // It attained worldwide fame after being covered and reworked by British synth-pop duo Soft Cell in 1981 and has since been covered by numerous groups and artists. // In 2014, NME ranked it number 305 in their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.// Gloria Richetta Jones (born October 19, 1945) is an American singer and songwriter who first found success in the United Kingdom, being recognized there as “The Queen of Northern Soul”.She recorded the 1965 hit song “Tainted Love” and has worked in multiple genres as a Motown songwriter and recording artist, backing vocalist, and as a performer in musicals such as Hair. In the 1970s, she was a keyboardist and vocalist in Marc Bolan’s glam rock band T. Rex. She and Bolan were also in a committed romantic relationship and had a son together. // Jones first met Marc Bolan of T. Rex in 1969 while performing in Hair (Los Angeles cast). While touring in Europe, Bolan and Jones met for the second time at the Speakeasy in London. In 1972, she was recommended by Warner Brothers’ Bob Regehr to sing backing vocals behind T. Rex at Winterland in San Francisco. // Soon after joining T. Rex, Jones and Bolan became romantically involved. They had a son, Rolan Bolan (b. September 26, 1975). She sang backing vocals and played clavinet with T. Rex from 1973 to 1977. Her rendition of “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” appears as a bonus track on T. Rex’s album Bolan’s Zip Gun. Jones released an album in 1976, called Vixen, which featured several songs written by Bolan, and he also was the producer for the album. // In 1977, Jones worked with the group Gonzalez, producing several of their singles, and also penning the disco hit, “Haven’t Stopped Dancing Yet” for the group. She toured the UK with Gonzalez, first on the Bob Marley tour, and then with Osibisa. // She was the driver of the car, a Mini 1275 GT, that struck a tree near Barnes Common, killing Bolan at 4:00am on September 16, 1977, on the way back to Bolan’s Richmond property. They had been returning from an evening at a restaurant in Mayfair where they had both been drinking wine. Jones was found by her brother Richard with her foot trapped beneath the clutch by the engine. Bolan was found unconscious in the passenger seat, which had been dislodged and landed in the rear of the vehicle. Jones was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash. Bolan was not wearing a seat belt. Jones was conscious after the crash. Bolan, who was a passenger in the car that slammed into the tree, was pronounced dead at the scene on the arrival of paramedics. Jones survived the crash but was critically injured. She sustained a broken jaw in the crash. When she recovered sufficiently to leave hospital, she was informed that Bolan’s fans had looted most of their possessions from their house. She was later scheduled to appear in court in London on charges of being unfit to drive and of driving a car in a dangerous condition. However, she left the UK with her son and returned to the US before the court date so the Coroner’s Court recorded a verdict of accidental death. // Having lost her possessions, Jones moved with her son back to Los Angeles, where they stayed with Jones’s family. // In 1978, she released the album Windstorm, which she dedicated to the memory of Bolan: the back cover reads, “Special dedication in memory of my son’s father, Marc Bolan, whom we miss very much.” Her single “Bring on the Love” was a success on the American R&B chart. // Jones stayed in the music industry for several years after, releasing an album produced by Ed Cobb, titled Reunited in 1981. She also collaborated again with Billy Preston and other Cogic Singers for a 1984 reunion album The Cogic’s. She has since worked as a musical supervisor for films. // On her 1982 album Reunited, she was proclaimed “Northern Queen of Soul”. // In 2010, together with her son Rolan, she established the Marc Bolan School of Music & Film in Makeni, Sierra Leone. / She is featured in the film 20 Feet from Stadium.]
  1. Paramore – “Burning Down The House”
    from: David Byrne & Paramore – Hard Times/Burning Down The House / Fine Print / 4/20/2024
    [This 12″ features a cover of Paramore’s “Hard Times” performed by David Byrne on side A, and a cover of Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House” performed by Paramore on side B. This is an extremely limited run of 5000 copies was exclusive for Record Store Day in 2024. // Paramore is an American rock band from Franklin, Tennessee, formed in 2004. Since 2017, the band consists of lead vocalist Hayley Williams, guitarist Taylor York and drummer Zac Farro. Williams and Farro are founding members of the group, while York, a high school friend of the original lineup, joined in 2007. Williams is the only member to appear on all six of Paramore’s studio albums. // The band was signed to Fueled by Ramen, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records. (Both are owned by Warner Music Group.) Williams was signed to Atlantic separately, as she was scouted when she was a teenager. They were the only label to let her stay in the band instead of going solo, but Atlantic said the rest of the band had to sign to Fueled by Ramen. The group’s debut album, All We Know Is Falling (2005), reached number 30 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Chart in 2006 and number four on the UK Rock Chart in 2009. // The band’s second album, Riot! (2007) became a mainstream success thanks to the success of the singles “Misery Business”, “Crushcrushcrush”, and “That’s What You Get”. The album was certified Platinum in the US and the band received a Best New Artist nomination at the 2008 Grammy Awards. Their 2009 follow-up, Brand New Eyes, reached number two on the Billboard 200 and became the band’s second-highest-charting album to date. It produced the top-forty single “The Only Exception” and went platinum in Ireland and the UK. // Following the departure of Zac and Josh Farro in 2010, the band released their self-titled fourth album in 2013. Paramore gave the band their first number one song on the US Billboard 200 and was also the number one album in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. It included the singles “Still Into You” and “Ain’t It Fun”, with the latter winning the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song for Williams and York as songwriters, making it Paramore’s first Grammy win. The band’s lineup changed once again after this album, with bassist Jeremy Davis leaving the band near the end of 2015 and former drummer Zac Farro rejoining the band in 2017. Their fifth and sixth studio albums, After Laughter and This Is Why, were released in May 2017 and February 2023, respectively, to critical acclaim.]

11:00 – Station ID

  1. RxGhost – “Candles”
    from: Scaffolding / Celery Wolf / April 11, 2024
    [RxGhost is: Josh Thomas on vocals & guitar, Justin Brooks on drums, James Capps on guitar, Chris Smead on bass, and Jeremiah James Gonzales. Scaffolding was produced by RxGhost, recorded and mixed by Paul Malinowski at Massive Sound Studios and mastered by Mike Nolte at Eureka Mastering. Music by RxGhost and Lyrics by Josh Thomas. More info at: rxghost.bandcamp.com]

[RxGhost play The Brick, 1727 McGee, KCMO, Friday, April 26, 9:00am, w/ Enemy Airships, Still Ill.]

11:03 – Interview with RxGhost

We welcome to the show, members of RxGhost: Josh Thomas who contributes vocals & guitar, James Capps on guitar and Jeremiah James Gonzales on guitar. (Also in the band are: Justin Brooks on drums, and Chris Smead on bass). Josh, James, and Jeremiah share music from their new 13-track album, Scaffolding, produced by RxGhost, recorded and mixed by Paul Malinowski at Massive Sound Studios and mastered by Mike Nolte at Eureka Mastering.

RxGhost play The Brick, 1727 McGee, KCMO, on Friday, April 26, at 9:00am, with Enemy Airships, and Still Ill.

Josh Thomas, James Capps, and Jeremiah James Gonzales thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley.

Congratulations on the new album.

Josh Thomas on vocals & guitar,
Justin Brooks on drums,
James Capps on guitar,
Chris Smead on bass,
Jeremiah James Gonzales

Their new 13-track album, Scaffolding, was produced by RxGhost.

Scaffolding was recorded and mixed by Paul Malinowski at Massive Sound Studios and mastered by Mike Nolte at Eureka Mastering.

Josh Thomas, James Capps, and Jeremiah James Gonzales thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley.

RxGhost play The Brick, 1727 McGee, KCMO, on Friday, April 26, at 9:00am, with Enemy Airships, and Still Ill.

More info at: rxghost.bandcamp.com

Over and Over the Same Things (Lyrics by Josh Thomas)

I’d rather sell all my guitars
Being dramatic is an art
Can you give me more for free?
I’m too busy, making time to explain

Over and over the same things
That you never want to learn
Over and over the same things
But what else am I to do
I’ll help you

I’m all out of space for skills
Only have time for minor thrills
Can you give me more for free?
I’m too busy, making time to explain

Over and over the same things
That you never want to learn
Over and over the same things
But what else am I to do
I’ll help you

11:12

  1. RxGhost – “Over and Over The Same Things”
    from: Scaffolding / Celery Wolf / April 11, 2024
    [RxGhost is: Josh Thomas on vocals & guitar, Justin Brooks on drums, James Capps on guitar, Chris Smead on bass, and Jeremiah James Gonzales. Scaffolding was produced by RxGhost, recorded and mixed by Paul Malinowski at Massive Sound Studios and mastered by Mike Nolte at Eureka Mastering. Music by RxGhost and Lyrics by Josh Thomas. More info at: rxghost.bandcamp.com]

[RxGhost play The Brick, 1727 McGee, KCMO, Friday, April 26, 9:00am, w/ Enemy Airships, Still Ill.]

11:15 – More Interview with RxGhost

We are talking with members of RxGhost: Josh Thomas who contributes vocals & guitar, James Capps on guitar and Jeremiah James Gonzales on guitar. (Also in the band are: Justin Brooks on drums, and Chris Smead on bass). Josh, James, and Jeremiah share music from their new 13-track album, Scaffolding, produced by RxGhost, recorded and mixed by Paul Malinowski at Massive Sound Studios and mastered by Mike Nolte at Eureka Mastering.

Josh Thomas, James Capps, and Jeremiah James Gonzales thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley.

RxGhost play The Brick, 1727 McGee, KCMO, on Friday, April 26, at 9:00am, with Enemy Airships, and Still Ill.

The bio on your Bandcamp page reads: RxGhost is an online pharmacy based in Kansas City, MO. Free vaccinations available upon request. Ask about coupons, discount programs and payment plans.

Josh Thomas, James Capps, and Jeremiah James Gonzales thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley.

RxGhost play The Brick, 1727 McGee, KCMO, on Friday, April 26, at 9:00am, with Enemy Airships, and Still Ill.

More info at: rxghost.bandcamp.com

11:23

  1. RxGhost – “People Are Animals”
    from: Scaffolding / Celery Wolf / April 11, 2024
    [RxGhost is: Josh Thomas on vocals & guitar, Justin Brooks on drums, James Capps on guitar, Chris Smead on bass, and Jeremiah James Gonzales. Scaffolding was produced by RxGhost, recorded and mixed by Paul Malinowski at Massive Sound Studios and mastered by Mike Nolte at Eureka Mastering. Music by RxGhost and Lyrics by Josh Thomas. More info at: rxghost.bandcamp.com]

[RxGhost play The Brick, 1727 McGee, KCMO, Friday, April 26, 9:00am, w/ Enemy Airships, Still Ill.]

  1. TYLA – “ART”
    from: TYLA / FAX Records / March 2, 2024
    [Tyla Laura Seethal (born 30 January 2002), known mononymously as Tyla, is a South African singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Johannesburg, she signed with Epic Records in 2021 after the domestic success of her 2019 debut single, “Getting Late” featuring Kooldrink. // Tyla rose to international fame with the release of her 2023 single “Water”, which entered the top ten in sixteen countries including the United Kingdom and United States. “Water” was the first song by a South African soloist to enter the US Billboard Hot 100 in 55 years and was awarded the inaugural Grammy Award for Best African Music Performance in 2024. The single preceded her self-titled debut album (2024), which was released to critical acclaim and moderate commercial success, entering the top 25 in six countries including the United States. // Tyla is the youngest African artist to win a Grammy Award, and has also earned nominations for a BRIT Award, a Soul Train Music Award, a MOBO Award, and two South African Music Awards. She has been deemed the “queen of popiano”, a fusion of the pop and amapiano genres.// Tyla is the debut studio album by South African singer Tyla. It was released on 22 March 2024 through Fax and Epic Records. Capitalizing on her international breakthrough with its lead single “Water”, the album features guest appearances from Kelvin Momo, Tems, Gunna, Skillibeng, Becky G, and Travis Scott. Sonically, it blends elements of amapiano, pop, afrobeats, and contemporary R&B and includes lyrical themes of empowerment and relationships. // Recording sessions for Tyla took place in seven countries over two and a half years as Epic Records focused on fostering the singer’s formal studio experience. Production and songwriting on the album was spearheaded by the singer and her frequent collaborators Ari PenSmith, Mocha Bands, Believe and Sammy SoSo, whom she deems the “Fantastic Four”. “Water”, “Truth or Dare” and “Art” were released as singles from the album, and the Tyla Tour was announced; however multiple dates were cancelled due to injury. // Upon its release, Tyla was met with critical acclaim, with many critics praising the versatility of music genres featured. The album experienced moderate commercial success internationally, debuting at number 24 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and debuting within the top 20 in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, and Switzerland. // While at school, she had begun posting original songs and covers to her Instagram account, as well as sending them out to a number of figures in the music industry. She was subsequently discovered by her first manager, Garth von Glehn, who then organized her first recording sessions. Tyla states that she would go into the recording studio every weekend during her final year of high school.]

11:28 – Underwriting

Art: Kevin Paulsen 
www.instagram.com/kmartinpaulsen/?hl=en
  1. Scott Hrabko & The Rabbits – “Wayfaring Muse”
    from: Other Cats, Other Bags, Vol II / Scott Hrabko / April 19, 2024
    [On March 19, 2024 Scott Hrabko released Other Cats, Other Bags – Volume 1 a 4 – track EP which is the first of Multi-Volume Project containing recordings that grew from sessions he did at home with a few longtime Rabbits and some new friends from the Kansas City Music Community. // On July 1, 2022 Scott Hrabko and The Rabitts released The Wonderful World Of Scott Hrabko & the Rabbits. This recording was #12 on WMM’s 120 Best Recordings of 2022. These two sprawling discs contain song-craft reminiscent of everything from classic ‘60s adult pop to nostalgia-free Americana to cut ’n’ paste hip hop-inspired grooves — and some wild detours between. “But it’s all me.” – Hrabko. The Rabbits, this time around: Jason Beers on Bass, Organ, Piano, Banjo, Harmonica, Slide Guitar; Clarke Wyatt on Drums; Matt Hopper on Lead Guitar; Chris DeVictor on Upright Bass; Chris Hudson on Nylon String Guitar, Mandolin, Lead Guitar; Mike Lindsey on Bass; Tim Higgins on Drums, Percussion; Gary Paredes on Slide Guitar, Wah Wah Guitar; Chad Brothers on Lead Acoustic, and Havilah Bruders on Vocals, with Scott Hrabko on Voices, Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Drums, Percussion, Banjo, Static Outbursts, Ghosts Knob Twiddling and Digital Chicanery. This 2-CD, 22-song release, THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF SCOTT HRABKO & THE RABBITS on July 1, 2022. The double album was recorded at Hrabko’s home studio in a time of a global pandemic and social unrest. Mike Warren writes in No Depression Magazine, “Hrabko’s rootsy songs are filled with trap doors, hidden nooks, and secret passageways. They’re like those dreams within comfortably familiar houses that suddenly have brand new rooms.” Scott Hrabko & The Rabbits have released six singles and released the albums and EPs: LAST DANCE (EP) in 2020, SMASH HITS FROM A PARALLEL UNIVERSE (EP) in 2019, SUMMER in 2017, and BISCUITS AND GRAVITY in 2015. Scott Hrabko’s 2013 critically acclaimed solo release, GONE PLACES was said to be 30 years in the making. Scott Hrabko has played with The Original Sinners, as well as the 1980s bands: The Splinters, and The Andersons. In the early 1990s Scott performed as a solo artist in coffee houses with Iris Dement and Howard Eisberg. More info at: http://www.scotthrabko.com]

11:34 – Interview with Scott Hrabko

On July 1, 2022 Scott Hrabko and The Rabitts released The Wonderful World Of Scott Hrabko & the Rabbits. This recording was #12 on WMM’s 120 Best Recordings of 2022. Then, earlier this year, [On March 19, 2024 Scott Hrabko released Other Cats, Other Bags – Volume 1 a 4 – track EP which is the first of Multi-Volume Project containing recordings that grew from sessions he did at home with a few longtime Rabbits and some new friends from the Kansas City Music Community.

Now Scott is back to share more music from his new musical project, “Other Cats, Other Bags. Volume II,” released on April 19, 2024l and 4 more songs culled from recording sessions Scott did at home with a few longtime Rabbits (his backing band mates) and some new friends from the KC music community, that Scott has been wanting to record with for some time. Each volume features cover art from artists Scott knows and loves who are still going strong. Scott Hrabko is an independent singer-songwriter who has followed his own mercurial muse since the town’s late 1980s indie rock scene. More info at: http://www.scotthrabko.bandcamp.com and http://www.scotthrabko.com

Scott Hrabko, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Mike Warren for No Depression. Magazine writes: “Hrabko’s rootsy songs are filled with trap doors, hidden nooks, and secret passageways. They’re like those dreams within comfortably familiar houses that suddenly have brand new rooms.”

Other Cats, Other Bags – Vol II by Scott Hrabko & The Rabbits

  1. Wayfaring Muse 04:15
  2. In The Sky 06:03
  3. Everything 05:15
  4. About Time 04:16

Other Cats, Other Bags Vol II – Second in a Multi-Volume project

These recordings grew from sessions Scott did at home with a few longtime Rabbits and some new friends from the KC music community Scott has been wanting to record with for some time.

Volume II collaborators: Jason Beers, Hank Tilbury, David Randall, Chris Hudson

The covers of each EP in this series, as well as most of the individual tracks are by artists Scott knows and loves.

released April 19, 2024

Jason Beers: Bass Guitar (1-3), Keyboards (3)
Dave Randall: Piano (1-2)
Hank Tilbury: Bongos, Talkative Shakers, Spatulas, Water Bowl, Tomato Can (1-2)
Chris Hudson: Nylon String Guitar (1-2) Spectral Guitar (3)
SH: Vocals, Guitars, Percussion, Drums (3-4), Piano (4)

All songs © 2024, Scott Hrabko (ASCAP)

Recorded and mixed by Scott Hrabko, KCMO
Additional recording by Chad Bryan
Mastered by Mike Nolte at Eureka Mastering, Portland, OR

Art:
Cover: Hank Tilbury – http://www.hanktilbury.com

Wayfaring Muse: Kevin Paulsen – http://www.instagram.com/kmartinpaulsen/?hl=en

In The Sky: Cayse Cheatham – tatibell298.wixsite.com/cayse

Everything: Diane Christiansen – http://www.christiansenstudio.com

About Time: Val Hodges Tankard
Design: SH


Other Cats, Other Bags – Volume I by Scott Hrabko & The Rabbits

  1. Junk Drawer 02:57
  2. Dark Highway 03:58
  3. Only A Dream 05:41
  4. Brand New Day 03:30

Other Cats, Other Bags Vol I
First in a Multi-Volume project

These recordings grew from sessions Scott did at home with a few longtime Rabbits and some new friends from the KC music community Scott has been wanting to record with for some time.

Volume I features steadfast stalwarts Jason Beers and Tim Higgins, as well as Kansas City folks, Betse Ellis, Brett Hodges, Brandon Day, Beth Watts Nelson and Kristin Hamilton.

The covers of each EP in this series, as well as most of the individual tracks are by artists Scott knows and loves.

Released March 19, 2024

Jason Beers: Bass Guitar (1-2), Piano (1)

Brandon Day: Upright Bass (3-4), Fiddle (1,4)
Lead Guitar (1,4), Backing Vocals (3)

Betse Ellis: Fiddle (2), Backing Vocals (2)

Kristin Hamilton: Backing Vocals (3)

Tim Higgins: Congas (1), Drums (2)

Brett Hodges: Lead Guitar (2), Backing Vocals (2)

Beth Watts-Nelson: Backing Vocals (3)

SH: Vocals, Guitars, Percussion, Drums (3-4)

All songs © 2024, Scott Hrabko (ASCAP)

Recorded and mixed by Scott Hrabko, KCMO
Mastered by Mike Nolte at Eureka Mastering, Portland, OR

Art:

Cover -Sam Hrabko
Junk Drawer – Sam Hrabko
http://www.inprnt.com/profile/hrab/

Dark Highway – Hank Tilbury
http://www.hanktilbury.com

Only A Dream – Joanna Kane
http://www.greyladygallery.com/joanna-kane

Brand New Day – Judi Bauer & Mimi Krebotchnik

In The Sky (Lyrics) written by Scott Hrabko

Wobbling sea legs
In every other port of call
In the bus stop tail light twilight
A nameless baby squalls

She left the door wide open
You let the cold air in
Five senses of tumbling darkness
The drunken heavens spin

On the unmade love I lay me down
Until the room resumes spinning around
So many pallets, so many floors
To crash and burn and dream
Eleventh hour lover calling out for more
(More fool me)

Lady luck couldn’t give a f___
Not even out of pity
Snake eyes roll in the head cracking cold
You’re pissing in the windy city

Oh, freak dreams heave – ho
Twenty stories high
Well, here’s to soft landings
On full moonlit thighs

And you’re free to freeze your ass off
Waiting for a train
That takes you far from trouble
Should the lady be delayed

In the sky, Lord, in the sky
Disappearing daddy
How you made your mama cry

You made your mama cry

Made a career of avoiding mirrors
Just walk on by

Walk on by

Scott Hrabko, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

More info at: http://www.scotthrabko.bandcamp.com http://www.scotthrabko.com

11:51:23


Art: Cayse Cheatham 
tatibell298.wixsite.com/cayse
  1. Scott Hrabko & The Rabbits – “In The Sky”
    from: Other Cats, Other Bags, Vol II / Scott Hrabko / April 19, 2024
    [On March 19, 2024 Scott Hrabko released Other Cats, Other Bags – Volume 1 a 4 – track EP which is the first of Multi-Volume Project containing recordings that grew from sessions he did at home with a few longtime Rabbits and some new friends from the Kansas City Music Community. // On July 1, 2022 Scott Hrabko and The Rabitts released The Wonderful World Of Scott Hrabko & the Rabbits. This recording was #12 on WMM’s 120 Best Recordings of 2022. These two sprawling discs contain song-craft reminiscent of everything from classic ‘60s adult pop to nostalgia-free Americana to cut ’n’ paste hip hop-inspired grooves — and some wild detours between. “But it’s all me.” – Hrabko. The Rabbits, this time around: Jason Beers on Bass, Organ, Piano, Banjo, Harmonica, Slide Guitar; Clarke Wyatt on Drums; Matt Hopper on Lead Guitar; Chris DeVictor on Upright Bass; Chris Hudson on Nylon String Guitar, Mandolin, Lead Guitar; Mike Lindsey on Bass; Tim Higgins on Drums, Percussion; Gary Paredes on Slide Guitar, Wah Wah Guitar; Chad Brothers on Lead Acoustic, and Havilah Bruders on Vocals, with Scott Hrabko on Voices, Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Drums, Percussion, Banjo, Static Outbursts, Ghosts Knob Twiddling and Digital Chicanery. This 2-CD, 22-song release, THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF SCOTT HRABKO & THE RABBITS on July 1, 2022. The double album was recorded at Hrabko’s home studio in a time of a global pandemic and social unrest. Mike Warren writes in No Depression Magazine, “Hrabko’s rootsy songs are filled with trap doors, hidden nooks, and secret passageways. They’re like those dreams within comfortably familiar houses that suddenly have brand new rooms.” Scott Hrabko & The Rabbits have released six singles and released the albums and EPs: LAST DANCE (EP) in 2020, SMASH HITS FROM A PARALLEL UNIVERSE (EP) in 2019, SUMMER in 2017, and BISCUITS AND GRAVITY in 2015. Scott Hrabko’s 2013 critically acclaimed solo release, GONE PLACES was said to be 30 years in the making. Scott Hrabko has played with The Original Sinners, as well as the 1980s bands: The Splinters, and The Andersons. In the early 1990s Scott performed as a solo artist in coffee houses with Iris Dement and Howard Eisberg. More info at: http://www.scotthrabko.com]
  2. Noel Coward – “The Party’s Over Now”
    from: Noel Coward in New York / drg / 2003 [orig. 1957]

Next week, on Wednesday, May 1 we welcome Jocelyn Olivia Nixon of The Creepy Jingles. // At 11:00 am we welcome Lauren Krum and member of The Grisly Hand who will share all of the details of The Grisly Hand Jubilee: Celebrating 15 years of Music & Friendship, Saturday, May 11, 2024 at 7:00 pm at the Ship, 1221Union Avenue, KCMO WEST BOTTOMS. After 15 years of live shows, 6 albums, The Grisly Hand are doing their last show. Proceeds of which will benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance. // at 11:30 Brenton Cook joins us to share details about Haymaker Records 10 Year Anniversary Show at recordBar, 1520 Grand Blvd., KCMO on Saturday, May 4, 2024 at 7:00pm with Freight Train Rabbit Killer, Be/Non, and Jorge Arana Trio.

THANK YOU to our incredible KKFI Staff; Director of Development & Communications – J Kelly Dougherty, Volunteer Coordinator – Darryl Oliver, Chief Operator – Chad Brothers.

This radio station is more than the individual hosts of each individual radio show. Instead it is about a collective spirit of hundreds of hardworking people, unselfishly setting aside ego, to work for the greater good of community building and the gigantic goal of keeping our airwaves free, non-commercial, and open to all! Congratulations and thank you to all programmers & volunteers who went the extra effort to keep our station alive.

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 #1043

WMM Playlist from April 17, 2024

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, April 17, 2024

Shaun Crowley & The Music of Manor Fest 6

  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]
  1. Pale Tongue – “Fever Dreams (feat. Grim Repeater)”
    from: Pale Tongue EP / Manor Records / October 5, 2018
    [For this recording Carlos Calderon on guitar, keyboards and vocals, with drummer Nick Fredrickson of The Appleseed Cast and bassist James Thomblinson of Arc Flash, and Psychic Heat, formed the Lawrence based 3-piece band Pale Tongue. The trio has molded their ripping ‘dungeon rock’ sound into a fierce torrent of fuzz and fury, bending and merging gritty acidic psych-punk with hypnogogic dreamscapes, crafting a realm of experience dripping in cosmic horror and heady awe. Engineered by Mitch Hewlett. Mix and Mastered by Joel Coon. In 2023 the 3-piece became a 5-piece band with Tanner Spreer and Evan Herd of Psychic Heat joining the band.]

[Pale Tongue plays Manor Fest 6, Friday, May 24 at The Easy Inn, 322 6th Street, KCK with Eggs on Mars and THIMASTR.]

10:05

Thanks for tuning into WMM on 90.1 FM KKFI. I’m Mark Manning. Today we spin music from 25 artists and bands playing Manor Fest 6 including: Blackstarkids, Squirrel Flower, Shy Boys, Ebony Tusks, Calvin Arsenia, Paris Williams, Daniel Gum, Frogpond, Honeybee, True Lions, The Creepy Jingles, Liney Blu, Nick Shoulders, Grady Philip Drugg, Kadesh Flow, Pale Tongue, Julia Haile, Wills Van Doorn, Kat King, Pure XTC, Khrystal., Malek Azrael, Jass, The Swallowtails, and ALBER.

Shaun Crowley of Manor Records joins us to talk about Manor Fest 6, featuring 60 bands, across 20 venues, in 6 nights, in 6 different neighborhoods of Kanas City. The official dates are May 23, 24, & 25 and May 30, 31, & June 1. Manor Fest is a local music fundraiser festival curated and ran by Manor Records. All profits from this fundraiser go to the “Manor Records Fund” to help with their non-profit’s mission of releasing music from local artists on physical platforms through Manor Records. More information at; http://www.manorrecords.com

Shaun Crowley is a classically trained guitarist, and has studied at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory. Shaun is the co-founder of Manor Records, a music label that grew out of Manor Fest, the first festival sized “house show” Shaun and friends produced in their basement featuring 12 bands. We first met Shaun as part of the band Rev Gusto, originally formed in high school with friends at Saint James Academy.

Shaun Crowley thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley


As reported by Julie Denesha for KCUR.com published April 5, 2024:

Crowley started the nonprofit in 2017, with concerts first in a rented house in Shawnee, then moving to a cafe in Strawberry Hill and later a basement space in the West Bottoms. On Troost, he’s doubled the retail space where he will sell used records. This time, Crowley thinks he has the right business model.

Crowley plans to man the record store Wednesday through Saturday, and on Monday and Tuesday when the store is closed, he’ll teach guitar and bass to students of all ages and skill levels. He already has another musician lined up to teach piano and ukulele.

The storefront will also serve as a concert venue for the artists Manor Records supports. The store will bring back free events from its last space — Songbird Sessions every Thursday, a songwriter open mic and a masterclass educational series.

Crowley started playing in the KC when he was 17 in band Rev Gusto and Momma’s Boy. He said he’s eager to share the lessons he’s learned with young musicians just starting out.

The new space will also serve as home base for preparations for the foundation’s biggest fundraiser of the year. Manor Fest is a multi-day music festival held in Kansas City that goes back to the group’s early days in a Shawnee basement. The foundation’s mission is to provide resources and support to local musicians, and Manor Fest is now a cornerstone of their fundraising efforts.

This year, the event will showcase more than 60 local bands across 20 venues in 6 neighborhoods over two weekends at the end of May. All proceeds will benefit the nonprofit organization, Manor Records Fund. rms through our “Manor Records Fund”. More information at; http://www.manorrecrds.com


Manor Record Board
Shaun Crowley – President
Skylar Rochelle – Vice President
Kayla Jarrett – Secretary
Connor Randell – Board Member

Manor Fest is a local music fundraiser festival curated and ran by Manor Records.All profits from this fundraiser event to help us with our non-profit mission of releasing local artists’ music on physical platforms through our “Manor Records Fund”.

Manor Records all started in a basement of “The Shawnee Manor,” a DIY venue located in Shawnee, KS. From Glass Animals to Shy Boys, the underground venue hosted numerous local acts, and some national touring acts. Founder Shaun Crowley created the first Manor Fest with 10 bands in one night, then grew to a two night event featuring 20 local bands. After years passed and a community was built, it was time for the boys to move out of the deteriorating house.

In October of 2017, Shaun and company officially launched Manor Records. A DIY record label based on the foundation of their infamous Shawnee Manor. Manor Records is a label that takes no profits from their artists, is hands-on, and self-run, with intentions of good music from good people. They began by hosting showcases featuring local and regional bands in addition to putting out cassette releases.

Alongside the festival, Manor Records has been actively providing booking, tour management, cassette releases, blog premieres/reviews, marketing and promotion services for indie acts all over the Mid-west area.

Manor Fest is a local music fundraiser festival curated and ran by Manor Records.All profits from this fundraiser event to help us with our non-profit mission of releasing local artists’ music on physical platforms through our “Manor Records Fund”.

Manor Fest 6 features 60 bands, across 20 venues, in 6 nights in different areas of Kanas City. The official dates are May 23rd, 24th, & 25th and May 30th, 31st, & June 1st.

Manor Fest 6 includes: BLACKSTARKIDS, Squirrel Flower, Shy Boys, Ebony Tusks, Calvin Arsenia, Dylan Earl, Paris Williams, Daniel Gum, Kat King, Scabb, Flooding, Frogpond, Fritz Hutchison, Honey Bee, True Lions, Supermoto, The Creepy Jingles, Tidal.wav, Kirstie Lynn & Galen Clark, Nick Shoulders, Fullbloods, MC Rue + Mikey, Grady Drugg, Kadesh Flow, Pale Tongue, Liney Blu, Khrystal., Jass, Eggs On Mars, CS Luxem, Brian Bulger, Blanky, The Highwater, Charlotte Bumgarner, THIMASTR, Julia Haile, Teri Quinn, The CAVVES, Wills Van Dorn, Midwestern, Pure XYC, Stephonne, Big Fat Cow, Mason Blaize, Burning Bush, Luke Krutzke, 2W33DY, Collidescope, Shay Lyric, Malek Azrael, Field Daze, They’re Theirs, The Swallowtails, Jolson & The Fear of Snakes, Natalie Prauser, Dalia Kapten, ALBER, and more

Manor Fest 6
WEEKEND ONE – May 23, 24, & 25
Night One – Thursday, May 23 – NORTH KANSAS CITY

Venue One: Velo Garage and Tap House, 1403 Swift St NKC
CS LUXEM 5:00 – 5:30
TIDAL.WAV 5:45 – 6:15
LINEY BLU 6:30 – 7:00

Venue Two: The RINO, 314 Armour Rd, NKC
MC RUE + MIKEY 7:00 – 7:45
BRIAN BULGER 8:00 – 8:45
THE CREEPY JINGLES 9:00 – 9:45

10:10

  1. Liney Blu – “Stick Around”
    from: Pennsylvania St. – EP / Blumusicrecords / May 19, 2023
    [Kansas City singer songwriter Liney Blu writes from a unique place of personal experience and identity. They vividly show us how vulnerability is strength and require us to see love, frustration, disappointment and humor through lenses we may not have considered. Every song finds Liney passionately and sometimes bravely exploring a broader, more inclusive understanding of the human experience while letting us into some sacred personal spaces to do so. And while many listeners are just finding Liney Blu, she set out on her path as a songwriter and artist as a teenager. // At age 17 as Caroline Blubaugh she released a first EP titled “Green” which featured the single “San Francisco” that quickly saw 185K Spotify streams. In 2023 as Liney Blu, came a 2nd EP, “Pennsylvania St.” with bandmates bassist Renee Huey and drummer Jones Goldman. “Pennsylvania St.” is an introspective, sometimes raw, indie pop rock/folk synthesis built on innovative arrangements relentlessly pushed along by Liney’s deep, resonant vocal, subtly insistent delivery and very personal passion. // New music building on the release of “Pennsylvania St.” is in the works. Liney Blu can be heard in venues around the Kansas City/Lawrence area with an expanded show schedule planned for 2024. More infoo at: http://www.lineyblu.com]

[Liney Blu plays Manor Fest 6, Thursday, May 23 at 6:30 pm at Velo Garage and Tap House, 1403 Swift St., NKC, with CS Luxem, and Tidal.wav]

  1. The Creepy Jingles – “When Things Go Wrong”
    from: “When Things Go Wrong” – Single / High Dive Records / February 23, 2024
    [This is the first of several new singles to be released by The Creepy Jongles this year. The Creepy Jingles are a Kansas City based, rock and roll band that both honors and defies convention. Led by singer / song-writer Jocelyn Olivia Nixon, a transgender wordsmith who charms with razor wit and dazzles with her lyrical acrobatics. The Creepy Jingles released their album, TAKE ME AT MY WORDPLAY on March 25, 2022 through High Dive Records. Paired up with lyrics centering on themes of identity, strained relationships, social media madness, meme magic, pandemic paranoia, paid off political pundits, backyard bullies and barking up the wrong tree. Everything and the kitchen sink or swim. No stoner left unturned. The Creepy Jingles released their Debut EP on High Dive Records on May 3, 2019. The release was in the top ten of WMM’s 119 Best Recordings of 2019. ] The Creepy Jingles released their Debut EP on High Dive Records on May 3, 2019.] [ Jocelyn Olivia Nixon will be our guest on May 1, 2024]

[The Creepy Jingles play Manor Fest 6 Thursday, May 23 at 9:00pm at The RINO, 314 Armour Rd, NKC with MC Rue + Mikey, and Brian Bulger.]

10:16 – Interview with Shaun Crowley

Today we spin music from 25 artists and bands playing Manor Fest 6 including: Blackstarkids, Squirrel Flower, Shy Boys, Ebony Tusks, Calvin Arsenia, Paris Williams, Daniel Gum, Frogpond, Honeybee, True Lions, The Creepy Jingles, Liney Blu, Nick Shoulders, Grady Philip Drugg, Kadesh Flow, Pale Tongue, Julia Haile, Wills Van Doorn, Kat King, Pure XTC, Khrystal., Malek Azrael, Jass, The Swallowtails, and ALBER.

Shaun Crowley of Manor Records talks with us about Manor Fest 6, featuring 60 bands, across 20 venues, in 6 nights, in 6 different neighborhoods of Kanas City.

North Kansas City, Strawberry Hill, West Bottoms, East KC, Westside, Crossroads

The official dates are May 23, 24, & 25 and May 30, 31, & June 1. Manor Fest is a local music fundraiser festival curated and ran by Manor Records. All profits from this fundraiser go to the “Manor Records Fund” to help with their non-profit’s mission of releasing music from local artists on physical platforms through Manor Records. More information at; http://www.manorrecords.com

Manor Fest 6
Night Two – Friday, May 24 – Strawberry Hill

Venue One: Flagship Books, 600 Ohio Ave., KCK, Strawberry Hill
DALIMA KAPTEN 5:00 – 5:30
GRADY DRUGG 5:45 – 6:15
THE SWALLOWTAILS 6:30 – 7:00

Venue Two: Hillsiders, 403 N. 5th St. KCK
KIRSTIE LYNN + GALEN CLARK 7:00 – 7:45
TRUE LIONS 8:00 – 8:45
DYLAN EARL 9:00 – 9:45

Venue Three: The Easy Inn, 322 6th Street, KCK
ТHI MASTR 10:00 – 10:30
EGGS ON MARS 10:45 – 11:15
PALE TONGUE 11:30 – 12:00

10:19

  1. Grady Philip Drugg – “Cry Like a Baby”
    from: Real Life / Grady Philip Drugg / September 1, 2020
    [Grady Philip Drugg wrote all of the songs, and is on vocals, and most instruments; Henry Hank on backing vocals & banjo on Cry Like a Baby.“Casual” Calvin Todd on backing vocals and guitar on Cry Like a Baby, pedal steel on Sahara Lounge; Owen Misterovich on backing vocals on What’s Missin; Ian Dobyns on drums on Mercy Be; Joseph Misterovich on mixing, mastering, backing vocals on What’s Missin’. // Grady Philip Drugg is a singer/songwriter from Canyon Lake, Texas. In February 2014, he relocated to Springfield, Missouri and toured the country in several DIY bands. In April 2016, he made his way back to Texas after recording his debut self-titled full length album.]

[Grady Philip Drugg plays Manor Fest 6 on Friday, May 24, at 5:45 PM at Flagship Books, 600 Ohio Ave., KCK in Strawberry Hill with The Swallowtails and Dalima Kapten]

  1. The Swallowtails – “Good Days”
    from: LUCKY PENNY EP / The Swallowtails / February 20, 2024
    [The independent acoustic band, experimenting in the rock/pop genres while performing on what are traditionally folk/classical instruments, enter a new era having produced the entirety of this project themselves, with the songwriting matter touching on life’s big changes, challenges, and the realizations that time will heal. // “Since becoming a duo, it was time for us to reinvent our sound again. The songwriting on this EP is split between Rachel and myself, and this is Rachel’s debut release as a writer and singer. We spent all of January 2024 finishing the arrangements, recording and mixing the mini-record. It was a much needed release of energy for both of us, and we are definitely looking forward to adding these songs into our live sets and performing new material.”– Miki P, songwriter, singer and musician in The Swallowtails. // Est. in 2018, The Swallowtails are a Kansas City based musical duo comprised of musicians Miki P on guitar/vocals and Rachel Lovelace on bassoon/vocals. Their vision is to write honest, heartfelt songs that feel like you’re coming home to an old friend. As recording and performance artists, they have been showcased throughout Kansas City, performing at the Folly Theatre, Boulevardia Music Festival, The Kansas City Public Library as part of the 2023 Art in the Loop: Celebrate project, and most recently at Green Guitar Folk House opening for The Wildwoods. Their songwriting was awarded Best Song by a KC Band in 2023 by the Pitch Magazine for their tune “Take it Slow.” // Live video’s will be released on The Swallowtails YouTube page in support of the EP, the live session was filmed at West Bottoms Whiskey Co. // Swallowtails will be featuring the new EP at the Folk Alliance International Conference February 21st-25th. Both Miki & Rachel have earned scholarships to attend the conference. // Swallowtails embark on their 4th year entering NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest featuring a song off the EP, called “I’m on Fire” posted to NPR’s official contest site. // The Swallowtails have recently been approved as part of KCAIC Touring Artists Roster, through the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission. // On May 22, 2023 The Swallowtails released their 7-track EP THE WORLD STILL SPINS from Rachel Lovelace on bassoon, Adee Dancy on cello & vocals, and Miki P on guitar & lead vocals. Miki P is a self-taught musician/multi-instrumentalist & songwriter driving the Swallowtails into a creative collaboration like any other. Miki P was born in Kansas City, KS. Miki P started playing guitar in middle school. She taught herself to play the drums, while listening to Mitch Mitchell, Keith Moon and Ringo Starr. Miki P performed “She Loves You” at her 7th grade talent show. In 9th grade she joined a teen-band called American Slim as drummer & vocalist, and she wrote songs for their full-length album Irreplaceable released in 2017, followed by a single “Queen of Hearts” released April 11, 2018. Miki P has played Middle of the Map Fest, Crossroads Music Fest, Kauffman Stadium, Arrowhead Stadium, and The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art before officially ending in 2018. As a teen she played drums for various groups including American Slim. At 21, Miki P began work on her debut solo-record, DOME OF SWALLOWS, that was released August 2, 2018. She then formed Miki P and the Swallowtails who released their first EP, Swallowtail in 2019, In 2021 Miki P released the 6-song EP, DON’T LOSE HOPE, created in covid isolation, in Miki P’s home space. Sitting & working from Miki’s computer, she composed and recorded 80% of the EP, working through the music like a journal entry, creating each song from her internal hurricane of emotions. All songs written, recorded, played, & mixed by Miki P. Recorded & Mixed with Emma Klien & Jake Hilger. Mastered by Joel Nanos. Miki P released her single “Your Love” on June 24, 2022. Miki P’s released the single “Peter Parker!” on March 18, 2022. // More info at: http://www.mikipmusic.com]

[The Swallowtails play Manor Fest 6 on Friday, May 24, at 6:30 PM at Flagship Books, 600 Ohio Ave., KCK in Strawberry Hill with Grady Philip Drugg, and Dalima Kapten.]

  1. True Lions – “GONER”
    from: Cold Gravy Bowl / Manor Records / March 1, 2024
    [Alison “Al” Hawkins is a queer songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, music teacher, and leader of True Lions, a band consisting of Al and whoever is playing music with them, which often includes Fritz Hutchison—a drummer, singer, guitarist, songwriter, producer, bandmate, bandleader, friend, sibling, Gemini, and Kansas Citian who just wants to do a good job and keep it fun for everybody. Last year, True Lions and Fritz Hutchison released a homemade split cassette tape via Manor Records. When their drummer Eli Kosko moved to the desert, Al, Fritz and bassist Carly Atwood started performing acoustically. When Carly was sometimes unavailable, Al and Fritz explored amplified fiddle, synth, and drums, through old-time tunes. Their noise art creation COLD GRAVY BOWL is scheduled for cassette release Friday, March 1 via Manor Records. // COLD GRAVY BOWL is the demon music baby of Kansas City duo Al Hawkins and Fritz Hutchison, blending amplified fiddle distortion, heavy drums, and bass synth through Ozark old-time. The album artwork was drawn by local queer artist Spade Nine. // True Lions released the True Lions- Fritz Hutchison Split Cassette through Manor Records on April 26, 2023. True Lions released their debut full length album, “The Fempire Strikes Back,” on Manor Records on April 9, 2021 with Alisön Hawkins on keytar & vocals; Adee Rocket Dancy on cello & vocals; Claire Adams on guitar, Elizabeth Kosko on drums & percussion; Iona DeWalt on synthesizers; Miki P on guitar & vocals, and Teri Quinn on bass & vocals. Recorded at Deep Space Co-op. Tracking & engineering by Ross Brown at Escape Pod Audio. Mixing and mastering by Joel Nanos at Element Recording. In 2019 True Lions released their EP debut, “Cute at Best,” on February 5, 2019. They followed up with a second EP called. You’re Not Invited, released on November 9, 2019. For these recordings True Lions was: Alison Hawkins on guitar, synth, and vocals; Elizabeth Kosko on percussion, vocals; Mikala Petillo on bass, vocals; Claire Adams on guitar, vocals; Leslie Butsch on saxophone, Ezgi Karakus on cello; and Teri Quinn on vocals. All songs written by True Lions and produced by Claire Adams and Alison Hawkins. Tracking & Engineering by Claire Adams. Mixing and Mastering by Ian Dobyns and Chase Horseman. More info at: http://www.manorrecords.com.]

[True Lions play Manor Fest 6 on Friday, May 24, at 8:00 PM at Hillsiders, 403 N. 5th St. KCK with Kirstie Lynn & Galen Glark, and Dylan Earl]

10:28 – Underwriting

10:29 – More Interview with Shaun Crowley

Shaun Crowley of Manor Records joins us to talk about Manor Fest 6, featuring 60 bands, across 20 venues, in 6 nights, in 6 different neighborhoods of Kanas City.

North Kansas City, Strawberry Hill, West Bottoms, East KC, Westside, Crossroads

The official dates are May 23, 24, & 25 and May 30, 31, & June 1. Manor Fest is a local music fundraiser festival curated and ran by Manor Records. All profits from this fundraiser go to the “Manor Records Fund” to help with their non-profit’s mission of releasing music from local artists on physical platforms through Manor Records. More information at; http://www.manorrecords.com

Manor Fest 6
Night Three – Saturday, May 25 – West Bottoms

Venue One: Blip Roasters, 1301 Woodswether Rd., KCMO, West Bottoms
NATALIE PRAUSER 1:00 – 1:30
JOLSON & THE FEAR OF SNAKES 1:45 – 2:15
TBA 2:30 – 3:00

Venue Two: Fetch 1101 Mulberry Street, KCMO
ALBER 3:00 – 3:30
TERI QUINN 3:45 – 4:15
WILLS VAN DOORN 4:30 – 5:00

10:34

  1. ALBER – “Caldo”
    from: Lento / Locale Records / April 12, 2024
    [Alberto Racanati is a genre-bending musician originally from Bari, Italy, now established in Kansas City. His musical journey started at age 11 when he learned to play his first notes on the trumpet. At age 14 Alberto enrolled in the Bari Conservatory to pursue his performance degree in the academy, while living a parallel musical existence in the rich musical underground in Southern Italy, playing drums and trumpet in a plethora of bands across all genres. His musical studies then took him to the National Music Academy in Gdansk, Poland, where he lived from 2011 to 2014, discovering the multicultural nature of the arts. In 2014 Alberto moved to the United States to work as a Graduate Assistant at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois. In 2016 Alberto continued on to Kansas City to pursue a Doctoral Degree at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he became enamored with the local music scene. 2018 saw the start of Alberto’s journey with electronic music, writing material for trumpet and electronics. This is where the project Alber starts, especially using social media as an interactive, open sketchbook for his sonic excursions. Alberto’s first self-titled album was released in 2020, followed by significant live performing presence in 2021 in Kansas and Missouri. His second album Journey, was then released in 2021. At the same time, Alberto ramped up his touring of the Midwest region and collaboration with a variety of other artists. Most recently in 2023 Alberto was awarded the ArtsKC Inspiration Grant for his multimedia installation “Born at Sea”, a project centered on the idyllic sea scenery of his hometown, debuting in 2024. Additionally he became one of the Charlotte Street Foundation Studio Residents, a program that features some of the most brilliant up and coming artists in the Kansas City region. Still in 2023, Alberto toured the East Coast of the US and his native Italy, in a much welcome reconnection with his musical roots. Currently, Alberto is about to release his third full length album Lento and finalizing his upcoming 2024 tours to the East Coast and Southern Italy.]

[ALBER presents his multimedia installation “Born at Sea”, centered on the idyllic sea scenery of his hometown, Bari Italy, on May 23, 2024 at Charlotte Street Foundation, 3333 Wyoming, KCMO.]

[ALBER plays Manor Fest 6 on Fri, May 24, 3:00 PM at Fetch 1101 Mulberry St, KCMO w/ Teri Quinn, and Wills Van Doorn.]

  1. Wills Van Doorn & Kat King – “Blue”
    from: “Flying Bird” / “Blue” – Single / Rust Records / August 18, 2023
    [Wills Van Doorn is getting set to release his debut full-length solo record, ROSEDALE SPEEDWAY on October 20, 2023. “Flying Bird” is the second single from the lbum and it was released with “Blue’ an extra track not on the album that features Kat King on vocals. Wills Van Doorn released the single “The Lawn-mower Collector” on July 28, 2023, also from ROSEDALE SPEEDWAY. Wills Van Doorn released the single, “Shake The Frost” on March 10, 2023, and the single, “Lately” on Oct. 22, 2022, and the EP RUN WITH YOU on December 11, 2020. Wills Van Doorn released the singles: “1000 Times” on March 26, 2020, “On My Mind” on July 12, 2019, and “Out of Season” on April 5, 2019. Will Van Doorn has played guitar with Supermoto, Brent Windler’s live band, and The Creepy Jingles. http://www.willsvandoorn.bandcamp.com ]

[ALBER plays Manor Fest 6 on Friday, May 24, at 3:00 PM at Fetch 1101 Mulberry Street, KCMO with Teri Quinn, and Wills Van Doorn.]

[Kat King plays Manor Fest 6, Sat., May 31, at 8:00 at recordBar w/ Blackstarkids and Paris Williams]

10:41 – More Interview with Shaun Crowley

Shaun Crowley of Manor Records talks about Manor Fest 6, featuring 60 bands, across 20 venues, in 6 nights, in 6 different neighborhoods of Kanas City.

North Kansas City, Strawberry Hill, West Bottoms, East KC, Westside, Crossroads

The official dates are May 23, 24, & 25 and May 30, 31, & June 1. Manor Fest is a local music fundraiser festival curated and ran by Manor Records. All profits from this fundraiser go to the “Manor Records Fund” to help with their non-profit’s mission of releasing music from local artists on physical platforms through Manor Records. More information at; http://www.manorrecords.com

Manor Fest 6
Night Three – Saturday, May 25 – West Bottoms

Venue Three: Hickory Union Moto, 10 S. James St, KCK
FIELD DAZE 5:00 – 5:30
THE CAVVES 5:45 – 6:15
DANIEL GUM 6:30 – 7:00

Venue Four: The Emerald, 1715 West 9th Street, KCMO
KHRYSTAL. 7:00 – 7:45
BLANKY 8:00 – 8:45
SHY BOYS 9:00 – 9:45

Venue Five: The Ship, 1221 Union Ave. KCMO
KADESH FLOW 10:00 – 10:30
SCABB 10:45 – 11:15
SUPERMOTO 11:30 – 12:00

10:51

  1. Daniel Gum – “Don’t I Know”
    from: Sophia – Don’t I Know – Single / Manor Records / January 24, 2024
    [Daniel Gum is a singer-songwriter based out of Kansas City, KS who has been active since 2017. Daniel Gum released the single “Julia” on December 9, 2022. Daniel Gum released the single “Wolverine (ft. Rachel Cion)” on September 19, 2921. Daniel Gu, released the electronic pop EP, I’M NOT DEAD in 2017 and an acoustic EP, MOON in 2018. In addition to working on his own solo project, Daniel has been working with other local groups—playing bass and engineering for his band Pillow (a post-punk/shoegaze group) and playing drums behind singer-songwriter Chloe Jacobson, also doing some recording for her. Channeling the likes of Elliott Smith & Andy Shauf, he co-produced his new record THIRTEEN with Mike Crawford, playing almost everything you hear on the album and mixing it himself. Signing to Manor Records in the spring of 2020, he officially released THIRTEEN on cassette & CD on October 30, 2020. All songs written, performed, and.mastered by Mike Nolte at Eureka Mastering. Daniel Gum is a 24 year old singer-songwriter . Since the age of 12, he has spent the majority of his time writing and recording songs by himself in his room. The Moon EP was released December 7, 2019. It was engineered by Mike Crawford and Daniel Gum and mixed by Daniel Gum with piano and accordion by Cole Crawford. Daniel Gun released his EPI’M NOT DEAD on October 25, 2017, and his 10-song album Reorient on July 31, 2015, with all songs written, recorded and mixed by Daniel Gum who also performed all vocals guitars, drums, piano, bass. harmonica, and programming. The first single from Daniel Gum’s album, Thirteen “Ruin Your Life” was released on September 4, The second single, “In The Worst Ways” was released September 28, 2020. ] [On our July 22, 2020, WMM show we played Daniel Gum’s track, “Tired Saint” from French Exit Records – Black Lives Matter Compilation, released July 6, 2020. French Exit Records was launched two years ago as an independent music label in KCMO, founded by Brad Girard. French Exit Records has released albums for No Magic and Raymond,. BLM Compilation is 22 acts from the area, with all proceeds donated to One Struggle KC’s Liberation Fund, a Black-led coalition of KC activists seeking to connect the struggles of oppressed communities, locally & globally. Daniel Gum joined us on WMM on November 11, 2020.]

[Daniel Gum plays Manor Fest 6 Saturday, May 25, at 6:30pm at Hickory Union Moto, 10 S. James St, KCK with Field Daze, and The Cavves.]

  1. Khrystal. – “Magic”
    from: “Magic” – Single / Manor Records / August 8, 2020
    [Khrystal. released the surprise 8-track album Life Be Life’ing on September 22, 2021. release. On December 31, 2020 Khrystal. Released the single “Never” which followed Khrystal.’s. single “Magic” released on August 8, 2020 on limited edition cassette singles with her most recent single “You Again” as a B-Side by Manor Records. On September 1, 2017 Khrystal. released The Glow Up EP, Produced & Written by Khrystal Coppage and Duncan Burnett. This was follow up to Khrystal’s Debut EP, Quarter Century Living. Executive Produced By Duncan Burnett. Written By Khrystal Coppage & Duncan Burnett. Kansas City based Khrystal Coppage served as Editor-in-Chief of Khorage Magazine. She served as Production Manager at UMKC University News from 2015 to 2016. She graduated from UMKC in 2016 where she studied Family Studies. She graduated from Kansas City Kansas Community College in 2013. She is a graduate of Sumner Academy of Arts & Science, in KCK. ]

[Khrystal. plays Manor Fest 6 Saturday, May 25, at 7:00pm at The Emerald, 1715 West 9th Street, KCMO in Kansas City on Thursday, May 25, at 7:00 PM at Big Mood, 2020 Baltimore, KCMO – East Crossroads with Blanky and Shy Boys.]

  1. Shy Boys – “Something Sweet”
    from: Bell House / Polyvinyl Record Co. / Expected August 3, 2018
    [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 Manor Fest 6 Saturday, May 25, at 9:00pm at The Emerald, 1715 West 9th Street, KCMO in Kansas City on Thursday, May 25, at 7:00 PM at Big Mood, 2020 Baltimore, KCMO – East Crossroads with Blanky and Khrystal.]


Shy Boys / The ACBs / Ghosty / The I’ms / Fullbloods / Koney – Discography

The ACB’s / The ACB’s / July 10, 2007
[Debut from KC based 4-piece with Konnor Ervin on lead vocals, Bryan McGuire on bass, Matt Saladino on guitar, Corey Egan on drums & vocals. Written by, and arranged by Konnor Ervin. Produced by Tim Suttle. Recorded & mixed at Underdog Studio in Desoto, KS. Mastered at Euphonic Masters in Memphis, TN.]

The Abracadabras – Be Still, Be Cool / The Abracadabras / January 1, 2008
[5-piece KC band formed in the spring of 2007, with Jocelyn Olivia (John) Nixon on keyboards & vocals, Travis Mckenzie on lead guitar, Bobby (Wayne Hutcherson) Topaz on guitar & vocals, Collin Rausch on bass & vocals, and Kyle Rausch on drums & vocals.]

The ACBs – Stona Rosa / The ACBs / January 1, 2011
[After half of the band left to move to LA, Konnor Ervin and Bryan McGuire got help from: Andrew Connor of Ghosty, and Beau Bruns of Cowboy Indian Bear. All songs written by, and arranged, lead vocals & guitar by Konnor Ervin. Mike Nolte on bass, Bryan McGuire on bass & vocals, Andrew Connor on guitar & vocals, Beau Brus on drums. Kyle Rausch on vocals. Produced by Mike Nolte. Mastered by Roger Seibel Recorded at More Famouser Studios. Mixed at More Famouser Studios. Mastered at SAE Mastering.]

The I’ms – Second MIXES / Independent / 2011
[Collin Rausch and Kyle Rausch. Kyle Rausch also plays with The ACB’s. In 2011 on WMM we started playing songs from The I’ms, a duo made of up Collin and Kyle, who posted 6 of their self recorded songs on their facebook page. We included this informal release in our Top Ten of The 111 Best Recordings of 2011. 3 of the songs from The I’ms ended up being rerecorded for Shy Boys.]

Ghosty – GHOSTY / More Famouser Records – High Dive Records / April 17, 2012
[3rd full length release from Lawrence and KC area band. Ghosty is Andrew Connor, Mike Nolte an Bill Belzer who recorded their new album themselves over the last couple of years with help from David Wetzel, Josh Adams, Jake Blanton, Konnor Ervin, Ryan Connor, Kirsten Paludan, and Dan Talmadge. The new release was pressed on vinyl and available on LP and digital download. More info at ghostysounds.com.]

The ACBs – Little Leaves / High Dive Records / March 5, 2013.
[Konnor Ervin on lead vocals, & guitar; Bryan McGuire on bass, Andrew Connor on guitar; Kyle Rausch on drums. Their songs have been featured on MTV’s The In betweeners, and Daytrotter. The title “Little Leaves” is a nod to Konnor Ervin’s landscaping day job. The lead single, “Ocean” was released as a free download in late 2012, prompting Pop matters to declare the ACBs as one of its “Best Hopes to Break Out in 2013.”]

Shy Boys – Shy Boys / High Dive Records / January 17, 2014
[Debut release. Brothers Collin Rausch, Kyle Rausch, and friend and roommate Konnor Ervin, are members of this KC based trio. Collin and Kyle’s father was a High School band director and music teacher. Konnor Ervin is the lead singer and songwriter of The ACBs, where Kyle also plays drums. The 10 song release had two singles premiered by Stereogum. “Keeps Me On My Toes” was a song Collin wrote in 15 minutes while his girlfriend was in the shower. The album was recorded at West End Studio, over two-weekends.]

Shy Boys – “Life is Peachy” – Single Release / High Dive Records / July 15, 2014
[Stereogum has premiered the band’s new song, “Life Is Peachy”, the A-side to their new 45 rpm, 7″ single coming from High Dive Records. Brothers Collin Rausch, Kyle Rausch, and roommate Konnor Ervin, are members of the Kansas City based band, Shy Boys. ]

Fullbloods – Mild West / High Dive Records / February 26, 2016
[Second full length release from Fullbloods: Ross Brown; Jared Tomasino; David Seume; and Bill Pollock. Recorded at Westend Studios in Kansas City, Kansas by Mike Nolte. Mixed by Fullbloods. Mastered by Mike Nolte at Eureka Mastering. (Starfucker, Of Montreal).]

Shy Boys – Bell House / Polyvinyl Record Co. / August 3, 2018
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

Shy Boys – Dim The Light / Brick By Brick – Singles / Polyvinyl Record Co. / Feb. 15, 2019
[Single release follow up to band’s 2nd 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. 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.]

Fullbloods – Soft and Virtual Touch / High Dive Records / April 3, 2020
[3rd full-length. All songs written, performed, recorded, mixed by Ross Brown in KCMO. Mastered by Mike Nolte at Eureka Mastering. Artwork by Nika Winn. Kyle Rausch played drums on 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, & 9, sang on 9. Bill Pollock Played drums on 3 & 5. David Seume played bass on 5. Jerad Tomasino played synth on 9 & 10, sang on 9. Jenni Kornfeld played cello on 4. Leslie Butsch played sax on 10. More info at: http://www.fullbloods.com.]

Shy Boys – Talk Loud / Polyvinyl Record Co. / September 25, 2020
[3rd album from the KC band Shy Boys. New music follow up to the Dim The Light / Brick By Brick, singles released February 15, 2019. Shy Boys released their 2nd album and Polyvinyl debut, Bell House on August 3, 2018. Shy Boys line-up consists of brothers Collin Rausch and Kyle Rausch, Konnor Ervin, Kyle Little and Ross Brown. 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 including The Abracadabras, and The I’ms with brother Kyle. 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.]

Koney – Koney / High Dive Records / October 9, 2020

[from Lucas Wetzel’s Pitch Feature: “To bring the songs to life, Konnor enlisted brothers Collin and Kyle Rausch, his roommates in their ramshackle West Plaza house/practice space and his bandmates in chamber pop group Shy Boys. Ross Brown (of Fullbloods) played synthesizer and helped run sound, and multi-instrumentalist Kyle Little contributed on guitar. Fritz Hutchison and Andrew Connor also contributed on several tracks. Recording engineer Mike Nolte flew in from Portland to run the controls at Westend Recordings, and the group set up camp in the studio over a long snowy weekend in 2015.”]


  1. Kadesh Flow – “Overcome (Nanami)”
    from: “Overcome (Nanami)” – Single / Ryan Jamaal Davis / January 1, 2024
    [Instrumental/Verses/Hook/Trombone/Mixed/Mastered by Kadesh Flow≥ On Friday, January 19, 2024 Kadesh Flow releases another new single “Stand on Business”. On November 17, 2023 Kadesh Flow released “Stakes” produced by Dominique Sanders (who received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year for his work on Janelle Monae’s “AGE OF PLEASURE album.) // On January 6, 2023 Kadesh Flow released “Switch Up” with Instrumental Production by Dominique Sanders, Written & Performed by: Kadesh Flow, Mixed by: Kadesh Flow, Mastered by: Kadesh Flow. // In 2022 Kadesh Flow released 6 singles starting with “Move Different (feat. Gr3s0n)” on January 21, 2022, with lyrics by Kadesh Flow & Gr3ys0n. Music by Kadesh Flow. Mixing: Kadesh Flow. Mastering: Kadesh Flow and was released on January 21, 2022. :Move Different” was part of WMM’s 50 Favorite Singles of 2022. On October 21, 2022 Kadesh Flow released the single ”Chill (feat. Mir Blackwell).” On October 10, 2022 Kadesh Flow released “Dream For Me.” On September 30, 2022 Marcus Lewis Big Band released the single, “You’re Very Special (feat. Kemet Coleman, Kadesh Flow & Kevin Church Johnson).” On July 1, 2022 Kadesh Flow released the single “Away From You.”About that single Kadesh told us “I’ve been a little quiet from a release standpoint because I’ve been scoring a feature length film.” “This song is… inspired by Eren Yeager and his tragic, brutal journey in Attack on Titan but is also deeply personal to me. There’s a lot of current world problem glazing that I’m doing on it as well.” “Also, June 30, 2022, marks five years since I left my financial tech career to pursue my performing and recording artist career full time. I’m releasing this on July 1, partially in celebration of that milestone.” This was one of over nearly 30 new singles Kadesh Flow released in 24 months: In 2021 Kadesh Flow & The Enclave released, “Soft Side,” on Jan. 21, 2021, written, produced, performed, mixed & mastered by Kadesh Flow. Kadesh Flow released, “Assumptions feat. Shubzilla,” on Jan. 29, 2021. Kadesh Flow released, “Frosty,” on February 12, 2021, written, produced, performed, mixed & mastered by Kadesh Flow. Kadesh Flow & The Enclave released, “Cry For Me 2,” February 12, 2021. Kadesh Flow released, “Not on My Watch,” on February 19, 2021, Inspired by Lord Beerus (Dragonball Super). Kadesh Flow released, “Held Me Longer,” on Marc written, produced, performed, mixed & mastered by Kadesh Flow. Kadesh Flow released, “Your Dream Isn’t Always Yours,” on March 12, 2021, written, produced, performed, mixed & mastered by Kadesh Flow. Kadesh Flow & The Enclave released, “Forgot About Me,” on March 14, 2021. Kadesh Flow released, “Take Backs (feat. Ryan Heinlein),” on March 26, 2021, written, produced, performed, mixed & mastered by Kadesh Flow. Kadesh Flow & The Enclave released, “But Hope” on March 26, 2021, written, produced, performed, mixed & mastered by Kadesh Flow. Kadesh Flow released the single, “I Don’t Care” on April 9, 2021, written, performed, mixed and mastered by Kadesh Flow. Produced by D. Professor. Kadesh Flow released the single, “That Way” on April 16, 2021, written, performed, mixed & mastered by Kadesh Flow, and produced by Dominique “Bassman” Saunders. Kadesh Flow released the new single, “So Far” on April 23, 2021, written, performed, mixed & mastered by Kadesh Flow and produced by Dominique “Bassman” Sanders. Kadesh Flow released the single, “On Target” on April 30, 2021, written, produced, performed, mixed and mastered by Kadesh Flow. Kadesh Flow released the single ”Lighten Up”on May 7, 2021, written, produced, performed, mixed & mastered by Kadesh Flow. Kadesh Flow released the single “Elegant” on May 21, 2021. Written, Produced, Performed, Mixed & Mastered by Kadesh Flow. Kadesh Flow released the 13-track album ROOM SERVICE 2, on July 19, 2021. Kadesh Flow released the single “Coming For Your Neck” on August 20, 2021. Written, Produced, Performed, Mixed & Mastered by Kadesh Flow. Kadesh Flow released the single “Easy” on August 27, 2021. Written, Produced, Performed, Mixed & Mastered by Kadesh Flow. This is his 18th single the year. Kadesh Flow released the single “Fiend” on Sept. 4, 2021. Written, Performed, Mixed & Mastered by Kadesh Flow. Produced by Dominique Sanders. This is his 19th single the year. le, “Gardens Out The Gutter” on Dec. 3, 2021. Written, Performed, Mixed & Mastered: Kadesh Flow. Instrumental: Dominique Sanders. Kadesh Flow released the single, “CHOICE (The Cost)” on December 17, 2021. Written, Performed, Mixed & Mastered: Kadesh Flow. Instrumental: Dominique Sanders. Kadesh Flow is Ryan Davis is a rapper with an MBA. He is an emcee, producer, & trombonist. At age 11, he began rapping and playing trombone within two weeks of one another. His music has been featured on network television in multiple countries and territories across Southeast Asia. Kadesh performs as a solo hip hop artist. He also plays with The Phantastics, Marcus Lewis Big Band, and Deshica Rage (with Jessica Paige). More info at: http://www.kadeshflow.com]

[Kadesh Flow plays Manor Fest 6 Saturday, May 25, at 10:00pm at The Ship, 1221 Union Ave. KCMO with SCABB, and Supermoto.]

11:02 – Station ID

11:02 – More Interview with Shaun Crowley

Shaun Crowley of Manor Records talks about Manor Fest 6, featuring 60 bands, across 20 venues, in 6 nights, in 6 different neighborhoods of Kanas City.

North Kansas City, Strawberry Hill, West Bottoms, East KC, Westside, Crossroads

The official dates are May 23, 24, & 25 and May 30, 31, & June 1. Manor Fest is a local music fundraiser festival curated and ran by Manor Records. All profits from this fundraiser go to the “Manor Records Fund” to help with their non-profit’s mission of releasing music from local artists on physical platforms through Manor Records. More information at; http://www.manorrecords.com

Manor Fest 6
WEEKEND TWO – May 30, 31, & June 1
Night One – Thursday, May 30 – East KC

Venue One: HOWDY, 6523 Stadium Drive, KCMO
2W33DY 5:00 – 5:30
MIDWESTERN 5:45 – 6:15
ТВА 6:30 – 7:00

Venue Two: FAREWELL, 6523 Stadium Drive, KCMO
CHARLOTTE BUMGARNER 7:00 – 7:45
EBONY TUSKS 8:00 – 8:45
SQUIRREL FLOWER 9:00 – 9:45

11:06

  1. Ebony Tusks – “HDF”
    from: “HDF” – Single / High Dive Records / February 7, 2020
    [This single came out nine months before Ebony Tusks released their full-length album, Heal Thyself on November 6, 2020 on High Dive Records. “HDF” is not included on the 12-track album. As with the single and on the album, all songs written and performed by Ebony Tusks unless otherwise noted. // All Songs engineered and mixed by George Henry Valyer IV at Rundown Studios in Topeka, Kansas and MalaMUTE Studios in East Lawrence, Kansas. Assistance provided by Nico Williams and Claire Kuner. // Conny Franko’s vocals on “You Runner” engineered by Keith Rodger and Rick Carson at Make Believe Studios in Omaha, Nebraska. // IK’s vocals on “Gang Signs” engineered by Derek Montgomery. // Stik Figa’s vocals on “Hell Above Or Here Below” engineered by Sean Patrick at Twelves Studios in Forth Worth, Texas. // Cello on “Heir Apparent” written and performed by Brail Watson. Rhodes and Moog on “Heir Apparent” written and performed by Daniel Bowersox. // All Songs mastered by Mike Nolte at Eureka Mastering in Portland, Oregon. // Album cover art by Justin Bergin. Album cover photography by Rachel Lock. Album layout by Martinez Hillard. // Album insert photography by Ailecia Ruscin and LeRoy Pristach. // Ebony Tusks is Daniel Smith on DJ & Production, Geese Giesecke on vocals & Production, and Marty Hillard on vocals & Production. Martinez Hillard told Vivid Seats: “ I began EBONY TUSKS in 2009 after a difficult period that summer. I was living in the student ghetto near the University of Kansas in Lawrence. It was an eerily calm Friday night and I didn’t have any plans after work so I crashed. I woke up shortly after 9:00 pm because my door was being kicked in. I was beaten and robbed at gunpoint. Thankfully, two of my neighbors were close friends and called the police immediately. I had nightmares for years afterward that included many symbols I’ve come to associate with various religious practices. I also began writing raps for the first time in over a decade. I was working with a couple producers and we had our first show at a house venue called Pizza Power in October 2010. Both Daniel and Geese came into the fold within a couple years of that show.” Daniel Smith lives in Lawrence, Kansas. He was born in Berkeley California. He moved to Lawrence when he was a child. Hs father is a Professor at The University of Kansas. Daniel works the United Way of Douglass County. He helps to provide after school job-training programs for under-served youth. Nathan “Geese” Giesecke grew up in Olathe but now lives and works in Kansas City, MO. He was friends with Calvin Arsenia in High School. Geese works as a producer as GEESACE. He makes beats and you can find his music at http://soundcloud.com/geesace Nathan is also a lighting designer who jumped on stage to do back up vocals for Marty and ended up being in the band. Martinez Hillard is the main vocalist and lyricist for EBONY TUSKS. He raps under the moniker Bodye, (pronounced “body”). He also produces beats. Martinez lives in the Old Town neighborhood in downtown Topeka with wife and 5 year old daughter. Martinez was part of the super group Cowboy Indian Bear. Martinez was recently elected to serve as a board member for Friends of the Library for Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library. As Marty told Johnson County Library, in a piece published April 27, 2018: “ It was a project I started with other producers back in 2010. I asked Daniel to DJ for me sometime in 2011-2012 and Geese joined not too far behind him. Daniel and I had become fast friends when I lived in Lawrence and he was the nicest, most easygoing DJ of the handful I knew. He made our shows a lot less stressful. Geese was and is a lighting technician for a number of our friends’ projects and that was how I made acquaintance with him, seeing him work for a band and asking if he’d do lights for an EBONY TUSKS concert. He eventually asked if he could be hypeman for us and he brought an new intensity.” EBONY TUSKS have been a band for over 11 years making hip hop in the Lawrence scene that includes Approach, Stik Figa, Heartfelt Anarchy, and Archetype are just a small fraction. With that said, the three of us are always having conversations about how other genres influence us personally. Post-rock, post-hardcore, industrial, indie rock, and electronic all factor in. Our tastes evolve naturally and we follow accordingly. Since the three members of EBONY TUSKS live in three separate cities: Kansas City, Lawrence and Topeka early on, they created a Dropbox folder to share demos with one another. And as they told Vivid Seat: “It also gave us a bit of language to use in building sounds independent of one another.” More info at: http://www.highdiverecords.com Members of Ebony Tusks joined us LIVE on WMM on February 19, and October 7, 2020.]

[Ebony Tusks play Manor Fest 6, Thursday, May 30, at 8:00pm, at FAREWELL, 6523 Stadium Drive, KCMO with Charlotte Bumgarner, and Squirrel Flower.]

  1. Squirrel Flower – “Full Time Job”
    from: Tomorrow’s Fire / Polyvinyl Record Co. / October 13, 2023
    [Squirrel Flower is the stage name of American musician Ella O’Connor Williams. // Williams grew up in Arlington, Massachusetts. When Williams was a child, she gave herself the nickname Squirrel Flower. In 2014, she moved to Iowa to attend Grinnell College. // After getting involved in the DIY scene in Boston as a teenager, Williams moved to Iowa. There, she wrote her first EP as Squirrel Flower and began setting up small tours for herself. This first EP, titled Early Winter Songs From Middle America, was self-released in 2015. // In 2016, Williams released her second EP titled Contact Sports on a St. Louis-based DIY tape label called It Takes Time. // Williams’ debut album, I Was Born Swimming, was released in 2020 via Polyvinyl Records. The album was produced by Gabe Wax. This anticipated label debut earned overwhelming praise from the likes of Gorilla vs. Bear, NPR Music, and Paste, and she was named Rolling Stone Artist You Need To Know, Stereogum’s Artist to Watch, The FADER’s Gen F, and The Guardian’s One to Watch. In May 2020, Squirrel Flower released the single “Take It Or Leave It”, backed with her cover of Caroline Polachek’s “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings.”]

[Squirrel Flower plays Manor Fest 6, Thursday, May 30, at 9:00pm, at FAREWELL, 6523 Stadium Drive, KCMO with Charlotte Bumgarner, and Ebony Tusks.]

11:11 – More Interview with Shaun Crowley

Shaun Crowley of Manor Records joins us to talk about Manor Fest 6, featuring 60 bands, across 20 venues, in 6 nights, in 6 different neighborhoods of Kanas City.

North Kansas City, Strawberry Hill, West Bottoms, East KC, Westside, Crossroads

The official dates are May 23, 24, & 25 and May 30, 31, & June 1. Manor Fest is a local music fundraiser festival curated and ran by Manor Records. All profits from this fundraiser go to the “Manor Records Fund” to help with their non-profit’s mission of releasing music from local artists on physical platforms through Manor Records. More information at; http://www.manorrecords.com

Manor Fest 6
WEEKEND TWO – May 30, 31, & June 1
Night Two – Friday, May 31 – WESTSIDE

Venue One: Fox & Pearl, 815 W 17th St, KCMO
LUKE KRUTZKE 5:00 – 5:30
PURE XTC 5:45 – 6:15
MINT FATIGUES 6:30 – 7:00

Venue Two: Greenwood Social Club, 1759 Belleview Ave, 2nd Floor, KCMO
JULIA HAILE 7:00 – 7:45
FRITZ HUTCHISON 8:00 – 8:45
CALVIN ARSENIA 9:00 – 9:45

Venue Three: Turnsol Books, 1664 Broadway KCMO (Formerly known as Deep Space)
STEPHONNE 10:00 – 10:30
THEY’RE THEIRS 10:45 – 11:15
FULLBLOODS 11:30 – 12:00

11:16

  1. Pure xtc – “Fall Apart”
    from: “Fall Apart” – Single / Taylor Hughes / March 1, 2024
    [Pure XTC released the Shed My Skin EP on November 18, 2022. Pure XTC released the single “Get Lost“ on September 9, 2022, and “Shadow” released June 1, 2022. Pure xtc released the EP Nobody’s Home on November 12, 2021. Pure xtc is the musical project of Kansas City based Taylor Hughes. Taylor is also the drummer for the band EXNATIONS. The idea of pure xtc was formed during an extremely isolating time for multi-instrumentalist, Hughes. Living truly on her own for the first time, she moved to the NYC metro in 2019. Time was spent crying on subways, climbing new rooftops, meeting new people, avoiding new people, feeling extremely fulfilled to feeling like a hollow empty shell. [Pure XTC aka Taylor Hughes was our guest on WMM July 14, 2021, and November 10, 2021, and November 16, 2022]

[Pure XTC plays Manor Fest 6 on Friday, May 31, at 5:45pm at Fox & Pearl, 815 W 17th St. KCMO with Luke Krutzke, and Mint Fatigues.]

  1. Julia Haile – “Set Out”
    from: “Set Out” – Single / Julia Haile / September 20, 2022
    [One of 4 new singles released by Julia Haile in the last year and a half. Julia released “Ave 4” and “Up Late” on June 16, 2023. Julia released “Heavy Rotation” & “Set Out” on Sept. 30, 2022. Julia Haile is a singer & songwriter based in KCMO. Her natural talent & musical education fueled a career of exciting performances and beautiful music. From leading Neo-Soul band Hi-Lux and international collaborations to solo works, Julia’s goal is create meaningful musical experiences for all. Julia’s work with Hi-Lux included Tim Braun on guitar, Nick Howell on keys, Dan Loftus on bass, (and prior to that Pete Leibert on bass) and Kian Bryne on drums. Hi-Lux was a Modern-Soul band that blends and bends the boundaries between soul, rock n roll, reggae, and funk. This group created music that pays tribute to their myriad of influences (Amy Winehouse, The Meters, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings). Hi-Lux released the singles, “Revolution” and “Get What You Give” on February 28, 2020, through The Record Machine. Hi-Lux released the single. “Don’t Blame Lee” (featuring Lee Scratch Perry) on April 20, 2018. Hi-Lux released the 7” vinyl single, “”Dance With My Baby” b​/​w “Don’t Blame Me” on January 5, 2018 through Sunflower Soul Records. Hi-Lux released their 6-track, self-titled EP, Hi-Lux on January 2, 2018. All 6 songs had previously been released as singles. More info at: http://www.juliaHaile.com]

[Julia Haile plays Manor Fest 6, on Friday, May 31, at 7:00pm at Greenwood Social Club, 1759 Belleview Ave, 2nd Floor, KCMO with Fritz Hutchison, and Calvin Arsenia.]

  1. Calvin Arsenia – “Probation”
    from: Paradise / Calvin Arsenia / June 23, 2023
    [Paradise is Calvin Arsenia’s new 14 track album. It is only available through http://www.calvinarsenia.com // A new turning point as a songwriter. His most biographical album yet, with songs about Black Lives Matter, Racism, The Police, being on probation, gay love. The album contains collaborations with Cheery, Kadesh Flow and Jametatone. Calvin Arsenia one of our most frequent guests, who first appeared on WMM on July 25, 2012. KC Magazine has hailed Calvin as ‘equal parts opera, symphony, musical theatre, rock show, all built around its creator: a charismatic 6-foot-7-inch harpist with a 3 and ½ octave range, natural stage command and knack for gilding gold and painting lilies.’ Born in Orlando, Florida, Calvin’s creative journey began when he moved to Olathe, Kansas, teaching himself the guitar, piano, banjo. He learned his signature instrument, the harp, at the age of 20. His passion for stretching the boundaries of musical expression saw him transform a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland’s Fringe Festival early in his career into a life-changing music mission, with an Edinburgh church offering him a role as musical liaison between the church and the city that would change his life. Two years and 300 shows later, Calvin returned to KC reborn as a humanistic songwriter / performer where at 24 he released his EP, Moments, in 2014, and his EP Prose in 2015, and his Folk Alliance exclusive EP Catastrophe in 2016. On February 14, 2017 Calvin released his critically acclaimed full length debut, Catastrophe, with a live show at recordBar in November 2016 that involved a company of 50 people, dancers, stilt walkers. After signing to Center Cut Records, Calvin released the albums: Cantaloupe in 2018, with a sold out gigantic spectical at The Gem Theatre on Saturday, September 15, 2018. He then released, L.A. Sessions in 2019, and the EP HONEY DEW, and the EP Goddess with Quixotic, the Holiday album, ALL IS CALM. In 2020 Calvin collaborated with Mike Dillon on the Soundtrack to “Summer in Hindsight,” a feature-length film created by The West 18th Street Fashion Show that starred Calvin as an actor. Calvin is also the co-creator of the podcast “We Were Christian Kids” created with childhood friend Justin Randall who is a stand up comedian working in New York City and now Los Angeles. Calvin is also the published author of EVERY GOOD BOY DOES FINE, a collection of Poetry & Prose published on October 5, 2021, by Andrews McMeel Universal. Calvin was voted KC’s Best Musician in The Pitch 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. He has been featured in Billboard, NPR.org. Charlotte Street Foundation announced that the recipients of the 2022 Generative Performing Artist Awards are The Black Creatures and Calvin Arsenia Scott.] [Calvin Arsenia played a PARADISE Album Release Party, Friday, June 23, and Saturday, June 24, at 7:00 PM at The Emerald, 1715 West 9th Street, KCMO, WEST BOTTOMS. More info at http://www.calvinarsenia.com][Calvin Arsenia was our guest on WMM on Jan. 18, 2023, June 21, 2023, and our 1000th Show on June 28, 2923.]

[Calvin Arsenia plays plays Manor Fest 6, on Friday, May 31, at 9:00pm at Greenwood Social Club, 1759 Belleview Ave, 2nd Floor, KCMO with Fritz Hutchison, and Julia Haile.]

Calvin Arsenia Discography

Calvin Arsenia – Moments [EP] / Independent / April 9, 2014
Calvin Arsenia was 24 when he released this EP after returning home to Kansas City after living and performing in Edinburgh, Scotland. Calvin works as a songwriter, composer, lyricist, producer, and engineer.

Calvin Arsenia – Prose [EP] / Independent / February 3, 2015
Recorded over the course of three live sessions at Edinburgh’s Napier University. Produced by Graham Coe. Engineered by David O’Leary. Music and Lyrics: Calvin Arsenia, with Fiona Reid & Liselot Van Oosterom on Vocals, Graham Coe on Cello, Mark Smith on Percussion, Lyle Watt on Guitar Calvin Arsenia on Vocals & Guitar & Piano.

Calvin Arsenia – Caviar [EP] / Calvin Arsenia / December 5, 2017
Produced for attendees at Calvin’s “Secret Show,” Tuesday, December 5, at Wickstock West, 1324 West 12th Street, in The West Bottoms, and for supporters of his Outlyre Tour. Words and Music by Calvin Arsenia. Produced by Jametatone, Simon Huntley and Calvin Arsenia. Recorded at The Infoaming Vertex.

Calvin Arsenia – Catastrophe {EP] / Calvin Arsenia / February 17, 2016
Limited edition EP, produced for Folk Alliance International, contains demo recordings of original gems that are the blueprints for Calvin’s soon to be released full length debut, coming in 2017. Since Calvin Arsenia came home to KC after living in Edinburgh, Scotland, he has released his EP, Moments, in 2014, and his EP Prose in 2015, and his Folk Alliance exclusive EP Catastrophe in 2016. He has played all over town, including showcases at Folk Alliance International, Kansas City Fringe Fest, The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, and collaborations with bands like My Brothers and Sisters.

Calvin Arsenia – Catastrophe [Album] / Calvin Arsenia / February 14, 2017
Calvin Arsenia premiered these songs in a live show at recordBar in November 2016 in a stage show that involved a company of 50 people, dancers, stilt walkers, special lighting, back up singers, guest artists. Since Calvin Arsenia came home to KC after living in Edinburgh, Scotland, he has released his EP, Moments, in 2014, and his EP Prose in 2015, and his Folk Alliance exclusive EP Catastrophe in 2016. Standing at 6 foot 6 inches, Arsenia’s powerful vocals span a 3.5 octave range, while playing piano, banjo, guitar and harp Calvin teaches music to elementary students. Calvin is also a graduate of Artist INC. Since 2014 we have been celebrating the music of Calvin Arsenia. He has played Folk Alliance International, Kansas City Fringe Fest, The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, The Kauffman Center For The Performing Arts, The Middle of the Map Fest., The Folly Theatre. Calvin recently returned home from 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 in over 40 shows, with musician and friend Simon Huntley who plays with Quixotic.]

Calvin Arsenia – Live at Greenwood Social Hall / Unreleased / June 11, 2017
Solo live performance at Greenwood Social Hall, 1760 Bellevue, KCMO.

Calvin Arsenia – Caviar [EP] / Calvin Arsenia / December 5, 2017
Produced for attendees at Calvin’s “Secret Show,” Tuesday, December 5, at Wickstock West, 1324 West 12th Street, in the West Bottoms, and for supporters of his Outlyre Tour. Words and Music by Calvin Arsenia. Produced by Jametatone, Simon Huntley and Calvin Arsenia. Recorded at The Infoaming Vertex.

Calvin Arsenia – Cantaloupe / Center Cut Records / September 15, 2018.
Calvin’s 2018 national debut, Cantaloupe (Center Cut Records), has been acclaimed for melding diverse textures into an alluring signature sound for the adventurous artist.

Calvin Arsenia – L.A. Sessions / Center Cut Records / September 20, 2019
Calvin performed live at L.A.’s The Mint, showcasing songs on LA Sessions with musicians who collaborated on the album. Says Calvin: “It’s such a special experience to play with them. To be able to perform these songs in front of an audience and do this for a living – to have made a career out of something I love is so amazing – it is an honor that I never take for granted.”

Calvin Arsenia – Honeydew / Center Cut Records / June 28, 2019
On September 15, 2018 Calvin released Cantaloupe on Center Cut Records. This new EP is a remix of three of the songs from Cantaloupe, plus a Talking Heads cover that was performed live in this style at a New Year’s Eve show at The Truman opening for Making Movies who performed the entire Talking Heads album, Remain in Light. The last three songs on Honeydew were from performed in this style at The Nelson Atkins 2019 event “Party Arty.” Honeydew was produced by Jametatone, Simon Huntley, Calvin Arsenia.

Quixotic & Calvin Arsenia – “Goddess – EP / Quixotic / May 17, 2019
[An innovative performance art collective that fuses imagination with technology, dance, projection, mapping & live music to create fully-immersive, multi-sensory experiences. Quixotic harnesses light, rhythm and expressive emotion. Quixotic was given Silicon Valley’s unofficial stamp of genius when they were invited to perform at the global TED Conference in 2012. A unique blend of performance art, technology & emotion. Quixotic fuses all these elements in to what the New York Times branded an “innovative circus performance”.]

Calvin Arsenia – all is calm / Calvin Arsenia. / December 13, 2019
[Arsenia’s dreamlike whimsy shimmering through your favorite Christmas Classics. All proceeds for this album go towards the purchase of Calvin’s first harp. Featuring: Ben Muñoz on Cello, Shane Borth on Violin & Voila, & Luke “Skippy” Harbur on Beatbox. Mastered by Jametatone at the Infoaming Vertex and special thanks to Simon Huntley. Calvin wrote: “I recorded the majority of this album in my bedroom in between flights to and from KC and SF. I had my nephews and friend’s kids in mind and wanted an album of Christmas lullabys. I think it became just a little more sassy than anticipated, but I think you’ll enjoy it regardless.

Calvin Arsenia – Summer in Hindsight / Calvin Arsenia & Mike Dillon / Oct. 16, 2020
Soundtrack by Calvin Arsenia and Mike Dillon for The West 18th Street Fashion Show’s 20th year as a feature-length film. COVID-19 changed everything in 2020. “We are moving it from the street to the screen,” says Peregrine Honig to inkansascitymagazine. “Mike Dillon and Calvin Arsenia will be scoring and performing in the film.” The film premiered October 16, 2020 at The Boulevard Drive-In. Honig wrote,. “We did this during a pandemic and a cultural revolution. I am not sure where else or how else this could happen at this moment in history.” Calvin Arsenia had recently been emotionally and greatly moved by the area and national Black Lives Matter Movement. His own research into his own family revealed that Calvin’s great, great, great grandmother Alice Gilliam Scott, was a former slave who lived to observe her 100th birthday as noted by a regional newspaper Calvin had written. In the summer of 2020 Calvin wrote “Revelation” an unreleased track inspired by Black Lives Matter. Calvin premiered the song on WMM on August 12, 2020. He later shared his other new songs, “Scars and Stripes” and “The Flying Monkees are Coming!” on our October 14, 2020 edition of WMM. Both of those songs ended up on Summer in Hindsight.

Calvin Arsenia – Paradise / Calvin Arsenia / June 23, 2023
Calvin Arsenia played a PARADISE Album Release Party, Friday, June 23, and Saturday, June 24, at 7:00 PM at The Emerald, 1715 West 9th Street, KCMO, WEST BOTTOMS. More info at http://www.calvinarsenia.com

Calvin’s Book EVERY GOOD BOY DOES FINE / Andrews McMeel Universal / Oct. 5, 2021
a collection of Poetry & Prose More info at http://www.calvinarsenia.com

11:26 – Underwriting

11:27 – More Interview with Shaun Crowley

Shaun Crowley of Manor Records talks about Manor Fest 6, featuring 60 bands, across 20 venues, in 6 nights, in 6 different neighborhoods of Kanas City.

North Kansas City, Strawberry Hill, West Bottoms, East KC, Westside, Crossroads

The official dates are May 23, 24, & 25 and May 30, 31, & June 1. Manor Fest is a local music fundraiser festival curated and ran by Manor Records. All profits from this fundraiser go to the “Manor Records Fund” to help with their non-profit’s mission of releasing music from local artists on physical platforms through Manor Records. More information at; http://www.manorrecords.com

Shaun Crowley thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Manor Fest 6
WEEKEND TWO – May 30, 31, & June 1
Night Three – Saturday, June 1 – CROSSROADS

Venue One: Third Place Lounge, 1744 Broadway Blvd KCMO
MALEK AZRAEL 1:00 – 1:30
MASON BLAIZE 1:45 – 2:15
NICK SHOULDERS 2:30 – 3:00

Venue Two: MADE MOBB, 221 Southwest Blvd, KCMO
SHAY LYRIQ 3:00 – 3:30
BIG FAT COW 3:45 – 4:15
FROGPOND 4:30 – 5:00

11:32

Screenshot
  1. Malek Azrael – “in ur mind”
    from: “ion ur mind” – Single / Malek Azrael / March 1, 2024
    [On October 15, 2021 Makek Azrael released his 10-track album debut. Male Azrael lives in KCMO. He has worked for Boys Grow, and is currently working with touring. Malek Azrael has been involved with Making Movies non-profit organization Art As Mentorship. He sometimes plays with Making Movies and played the Ameri-Kana Fest. Malek Azrael played KKFI’s 18th Annual Crossroads Music Fest, on Aug. 27, at The Black Box, in West Bottoms.

[Malek Azrael plays Manor Feet 6, Saturday, June 1, at 1:00pm at Third Place Lounge, 1744 Broadway Blvd KCMO with Mason Blaize and Nick Shoulders]

[Malek & The Vibez play Boulevardia Festival at Crown Center, on Friday, June 16.]

  1. Nick Shoulders – “Won’t Fence Us In”
    from: All Bad / Gar Hole Records. / July 28 2023
    [All Bad, the latest album from Nick Shoulders, ultimately encapsulates everything that makes Shoulders’ inimitable form of country music so vital: a heady balance of dazzling musicianship and punk defiance, coupled with gritty eccentricity and a generational connection to the roots of the genre. With a singing style inherited from his family’s vocal lineage, Nick’s songs achieve the rare feat of imparting difficult truths while inciting a certain joyful abandon, balancing a sound forged by years of hard travel with a heartfelt reverence for the origins of country music. In the spirit of Hazel Dickens and Jimmy Driftwood, the incisive yet wildly jubilant All Bad vocally objects to the reckless destruction of the natural landscape and development run rampant, while still offering plenty of joy and dance-ready rhythms. Spanning a variety of early country styles, the album’s infectious harmonies shine alongside everything from jangling cajun waltzes to surf-rock infused bluesy ballads–all tied together by a voice seemingly out of place in this century, yet ever ready to speak up about its problems. // Released via Gar Hole Records (a label founded and co-owned by Shoulders), All Bad marks the first LP made with his longtime band, the Okay Crawdad, since 2019’s premier full-length Okay, Crawdad and their subsequent pandemic-imposed hiatus. After writing most of the album from the front seat of a tour van, the Fayetteville, AR-based musician and bandmates Grant D’Aubin (harmonies/bass), Cheech Moosekian (drums) and Jack Studer (lead guitar) recorded the album in a home studio on the banks of the Mississippi River with New Orleans collaborators Ross Farbe and Sam Doores.]

[Nick Shoulders plays Manor Feet 6, Saturday, June 1, at 2:30pm at Third Place Lounge, 1744 Broadway Blvd KCMO with Mason Blaize and Malek Azrael]

  1. Frogpond – “It’s Not Over”
    from: TimeThief / Black-Site Records / November 19, 2021
    [Newly reformed KC indie rock band, Frogpond, will release TimeThief, its first album in over twenty years on November 19, 2021, on the KC record label cooperative Black Site. Frogpond is: singer/guitarist and founder Heidi Phillips, long-time bassist, Justine Volpe, with Kristin Conkright on rhythm guitar, and Michelle Bacon on drums. More info at: http://black-site.org/frogpond // Frogpond digitally reissued their Au 1996 vinyl and cassette release Count To Ten on March 12, 2021, 25 years after its original release on August 9, 1996 on Columbia Records. Frogpond was formed in Warrensburg, Missouri. The band existed from 1994-2000, primarily performing in Kansas City and Lawrence, Kansas. COUNT TO TEN was the band’s 12-track national debut full length released on Tristar Music – Columbia on CD and vinyl in 1996 with songs written by Heidi Phillips, with Heidi Phillips on vocals & guitar, Justine Volpe on bass, Megan Hamilton on drums, Kristie Stemel on guitar and backing vocals. Art Alexakis (of the band Everclear) served as producer and contributed backing vocals. // In 1999 Frogpond released the 13-track second album, SAFE RIDE HOME on C2 Records – Columbia, on CD and vinyl with songs written by Heidi Phillips, and with Heidi Phillips on vocals & guitar, Justine Volpe on bass & backing vocals, and Billy Johnson on drums. The album was recorded by Doug McBride at Gravity Studios in Chicago who also served as producer and contributed electric piano and piano. // In 1994 Frogpond self released their 8-song cassette release 2%. 2% was produced, engineered, and mixed at Red House Recording, Lawrence, Kansas, October 1994. Heidi Phillips joined us LIVE onWMM on November 10, 2021.]

[Frogpond plays Manor Feet 6, Saturday, June 1, at 4:30pm at MADE MOBB, 221 Southwest Blvd, KCMO with Shay Lyric, and Big Fat Cow.]

11:41- Interview with Shaun Crowley

Shaun Crowley of Manor Records joins us to talk about Manor Fest 6, featuring 60 bands, across 20 venues, in 6 nights, in 6 different neighborhoods of Kanas City.

North Kansas City, Strawberry Hill, West Bottoms, East KC, Westside, Crossroads

The official dates are May 23, 24, & 25 and May 30, 31, & June 1. Manor Fest is a local music fundraiser festival curated and ran by Manor Records. All profits go to the “Manor Records Fund” to help release music from local artists on physical platforms through Manor Records. More information at; http://www.manorrecrds.com

Shaun Crowley thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Manor Fest 6
WEEKEND TWO – May 30, 31, & June 1
Night Three – Saturday, June 1 – CROSSROADS

Venue Three: Arizona Trading CO. 1722 Oak Street KCMO
THE HIGHWATER 5:00 – 5:30
JASS 5:45 – 6:15
HONEYBEE 6:30 – 7:00

Venue Four: recordBar, 1520 Grand, Blvd, KCMO
PARIS WILLIAMS 7:00 – 7:45
KAT KING 8:00 – 8:45
BLACKSTARKIDS 9:00 – 9:4
5

Venue Five: Big Mood Natural Wine, 2020 Baltimore, KCMO
BURNING BUSH 10:00 – 10:30
COLLIDESCOPE 10:45 – 11:15
FLOODING 11:30 – 12:00

11:46

  1. Jass – “grow”
    from: At the Close of a Decade / JASS / November 26, 2022
    [Jass is Jasmine “Jass” Couch. Jass and The Boys released the single “Love U Like I Love U” on December 2, 2022. Jass released the EP, OFF KEY: TOO HIGH on September 23, 2022. Jass released the single “Higher Ground” on August 16, 2022. It was #1 on WMM’s 50 Favorite Singles of 2022. Jass released her single, “Him” on February 23, 2022. Jass released At the Close of a Decade on November 26, 2022. It was part of WMM’s 121 Best Recordings of 2021. She wrote, “After years of writing and recording in voice memos .. I decided to grab my iPad and began recording something that I am very proud of. I named it, At the Close of A Decade, and released it in November 2019. With my iPhone/iPad, some apple headphones, I created this project. The amazing people around me told me it was worth it, even when I didn’t believe it myself. I convinced myself I would be the only one that liked my songs. If you decide to listen you’ll hear sound clips of shows and movies that made a difference in the way I saw the world, the way I saw myself, and the way I overcame my experiences. I remember asking my grandma and my son if I should release what I’ve been writing and they both said very simply to do it, so I’ve done it. I want to thank all of my wonderful friends who have been my soundboards during this process, all of the people that have asked me when it’s coming, the people that have kept me accountable, and believed that this time it was for real. My story is so very triumphant and beautiful because I have overcome experiences and shunned the fear I had to do what I love. It’s crazy how you can talk your way out of some amazing things and also how you can talk yourself into making some amazing things happen. If you partake, I hope you enjoy.” // Jass has opened for Thundercat sat GRINDERS, headlined a show at The Bottleneck in Lawrence with my boys! (Colby Bales and Brande Moser), and she opened up for The New Respects at The Uptown, and sang the Negro National Anthem at BLAQUE to School Night at the KC Monarchs game.More info at: http://www.jassrcouch.com]

[Jass plays Manor Fest 6, at 7:00 PM at Arizona Trading CO. 1722 Oak Street KCMO with The Highwater, and Honeybee.]

  1. Honeybee – “House Party”
    from: Saturn Return – EP / Honeybee / March 29, 2024
    [Honeybee started as the solo project of Singer/Songwriter Makayla Scott and now include 3 or 4 of her friends umping in… Honeybee released the songle “I Know What Love is” on January 27, 2023. Makayla Scott also played with the band Blue False Indigo Makayla Scott studied music at Drury University graduating in 2017.]

[Honeybee plays Manor Fest 6 at 6:30 PM at Arizona Trading CO. 1722 Oak Street KCMO with The Highwater, and Jass.]

  1. Paris Williams – “LONDON, TOKYO (feat. Sam Wells)” (radio edit)
    from: REBEL HEART / Bitter Sweet Sound / January 31, 2023
    [Paris Williams is a 24-year old artist from Muskegon, Michigan in the midst of redefining the bedroom pop label. Employing his own sound that he’s dubbed, “bittersweet,” Williams never shuts away from his DIY aesthetic – producing his own work to maintain full creative flexibility. Premiering in December of 2019 with his debut album, DROP DEAD GORGEOUS, Paris is a believer in hitting the ground running and then just never letting off the gas. This mentality was shaped by the inspiration he’s pulled from other famously out-of-the-box artists: such as Kanye West, Pharrell, and Toro y Moi. // Fueled by the multi-faceted artists, Williams believes heavily in pulling from all creative mediums as a way to add layers and texture to his music. This approach has led to Williams seeing support from larger than life musical pillars, like Iggy Pop himself – who showed love to Williams’ song of the same name by spinning it on his BBC radio show in 2018. Williams reshapes the musical landscape around him as his burgeoning career continues to solidify its own form more and more each day by bringing in a breath of fresh air with him everywhere since he wrote his first bars in elementary school. Paris Williams previously 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. More info at: allmylinks.com/popstarparis]

[Paris Williams plays Manor Fest 6 in Kansas City on Saturday, June 1, at 7:00 PM at recordBar, 1520 Grand, Blvd., KCMO, with Kat King, and Blackstarkids.]

11:53- Interview with Shaun Crowley

Shaun Crowley of Manor Records joins us to talk about Manor Fest 6, featuring 60 bands, across 20 venues, in 6 nights, in 6 different neighborhoods of Kanas City.

The official dates are May 23, 24, & 25 and May 30, 31, & June 1. Manor Fest is a local music fundraiser festival curated and ran by Manor Records. All profits go to the “Manor Records Fund” to help release music from local artists on physical platforms through Manor Records. More information at; http://www.manorrecrds.com

Shaun Crowley thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Manor Fest 6
WEEKEND TWO – May 30th, 31st, & June 1st
Night Three – Saturday, June 1 – CROSSROADS

Venue Three: Arizona Trading CO. 1722 Oak Street KCMO
THE HIGHWATER 5:00 – 5:30
JASS 5:45 – 6:15
HONEYBEE 6:30 – 7:00

Venue Four: recordBar, 1520 Grand, Blvd, KCMO
PARIS WILLIAMS 7:00 – 7:45
KAT KING 8:00 – 8:45
BLACKSTARKIDS 9:00 – 9:45

Venue Five: Big Mood Natural Wine, 2020 Baltimore, KCMO
BURNING BUSH 10:00 – 10:30
COLLIDESCOPE 10:45 – 11:15
FLOODING 11:30 – 12:00

11:55

  1. BLACKSTARKIDS – “Sounds Like Fun!”
    from: SURF / Bedroom Records / February 28, 2020
    [Blackstarkids are phenomenon who came out of Kansas City in 2020 became the soundtrack for the summer. Blackstarkids are a pop/R&B/hip-hop trio based in Kansas City, Missouri. Members include: TheBabeGabe, Deiondre, and TyFaizon (of the Drop Dead XX collective). The members have known each other since high school in Raytown, Missouri. Members met at Raytown South High School and formed the band in 2019. The group released its first album, Let’s Play Sports, on August 1, 2019. Blackstarkids then released their second album SURF through their own label Bedroom Records on February 28, 2020. Blackstarkids caught the attention of The 1975’s frontman Matty Healy and were then signed to The 1975’s management company and UK-based label Dirty Hit Records. They were featured in Clash Magazine. Blackstarkids then released, Surf Basement Demos on Dirty Hit Records on March 5, 2020. On October 29, 2020, Blackstarkids released Whatever, Man on Dirty Hit Records, their third album release of 2020. Gabe, of Blackstarkids recently described the KC Music community to an interviewer, “The music scene here is really nice. There are a lot of bands who are super talented and do all types of genres. The jazz music here is really great as well. Kansas City is honestly a hidden gem when it comes to music. I feel like you can meet an artist anywhere and anyplace in this city.” Deiondre added, “The music scene here is getting cool now, there’s a lot of jazz musicians that go to school for music here too but you can find people from different scenes all over if around the city.” Ty wrote, “The Kansas City scene is great, the community here is so supportive and genuine. This is a really prideful city here and I think they’re finally getting the musicians they deserve.”]

[Blackstarkids plays Manor Fest 6 in Kansas City on Saturday, June 1, at 7:00 PM at recordBar, 1520 Grand, Blvd., KCMO, with Kat King, and Paris Williams.]

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

Next week, on Wednesday, April 24 At 10:30 Chris and Phil Kinsley of Arson Class and Sid Sowder of Too Much Rock join us to share the radio broadcast premiere of the newest installment in the Too Much Rock Singles Series.

At 11:00 Jeremiah James Gonzales and band mates from RxGhost share music from their new EP Scaffolding, released April 11, 2024. Vocals/Guitar RxGhost is: Josh Thomas on vocals & guitar, Justin Brooks on drums, James Capps on guitar, Chris Smead on bass. Scaffolding was produced by RxGhost, recorded and mixed by Paul Malinowski at Massive Sound Studios and mastered by Mike Nolte at Eureka Mastering

At 11:30 Scott Hrabko share music form his my new project, “Other Cats,
Other Bags. Volume II,”
released on April 19, 2024. It’s multi-volume project culled from recording sessions Scott did at home with a few longtime Rabbits and some new friends from the KC music community. More info at: https://scotthrabko.com

THANK YOU to our incredible KKFI Staff; Director of Development & Communications – J Kelly Dougherty, Volunteer Coordinator – Darryl Oliver, Chief Operator – Chad Brothers.

This radio station is more than the individual hosts of each individual radio show. Instead it is about a collective spirit of hundreds of hardworking people, unselfishly setting aside ego, to work for the greater good of community building and the gigantic goal of keeping our airwaves free, non-commercial, and open to all! Congratulations and thank you to all programmers & volunteers who went the extra effort to keep our station alive.

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 #1042

WMM Playlist from April 10, 2024

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, April 10, 2024

Mara Williams & J.M. Banks of VOICES OF Kansas City + Owen/Cox Dance Group + D. Rashaan Gilmore + Anson The Ornery

  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]
  1. Swamp Dogg – “Count The Days (feat. Jenny Lewis)”
    from: Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th St. / Oh Boy Records / May 31, 2024
    [Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th St, his first record with Oh Boy Records that will be released on May 31. The effervescent new single which was first released in 1967 by Inez and Charlie Foxx and re-envisioned here, arrives with an official music video featuring Swamp and Lewis recording the track at Nashville’s Sound Emporium. // Last month, the feature-length documentary Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted premiered at SXSW and received raves from The Austin Chronicle and The Hollywood Reporter who called it, “a documentary that draws its voice and aesthetic from the spirit of its subject, resulting in a tight 97 minutes that feel organic and satisfying and, as befits that subject, appealingly odd.” Rolling Stone also included Swamp Dogg’s official showcase in their Best of SXSW roundup proclaiming, “Swamp Dogg sounded bold and robust, his vigor encouraging his band to ratchet up the energy… every musician on stage was locked into an undeniable groove.” // Produced by Ryan Olson (Poliça, Gayngs) and recorded with an all-star band including Noam Pikelny, Sierra Hull, Jerry Douglas, Chris Scruggs, Billy Contreras, and Kenny Vaughan, the 12-song collection is a riotous blend of past and present, mixing the sacred and the profane in typical Swamp Dogg fashion as it blurs the lines between folk, roots, country, blues, and soul. Special guests like Margo Price, Vernon Reid, Jenny Lewis, Justin Vernon, and The Cactus Blossoms all add to the excitement, but it’s ultimately the 81-year-old Swamp Dogg’s delivery—sly and playful and full of genuine joy and ache—that steals the show. // “Believe it or not, I didn’t do anything but sing these songs the way I would have sung them if it was an R&B album. That’s just the way the music comes out of me, and it would have been unholy for me to try and imitate anybody else,” explains Swamp Dogg about the making of the album. “Black music has had so many different labels put on it over the years that sometimes I’m onstage and I don’t know what the hell it is that I’m singing,” Swamp Dogg says with a laugh. “The only thing I know how to do is be myself.” // “Swamp Dogg is one of my favorite humans on the planet… How to classify him I just don’t know. He’s a soul artist, a psychedelic artist, a protest singer, he’s a man for all seasons.” – Ann Powers // Jerry Williams Jr. was born July 12, 1942. He is generally credited under the pseudonym Swamp Dogg after 1970, is an American soul and R&B singer, musician, songwriter and record producer. Williams has been described as “one of the great cult figures of 20th century American music.” // After recording as Little Jerry and Little Jerry Williams in the 1950s and 1960s, he reinvented himself as Swamp Dogg, releasing a series of satirical, offbeat, and eccentric recordings, as well as continuing to write and produce for other musicians. He debuted his new sound on the Total Destruction To Your Mind album in 1970. In the 1980s, he helped to develop Alonzo Williams’ World Class Wreckin’ CRU, which produced Dr. Dre among others. He continues to make music, releasing Love, Loss & Autotune on Joyful Noise Recordings in 2018,[3][4] and Sorry You Couldn’t Make It in 202. // Williams was born in Portsmouth, Virginia. He made his first recording, “HTD Blues (Hardsick Troublesome Downout Blues)”, for the Mechanic record label in 1954, when he was aged 12, with his parents and uncle and backing musicians, and was regularly hired to play private parties. From 1960, he released occasional singles for a variety of labels, including the self-written “I’m The Lover Man” in 1964, which was first issued on the Southern Sound label and was then picked up by the larger Loma label, almost breaking into the national Billboard Hot 100. He also wrote successfully for other musicians, including “Big Party” for Barbara and the Browns. // As Little Jerry Williams, he had his first national chart success in 1966, when “Baby You’re My Everything”, which he co-wrote and produced, was released on the Calla label and rose to #32 on the R&B chart, again just missing the Hot 100. He released several more singles on Calla through to 1967, by now credited simply as Jerry Williams, but with little commercial success, although some of his records such as “If You Ask Me (Because I Love You)” later became staples of the Northern Soul movement in the UK. // By late 1967 he started working in A&R and other duties for the Musicor label in New York. In 1968 he co-wrote, with Charlie Foxx, Gene Pitney’s up-tempo hit, “She’s a Heartbreaker”, which Williams also claimed to have produced, saying: “I produced the motherfuck out of it… [and] Charlie Foxx put me down on the label as “vocal arranger.” What the fuck is that? When they took out full-page ads in Billboard and Cashbox, there was a picture of Charlie on one side and a picture of Gene Pitney on the other and no mention of me.” // Later in 1968 Williams began working as a producer at Atlantic Records with Jerry Wexler and Phil Walden, on artists including Patti LaBelle & the Blue Belles, though he found the administration frustrating.[5] He established a songwriting partnership with Gary Anderson, who performed as Gary U.S. Bonds, and the pair wrote the R&B chart hits “To the Other Woman (I’m the Other Woman)” by Doris Duke, and “She Didn’t Know (She Kept on Talking)” by Dee Dee Warwick. He also recorded a single, “I Got What It Takes”, in a duo with Brooks O’Dell, and released two singles under his own name on the Cotillion label, a subsidiary of Atlantic. // Swamp Dogg Williams later wrote:I became Swamp Dogg in 1970 in order to have an alter-ego and someone to occupy the body while the search party was out looking for Jerry Williams, who was mentally missing in action due to certain pressures, mal-treatments and failure to get paid royalties on over fifty single records…. Most all of the tracks included were recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and Macon, Georgia, which brings me to how the name Swamp Dogg came about. Jerry Wexler, Atlantic Records v.p. and producer/innovator second to none, was recording in the newly discovered mecca of funk Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He coined the term “Swamp Music” for this awesome funk predominately played by all white musicians accompanying the R’n’B institutions e.g., Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, King Curtis… I was also using the same “swamp” players. I was tired of being a jukebox, singing all of the hits by Chuck Jackson, Ben E. King, etc., and being an R’n’B second banana. I couldn’t dance as good as Joe Tex, wasn’t pretty like Tommy Hunt, couldn’t compare vocally to Jackie Wilson and I didn’t have the sex appeal of Daffy Duck. I wanted to sing about everything and anything and not be pigeonholed by the industry. So I came up with the name Dogg because a dog can do anything, and anything a dog does never comes as a real surprise; if he sleeps on the sofa, shits on the rug, pisses on the drapes, chews up your slippers, humps your mother-in-law’s leg, jumps on your new clothes and licks your face, he’s never gotten out of character. You understand what he did, you curse while making allowances for him but your love for him never diminishes. Commencing in 1970, I sung about sex, niggers, love, rednecks, war, peace, dead flies, home wreckers, Sly Stone, my daughters, politics, revolution and blood transfusions (just to name a few), and never got out of character. Recording in Alabama and sincerely singing/writing about items that interested me, gave birth to the name Swamp Dogg. // Having adopted his moniker before Snoop Dogg was born he has claimed to be “the original D-O double G.” // In 1970 he emerged in his new Swamp Dogg persona, with two singles on Wally Roker’s Canyon label, “Mama’s Baby, Daddy’s Maybe”, again co-written with Bonds, and “Synthetic World”. He also produced the first Swamp Dogg album, Total Destruction to Your Mind. The album sleeve showed Williams sitting in his underwear on a pile of garbage. Williams’ new direction apparently followed an LSD trip, and was inspired by the radical politics of the time and by Frank Zappa’s use of satire, while showing his own expertise in, and commitment to, deep soul and R&B music. According to Allmusic: “In sheer musical terms, Swamp Dogg is pure Southern soul, anchored on tight grooves and accentuated by horns, but the Dogg is as much about message as music…” Although not a commercial success at the time, Swamp Dogg started to develop a cult following and eventually the album sold enough to achieve gold record status. Record critic Robert Christgau wrote that “Soul-seekers like myself are moderately mad for the obscure” album and has called it “legendary”. It was reissued in 2013 by Alive Naturalsound Records. // Around the same time, one of the songs Williams had co-written with Gary Bonds, “She’s All I Got”, became a top-ten R&B hit for Freddie North, and was recorded with even greater success by country star Johnny Paycheck, whose version reached #2 on the country music chart in late 1971.[7] In a later interview on NPR’s Studio 360, Williams stated he was raised on country music: “Black music didn’t start ’til 10 at night until 4 in the morning and I was in bed by then… If you strip my tracks, take away all the horns and guitar licks, what you have is a country song.” However, he also continued to write and produce deep soul songs for other musicians, including Z. Z. Hill and Irma Thomas. In 1971 in collaboration with co-producer and writer the legendary George Semper he released “Monster Walk Pt. 1 and 2” by the Rhythm ‘N’ Blues Classical Funk Band on Mankind Records label. Produced for Jerry Williams Productions, Inc.and in spite of modest sales the record once again demonstrated his entrepreneurial skill as an artist. // As Swamp Dogg, he was signed by Elektra Records for his second album, Rat On! in 1971. The sleeve showed him on the back of a giant white rat, and has frequently been ranked as one of the worst album covers of all time. Sales were relatively poor, and he joined Jane Fonda’s anti-Vietnam War Free the Army tour. His next albums Cuffed, Collared and Tagged (1972) and Gag a Maggott (recorded at the TK Studio in 1973) were released on smaller labels, though his 1974 album, Have You Heard This Story??, was issued by Island Records. In 1977 he had another minor R&B hit with “My Heart Just Can’t Stop Dancing”, credited to Swamp Dogg & the Riders of the New Funk. He continued to release albums through the 1970s and into the mid-1980s as Swamp Dogg, on various small independent labels and in a variety of styles including disco and country and maintained a healthy cult following. He also set up his own publishing and recording company, Swamp Dogg Entertainment Group (SDEG). // In 1999, “Slow Slow Disco” was sampled by Kid Rock on the track “I Got One for Ya”, sparking a revival of interest in Swamp Dogg, who began performing live gigs for the first time. Several other of his recordings were sampled, and in 2009 he released two new albums, Give Em as Little as You Can…As Often as You Have To…Or…A Tribute to Rock N Roll, and An Awful Christmas and a Lousy New Year. He also released some further singles, and a compilation album of the best of his work as both Little Jerry Williams and Swamp Dogg, It’s All Good, was released in 2009. Most of his early Swamp Dogg albums have also been reissued on CD. // Swamp Dogg released a full-length album of new songs in 2014, The White Man Made Me Do It, which Williams described as being a sort of sequel to Total Destruction To Your Mind. Shortly thereafter, Swamp Dogg teamed up with Ryan Olson from Poliça to produce the tracks for his 2018 album Love, Loss & Autotune, Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver) fine-tuning the vocal tracks. The song also features instrumentation by Guitar Shorty. The music video for “I’ll Pretend” premiered at NPR and was later featured at Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Spin and elsewhere. Swamp Dogg described the song as a character study about “a guy sitting in a restaurant by himself losing his fucking mind because he’s hoping his woman is gonna walk by, but she’s at a Ramada Inn somewhere fucking somebody else to death.” // In 2020, he released the album Sorry You Couldn’t Make It, a country-styled record recorded in Nashville with producer Ryan Olson and musicians including Justin Vernon, John Prine, and Jenny Lewis. More info at: http://www.theswampdogg.com]
  1. Beyoncé – “Blackbird (feat. Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy & Reyna Roberts)”
    from: Cowboy Carter / Parkwood Entertaiment / March 29, 2024
    [Cowboy Carter (also referred to as Act II: Cowboy Carter) is the eighth studio album by American singer and songwriter Beyoncé, released on March 29, 2024, via Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Records. The album is the second installment of Beyoncé’s trilogy project, following Renaissance (2022). Beyoncé conceived Cowboy Carter as a journey through a reinvention of Americana, spotlighting the overlooked contributions of Black pioneers to American musical and cultural history. // Mostly labeled a country album, Cowboy Carter blends together diverse musical genres such as pop, hip hop, trap, psychedelic funk, blues, soul, rock, rock ‘n’ roll, opera, “Irish” jig and folk music, among others. Conceptually, the album is presented as a radio broadcast by a fictitious station called “KNTRY Radio Texas”, with country singers Dolly Parton, Linda Martell and Willie Nelson acting as disc jockeys. The album’s songs feature lesser-known country artists such as Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts, Shaboozey and Willie Jones. The music is driven by a range of acoustic instruments played by musicians including Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Nile Rodgers, Jon Batiste, Gary Clark Jr. and Rhiannon Giddens. // The album broke several streaming records and debuted at number one in several countries globally. Two co-lead singles — “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” — supported the album, with the former becoming the first country song by a black woman to top the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Country Songs charts. // Cowboy Carter was met with universal acclaim upon release; critics felt that the album’s genre experimentation, expansive scope and eclectic references aided an ambitious reimagining of Americana and country through the lens of its Black roots. The album also ignited discussions on Black musicians’ place within country music, boosted the listenership of Black country artists and country radio in general, and increased the popularity of Western wear and culture. // I grew up going to the Houston rodeo every year. It was this amazing diverse and multicultural experience where there was something for every member of the family, including great performances, Houston-style fried Snickers, and fried turkey legs. One of my inspirations came from the overlooked history of the American Black cowboy. Many of them were originally called cowhands, who experienced great discrimination and were often forced to work with the worst, most temperamental horses. They took their talents and formed the Soul Circuit. Through time, these Black rodeos showcased incredible performers and helped us reclaim our place in western history and culture.— Beyoncé to Harper’s Bazaar in 2021 // Beyoncé was born and raised in Houston, amid the city’s cowboy heritage and country and zydeco music. She listened to country music from an early age, particularly because of her paternal grandfather; her family attended the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo every year in western clothing. She performed at the Rodeo four times between 2001 and 2007, and has continued to celebrate her country and Southern roots throughout her career. // Beyoncé’s first notable association with country music came in 2007, when she performed a bluegrass-inspired version of her hit “Irreplaceable” with country duo Sugarland at the American Music Awards. She first released an original country song in 2016: the track “Daddy Lessons” on her sixth studio album Lemonade. Beyoncé, together with the Chicks (who had previously covered the song), performed the track at the 50th Annual Country Music Association Awards on November 2, 2016. The performance was largely praised by critics and gave the Country Music Association Awards their highest viewership in history; however, it was also met with backlash, with some country music fans criticizing Beyoncé’s attendance and claiming she did not belong in the genre. The Country Music Association deleted all promotional posts about Beyoncé’s performance, which was seen as succumbing to the pressure in an attempt to prevent backlash against the organization. // This experience led to the creation of Cowboy Carter. Beyoncé said how it was made clear to her that she was not welcome in the country music space, but instead of letting the criticism force her out of the genre, it made her push past the limitations put on her. She delved into the history of country music and Western culture and researched its African-American roots. She studied “our rich musical archive” and learned from educators who had long advocated for a re-education on the black roots of country music. She also read that historically half of cowboys were black. “After understanding where the word ‘cowboy’ came from, I realized how much of the Black, brown and Native cowboy stories are missing in American history”, she said. This was the inspiration for her 2021 “Ivy Park Rodeo” clothing collection. Following this research, Beyoncé decided that she wanted to reclaim Americana and country music from a Black perspective, according to stage designer Es Devlin. Collaborator Rhiannon Giddens said Beyoncé did not intend to create a typical crossover country album, but instead wanted to explore her family’s roots through music. Beyoncé conceived the album as a redefinition of “what is Country and Americana, and who gets to be included”, with the aim of dismantling accepted false norms about American culture and paying homage to Black musical pioneers. // Cowboy Carter was over five years in the making. Beyoncé began to write the album in 2019, then recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, which she described as her most creative period. The album forms the second installment (“Act II”) of a trilogy project that Beyoncé recorded during this period. The first act, Renaissance (2022), is primarily a house and disco record highlighting and celebrating the Black progenitors of dance music, leading some to believe that each album of the trilogy would aim to explore the Black roots of a different musical genre. Cowboy Carter was originally intended to be released before Renaissance but Beyoncé changed the order as a response to the pandemic. // Between 2020 and 2024, Dolly Parton said on multiple occasions that she would like Beyoncé to cover her song “Jolene”. She first said that “nobody’s ever had a really big hit record on [‘Jolene’]” in a December 5, 2020, interview with The Big Issue. She said that even though “the song has been recorded worldwide over 400 times in lots of different languages, by lots of different bands, [she’d] always hoped somebody might do [it] someday, someone like Beyoncé.” On March 10, 2022, when asked by Trevor Noah on The Daily Show about her 2020 statement, she said “I would just love to hear ‘Jolene’ done in just a big way, kind of like how Whitney did my ‘I Will Always Love You’, just someone that can take my little songs and make them like powerhouses. That would be a marvelous day in my life if she ever does do ‘Jolene’.” After publicly showing her support for Beyoncé’s 2024 venture into country in February, on March 8, 2024, in an interview with Knox News for the 2024 season opening of Dollywood, Parton said “I think she’s recorded ‘Jolene’ and I think it’s probably gonna be on her country album, which I’m very excited about…” // In addition to up-and-coming country artists, various established musicians contributed to Cowboy Carter, including Linda Martell, Willie Nelson, Stevie Wonder and Nile Rodgers // The joy of creating music is that there are no rules. The more I see the world evolving the more I felt a deeper connection to purity. With artificial intelligence and digital filters and programming, I wanted to go back to real instruments, and I used very old ones. I didn’t want some layers of instruments like strings, especially guitars, and organs perfectly in tune. I kept some songs raw and leaned into folk. All the sounds were so organic and human, everyday things like the wind, snaps and even the sound of birds and chickens, the sounds of nature.— Beyoncé on Cowboy Carter // Beyoncé recorded around 100 songs for the album. Each song is its own reimagined version of a Western film. These include Five Fingers For Marseilles (2017), Urban Cowboy (1980), The Hateful Eight (2015), Space Cowboys (2000), The Harder They Fall (2021), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), Thelma & Louise (1991), and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). // Cowboy Carter is generally described as a country and Western album, and blends together various genres including blues, soul, rock, rhythm and blues, zydeco, folk, bluegrass, opera, go-go, flamenco, funk carioca, fado, classic rock, rap, pop, house and Jersey club. The album is presented as a broadcast by a fictional Texas radio station, with country singers Dolly Parton, Linda Martell and Willie Nelson acting as radio DJs. The album features rising country artists Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts, Shaboozey and Willie Jones, and also features contributions by musicians such as Stevie Wonder, Nile Rodgers, Raye, and Jon Batiste. The album is cyclical, with the final note looping seamlessly into the beginning of the first track (which begins “Nothing really ends”) in the same manner as James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake (1939), according to the The Washington Post’s Shane O’Neill. The album features a range of acoustic instruments played by musicians including Stevie Wonder on harmonica, Paul McCartney and Nile Rodgers on guitar, and Rhiannon Giddens on banjo. // Chitlin’ Circuit-inspired Cowboy Carter tracklist poster released two days prior to the album. Beyoncé originally intended to release Cowboy Carter as the first installment of her trilogy project, but explained that “with the pandemic, there was too much heaviness in the world”, and so released Renaissance first, because “[people] deserved to dance.” The then-untitled album was first announced on February 11, 2024, during Super Bowl LVIII, when Verizon Communications aired a Super Bowl commercial, titled “Can’t B Broken”, in which Beyoncé tried to “break the Internet” through increasingly outlandish means, such as releasing a jazz saxophone record, performing on top of the Las Vegas Sphere, building an artificial intelligence (AI) version of herself, launching a “BarBey” (portmanteau of Barbie and Beyoncé) collection, announcing her candidacy for a fictional political position, and flying into space for a performance. After all of the ideas proved unsuccessful, Beyoncé concluded the commercial by remarking: “Okay, they ready. Drop the new music”. // Following the broadcast, Beyoncé released a teaser video for Act II on Instagram. Directed by British artist and filmmaker Nadia Lee Cohen, the video pays homage to Paris, Texas (1984), references border blasters and features Chuck Berry’s 1955 track “Maybellene”. The same day, the singer’s official website was updated to announce her eighth studio album, with the placeholder name Act II, scheduled for release on March 29. Subsequently, the album’s two lead singles, “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages”, were simultaneously made available for digital download and streaming. On March 12, Beyoncé announced the album would be titled Cowboy Carter via a teaser poster of a western saddle with a sash. With this she listed album merchandise of limited-edition CDs with a bonus track, T-shirts, and vinyl variants in red, white, blue and standard black. // On March 19, 2024, Beyoncé revealed the album cover via Instagram, and said there would be “surprises” and collaborations on the album. On March 20, she revealed a limited edition exclusive cover, wearing a sash that reads “act ii BEYINCÉ”, referencing her mother Tina’s generational family surname. Taglines and film stills for the album were projected onto various museums in New York City. One of these was an unauthorized projection onto the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, who genially responded by posting Franz Marc’s 1910 painting Three Horses Drinking with the Texas Hold ‘Em-inspired caption “This ain’t Texas”. Beyoncé also posted co-ordinates to the museum on her Instagram story. // This album has been over five years in the making. […] It feels good to see how music can unite so many people around the world, while also amplifying the voices of some of the people who have dedicated so much of their lives educating on our musical history. The criticisms I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me. act ii is a result of challenging myself, and taking my time to bend and blend genres together to create this body of work. […] I hope that you can hear my heart and soul, and all the love and passion that I poured into every detail and every sound. I focused on this album as a continuation of RENAISSANCE…I hope this music is an experience, creating another journey where you can close your eyes, start from the beginning and never stop. This ain’t a Country album. This is a “Beyoncé” album. — Beyoncé via Instagram in March 2024 // On March 27, Beyoncé posted a graphic to Instagram of the album’s tracklist inspired by vintage posters from the Chitlin’ Circuit era. It revealed collaborations with Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson, as well as a cover of the former’s “Jolene”, and “The Linda Martell Show”. The latter song references Linda Martell, the first Black woman to achieve commercial success in the country genre. // The CD release comes in four variants, each with a different rear cover depicting Beyoncé. It was released in Japan on March 29 and will be released on April 12 in Europe. After the album’s release, fans reported that their pre-ordered physical vinyl and CD copies were missing numerous tracks, with some asking for refunds.]
  1. Marvin Gaye – “Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler)”
    from: “Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler)” – Single / Tamla- Motown / Sept. 16, 1971
    [“Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)”, often shortened to “Inner City Blues”, is a song by Marvin Gaye, released as the third and final single, and the climactic song from his 1971 landmark album, What’s Going On. Written by Gaye and James Nyx Jr., the song depicts the ghettos and bleak economic situations of inner-city America, and the emotional effects these have on inhabitants. // In 1998, co-writer James Nyx Jr. recalled, “Marvin had a good tune, sort of blues-like, but didn’t have any words for it. We started putting some stuff in there about how rough things were around town. We laughed about putting lyrics in about high taxes, ’cause both of us owed a lot. And we talked about how the government would send guys to the moon, but not help folks in the ghetto. But we still didn’t have a name, or really a good idea of the song. Then, I was home reading the paper one morning, and saw a headline that said something about the ‘inner city’ of Detroit. And I said, ‘Damn, that’s it. ‘Inner City Blues’.” // The song was recorded in a mellow funk style with Gaye playing piano. Several of the Funk Brothers also contributed, including Eddie “Bongo” Brown, and bassist Bob Babbitt. // In its unedited version as it appears on the album, the final minute of the song (and of the LP) is a reprise to the theme of “What’s Going On”, the album’s first song, then segues into a dark ending. This final minute was cut off of the single version, as well as other sections of the song so the single edit runs under three minutes—this edit appears on most reissues of the LP. // Lead and background vocals by Marvin Gaye
    Piano by Marvin Gaye; Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra including: Bobbye Hall on bongos. // Motown released “Inner City Blues” as a single on their Tamla label on October 14, 1971. Record World predicted that it would be Gaye’s “third [single from What’s Going On] to smash.” // The song helped Gaye make history by being one of the few artists to have three or more Top 10 songs off Billboard’s Pop Singles chart peaking at #9 and one of the first to have three consecutive #1 hits on Billboard’s R&B Singles chart where it stayed for two weeks. Although not certified by the RIAA at that time, all three releases from the What’s Going On album gained Gold status by selling over 1,000,000 copies in the U.S.]

10:12 – Interview with Mara Rose Williams and J.M. Banks

Mará Rose Williams is The Kansas City Star’s assistant managing editor for race and equity issues. She has served as a member of the Star’s Editorial Board and she is an award-winning columnist. She has written on all things education for The Star since 1998, including issues of inequity in education, teen suicide, universal pre-K, college costs & racism on university campuses. She was a writer on The Star’s 2020 “Truth in Black amd White” project, and the recipient of the 2021 Eleanor McClatchy Award for exemplary leadership skills and transformative journalism.

Mara Rose Williams thanks for being our guest on WMM

J.M. Banks is Co-Host of Voices of Kansas City on KKFI 90.1 FM. He grew up in Kansas City. and went to Paseo Academy Of Performing Arts and then Studied at University of Missouri – Kansas City. J.M. Banks is The Kansas City Star’s culture and identity reporter. He has worked in various community-based media outlets such as The Pitch KC and Urban Alchemy Podcast. He is former Advisory Board Member at KSHB 41. J.M. is the Creator and Host of J.M. Banks: The KC Renaissance now in its 6th year.

J.M. Banks thanks for being our guest on WMM

Mará Rose Williams and J.M. Banks, join us to talk about The Kansas City Star’s new 4-week radio series, VOICES OF KANSAS CITY, that The Star is producing with 90.1 FM KKFI. The series begins on Wednesday, April 17, at 6:00 pm.

Mara Rose Williams and J.M. Banks are the cohosts of this new series.

This is the second season of VOICES OF KANSAS CITY that The Kansas City Star has created in collaborations with 90.1 FM KKFI.

The first season VOICES OF KANSAS CITY told the stories of 8 Black owned small business in Kansas City and aired September 22, through October 13, 2023 at 12:00 Noon, and was part of KKFI’s “new schedule roll-out.”

In Season two, Mará Rose Williams and J.M. Banks of The Kansas City Star have created feature stories on eight young Black Activist in our community.

This series is part of The Star’s continued effort to improve coverage of Black Kansas Citians, following the paper’s 2020 publication, of the award winning, six story, “Truth in Black and White,” an apology for the news organization’s poor, inadequate, and often absence of coverage of Black Kansas City which perpetuated systemic racism in our city.

Mara Rose Williams started the conversation with KKFI by referring to The Kansas City Star’s December 22, 2020. The Kansas City Star published an apology:

“Today we are telling the story of a powerful local business that has done wrong.

For 140 years, it has been one of the most influential forces in shaping Kansas City and the region. And yet for much of its early history — through sins of both commission and omission — it disenfranchised, ignored and scorned generations of Black Kansas Citians. It reinforced Jim Crow laws and redlining. Decade after early decade it robbed an entire community of opportunity, dignity, justice and recognition.

That business is The Kansas City Star.

Before I say more, I feel it to be my moral obligation to express what is in the hearts and minds of the leadership and staff of an organization that is nearly as old as the city it loves and covers:

We are sorry.”

Read more at: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article247928045.html#storylink=cpy

From this apology The KC Star has made a commitment to change. They hosted “Community Listening Projects” to find out what readers want, what are their issues, what are their loves.

The Star learned that the community wants more stories about success and triumphs.

The KC Star wanted to partner with KKFI to have us be the broadcast platform to air these programs, as a limited series.

KKFI is a non-commercial radio station under the direction of a non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization. We operate under FCC and IRS regulations. The series would not be about selling any specific products, it would be more of a journalistic approach to the who, what, where, when, how, of the people behind the business, to tell stories of success.

The KC Star is presenting 8 stories on young Black activists in Kansas City. These will be approximately 30-minute interview/features, to become four 60-minute shows, created, produced, hosted, and edited by KC Star Staff: Mara Williams & J.M. Banks.

The KC Star Initiative mirrors KKFI’s “New Program Roll Out” Initiative of working to make both of our organizations even more diverse, inclusive, equitable, and representative population we serve.

90.1 FM KKFI’s Programming Committee, voted to approve KKFI’s airing of The KC Star’s 4-week series. The MidCoast Radio Project Board of Directors voted unanimously, to approve the motion.

Mara Rose Williams and J.M. Banks thank you for being our guest on WMM

The second season The Kansas City Star’s new 4-week radio series, VOICES OF KANSAS CITY, produced on collaboration with d 90.1 FM KKFI will begin on 90.1 FM KKFI on Wednesday, April 17 , at 6:00pm.

10:30 – Underwriting

  1. Brad Cox – “Canon from 4 FRAGMENTS”
    from: Music from 4 FRAGMENTS / Owen/Cox Dance Group / April 12, 2024
    [4 Fragments is a series of short works with music for string quartet, percussion and electronics, composed by Brad Cox. The musicians are: Matthew Bennett on violin, Christine Grossman on viola, Sascha Groschang on cello, Jeff Harshbarger on bass, Patrick Alonzo Conway on percussion, and Brad Cox on piano. Also, John Kizilarmut on percussion, although not playing for the live show, John was instrumental in putting the music together. 4 Fragments celebrates those we love, those we have lost, and the joy of human connection.]

[4 FRAGMENTS is premiering at City Stage Theatre, Union Station 30 W. Pershing Rd. KCMO, Friday & Saturday, April 12 & 13 at 8:00 PM, and Sunday, April 14, at 2:00 PM. More info at: http://www.owencoxdance.org]

10:32 – Interview with Jennifer Owen & Brad Cox

Jennifer Owen is Artistic Director of Owen/Cox Dance Group, an ensemble she co-founded with composer Brad Cox in 2007. She has choreographed over fifty new works for Owen / Cox Dance Group. Prior to founding Owen/Cox Dance Group, Owen enjoyed a 13-year international ballet career. After training w/ Pacific Northwest Ballet School, San Francisco Ballet School, School of American Ballet, and Bolshoi Ballet Academy, she went on to dance with the Russian State Ballet, Moscow Renaissance Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, BalletMet, and was a guest artist w/ National Ballet of Turkmenistan.

Brad Cox is a composer in the uniquely American Ellington model, Brad is dedicated to forming long lasting relationships with musicians and writing music for those musicians. Brad served as founder & contributing composer to The People’s Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City, and conceived & organized the ensemble’s versions of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King and The Battleship Potemkin. In addition to his work with Owen/Cox Dance Group, he has created compositions & arrangements for Sony Classical recording artist Nathan Granner, Grammy award-winning producer & engineer Russ Elevado, Paris-based songwriter Krystle Warren and internationally-recognized puppeteer Paul Mesner. Brad is a 2009 recipient of the Tanne Foundation Award, and 2010 recipient of the Charlotte Street Foundation Generative Performing Artist Award.

Jennifer Owen and Brad Cox join us to talk about 4 FRAGMENTS, a series of short works with music for string quartet, percussion & electronics, composed by Brad Cox, celebrating those we love, those we have lost, and the joy of human connection. 4 FRAGMENTS is premiering at City Stage Theatre, Union Station 30 W. Pershing Rd. KCMO, Friday & Saturday, April 12 & 13 at 8:00 PM, and Sunday, April 14, at 2:00 PM. More info at: http://www.owencoxdance.org

Jennifer Owen & Brad Cox thank you for being our guest on WMM

Jennifer Owen has choreographed over fifty new works for Owen/Cox Dance Group, including two commissions by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and works commissioned by Island Moving Co. of Newport, RI, Kansas City Dance Festival, Kansas City Baroque Consortium, and Kansas City Chamber Orchestra. She has also created nine new works for Kansas City Ballet’s In the Wings choreographic workshop, and a winning entry for the 2006 Columbus Choreography Project. Owen is the recipient of a 2000 Princess Grace Honorarium. Prior to founding Owen/Cox Dance Group, Owen enjoyed a 13-year international ballet career. After training with Pacific Northwest Ballet School, San Francisco Ballet School, School of American Ballet, and the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, she went on to dance with the Russian State Ballet, Moscow Renaissance Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, BalletMet, and was a guest artist with the National Ballet of Turkmenistan. She has performed principal roles in Giselle, Don Quixote, George Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux and Donizetti Variations, and the central pas de deux in Todd Bolender’s Arena.

The musicians in 4 FRAGMENTS are: Matthew Bennett on violin, Christine Grossman on viola, Sascha Groschang on cello, Jeff Harshbarger on bass, Patrick Alonzo Conway on percussion, and Brad Cox on piano. Also, John Kizilarmut on percussion, although not playing for the live show, John was instrumental in putting the music together.

Jen Owen’s husband and partner is Brad Cox, is also the founder of The People’s Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City--a musicians’ collective dedicated to the creation and performance of new large ensemble jazz. AND, Brad Cox Octet–an eight-piece ensemble made up of 2 saxophonists, 2 bass players, 2 drummers, and 2 keyboardists.

Jennifer Owen and Brad Cox of Owen/Cox Dance Group talk with us about 4 FRAGMENTS, a series of short works with music for string quartet, percussion and electronics, composed by Brad Cox, celebrating those we love, those we have lost, and the joy of human connection. 4 FRAGMENTS is premiering at City Stage Theatre, Union Station 30 W. Pershing Rd. KCMO, Friday & Saturday, April 12 & 13 at 8:00 PM, and Sunday, April 14, at 2:00 PM. More info at: http://www.owencoxdance.org

Jennifer Owen & Brad Cox thank you for being our guest on WMM

10:40

  1. Brad Cox – “Canon from 4 FRAGMENTS”
    from: Music from 4 FRAGMENTS / Owen/Cox Dance Group / April 12, 2024
    [4 Fragments is a series of short works with music for string quartet, percussion and electronics, composed by Brad Cox. The musicians are: Matthew Bennett on violin, Christine Grossman on viola, Sascha Groschang on cello, Jeff Harshbarger on bass, Patrick Alonzo Conway on percussion, and Brad Cox on piano. Also, John Kizilarmut on percussion, although not playing for the live show, John was instrumental in putting the music together. 4 Fragments celebrates those we love, those we have lost, and the joy of human connection.]

10:43 – More Interview with Jennifer Owen & Brad Cox

Jennifer Owen and Brad Cox of Owen/Cox Dance Group talk with us about 4 FRAGMENTS, a series of short works with music for string quartet, percussion and electronics, composed by Brad Cox, celebrating those we love, those we have lost, and the joy of human connection. 4 FRAGMENTS is premiering at City Stage Theatre, Union Station 30 W. Pershing Rd. KCMO, Friday & Saturday, April 12 & 13 at 8:00 PM, and Sunday, April 14, at 2:00 PM. More info at: http://www.owencoxdance.org

Jennifer Owen & Brad Cox thank you for being our guest on WMM

Owen/Cox Dance Group is a 501 (c) 3 not for profit corporation with a mission is to create new music and dance collaborations, to present high-quality contemporary dance performances with live music, and to engage as wide an audience as possible through affordable live performance, education and outreach programs

Over the last few years Owen/Cox Dance Group’s was working on a U.S. State Diplomacy Tour in Ukraine. COVID-19 local & international protocol, postponing this trip until later. Jen Owen how do you explain how your donace company has been involved in international history and now with the Russian invasion into the Ukrain things have dramatically changed.

Monday, April 8, 2024 was Cecilia Cox’s 10th Birthday and she saw the solar eclipse in Fredericktown, Missouri.

Past Shows:

Owen Cox Dance Group’s aRound & aRound, March 31 thru April 2, 2023, at ​The City Stage Theatre, Union Station This production featured original music composed by Brad Cox and Jeff Freling (of Victor & Penny and Slim Hanson and the Poor Choices). This work also featured visual projections created by artist and NEA Fellow, Nate Fors.

Owen Cox collaboration with The Black Creatures “What Came With Spring,” Oct. 7 thru October 9, 2022.

Jennifer Owen & Brad Cox thank you for being our guest on WMM

4 FRAGMENTS is premiering at City Stage Theatre, Union Station 30 W. Pershing Rd. KCMO, Friday & Saturday, April 12 & 13 at 8:00 PM, and Sunday, April 14, at 2:00 PM. More info at: http://www.owencoxdance.org

10:54

  1. Rick Mareske – “River”
    from: A Stroll in The Park / Rick Mareske / March 30, 2024
    [For this song: Rick Mareske on guitar, with Erin Keller on lead vocals, Beth Watts Nelson l backing vocals, Betse Ellis on violin, Christine Broxterman on cello, Brian Steever on drums, Jeffery Ruckman on piano, & Johnny Hamil on bass.These compositions have been written over the past 50 years but have been edited, updated, arranged, scored over the last four years and finally recorded. // Compositions by Rick Mareske. Produced by Clarke Wyatt. Recorded by Chad Meise at Massive Sound and Clarke Wyatt at Gnomes and Goats Studio. Mastered by Collin Jordan at Boiler Room Mastering. Illustrations by Regina Compernolle. Album Design by Quinn Kavanaugh. Musicians: Thomas Aber – Clarinet and Bass Clarinet; Christine Broxterman – Cello; Patrick Alonzo Conway – Percussion; Betse Ellis – Violin, Viola and Fiddle; Adam Galblum – Mandolin; Johnny Hamil – Electric Bass and String Bass; Byron Jones – Trumpet, Flugelhorn and Vocals; Erin Keller – Vocals; Rick Mareske – Guitars and Vocals; John Miles – String Bass; Fast Johnny Ricker – Slide Guitar; Jeffery Ruckman – Piano and Organ; Steven Smith – Alto and Tenor Sax; Guy Montes – Flute; Brian Steevers – Drums; Beth Watts Nelson – Vocals; Randy Weinstein – Harmonica; Bill Woodhouse – Mandolin; Clarke Wyatt – Banjo and Organ; Zinnia, Macee, and Clementine – Choir. Artwork by Regina Compernolle. Wallet Style Case Design by Quinn Mahler]

[Rick Mareske plays A Stroll In The Park – CD Release Party, Friday, April 12, at 8:00pm at The Brick, 1727 McGee, KCMO, with Erin Keller on vocals; Beth Watts Nelson on vocals; Rick Mareske on guitar & vocals; Byron Jones on trumpet, flugelhorn, & vocals; John Miles on string bass; Johnny Hamil on string bass & electric bass, Gliddon Coleman on keys; RJ Schultze on drums. With special Guests: Betse Ellis on fiddle; Clarke Wyatt on banjo & keyboards; Bill Woodhouse on mandolin; and maybe others.]

  1. Krystle Warren – “Move”
    from: Three The Hard Way / Parlour Door Music / August 18, 2017
    [Inspired by early Black gospel and gospel/jazz music of the 20th Century leading up to the Civil Rights era Produced by Krystle Warren and Ben Kane (D’Angelo, Emily King, PJ Morton). Recorded, engineered, and mixed by Ben Kane. Written & performed by Krystle Warren. Mixed at The Garden, Brooklyn. Mastered & cut by Alex DeTurk at Masterdisk. In 2016, for Middle of The Map Festival Krystle Warren premiered songs from this album in a packed room at Californos in Westport and later at The Polsky Theatre for the Performing Arts Series of Johnson County Community College. For this record Krystle decided to play every instrument and vocals & back up vocals, “playing bass, drums, lap steel, piano, guitar, and vocals directly to analog tape. She and Ben Kane recorded in Villetaneuse, France, a small town on the outskirts of Paris in a vintage 70s era studio that offered just the right, rich sound to suggest the musical foundation for the record, and to do justice to the duo’s carefully balanced arrangements.” In the Summer of 207 prior to this album’s release, on WMM Krystle shared inspirations for this record, early gospel recordings, that crossed over into Jazz from Pharoah Sanders, Edwin Hawkins, and The Swan Silvertones. Originally from KC, Krystle learned to play the guitar by listening to Rubber Soul & Revolver from The Beatles. Krystle graduated from Paseo Arts Academy in 2001 and began her musical career in collaborating with area jazz and pop musicians. After living in San Francisco and NYC, Krystle was signed to a French label, Because Music, and moved to Paris to release “Circles” in 2009. Krystle played French and British television programs, including Later with Jools Holland, garnering critical acclaim and traveling all over the world with Rufus Wainwright, Nick Cave, Norah Jones, and Joan As Police Woman. Krystle created, Parlour Door Music, to release “Love Songs: A Time You May Embrace” a recording from a 13-day session in Brooklyn, where she recorded 24 songs live with 28 musicians including her band, The Faculty, alongside choirs, horn and string sections.]

[Krystle Warren plays Boulevardia, Saturday, June 15 at Crown Center]

11:05 – Interview with D Rashaan Gilmore

D. Rashaan Gilmore is the Emmy winning host and moderator of the Kansas City PBS program Flatland KC. He is also a Newsweek contributing writer. After nearly four years as part of the team on 90.1’s The Tenth Voice, D. Rashaan made the leap to producing and hosting his own weekly radio show “Unbossed and Unbothered” that aired from 2021-2022 on 90.1 FM KKFI. A life-long resident of Kansas City. He is community connector, organizer, collaborator, and AIDS activist, who serves as Founder and President/CEO at BlaqOut KC, which seeks to organize and mobilize the black, gay community in Kansas City and develop a leadership core. Gilmore has previously managed multiple significant HIV/ AIDS awareness and prevention grants for the Kansas City CARE Clinic. D Rashaan has also served as the Senior Field Organizer for PROMO, Missouri’s statewide LGBT equality and advocacy organization.

D Rashaan Gilmore thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley.

D. Rashaan Gilmore congratulations on winning an Two Emmy Awards.

After nearly four years as part of the team on 90.1’s The Tenth Voice, D. Rashaan made the leap to producing and hosting his own weekly radio show, “Unbossed and Unbothered” that aired from 2021-2022 on 90.1 FM KKFI. And then KC PBS hired D. Rashaan to serve as host and moderator of Flatland KC whee is has won two Emmy Awards.

While he had his radio show on KKFI D Rashaan covered insurrections, impeachments, and inaugurations, COVID-19, The Vaccine, The Presidential election. In his new role as host and moderator of Flatland KC D. Rashaan covers all kinds of area issues including recently the April 2, Jackson County Sales Tax vote.

Will Flatland KC give D. Rashaan a segment called “Reclaiming My Time” inspired by the legendary U.S. Representative for California’s 43rd Congressional District, Maxine Waters.

D. Rashaan’d program on KKFI was called “Unbossed and Unbothered” a title inspired by the late congress woman Shirley Chisholm who ran for President in 1972 with the motto: “Unbought and Unbossed.”

Shirley Anita Chisholm (November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005) was an American politician who, in 1968, became the first black woman to be elected to the United States Congress. Chisholm represented New York’s 12th congressional district, a district centered in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn[a] for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In 1972, she became the first black candidate for a major-party nomination for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Throughout her career, she was known for taking “a resolute stand against economic, social, and political injustices,” as well as being a strong supporter of black civil rights and women’s rights.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, she spent ages five through nine in Barbados, and she always considered herself a Barbadian American. She excelled at school and earned her college degree in the United States. She started working in early childhood education, and she became involved in local Democratic Party politics in the 1950s. In 1964, overcoming some resistance because she was a woman, she was elected to the New York State Assembly. Four years later, she was elected to Congress, where she led the expansion of food and nutrition programs for the poor and rose to party leadership. She retired from Congress in 1983 and taught at Mount Holyoke College while continuing her political organizing. Although nominated for the ambassadorship to Jamaica in 1993, health issues caused her to withdraw. In 2015, Chisholm was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Actress Uzo Aduba portrays Chisholm in the FX on Hulu miniseries Mrs. America, released in April 2020, for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series.

In November 2020, Danai Gurira was cast as Shirley Chisholm in The Fighting Shirley Chisholm, directed by Cherien Dabis, about her 1972 run for president. However, as of 2024, the film had not appeared, and it was still considered to be in development.

Shirley was released on Netflix in March 2024 with Regina King as Chisholm and John Ridley directing. Also announced in the cast were Lance Reddick, Lucas Hedges, Amirah Vahn, André Holland, Christina Jackson, Michael Cherrie, Dorian Missick, W. Earl Brown and Terrence Howard.

Chisholm was also heavily featured in Mel Brooks’s 2023 satirical television series History of the World, Part II, played by Wanda Sykes. Segments throughout the series loosely detailed Chisholm’s presidential bid stylized as episodes of Shirley!, a fictional 1970s sitcom. The episodes “starred” other members of Chisholm’s family and friends, including Conrad Chisholm (Colton Dunn), Florynce Kennedy (Kym Whitley) and Ruby Seale (Marla Gibbs).

Current Issues for “Reclaiming My Time”:

The Right wing attack against Black History

The movie “Shirley” and the Academy Award Nominated film, “Rustin” starring Coleman Domingo as Bayard Rustin both offer history so many folks do not know about.

Biden vs. Trump the rematch
Women’s Healthcare vs. The Supreme Court
House Speaker Mike Johnson presides over the most ineffective Congress ever?
Trump in Court
Drag Queen Story time
After Trump
Trump supporters don’t care about issues, they only want revenge and suffering.
Why do well meaning white folks ask their Black friends to explain racism? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

A life-long resident of Kansas City. He is community connector, organizer, collaborator, and AIDS activist, who serves as Founder and President/CEO at BlaqOut KC, which seeks to organize and mobilize the black, gay community in Kansas City and develop a leadership core.

Gilmore has previously managed multiple significant HIV/ AIDS awareness and prevention grants for the Kansas City CARE Clinic.

D Rashaan has also served as the Senior Field Organizer for PROMO, Missouri’s statewide LGBT equality and advocacy organization.

D Rashaan thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley.

D. Rashaan Gilmore is the Emmy winning host and moderator of the Kansas City PBS program Flatland KC. D. Rashaan Gilmore also serves as Founder and President/CEO at BlaqOut KC More info at: http://www.blaqOut.org

11:28 – Underwriting

11:28 – Underwriting

  1. The Distant Now – “Some Thin Dime”
    from: The Dime Variations / The Distant Now / March 27, 2024
    [Kansas City, Kansas based musical duo, The Distant Now who released “The Dime Variations,” on April 2, 2024. Anson the Ornery and Brandan Hoffman created two new songs that are two sides of the same coin. “Some Thin Dime” antes up a classic soul tune, recorded to sound live in a smokey nightclub. “Borrowed Dime” then doubles down by flipping “Some Thin Dime” to create new meaning and context. “The Dime Variations” is streaming on all platforms. Last year The Distant Now released the EP Want Not is Deth on July 29, 2023. The Distant Now is now a duo, but last year it was a trio with Jacob E.chord, Anson The Ornery, & Brandan Hoffman. More info at: http://www.thedistantnow.bandcamp.com]

11:35 – Interview with Anson The Ornery

Anson the Ornery is a multimedia artist with a background in music, visual arts, writing and acting. Anson combines his artistic disciplines in interactive installations and performances to use the viewer as a creative part of his process. Anson graduated with a BFA in Expanded Media along with minors in Music and Writing from the University of Kansas in 2010 then moved to Kansas City to be apart of the art scene. Anson is currently managing his own art handling business as he continues to create more ambitious installations.

Anson the Ornery is one half of of the Kansas City, Kansas based musical duo, The Distant Now who released “The Dime Variations,” on April 2, 2024. Anson the Ornery and Brandan Hoffman created two new songs that are two sides of the same coin. “Some Thin Dime” antes up a classic soul tune, recorded to sound live in a smokey nightclub. “Borrowed Dime” then doubles down by flipping “Some Thin Dime” to create new meaning and context. “The Dime Variations” is streaming on all platforms.

Anson The Ornery, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Last year The Distant Now released the EP Want Not is Deth on July 29, 2023 with Jacob E.chord, Anson The Ornery, & Brandan Hoffman. // Too Much Rock reviewed The Distant Now’s Sept. 9, 2022 concert at The Rino in NKC, MO. : “The evening began punctually at 8pm. The three-piece of The Distant Now was up first. Three dudes. Patchy beards. Long dark hair. Lanky. Glasses. They could be brothers, but they’re not. They’re guitarist Jacob E.chord (Eckhardt to the taxman), keyboardist Anson DeOrnery, and drummer Brandan Hoffman. You’ve seen some before in other bands. You’ve seen all of them at other shows. The band hasn’t been around long. In fact, The Distant Now only has two songs that they’ve written as a band. They played both (as the opener and the closer I believe) and then padded the half-hour set with five other songs from the players’ other projects. As such it’s hard to get a feel for what the band is or where it is going. There are short psych songs augmented by E.chord’s pedal board. There are long multi-movement prog suites colored by DeOrnery’s synthesized organ tones. There’s elements of jazz and indie throughout. Originality is hard to pull off, but the Distant Now is giving it a go. E.chord carried most of the vocals. Sometimes they’re a bit campy in that Peter Murphy or even Ziggy-era Bowie way. That’s fun. DeOrnery provided backing vocals throughout the night and took lead on a few. One was a bit iffy. He sounded better on the next. That must have been the closer. It had a solid piano ballad foundation elevated with phased guitar weaving in and out. Between songs E.chord chatted with the audience. DeOrnery chimed in. The set was relaxed and unpretentious. The audience, engaged and supportive. Time will tell where the band goes, but everyone should pay attention to find out.” (from http://www.toomuchrock.com)

The last time Anson The Ornery was on the show was May 20, 2020. We were on the phone during this COVID-19 pandemic.

Anson The Ornery had just released DJ Daniel The Cat on May 6, 2020 – Daniel used small electronic toy synthesizers to accommodate the size of his paws to create his self titled album synthpop DJ Daniel the Cat containing six upbeat dance songs with lyrics chronicling Daniel’s crippling social anxiety. After Daniel’s disappearance the DJ Daniel the Cat album was believed to be lost over. Over the last decade the notoriety of DJ Daniel the Cat has grown due to the popularity of the internet and the demand for the lost album was never greater when it was recently rediscovered. DJ Daniel the Cat is just one part of a larger work of art. Anson will be premiering DJ Daniel the Cat live on YouTube on Friday, May 22 at 7:00 PM with a special surprise at the end for longtime fans.

For over a decade it was believed that the ground-breaking 2009 self-titled album DJ Daniel the Cat had been lost after the disappearance of Daniel the Cat in 2010. Recently Anson the Ornery, the producer and singer of DJ Daniel the Cat, rediscovered the album’s masters. The interest in DJ Daniel the Cat has only grown over the years despite the fact that few have ever heard the legendary album outside Daniel’s inner group of friends. That is soon to change, for Anson has announced that on May 22nd 2020 he will be live streaming DJ Daniel the Cat via Facebook and Youtube Live at 7 pm CST in its entirety along with his own personal commentary about the making of the album.

The breakout success of Piano Cat inspired Daniel to become a DJ himself but, due to bigotry in the music industry towards cats, Daniel was worried that his music would not be taken seriously. Anson then became the voice of DJ Daniel the Cat in order for the public to accept Daniel’s music. The two labored on the album for months only using small electronic toy synthesizers to accommodate the size of Daniel’s paws. The result was a masterful collection of six electronic dance music tracks with lyrics chronicling Daniel’s crippling social anxiety. After the news of Daniel’s disappearance Anson was disheartened and DJ Daniel the Cat was lost in the confusion. Over the last decade the notoriety of DJ Daniel the Cat has grown due to the popularity of the internet and the demand for the lost album has never been greater.

Anson The Ornery, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

“The Dime Variations” is streaming on all platforms More information at: More info at: http://www.thedistantnow.bandcamp.com http://www.ansontheornery.com

11:50

  1. The Distant Now – “Borrowed Dime”
    from: The Dime Variations / The Distant Now / March 27, 2024
    [Kansas City, Kansas based musical duo, The Distant Now who released “The Dime Variations,” on April 2, 2024. Anson the Ornery and Brandan Hoffman created two new songs that are two sides of the same coin. “Some Thin Dime” antes up a classic soul tune, recorded to sound live in a smokey nightclub. “Borrowed Dime” then doubles down by flipping “Some Thin Dime” to create new meaning and context. “The Dime Variations” is streaming on all platforms. Last year The Distant Now released the EP Want Not is Deth on July 29, 2023. The Distant Now is now a duo, but last year it was a trio with Jacob E.chord, Anson The Ornery, & Brandan Hoffman. More info at: http://www.thedistantnow.bandcamp.com]
  1. Waxahatchee – “Bored”
    from: Tiger’s Blood / Merge Records / March 22, 2024
    [Kansas City based Katie Crutchfield’s southern roots are undeniable. The name of her solo musical project Waxahatchee comes from a creek not far from her childhood home in Alabama and seems to represent both where she came from and where she’s going. // Tiger’s Blood was produced by Brad Cook. Engineered & mixed by Gerardo “Jerry” Ordonez. Assistant engineering by Natalia Chernitsky. Mastered by Emily Lazar. Recorded and Mixed at Sonic Ranch Recording Studios. // On March 27, 2020 Waxahatchee released SAINT CLOUD which was in the TOP 20 of WMM’s 120 Best recordings of 2020. On Saint Cloud all songs were written by Katie Crutchfield. Recorded & mixed at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, TX & Long Pond in Stuyvesant, NY. Produced by Brad Cook. Engineered by Jerry Ordonez. Additional engineering by Jon Low. Mixed by Jon Low. Mastered by Brent Lambert at The Kitchen. KATIE CRUTCHFIELD on vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, keys; BRAD COOK on bass, acoustic guitar, piano, keys, synth; BOBBY COLOMBO on electric guitar, acoustic guitar, keys; BILL LENNOX on electric guitar, acoustic guitar, keys, percussion; NICK KINSEY on drums, percussion; JOSH KAUFMAN on electric guitars, piano, organ, percussion. More info at: http://www.waxahatchee.com.]

[Waxahatchee plays the Uptown Theatre on April 18, 2024]

Next week on Wednesday, April 17 We will cover Manor Fest 6 with Special Guest Shaun Crowley.

THANK YOU to our incredible KKFI Staff; Director of Development & Communications – J Kelly Dougherty, Volunteer Coordinator – Darryl Oliver, Chief Operator – Chad Brothers.

This radio station is more than the individual hosts of each individual radio show. Instead it is about a collective spirit of hundreds of hardworking people, unselfishly setting aside ego, to work for the greater good of community building and the gigantic goal of keeping our airwaves free, non-commercial, and open to all! Congratulations and thank you to all programmers & volunteers who went the extra effort to keep our station alive.

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

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Show #1041