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, October 7, 2026

Calvin Arsenia + Just Angel, T.A. Rell & Friends + Fanny Mandelberger

1. “It’s Showtime Folks”
   from: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to All That Jazz / 1980
   [WMM’s theme song]

2. Meshell Ndegeocello, Lizz Wright, Emily King – “Be Real Black For Me”
   from: Synonym / Blue Note – Verve / October 2, 2026
   [15th album from acclaimed GRAMMY-winning multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello. // This is Ndegeocello’s 3rd Blue Note album, With Synonym, the singer-bassist-producer reimagines and reconceptualizes a brilliantly curated collection of classic songs as duets with an astounding roll call of guests. // Written by Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway & Charles Mann for the album Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway, released April 1972, with producers Joel Dorn & Arif Mardin. Be Real Black for Me centers on a plea for authentic self-expression within an intimate relationship. The speaker addresses their partner directly, asking them to embrace their natural Black identity without pretense or alteration. The song celebrates Black physical features and cultural identity while expressing deep emotional dependence on the relationship’s continuation.// Synonym was introduced with the lead track “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me),” an arresting take on the George Michael/Aretha Franklin duet sung by Ndegeocello and Cynthia Erivo. Other featured guests on the album include Chaka Khan, Brandi Carlile, Bill Callahan, Chris Thile, Madison Cunningham, Laura Lee (of Khruangbin), Lianne La Havas, Moses Sumney, Destin Conrad, Nick Hakim, Robert Glasper, ANOHNI, WILLOW, Evann McIntosh, and Ink. // The album also notably marks a reunion with David Gamson, the producer of Ndegeocello’s first two classic albums – Plantation Lullabies (1993) and Peace Beyond Passion (1996) – who co-produced Synonym with Ndegeocello and Abe Rounds. A rotating cast of instrumentalists also anchors the music on the album, many of whom are Ndegeocello’s close artistic conspirators, including drummers Rounds and Deantoni Parks; guitarist Chris Bruce; keyboardists Jake Sherman, Jebin Bruni, and Larry Goldings; saxophonists Josh Johnson and Levon Henry; flutist Elena Pinderhughes, banjoist Bela Fleck; and others. // Exploring expressions of desire, care, heartbreak, friendship, disappointment, and love in all forms, the songs range from 1960s folk and 70s soul, country, and pop to 80s R&B and electro-boogie, early-90s alternative rock, and early-aughts hip-hop. “This project is about classic songs that are known and loved,” Ndegeocello says. “The songs have diverse tones, representing various genres and intentional grooves. But the album is also about joy, selfhood, individual representation, and universal experience.” // When asked about the album’s intriguing title, Ndegeocello first suggests that the word “just feels good on the mouth,” before expounding upon its true definition: a word or phrase that means the same thing as another word in the same language. “That’s how humans are,” Ndegeocello theorizes, “Regardless of our differences, deep down we essentially want the same things: healthy food and a safe place to live. We are all different. But at the core of the human condition, we are the same.” / / On August 2, 2024 Meshell Ndegeocello released her acclaimed No More Water: The Gospel Of James Baldwin on Blue Note – Verve. A tribute album to African-American thinkers and writers, including namesake James Baldwin and Audre Lorde. The album was released on Baldwin’s Centennial: August 2, 2024. (from www.bluenote.com): The visionary work is at once a musical experience, a church service, a celebration, a testimonial, and a call to action. With No More Water, Ndegeocello embarks on a prophetic musical odyssey that transcends boundaries and genres, delving headfirst into race, sexuality, religion, and other recurring themes explored in Baldwin’s canon. Following 2023’s The Omnichord Real Book, her acclaimed Blue Note debut which won the inaugural GRAMMY Award for Best Alternative Jazz Album, the multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and producer renders an immersive and palpable document that is as sagacious, unabashed, and introspective as Baldwin was in life. // Co-produced by Ndegeocello and guitarist Chris Bruce, No More Water features some of the bassist’s frequent collaborators including Bruce, vocalist Justin Hicks, saxophonist (and Omnichord producer) Josh Johnson, keyboardist Jebin Bruni, and drummer Abe Rounds. Also appearing on various songs are vocalist Kenita-Miller Hicks, keyboardists Jake Sherman and Julius Rodriguez, and Executive Director of the NYCPS Arts Office and trumpeter Paul Thompson. The album also showcases powerful spoken word by venerated poet Staceyann Chin and Pulitzer Prize-winning author and critic Hilton Als. // Nearly a decade in the making, the album’s origins began in 2016 during a performance at The Harlem Stage Gatehouse as part of their annual showcase honoring Baldwin. Ndegeocello had delved into Baldwin’s work the year before, including the seminal nonfiction work The Fire Next Time, which she considers “life-changing” and carries with her as a “spiritual text.” Ndegeocello says, “It was just a revelation to me, and it softened my heart in so many ways.” // Meshell Ndegeocello released her Blue Note Records debut with The Omnichord Real Book, on June 16, 2023. // At The 2024 Grammy Awards, Meshell Ndegeocello won the first-ever GRAMMY for Best Alternative Jazz Album for The Omnichord Real Book. In her acceptance speech, the two-time GRAMMY winner and 12-time nominee thanked Don Was, the president of Blue Note Records, as well as other colleagues and loved ones — including her two sons. “I hope I haven’t forgotten anybody,” Ndegeocello graciously said at the end, and invoked an elder of the music: “Oliver Lake, this is for you.” // It was a visionary, expansive, and deeply jazz-influenced album that marks the start of a new chapter in her career. Following her 2018 album Ventriloquism, Meshell returns with an album of new original material that taps into a broad spectrum of her musical roots. The Omnichord Real Book was produced by Josh Johnson and features a wide range of guest artists including Jason Moran, Ambrose Akinmusire, Joel Ross, Jeff Parker, Brandee Younger, Julius Rodriguez, Mark Guiliana, Cory Henry, Joan As Police Woman, Thandiswa, and others. // Meshell Ndegeocello was born Michelle Lynn Johnson on August 29, 1968 in West Berlin, Germany, to US Army Sergeant Major and saxophonist father Jacques Johnson and health care worker mother Helen. She was raised in Washington, D.C. where she attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts and Oxon Hill High School. She is a singer-songwriter, rapper, and bassist. She has gone by the name Meshell Suhaila Bashir-Shakur which is used as a writing credit on some of her later work. Her music incorporates a wide variety of influences, including funk, soul, jazz, hip hop, reggae and rock. She has received significant critical acclaim throughout her career, being nominated for eleven Grammy Awards, and winning one. She also has been credited for helping to “spark the neo-soul movement”. // Ndegeocello adopted her surname, which she says means “free like a bird” in Swahili.]

The tracklisting for Synonym is as follows:
I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) with Cynthia Erivo
Don’t You Want Me with Cat Power
Don’t Stop The Music with Nick Hakim, Robert Glasper
Islands In The Stream with Chaka Khan
It Ain’t Me Babe with Madison Cunningham
Always on Time with Laura Lee
Be Real Black For Me with Emily King, Lizz Wright
Don’t Look Any Further with Lianne La Havas
The Closer I Get To You with Destin Conrad, Moses Sumney
Golden Ring with Brandi Carlile
I Got You Babe with ANOHNI
Here We Come (Here He Comes) with Evann McIntosh
Guilty with Ink
Hunger Strike with WILLOW
With God On Our Side with Bill Callahan, Chris Thile.

3. Mary Gauthier – “Alcohol and Adderall”
   from: Reckoning / Soundly/Thirty Tigers / September 25, 2026
   [Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter/author Mary Gauthier releases her haunting new song, “Alcohol and Adderall,” off her powerful album, Reckoning. Co-written by Gauthier, Ben Roberts and Jaimee Harris, “Alcohol and Adderall” is a portrait of a relationship with someone struggling to outrun addiction, loneliness, and the wounds that keep pulling them inward. Through vivid imagery, the song captures both the narrator’s desire to reach them and the painful realization that some battles cannot be won for another person. // “My friend Ben and I were talking about a friend of his who was having major trouble with alcohol and pills,” says Gauthier. “People all around were trying to help, trying to pull him back toward the life he could have. And he just kept screwing it up. As we talked, our conversation turned to what it feels like to love someone who is sinking in self-destruction. The helplessness. The sadness. The fear. The anger. The wrenching ache. This is where the song began.” “Ben and I are both in recovery,” she adds. “We know what it feels like to be that person spiraling downward. But being on the other side of that struggle, loving someone who can’t seem to stop hurting themselves, is a different kind of heartbreak, reaching for someone who keeps building walls between themselves and the people who love them is a hard place to be. Sometimes all you can do is step back and watch them disappear.” // The songs on Reckoning exude an urgency during turbulent times, while offering inspiration and hope. Each song serves as a compelling vignette with characters who arrive at pivotal moments and face choices that ultimately define lives, communities, and even history. After nine critically accl // Mary Gauthier is a Grammy-nominated American folk singer-songwriter and author, known for songs that blend emotional resonance, depth of character, and lyrical insight. Her storytelling—raw, honest, and unwavering—has established her as one of America’s most compelling voices, offering beauty in sorrow, healing in loss, and perspectives only an artist of profound empathy can provide. Gauthier’s songs have been recorded by artists including Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton, Kathy Mattea, Boy George, Jimmy Buffett, Vince Gill, Bettye LaVette, and many more. She has received honors from the Americana Music Association, International Folk Music Awards, the Independent Music Awards, the GLAMA Awards, and the UK Americana Association. Her work has appeared extensively in film and television, including Yellowstone and ABC’s Nashville, and her memoir, Saved by a Song, was published by St. Martin’s Press.]

4. Brandi Carlile – “Joni – Sad Gay Version”
   from: Returning To Myself (Sad Gay Version) / Interscope – Lost Highway / Sept. 25, 2026
   [New deluxe version of Brandi Carlile’s critically acclaimed album, Returning To Myself. // Returning To Myself (Sad Gay Version) features intimate reimagined versions of all ten songs from the original album, with Carlile returning to Long Pond Studio to co-produce four tracks with Aaron Dessner. The collection includes a collaboration with Grammy-nominated composer and electronic musician Jon Hopkins (Brian Eno, Coldplay) on the breakout single, “Human,” as well as a new version of Billy Joel’s “And So It Goes” exclusively on DSPs (a version of which is also featured on the official soundtrack for Practical Magic 2). See below for full track list details. // Adding to yet another monumental year, Carlile wrapped the fall leg of her extensive “The Human Tour” earlier this week, which included three sold-out shows at Red Rocks featuring opener Stephen Wilson Jr. and surprise appearances from Alanis Morissette and Nathaniel Rateliff. The tour also included “Be Human: A Concert For Minneapolis.” Filmed during her sold-out show at Minneapolis’ Target Center, “Be Human” is now available in full on YouTube and raised over $750,000 to date for The Advocates for Human Rights via Carlile’s Looking Out Foundation. “A monumental gig” (Rolling Stone), the show includes a special performance of “It’s Okay to Change Your Mind” with Minneapolis’ Singing Resistance as well as Carlile and The Head and the Heart joining forces for Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida.” // Furthermore, Carlile won Song of the Year at the 2026 Americana Awards (“Returning To Myself”), was honored as one of TIME’s 2026 Women of the Year and performed “gorgeous” (Billboard) renditions of “America The Beautiful” at Super Bowl LX (watch HERE) and as part of ABC News’ America 250 celebration (watch HERE). She also returned to NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert series and NBC’s Saturday Night Live as musical guest for the fourth time, was featured on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Las Culturistas, Good Hang with Amy Poehler, The Howard Stern Show, NPR’s Wild Card with Rachel Martin and The Drew Barrymore Show, and spoke with The New York Times for an in-depth profile.

Critical acclaim for Returning To Myself:

“Carlile is a bona fide superstar whose compositions feel like instant classics”—NPR Music

“It has the luster and confidence of an artist realizing her prime, finding memory and maturity in the lyrics.”—The New York Times

“It’s a record about navigating the second half of life with fortitude and not fear; and how the best way to do that is to remember where we came from, and who we got there with.”—Rolling Stone

“For an artist already established as one of her generation’s brightest songwriters, this represents another significant evolution”—Rolling Stone U.K.

“Carlile’s eighth album does the difficult work of cracking open the soul to let flow her vulnerability. The songs succeed in their tasks: bringing her into a fresh creative moment where she flourishes”—Paste

“A pearl from the new queen of Laurel Canyon…it never sounds less than gorgeous”—MOJO

“An album full of warmth and humanity”—The London Standard

One of music’s most respected voices, Carlile is an Oscar-nominee, 11x Grammy-winner, 2x EMMY-winner and #1 New York Times Bestselling author. Throughout her acclaimed career, Carlile has released eight studio albums including Who Believes in Angels?, the universally acclaimed, Grammy-nominated collaborative album with her childhood hero, Elton John, which debuted at #1 in the U.K. and top 10 in the U.S. She received her first Oscar nomination in the Original Song category in January 2025 for “Never Too Late,” a Grammy-nominated track written alongside Elton John, Bernie Taupin and Andrew Watt for the Disney+ documentary of the same name. // Additionally, Carlile is a renowned producer with recent Grammy-winning projects from Joni Mitchell and Brandy Clark. She also produced and recorded a rendition of Indigo Girls’ “Closer To Fine” with her wife, Catherine, which was included on Barbie The Album as well as a version of “Home,” which was featured in the final season of Ted Lasso, while her song “You Without Me” was featured twice in the season three finale of Apple TV’s Shrinking.// Beloved by her peers, Carlile has worked with artists such as Soundgarden, Sam Smith, Alicia Keys, Hozier, Noah Kahan, P!nk and Dolly Parton, was named OUT Magazine’s Icon of the Year, awarded Billboard’s Women In Music Trailblazer Award and NMPA’s Songwriter Icon Award as well as multiple awards from the Americana Music Association. She also launched a partnership with the National Park Foundation to raise critical funds to preserve and protect these cherished places across the country and is a founder of the Looking Out Foundation, which has raised over $10M for grassroots causes to date. Carlile lives in rural Washington state with her wife and two daughters.]

5. Ivory Blue – “Come On Over Rover”
   from: “Come On Over Rover” – Single / IVORY BLUE / September 25, 2026
   [Ivory Blue released her single “Feelin’ Like A Star” on Jly 17, 2026. Ivory Blue released her New 10-song full length album ECHO on May 22, 2026. Her third full length album. IVORY BLUE released the singles: “History” on April 3, 2026.,“afterglow” on February 20, 2026; “Forevermore” on November 28, 2025; and “Echo” on September 5, 2025. // Kansas City based artist, IVORY BLUE has a tendency of breaking through barriers that keeps her from saying what needs to be said, regardless of style. Bringing us hard hitting rock inspired ear candy like “Starlit Love Child” and “Control”, the idea of genre is only a tool IVORY uses to express her ability to communicate through music. // IVORY BLUE released the singles “Mirrors” on August 1, 2025; “Heartbeat” on March 28, 2025; “Rhythm of the Radio” on January 31, 2025 // “Exiled” on November 29, 2024; “Olé!” on October 4, 2024, Breathing Underwater” on August 9, 2024, “Bad Dreams”on June 7, 2024, “Batter Up” on April 22, 2024, “Flashback” on March 15, 2024, “Howl” on Feb. 16, 2024. // IVORY BLUE released their 2nd full length album, STARLIT LOVE CHILD, on Nov. 17, 2023. The 10-track album was in the top five of WMM’s 120 Best Recordings of 2023, and in the “Best of” lists at 90.9 The Bridge and stations around the world. // On Oct. 27, 2023 IVORY BLUE released the single “Ghost of Life.” This single followed IVORY’s previous releases,”In A World Like This” from Sept. 22, 2023, ”The Best of Life” from Aug. 4, 2023 and “Control” from May 26, 2023. IVORY released the single “All Outta Love” on Feb. 24, 2023. // IVORY BLUE released the single “Starlit Love Child” on Oct. 28, 2022, “Red Light” on July 29, 2022. // IVORY BLUE released their full length debut album COMPOUND LOVE on Feb. 25, 2022. COMPOUND LOVE was in the Top 10 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. // 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’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 when 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 with The Band That Fell to Earth, Boulevardia, Crossroads Music Festival, Middle of the Map Fest, Westport Roots Festival, KCPT Screening of “Real Boy” at KC 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. In 2011, Ivory settled in the Kansas City, MO area. During the past 10 years Ivory came out as “Non-Binary Transgender”, and then later as Trans-Female. // 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. Info at: www.ivorybluemusic.com]

[IVORY BLUE plays The Ship, 1221 Union Ave, KCMO West Bottoms on Saturday, October 10, at 7:00pm EX LIBRIS CABARET – A Birthday Party for Wick Thomas. This is Banned Books Week, celebrate your Freedom to Read with the only librarian in the Missouri legislature. Featuring our Emcee Annie Cherry and Performances by: The Wanderlust Revival, Damian Blake, and more.]

6. The Nature Boys – “Tin Foil Hat”
   from: Reno Man / Dead Broke Rekerds / October 21, 2026
   [The band includes: Danny Fischer on guitar & vocals, Suzanne Hogan on bass & vocals, Brad Highnam on drums. Recorded // Nature Boys – Kansas City, Missouri punk rock & rollers that have been kickin’ up dust all across the country since 2009! They left for our first tour in January of 2010. // Nature Boys released their album IV /on September 24, 2021. Nature Boys started playing together in Kansas City, Missouri September of 2009. They wrote this about their band: “We had our first show in November or December at the Troost House, and then our second show at Dave’s Stagecoach Inn. // Nature Boys released the single: “Common Visions” from / Dead Broke Rekerds on April 11, 2025 // They released their IV album and first on Dead Broke on Septembr 24, 2021, after self-releasing a slew of their previous efforts including: Nature Boys 3rd album on April 19, 2017, Nature Boys 2nd Album on February 16, 2014, and Natures Boys 1st Album on January 26, 2014. Imagine if Dead Moon was a bunch of punk rockers from the south, then you might be getting close to what Nature Boys scrappy & energetic punk rock is all about. ]

Danny Fischer Discography

The Afterparty – Forever After – 2005
Piano, Electric Piano [Rhodes], Vocals – Josh Mobley
Bass – Chris DeVictor
Drums – Paul Andrews
Vocals – Sarah Carpenter
Vocals, Guitar – Danny Fischer, Dave Regnier*
Recorded By, Engineer – Chad Meise, Clarke Wyatt
All Songs Written – The Afterparty
Arranged – The Afterparty

The Afterparty – Under The Rainbow – 2006
Vocals, Guitar, Organ – Danny Fischer
Piano [Rhodes] – Josh Mobley
Bass – Chris Devictor
Drums – Paul Andrews
Guitar – David Regnier
Vocals [The Brunettes] – Amie Nelson, Sarah Carpenter, Sonya Andrews
Guitar [Guest Musician] – Marco Pascolini
Saxophone [Guest Musician] – Mark Southerland, Mark Weinberg, Sam Hughes
Soprano Saxophone [Guest Musician] – Jolin Smith
Sousaphone [Guest Musician] – Bill McKemy
Trombone [Guest Musician] – Jeremiah Kidwell, Seth Lee
Trumpet [Guest Musician] – Bobby DuSoul
Fiddle [Guest Musician] – Betse Ellis
Recorded – Chad Meise
Mastered – E. Clarke Wyatt*
Arranged – The Afterparty
Artwork [Art/Packaging] – Pascolini Design Lab

The Afterparty – unreleased 3rd album – 2007 (a limited number of cassettes were created.)
Side one:
boots
Big Mamou
Rock Bump Head
Tacoland Blues
In Blazes
Dinosaurs
Side two:
Butterflies and Clothesline
Drakkars Mamma
Phil
I Love You

Nature Boys – Nature Boys – 2010
San Huevos Records
Guitar, Vocals – Danny Fischer
Bass, Vocals – Suzanne Hogan
Drums – Aaron Rommel
Recorded – Ashley Miller
Recorded [Assisted By] – Zachary VanBenthusen
Written – Nature Boys
Artwork, Photography, Design Concept – Nature Boys

Nature Boys – Nature Boys – 2013
San Huevos Records
Danny Fischer – Guitar, Vocals
Suzanne Hogan – Bass, Vocals
Aaron Rommel – Drums
Danny Fischer – Lyrics
Recorded by – Jon Kraft
Mixed – Mike Tuley, Jon Kraft, Nature Boys
Photography – Michael Boles
Will Burnip – Artwork [Insert Art]

Nature Boys – 2017
San Huevos Records
Suzanne Hogan
Suzanne Hogan – Bass, Vocals
Evan Malone – Drums
Danny Fischer – Guitar, Vocals
Recorded by – Danny Fischer
Mastered By – Carl Saff
Written By – Nature Boys

Nature Boys – IV – 2021
Dead Broke Rekerds
Suzanne Hogan – Bass, Vocals
Evan Malone – Drums
Danny Fischer – Guitar, Vocals
Recorded By – Danny Fischer, James Rumsey
Carl Saff – Lacquer Cut
Pam Fischer – Cover, Artwork
Grace Ambrose – Layout

Warren Burns – Warren Burns – 2023
Danny Fischer – Guitar, Vocals
Recorded By – Danny Fischer
Mastered By – Carl Saff

Warren Burns – Burn Again – April 10, 2026
Warren Burns on vocals, guitar, piano, harmonica
Brad Highnam on bass, backing vocals, piano
Marco Pascolini on pedal steel
Jon Kraft on drums
with Mark Cohick on pipes,
Marvin Gruenbaum & Tony DeMarco & Kent Brauninger on violin;
Steve Molloy & Danny Fischer on trumpet;
Kari Agosti & Suzanne Hogan & on backing vocals.
Recorded by Duane Trower at Weights & Measures Soundlab.
Mastered by Carl Saff

Nature Boys play official Kansas City release will be Friday, November 13, 2026 at Sister Anne’s Records and Coffee, 901 East 31st Street, KCMO w/ Prion and Bad Ideas

Nature Boys on Tour
November 12 Fayetteville @ Punk Truck Stop
November 11 Little Rock @ Kylie’s house
November 10 Hattiesburg/Jackson? Maybe day off…
November 8 New Orleans @ Emma’s House w/ Tonya, STGMA, Subsidence
November 7 Pensacola @ Betty’s
November 6 Huntsville @ Lone Goose w/ EVRYTHNGISWRNG, Curdled Milk Bitch
November 5 Chattanooga @ JJ’s Bohemia w/ Laughter, Defoliant
November 4 Asheville @ Fleetwoods
November 3 Richmond @ Cobra Cabana w/ Housie
November 1 Philadelphia @ Cousin Danny’s Lounge
October 31 New York City @ Property Is Theft (P.I.T.) w/ Sub Rosa and ShellShag
October 30 Providence w/ Excess Blood
October 28 Portland @ Apohadion Theater
October 26 Pittsburgh @ The Rock Room
October 25 Cleveland @ Little Rose Tavern
October 24 Detroit @ Painted Lady
October 23 Cincinnati @ Motr Pub w/ Spirit Level and Poor Little Critters
October 22 Chicago @ Max’s house
October 21 St. Louis @ CBGB w/ Sorry and Little Big Bangs

7. The Utilitarians – “We Battle Babylon”
   from: The Utilitarians / The Utilitarians / March 8, 2026
   [Theresa Schloegel, Billy Guilfoyle, Chris Tady and Jack Boyd… flapper punk, tap and roll… a ‘real good time’ // The Utilitarians have tricks up their sleeves, they rip and shred, but they cool it didn’t go to their head, they treat their fans with respect and in this Rocking form of art this is the “Band with a Heart.” Stars all in their own rights: this 4 piece outfit has the charm of each member being legendary in the KC Underground Community. – Patrick Sumner – Bent Edge KC Punk.]

8. Michigander – “Taxi”
   from: Over Before You Know It / Totally Normal Records – Thirty Tigers / July 31, 2026
   [Michigander – the acclaimed indie rock project led by Nashville-based singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Jason Singer – has announced his sophomore album. Over Before You Know It is the follow-up to last year’s self-titled debut album and is heralded by “Freaking Out.” The first song that Singer wrote for the album, the dissociative anthem is the thematic core of the forthcoming Over Before You Know It. Singer tells us clearly about all that’s going wrong, from the weed that seems to be cleaving him from reality to his world that seems forever wobbling. “I don’t know about you,” he deadpans, “but I haven’t been happy in a while.” In the chorus, though, Singer lands on a line that pushes these three minutes well beyond complaints: “This is what it feels like to be alive,” he sings, the sound of a smile stretched across his lips. // “One of my favorite lines from the entire album is on ‘Freaking Out’, and it is, ‘this is what it feels like to be alive’, says Jason Singer. “I’ve learned that life is complicated and not as black and white as I thought it would be. Growing up is hard. So many things happen that you’re never prepared for. Life is all about the constant battle of good and bad. It’s about coming to the realization that it’s all just ‘part of it.’”]

[Michigander plays recordBar 1520 Grand Ave, Kansas City, MO. on October 20, 2026.]

9. Kelly Hunt – “One Of These Days”
   from: Requiem for a Sleepless Night / Compass Records / September 18, 2026
   [Produced, Recorded & Mixed by Dirk Powell at the Cypress House, Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. Mastered by Eric Conn at Independent Mastering, Nashville, Tennessee. Photography by makemade. Graphic Design by Kelly Hunt. // Memphis native Kelly Hunt returns with her most contemporary and personal album to date: Requiem for a Sleepless Night, a third full-length written in the disorienting hours of insomnia and recorded in taut trio form with acclaimed producer Dirk Powell and his daughter, Amelia Powell, on harmony vocals. // Where Hunt’s earlier work drew its warmth from her storied Depression-era tenor banjo — the instrument at the heart of her 2019 debut, Even the Sparrow (International Folk Music Awards “Album of the Year” finalist) — Requiem for a Sleepless Night marks a shift toward a more guitar-centric sound, with banjo reserved for a handful of key tracks. Recorded once again at Powell’s Cypress House studio in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana — the same room that produced her acclaimed sophomore release, Ozark Symphony, praised by GratefulWeb as a project that “truly captures the spirit of America” — the new album inhabits the rarefied space between waking and dreaming, meditating on love, fear, and the search for meaning.// Self-taught on banjo and guitar, Hunt brings a highly original style built on drones, inflections, pulsing rhythms, and percussive strumming, paired with a voice Rolling Stone’s Greil Marcus says “lets the instrument shape her syllables.” Popmatters has praised her “innate ability to summon the same vigorous energy of classic folk players” while pushing the tradition forward.// For fans of Lucinda Williams, Nanci Griffith, and the wider Americana/Roots tradition, Requiem for a Sleepless Night is Hunt’s most fully realized work yet — atmospheric, intimate, and unmistakably her own, hovering beyond the constraints of genre to navigate the tension between past and present, old world and new. As Folk Radio UK puts it: “keep your eye on this sparrow.” // “If you’ve ever been enchanted by the lyrical power of Lucinda Williams or felt the emotional tug of Nanci Griffith, then you’re about to meet your next obsession.” —Grateful Web // “Standing shoulder to shoulder with contemporaries like Gillian Welch and Rhiannon Giddens…folk music harking back to the stripped-down sounds of Leadbelly, Robert Johnson and Woody Guthrie.” —Americana UK // “Hunt lets the instrument shape her syllables. From the first instant you know you’re in a place where there is no sense of time, where anything can happen and no one will ever have to admit to a thing.” —Rolling Stone ]

[Kelly Hunt plays Paola Community Center in Paola KS., Fri, Oct. 23, 2026 at 7:00pm w/ Dirk Powell]

10:29 – Underwriting

The 19th Annual Apocalypse Meow

[The 19th annual Apocalypse Meow on Saturday, November 7th, Doors at 6pm, Show at 7pm, at recordBar, featuring live music from: ROMAN NUMERALS, JAMOGI & THE JAMMERS, PHAZE II, and STUBBLEFIELD. Apocalypse Meow is MMF’s main fundraiser for Abby’s Fund For Musicians’ Health Care, which provides local musicians and music workers with essential health care resources. In addition to live music, the RockDocs will be on site to offer flu shots and COVID boosters provided by the KC Indian Center, as well as discuss screenings, wellness programs, health conditions and concerns, and arrange follow-ups. We’ll also have live raffles that feature an assortment of items donated by local businesses at AM19, and an online auction running the month of November. // We are seeking donations for our annual Apocalypse Meow silent auction and fundraiser! Advertise your business or band while supporting our mission to provide healthcare grants to music professionals in the Kansas City area! Items like merchandise, music, classes, gift certificates, experiences, and art are greatly appreciated. // If you would like to donate or know of someone who can, please email Rhonda Lyne at rhonda@midwestmusicfound.org. // In 2008, Apocalypse Meow was established to raise medical funds for local musician Abigail Henderson, who had been diagnosed with cancer. Compelled to give back to the community, she co-founded MMF to provide musicians with health care assistance. Though she passed away in 2013, Abigail’s mission continues — MMF provides financial resources, educational programs, health clinics and events throughout the year. Abby’s Fund dispenses emergency health care grants to KC-area musicians, having contributed more than $780,000 since its inception. // Midwest Music Foundation provides grants to musicians faced with urgent health care expenses and preventative health care services through Abby’s Fund for Musicians’ Health Care. This assistance is available to active KC area musicians and music personnel. LEARN MORE AND APPLY HERE or email our Executive Director, Rhonda Lyne, for more information at rhonda@midwestmusicfound.org.]

10:31 – Interview with Fanny Mandelberger

Fanny Mandelberger is a Massage Therapist and an Occupational Therapist who joins us to talk about Occupational & Physical Therapy in the Performance Arts. As owner of Massage Off Broadway and Eco-Massage by Fanny, she has been providing therapeutic massage care for over 45 years and has built practices in NY, Miami, DC & Maryland, and now in Kansas City. Being the first generation of Holocaust survivor parents, Fanny was drawn to life-affirming paths, resilience, possibility. This has led her to combine her private practice as an Occupational Therapist to specializing in contracts with the performing arts in NYC, Miami, and KC working with performers from: Cats, Random Hearts, Dreamgirls, Fun Home, Washington National Opera, Kennedy Center, Heart of America Shakespeare Festival. Based in Kansas City for the last 10 years, Fanny is dedicated to a wellness model reinforcing that we are all equipped to handle what life presents with the variety of tools available to learn and practice. More info at: www.fannyswebsite.wixsite.com

Fanny Mandelberger thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

As owner of Massage Off Broadway and Eco-Massage by Fanny, Fanny has been providing therapeutic massage care for over 45 years with a varied population.  I have built practices in NY, Miami, DC & Maryland, and now in Kansas City.

Fanny – “I had a private massage therapy client, an actor/musician who referred me to the MTV shooting of Rim Tug Tugger number from Cats, the Andrew Lloyd Weber Broadway musical. Next thing I know I was asked to be the company massage therapist for the entire run of the show, over 3 decades! What a gift to educate on injury prevention, energy conservation, flexibility, and diaphragmatic breathing. Those client relationships to this day have yielded entrees into other theatres, dance, film, fashion, and music communities.

Fanny Margaret Mandelberger is a therapist based in Kansas City, Missouri. Moved to KC ten years ago. She is specialized in Occupational Therapy. Active license number of Fanny Margaret Mandelberger is 17-0317 for Occupational Therapy in Kansas. Her current practice location is 11228 Military Club Rd, Kansas City. Patients can reach her at 913-362-7518. Fanny Margaret Mandelberger is OTR/L in Occupational Therapy and her NPI number (Unique professional ID assigned by NPPES) is 1295243053.

Fanny Margaret Mandelberger provides interventions based on evaluation and which emphasize the therapeutic use of everyday life activities (i.e., occupations) with individuals or groups for the purpose of facilitating participation in roles and situations and in home, school, workplace, community and other settings. Occupational therapy services are provided for the purpose of promoting health and wellness and are provided to those who have or are at risk for developing an illness, injury, disease, disorder, condition, impairment, disability, activity limitation, or participation restriction.

Fanny’s modality specialties include Pre & Postnatal, Labor Induction Reflexology, Integrative Reflexology, Deep Tissue, Yogassage, Hot Stone Therapy, Swedish Massage, Stretching, Range of Motion Exercises, Mindful Meditation Techniques, Energy Work, Breathwork, etc.  From our microfiber plush linens, to our therapeutic grade, locally handcrafted organic lotions, balms, energy efficient lighting and cleaning supplies, our mission is to offer compassionate care while gently and intentionally treading on the planet.

Fanny Mandelberger has always been a curious seeker since a young child. Being the first generation of Holocaust survivor parents, she was innately was drawn to life-affirming paths, resilience, possibility, and healing.

Fanny comes from a courageous lineage of holocaust survivors. Her parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles modeled “not to sweat the small stuff” and that life is a precious gift and to embrace it with kindness, compassion, service, fearlessness, love and adventure. She knows that’s why she chose her profession or it chose her, to model to clients and patients that they are equipped to thrive and not be defined by their circumstances.

Fanny’s brother was Arthur Sandy Mandelberger was a Documentary Filmmaker Film Professional and Journal-ist, most recently Editor-in-Chief of Film Festival Today. After he passed his partner of 37 years Richard compiled Sandy’s writings in a printed book. Fanny read to us one of her brother pieces.

For the past four decades, This personally snd professionally led her to combine her interest in holistic health in clinical settings and in private practice educating on broadening the scope of rehab as an Occupational Therapist and massage therapist utilizing mindfulness, breathwork meditation along with traditional modalities to benefit the best quality of life for clients and patients of all demographics.

Fanny had a private practice Massage On/Off Broadway specializing in contracts with the performing arts in NYC, Miami: Random Hearts, Dreamgirls etc. DC: Fun Home, Dreamgirls, Washington National Opera, Randy Graff one woman show at Kennedy Center etc. At Center for the Healing Arts,.

Fanny was the owner providing eco-friendly treatments in Takoma Park MD, now Kansas City, Mo. I’m dedicated to a wellness model reinforcing that we are all equipped to handle what life presents with the variety of tools available to learn and practice.

Having your own practice can have flush and lean times as far as clients’ finances, and my attitude of abundance has served me well to stay focused, steadfast and. Provide sustainability. I am very passionate about my field, and that makes all the difference.

Massage On/Off Broadway nationwide is active which provides dance , theatre, fashion, film, music industries, therapeutic preventative care to include: massage therapy, physical therapy, Occupational therapy for rehabilitation for injuries, acupuncture, reflexology, stretching, range of motion .Please contact for contract prices nationwide. Clients on Broadway: Cats, Starlight Express, Les Miserables, Fun Home, Phantom of the Opera, A Chorus Line, Dancin’, Off Broadway:Hamilton, Beauty and the Beast.

Bringing a holistic wellness approach in clinical, theatrical, end-of-life care, film sets, pre & post-natal has been a passion of mine since my youth. And I feel most fortunate to have attracted purposeful ways of service through my skills and entrepreneurship

Fanny also has practiced tap dancing.

Fanny has also spent time kayaking, floating down the Buffalo, 11 point rivers.

Fanny says, “Resiliency is in my bones!”

Fanny says, “She enjoys making vegan soups, and selling them to the local community.”

I am available to set up meetings with theatre producers/company managers / stage managers.

“We are all in this together mindset. Life is short and precious. Be curious, kind and stay connected. We learn from each other of all cultures, diversity and it enriches us!”

Fanny Mandelberger thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

More info at: www.fannyswebsite.wixsite.com
Email: ecomassagebyfanny@gmail.com
Facebook: Eco-Massage By Fanny
Linkedin: Fanny’s Eco-Wellness Collective for the Performing Arts
Yelp: Eco-Massage By Fanny

10:52

10. Jazlyn – “Dangerous”
    from: “Dangerous” – Single / JNaz Productiond / September 11, 2026
    [Jazlyn Epps is a talented actor, singer, songwriter, and teaching artist based in Kansas City. She began her artistic journey at the age of nine in Springfield Missouri. and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre from Avila University. Since moving to Kansas City in 2015, she has actively contributed to the local arts scene. // Jazlyn specialize in R&B music, but truly loves all genres. She is known for being on the stage and under the lights, whether that’s performing at Musical Theater Heritage in Crown Center, or at Made Mobb singing my original pieces. She has been in 33+ theatrical productions in her lifetime and have had the opportunities to sing at the Vatican, in Italy. Travel and sing throughout Rome and France. And She has released 10 songs within a year. She is most proud of her resilience and never putting herself into a box.]

[Jazlyn Epps plays LOCAL THURSDAYS presented by Manor Records at J. Rieger & Co.’s Electric Park, 2700 Guinotte Ave, KCMO on Thursday, October 8, 6:00 to 8:00pm.]

11. Bobby Watson – “Carter’s Way (For Larry)”
    from: Continuum / HighNote Records / October 5, 2026
    [Bobby Watson is a multi-GRAMMY-nominated saxophonist, composer, bandleader, educator and producer, who trained formally at the University of Miami and then, from 1977-1981, earned his “doctorate” as musical director of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. During his four-plus years with the legendary drummer, the saxophonist contributed to 14 Jazz Messengers recordings — more than anyone else in the group’s 35-year (1955-1990) storied history. // From wikipedia.org: “Bobby Watson was born in Lawrence, Kansas, August 23, 1953. he is an American post-bop jazz alto saxophonist, composer, producer, and educator. Watson now has 29 recordings as a leader. He appears on nearly 100 other recordings as either co-leader or in a supporting role. Watson has recorded more than 100 original compositions. Watson grew up in Bonner Springs and Kansas City, Kansas. // From his years with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers through decades leading Horizon, Bobby Watson has remained a vital force in contemporary jazz. Like Blakey before him, the acclaimed saxophonist, composer and educator has long embraced the responsibility of nurturing the next generation, welcoming fresh voices while remaining firmly rooted in the values of the music. // Joined by longtime collaborators Curtis Lundy and Victor Jones, along with the younger talents of Jordan Williams, Wallace Roney Jr. and Kysen Ellis, Watson once again demonstrates the artistic philosophy that has guided his remarkable career. More than a reflection on past accomplishments, Continuum captures Bobby Watson in constant motion, building on a lifetime of experience while continuing to create, challenge and inspire with undiminished imagination. His distinctive compositions continue to reveal new possibilities, his longstanding musical relationships remain as vital as ever, and his commitment to the next generation ensures that the tradition he inherited continues to move forward.]

[Bobby Watson will be the musical guest when Chuck Haddix presents “Bird: Charlie Parker on Record in Kansas City” at KC Oasis, 1717 W 41st St, KCMO, Sun., Oct. 11, 11:00 to 1:00pm. By participating, you agree to abide by the Oasis Code of Conduct: II. CORE VALUES At KC Oasis, we think: People are more important than beliefs. // Human hands solve human problems.// Reality is known through reason. // Meaning comes from making a difference. // Be accepting and be accepted.]

11:00 – Station ID

12. Calvin Arsenia – “River”
    from: 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 and Voila, and 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.]

[Calvin Arsenia & Friends play The Folly Theater, 300 West 12th Street, KCMO on Tuesday, October 13 at 8:00pm More info at: www.follytheater.org]

11:04 – Interview with Calvin Arsenia

KC Magazine hailed Calvin Arsenia 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.” Calvin Arsenia was voted KC’s Best Musician in The Pitch in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. He has been featured in Billboard, NPR.org. Calvin is the recipient of the Charlotte Street Foundation 2022 Generative Performing Artist Awards, along with The Black Creatures. 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 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 Arsenia a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, teacher, writer, actor, model, designer, and artist. Calvin Arsenia was born in Orlando, Florida. His creative journey began when he moved to Olathe, Kansas, teaching himself guitar, piano, banjo. He learned the harp, at the age of 20. Calvin Arsenia first appeared on WMM on July 25, 2012. His passion for stretching the boundaries saw him transformed after a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland’s Fringe Festival early in his career. 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, his EP, PROSE in 2015, and his Folk Alliance exclusive EP, CATASTROPHE in 2016.

On February 14, 2017 Calvin released his full length debut, CATASTROPHE, with a live show at recordBar in November 2016, involving 50 people: dancers, body painting, stilt walkers. After signing to Center Cut Records, Calvin released the albums: CANTALOUPE in 2018, with a sold out show at The Gem Theatre on September 15, 2018. He then released, L.A. SESSIONS in 2019, along with the EP, HONEY DEW, the EP, GODDESS with Quixotic, and 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 Arsenia released his 14 track album PARADISE to fans on June 23, 2023. His most biographical album yet, with songs about Black Lives Matter, racism, probation, gay love, and collaborations with Cheery, Kadesh Flow & Jametatone.

If that isn’t enough Calvin is the proprietor of The Greenwood Social Hall 1715 Belleview, KCMO West Side, a historical Black Baptist Church that sat empty for several years was refashioned by artist Peregrine Honig and now in the investing hands of Calvin Arsenia who is raising funding ti purchase the building and is producing multiple shows shows in a full calendar of events featuring musical artists, performance artists, vkisual artist theatre artists, and meeting place.

Calvin Arsenia & Friends play The Folly Theater, 300 West 12th Street, KCMO on Tuesday, October 13 at 8:00pm More info at: www.follytheater.org // www.calvinarsenia.com

Calvin Arsenia thanks for being with us on WMM.

---

Calvin says “We are gathering at historic Folly Theater to convene in the name of love, beauty, and truth, reminding us all that, despite its difficulties, being alive is a magical, beautiful, and delicate thing.”

On Tuesday, October 6, 2026 Calvin sent a special message to his e-mail subscribers and fans:

My name is Calvin Arsenia. I grew up in Olathe, Kansas. My family reaches back to West Africa and the British Isles through the sieve of Colonial Virginia. I first discovered music’s power to heal and inspire growing up in evangelical and protestant churches. Week in and week out, I attended – spellbound – profoundly emotional and reverent musical experiences and got involved in choirs and worship team as soon as I could. I spent over a decade singing songs dedicated to ushering in the second coming of Jesus in coffee shops, school gyms, living rooms, and large sanctuaries. I sang in choirs and wrote worship songs and ambiguous love songs that I often self-produced and sold at coffee shop concerts. As a young adult, I eventually wound up on staff with a community of Christians in Edinburgh, Scotland, and there, through the deep friendships I made with musicians and storytellers, I discovered the power of telling one’s own story as an alternative way to freedom from “sin.”

I canceled shame. To chalk it up to sexual identity would be an over-simplification. I was deeply afraid to be perceived as gay, but moreover, I didn’t want to be separated, isolated… humiliated. To be excluded from the community I was going to help save the world with, from “the sacred,” from “home.” I thought I was destined for hell until I realized I was not alone, or odd, or evil. The more transparent I’ve been, the more I realize that we have way more in common than not.

After I came back to Kansas City from Scotland, I had a newfound hope and an appetite for provocative performance art. I presented an album, Catastrophe, on a Tuesday night where I told the story of my precarious love life up til that point. I was terrified of being seen by the friends I had made in my church days. I so badly wanted to be understood, to be honest, and to be loved for who I am.

In the time surrounding The Pandemic™, I spent several years performing in marvelous places – from Alaska to Miami to Mexico to Lincoln Center to Paris to New Orleans – festivals, fashion shows, film scores – all the while studying the mix of vulnerability, perception, frequency, and hospitality. I’ve shared the stage with other fantastic performers and others fail to connect with their audiences at all. How and why are some musical experiences life-changing? What’s the secret sauce? Here is what I’ve learned so far: Intention, care, risk, and preparation are all essential ingredients in creating performances that can change the world.

One of my favorite places to share music is right here in Kansas City: Greenwood Social Hall. It is a treasure trove of musical wonder and artistic delight. Over the last three years, I have curated and hosted hundreds of intimate concert gatherings, always enjoying and studying, and sometimes performing.

Every few years, I host a blow-out musical extravaganza somewhere in Kansas City where I gather a bunch of friends, we dress up, and attempt to transcend yet again. This year, it is happening at the Folly Theater – a place also known for its salacious past.

Next Tuesday, I’m bringing you the cream of the crop – a talented blend of people who call Kansas City home; a selection of the most beautiful songs I have written or discovered, inside our beloved Folly Theater. For the love of live and living music!

As part of the VIP package, I will perform a short prelude of songs I wish could be a part of the main show. I am bringing new t-shirts, candles, soaps, CDs, and some technological items for world-immersion gifts and merchandise. Holiday Gifts!

Thank you, dear friends and loved ones in Kansas City, for providing me with the space and resources to let the music of my mind and the meditations of my heart have a safe place to play – and for coming to play with me. This is my wildest dream coming true. I do not take it for granted.

Calvin Arsenia is inviting an orchestra of performers for his Folly Theater Concert

Calvin Arsenia: voice, harp, guitar, banjo
Canterberries: Vocals
Matt Bennett: Violin
Joanna Metzker: Violin
Christine Grossman: Viola
Eman Chalshotori: Cello
Alyssa Murray: Keys
Simon Huntley: Drums
Joe Donley: Bass
Marcus Rattler: Steel Pan and Auxiliary Percussion
Xion Soundwaves: Choir/Ensemble
Trevor Turla: Trombone
Josué Estrada: Trumpet
Tajma Stetson: Woodwinds
Drew Doran Crane: Piano
Lucas Miguel Parker: Electric Guitar

Special Guests:
Laurel Morgan
Cheery

Each artist brings decades of dedication to their playing. Wit, humor, and revelry.

Calvin Arsenia Live at The Folly Theater
300 W 12th St, Kansas City, MO 64105
6:00PM VIP
7:00PM Doors
8:00PM Music
Attire: A Night at the Theater (Furs, Velvet, Gloves, Odd or Opulent, Victorian Surrealism)

After party – TBD

Ten years ago, Calvin Arsenia premiered Catastrophe at recordBar on Grand Boulevard, introducing Kansas City to a theatrical concert vocabulary that would become central to his work: harp, voice, movement, spectacle, storytelling, and a cast of collaborators large enough to make a concert feel more like a small civilization. Since then, Arsenia has become one of Kansas City’s most singular musical figures, voted Kansas City’s Best Musician by The Pitch for eight consecutive years, 2018–2025, while receiving recognition and support from organizations including the Charlotte Street Foundation, ArtsKC, and the Mid-America Arts Alliance. His work has moved between concert halls, fashion runways, theaters, recordings, and film, including the feature-length Summer in Hindsight, for which he contributed original music and performance.

On Tuesday, October 13, 2026, Arsenia returns to the historic Folly Theater with a seasoned gathering of beloved Kansas City musicians for an evening that looks across a decade of songwriting. Familiar songs will sit alongside new arrangements, offering a portrait of an artist whose work has continued to evolve without losing its appetite for beauty, theater, intimacy, and transcendence. A curated VIP experience will provide an additional, more intimate entry into the evening. Ten years after Catastrophe, the Darling Harpist comes home to the stage that KC built for its most extravagant little secrets.

11:20

11:20

13. Calvin Arsenia – “Rose Petals” (LIVE)
    just released as a single on September 25, 2026

11:23 – More Interview with Calvin Arsenia

Calvin Arsenia & Friends play The Folly Theater, 300 West 12th Street, KCMO on Tuesday, October 13 at 8:00pm More info at: www.follytheater.org // www.calvinarsenia.com

Calvin Arsenia thanks for being with us on WMM.

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 played live on Wednesday MidDay Medley on October 22. 2014.

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 joined us on WMM on March 18, August 5, and October 28.

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. Standing at 6 foot 5 inches, Arsenia’s powerful vocals span a 3.5 octave range, while playing piano, bango, guitar and harp. Calvin Arsenia is getting ready to release a new album in the fall. Calvin teaches music to elementary students. Calvin is also a graduate of Artist INC professional development program for artists in the Kansas City metro area and across the Mid-America Arts Alliance five state region. Calvin Arsenia joined us live on WMM on February 24, July 13, and November 2.

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, Switzerlnd, Lyon and Paris. in over 40 shows, with musician and friend Simon Huntley who plays with Quixotic. Calvin is working to release new music from Calvin’s June 11th, Live Recording at Kansas City’s newly restored Greenwood Social Hall, at 1750 Bellevue Ave. in KC. ] [Calvin Arsenia played Big Bang Buffet’s “Black Sheep Rising,” Tuesday, April 11, at 8:00 at The Buffalo Room. A benefit for 90.1 FM KKFI featuring Ron Megee, Lisa Cordes, Jon “Piggy” Cupit, The Sleazebeats, Kristie Stremel, Jen Harris, Maria Vasquez Boyd, Jen Appell, Bill Belzer, Charlie Colborne, Mark Manning, Susan Cedarquis-Brewington, BJ McBride, Michael McQuary, Janet Henry, Ryan Wilks, and Nico Gray.] [Calvin Arsenia was on WMM on Feb. 15, April 12, Sept. 20, and Oct. 25 , 2017.

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. 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. n the late Summer and Fall Calvin went on a three month US/European Outlyre Tour where he has played San Francisco, Portland, Vancouver, NYC, Boston, Edinburgh, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Switzerlnd, Lyon and Paris. in over 40 shows, with musician and friend Simon Huntley who plays with Quixotic. 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. 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. Calvin is a graduate of Artist INC.

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 and Voila, and 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 & Rewound – Love Story EP / Outlyer Productions / May 9, 2023
Rewound is a trio with Carmen Dieker on violin, Alyssa Bell on viola, and Ezgi Karakus on cello that perform classical and contemporary music re-imagined. For these recordings they are collaborating with Calvin Arsenia on harp.]

Paradise / Calvin Arsenia – Paradise / June 23, 2023
Paradise is Calvin Arsenia’s new 14 track album. It is only available through 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.’ // 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.

Calvin’s Book VERY GOOD BOY DOES FINE / Andrews McMeel Universal / Oct. 5, 2021 a collection of Poetry & Prose

Calvin Arsenia thanks for being with us on WMM

Calvin Arsenia & Friends play The Folly Theater, 300 West 12th Street, KCMO on Tuesday, October 13 at 8:00pm More info at: www.follytheater.org

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

11:26

4. Calvin Arsenia – “Experience”
   from: Catastrophe / 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. Born in Orlando, Florida, Calvin’s creative journey really began when he moved to the KC suburb of Olathe, teaching himself the guitar, and eventually the harp. He learned his signature instrument at the age of 20 after he couldn’t find a harpist as determined as him to meld folk, rock, classical, rap and R&B into the irresistible fusion which has become his calling card in the Kansas City music scene and beyond. 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 Kansas City reborn as a humanistic songwriter/performer whose impassioned and conceptual stage shows (regularly sold-out in Kansas City, currently catching fire on the West Coast with a diverse following across Europe), are collaborative, costumed-culture-bridging spectacles which In KC Magazine has hailed as ‘equal parts opera, symphony, musical theatre, rock show, all built around its creator: a charismatic 6-foot-6-inch harpist with a natural stage command and knack for gilding gold and painting lilies.’ 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. His full length album Catastrophe on February 14, 2017, His EP Caviar in Novenber 2017. Calvin’s 2018 national debut, Cantaloupe, was released on September 15, 2018 on Center Cut Records. On June 28, 2019 Calvin released Honeydew, an EP including a remix of three songs from Cantaloupe. On September 20, 2019 Calvin released LA Sessions. On December 13, 2019 Calvin released his full length Christmas album “all is calm.” Calvin is also a graduate of Artist INC.]

[Calvin Arsenia & Friends play The Folly Theater, 300 West 12th Street, KCMO on Tuesday, October 13 at 8:00pm More info at: www.follytheater.org // www.calvinarsenia.com]

11:29 – Underwriting

15. Just Angel – “Intent”
    from: Just Angel: Pt. 2 {EP] / Just Angel / December 25, 2021
    [Just Angel is a Kansas City based, singer, musician, songwriter, dancer. and creative artist. She recently contributed vocals to the recent Sisterbot record. More info at: /distrokid.com/hyperfollow/justangel/just-angel–pt-1: Just Angel: Pt. 2 is a followup to Just Angle Pt.1 – EP released on December 24, 2020 More info at: https://linktr.ee/JustAngel_TigerLilyStar]

[Just Angel plays POETRY IN PINK GALA – Sunday, October 25 at 6:00pm at Sherri’s Executive Lounge, 3834 Genessee Street, KCMO for the 2nd annual Cancer Awareness Gala for Cancer Survivors, Angels, Families and Communities.]

11:34 – Interview w/ Just Angel, T.A. Rell, Gie Santana, and Jon Hypocrace Lewis

Just Angel, is a a creative singer hailed as “Passionate … Soulful… and an Inspiring Voice.” She’s an Earthy Vocalist, whose voice finds its home in Rock, Jazz, and Alternative music, but has found a way to incorporate those genres within her love of Soul & R&B. Just Angel and her band The Wades can be found playing eclectic takes on popular music, along with her original songs from her EPs, Just Angel Part 1 & 2, and her, newest singles “Dumb”, released August 9, 2024, and “Sad Song”, released June 8, 2025.

We are happy to welcome back to the show Just Angel, with T.A. Rell, Gie Santana, Jon Hypocrace Lewis, who share details about POETRY IN PINK GALA – Sunday, October 25 at 6:00pm at Sherri’s Executive Lounge, 3834 Genessee Street, KCMO for the 2nd annual Cancer Awareness Gala for Cancer Survivors, Angels, Families and Communities. Joining Angel will be Gie Santana, Jon Hypocrace Lewis and Sherri Hall.

Just Angel will perform LIVE in our 90.1 FM Studios with musician T.A. Rell.

Just Angel T.A. Rell, Gie Santana, Jon Hypocrace Lewis, Thank You for being with us on WMM

Just Angel has performed with My Brothers & Sisters. Just Angel and her band, The Wades (which include T.A. Rell) can be found

She released her debut EP, JUST ANGEL, PART 1 on December 24, 2020. She released her follow up EP, JUST ANGEL, PART 2 on December 25, 2021. She also contributed vocals to the amazing Sisterbot record. Just Angel released the single “Dumb” – part of WMM’s favorite 50 Singles of 2024.

Just Angel has performed in multiple theatre theatre productions., and has been working on her musical degree at UMKC.

Just Angel collaborates with T.A. Rell who plays keyboards and sings background with Just Angel in their band The Wades. The Wades rock the stages with Just Angel’s original songs from her recordings and eclectic takes on popular music.

Arick “T.A. Rell” Ridgell is a 24 year old musician has been writing and producing music since the age of 18. The Kansas City, Missouri native was born August 29, 1990. He’s an alumni of Center High School (Kansas City, MO), and a current student at Longview Community College (Lee’s Summit, MO), where he’s currently looking to obtain a degree in Audio Engineering.

Just Angel has been working on her musical degree at UMKC.

11:48

16. Just Angel and T.A. Rell – “I.B.H.D.” (LIVE)
    this song can be found on Just Angel: Pt. 2 {EP] / Just Angel / December 24, 2020

11:53 – More Interview w/ Just Angel, T.A. Rell, Gie Santana, Jon Hypocrace Lewis

We are happy to welcome back to the show Just Angel, with T.A. Rell, Gie Santana, Jon Hypocrace Lewis, who share details about POETRY IN PINK GALA – Sunday, October 25 at 6:00pm at Sherri’s Executive Lounge, 3834 Genessee Street, KCMO for the 2nd annual Cancer Awareness Gala for Cancer Survivors, Angels, Families and Communities. Joining Angel will be Gie Santana, and Jon Hypocrace Lewis.

Just Angel T.A. Rell, Gie Santana, Jon Hypocrace Lewis Thank You for being with us on WMM

POETRY IN PINK GALA – Sunday, October 25 at 6:00pm at Sherri’s Executive Lounge, 3834 Genessee Street, KCMO for the 2nd annual Cancer Awareness Gala for Cancer Survivors, Angels, Families and Communities.

Just Angel, has been seen on stages of The Barn Players Community Theatre, at Johnson County Arts & Heritage Center in BEAUTIFUL, The Carole King Musical,, The Music Theater Heritage: Ruby Room performance of “Piece of My Heart” in 2023, The Black Repertory Theatre of Kansas City “After Midnight” in 2022, and playing Osceola Mays in “Texas in Paris” in 2021.

We are talking with Just Angel who with their band, The Wades can be found rocking stages with original songs from their recordings and eclectic takes on popular music.

Just Angel produced the 4 song EP, JUST ANGEL PT.1 in 3 days in 2020, She then produced a second 4-song EP, JUST ANGEL PT. 2 in 24 hours in 2021. Just Angel has a birthday on December 24. Producer & Musician T.A. Rell helped birth into fruition the Just Angel EP releases with the 5 month hiatus between recordings.

More at https://linktr.ee/JustAngel_TigerLilyStar]

11:57

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

Next week, on Wednesday, October 14,

At 10:00 Ned Stacie joins us to share details about NED’s Fright-Hole Cabaret, November 7th, 12th, 13th at 7:00pm doors, 8:00pm Show at The Warwick, 3927 Main Street, KCMO. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/neds-fright-hole-cabaret-tickets // ALSO Joey Moreno and their partner Bella Cybin, The Emerald film crew and document most all of Ned’s Night-Hole shows is fund raising for their independent short film Level Sands – making art at the end of the world. https://www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/bella-cybin/level-sands

At 10:30 Our favorite Soul Child – Nicolette Paige joins us to talk about her healing work, her musical performances, farming and gardening and her recent travels to Africa.

At 11:00 Shawn Saving of Black Site Records also joins us with writers Francis X. Connor and Darren DeFrain to talk about: No Choice but Action: Kansas Postpunk 1978-1994. Featuring twenty-four tracks ranging from basement tape demos to professional studio recordings, this double LP highlights the evolution of the DIY music scene in the heart of “flyover country” from its nascent punk roots in the late 1970s to the alternative rock era of the early 1990s. Produced in collaboration with Wichita State University, this record is the essential audio companion to the book from University Press of Kansas, No Choice but Action: The Kansas Postpunk Revolution, by Francis X. Connor and Darren DeFrain.

While the history of punk has mostly focused on the coastal cities of the US, a fiercely independent music scene was thriving across Kansas in the late 1970s and 1980s. From Lawrence to Wichita, bands like The Embarrassment, Get Smart!, Micronotz, Pedaljets and Truck Stop Love built a decentralized, grassroots network fueled by basement venues, cassette culture, zines, and pure creative urgency—without the backing of major labels or industry infrastructure. This electrifying cultural history challenges everything we think we know about where music revolutions begin, revealing how Kansas became an unlikely but influential center of the American postpunk movement.

At 11:30pm the band Truck Stop Love joins us live to talk about the release of the re-release of their 1995 debut album, HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION, on vinyl for the first time.

You can find our playlists at: www.wednesdaymiddaymedley.org & www.kkfi.org
www.facebook.com/WednesdayMidDayMedleyon90.1FM
www.instagram.wednesday_midday_medley

Thank you to KKFI Staff: Executive Director – Bess Wallerstein-Huff, Chief Operator – Chad Brothers, Director of Development & Communications – J Kelly Dougherty, Volunteer Coordinator – Darryl Oliver, and Office Manager Book Keeper – Shaina Littler.

THANK YOU to everyone who donated to KKFI’s Summer Fund Drive during WMM we had a total of 33 people donate a total of $3513.50. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

This radio station is more than the individual hosts of each individual radio show. It is a collective spirit of hundreds of people, setting aside ego, to work for the greater good of community building and the goal of keeping our airwaves, non-commercial, and open! Thank you to programmers who create content for over 85 locally produced radio shows & volunteers who made 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 #1168

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

Wednesday, July 29, 2026

New & MidCoastal Releases + Angela & James Ward + Joel Kraft

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

2. Fullbloods – “No Hesitation”
   from: Playing It Safe / High Dive Records / March 7, 2025
   [Fullbloods released double single: Magic Machine with “Who’s Left” on January 9, 2026. Both songs written by Ross Brown (Bargain Hunt Music / ASCAP). Recorded (mostly) live at BRC Audio Productions. Engineered by Zack Hames with assistant engineers Tremain Hunter, Karlton Kinley, Ian McCaslin, and Nathan Gonzales. // Artwork by Sam Hrabko. Mastered by Mike Nolte at Eureka Mastering. // The first single, “No Hesitation” was released on December 7, 2024. – Fullbloods is a studio project of songwriter and producer Ross Brown (Shy Boys, Koney, Snacky). Live he is joined by his friends and the music is probably better that way. Thanks for listening! // Fullbloods released their 3rd full-length album Soft and Virtual Touch on High Dive Records on April 3, 2020. All songs written, performed, recorded, mixed by Ross Brown (℗© 2019 Bargain Hunt Music / ASCAP) in Kansas City, MO. Mastered by Mike Nolte at Eureka Mastering. Artwork by Nika Winn. Kyle Rausch played drums on 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 9, sang on 9. Bill Pollock Played drums on 3 and 5. David Seume played bass on 5. Jerad Tomasino played synth on 9 and 10, sang on 9. Jenni Kornfeld played cello on 4. Leslie Butsch played sax on 10. // Fullbloods is a studio project of songwriter and producer Ross Brown who is also in the bands: Shy Boys, Koney, and Snacky. When Fullbloods play live, Ross is joined on stage by his friends. N writing about Ross Browms previous Fullbloods album, Soft and Virtual Touch , Lionell Williams aka “Vinyl Williams” of PRIVATE PLAYLIST on KCRW calls “Ross Brown a frickin’ genius. He’s the modern day Brian Wilson of America. His whole album, the entire way through, is one of those albums [where] every microsecond, every quantum moment, is wow. He’s just a straight-up genius.” Info: www.fullbloods.com.][Fullbloods played The Ship on February 21, at 9:00 pm with Fake Italian for Daniel Gum’s The Great Conjunction Album Release Show. ][Fullbloods played Hillsiders in KCK on March 7 at 8:00 PM for their own PLAYING IT SAFE Album Release Show with Schemada, and 2w33dy.]

[Pearl & The Oysters, and Fullbloods play recordBar 1520 Grand Ave., KCMO, Thurs, July 30, 2026.]

3. Pearl and The Oysters – “Wide Awake”
   from: Monkey Mind / Stones Throw Records / June 26, 2026
   [6th studio album from P&TO’s engineered, produced, and mixed by Jonathan Rado. // Pearl & the Oysters is a French-American indie pop duo formed by Juliette Pearl Davis and Joachim Polack. // Juliette and Joachim write: We wrote Monkey Mind in the span of a few weeks at the top of 2025, in the wake of the LA fires and Trump’s inauguration. Our purpose was twofold. On the one hand, these songs were meant as a way of processing and exorcising the apocalyptic visions of devastation and the lingering sense of restlessness (hence the title) that followed this most un-natural disaster. On the other, we were looking to tap into the social function of music-making and art as a way to further human connection in a time of heightened alienation and dread. We’d never written an album this quickly before. In doing so we were intending to make an urgent poetic statement, one that could encompass both the objectivity of a snapshot and the subjectivity of a scream. After debating how best to make the recording process match the lyrical themes and ambitions of these songs, we thought « what better way to do so than by recording all of it on tape with Jonathan Rado producing? // In May 2025, we set out to track for 8 days at Rado’s studio in the Valley and deliberately threw ourselves off-balance by eliminating a lot of the typical steps and recording gadgetry on which we’d come to rely in previous albums. When we stepped into the studio, we immediately realized that this new (to us) no-demo, no-click, live-to-tape approach was actually mirroring the rawness and immediacy of the writing process itself—despite our rhythm sections being well-rehearsed, and the arrangements for the most part locked in before we began tracking. We both had the feeling that working with Rado would be a fun and rewarding experience since we already knew that we shared a lot of the same musical obsessions (Todd Rundgren, The Beach Boys, Steely Dan, and early-tronic sonorities), but what we didn’t anticipate was how perfect of a match it would be for this album, specifically. Working with analog technology prescribed a particular workflow that often forced us to make quick, intuitive decisions, ultimately yielding some of our most direct and honest delivery yet captured on a record. Surprisingly, we managed to get there while never sacrificing—and in some instances dialing up—our own experimental impulses, thanks in great part to what can only be described as Rado’s sheer studio wizardry. The result felt like a reinvention of P&TO’s musical grammar and our most sincere record to date. // Thanks to Amy Spencer and everyone else at Stones Throw for giving our vision a platform, and constantly plotting new ways in which to saturate the internet with Monkey Mind content. All joking aside, we’re forever grateful to Peanut Butter Wolf and ST for taking a chance on us three albums ago, and making our analog recording fantasy a reality. On that note, we also want to thank Dan Asip and George Seay for their guidance, advocacy, and support at the very beginning of the Monkey Mind adventure. // We hope you’ll enjoy this album as much as we’ve enjoyed making it, and that these songs could be a balm (in the absence of a magic elixir) for these endlessly puzzling times. // The group originated in Paris, later relocating to Gainesville, Florida, and then to Los Angeles. Their music blends elements of indie pop, synth-pop, dream pop, and 1960s/1970s-inspired sounds. // Davis and Polack met during high school in Paris and began collaborating musically. They later moved to the United States, where they became part of Gainesville’s independent music scene. After moving to the U.S., Polack earned a master’s in musicology focused on Brazilian popular music and began a Ph.D. at the University of Florida School of Music. In 2020, they relocated to Los Angeles. // The band’s musical style is often described as an eclectic fusion of space-age pop, soft rock, and jazz influences, characterized by lush arrangements and a dreamy atmosphere. Their songwriting often evokes nostalgic moods while maintaining a contemporary indie sensibility. // Juliette and Joachim met on their first day of high school in Paris, sharing a passion for music and artists like Burt Bacharach, Kurt Weill, and Antônio Carlos. // Also American band such as The Beach Boys to the Japanese group Yellow Magic Orchestra. // Their self-titled debut album was released in 2017. Subsequent releases include Canned Music (2018), Flowerland (2021), Coast 2 Coast (2023), and Planet Pearl (2024). They have released music under labels such as Feeltrip Records and Stones Throw Records. // The duo has collaborated with musicians including Lætitia Sadier of Stereolab and Riley Geare of Unknown Mortal Orchestra. These collaborations have been noted in critical discussions of their evolving sound.]

[Pearl & The Oysters, and Fullbloods play recordBar 1520 Grand Ave., KCMO, Thurs, July 30, 2026.]

4. Kirstie Lynn – “Blazing Prairie Star”
   from: Blazing Prairie Star / Plaid Dog Studios / July 24, 2026
   [Kirstie Lynn & Galen Clark released Lost River Sound on August 9, 2024. Kirstie Lynn & Galen Clark released Cindergarden (A Sides) on May 22, 2022. They released Cindergarden (B Sides) on June 21, 2023. Kirstie Lynn is a classically trained soprano with a passion for songwriting, always looking to marry poetry and melody. Though Kirstie’s voice has been compared to that of Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez, her sound is uniquely her own. Kirstie Lynn is a folk singer-songwriter originally from the fingerlakes region of upstate, NY. She began her professional music studies at the age of 15, and has since received both a Bachelor’s degree from Shenandoah University and a Master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University in voice and opera performance. Her vocal training lends her the freedom to paint her nature inspired lyrics with a wide range and a beautiful and effortless sound. // Kirstie Lynn brings elements of all the places she has called home into her songwriting. From the lilacs of Rochester, the bridges of London, the Blue Ridge Mountains of Appalachia, and the sweeping prairies of the Midwest, you can find melodies and words accompanied by her finger-picking on guitar reminiscent of the many lives she has lived so far. // Kirstie Lynn’s music is inherently emotional, providing a story-teller perspective to the trials and triumphs of life. As an aspiring conservationist and naturalist as well, her lyrics are deeply saturated in the outdoors and her experiences and adventures in nature. // You can find Kirstie Lynn playing either solo or with long-time friend and music partner, Galen Clark, in the Kansas City area. If you’re interested in bringing her or the duo to a stage near you, be sure to submit a message below!// Kirstie Lynn played IN THE ROUND with Calvin Arsenia, Julia Othmer, and Christena Graves at The Bauer, 115 West 18th St., in KCMO’s West Crossroads, Oct. 17, 2025.]

AMERI’KANA Music & Arts Festival – Saturday, August 1, 3:00pm to 9:30pm
at The Concourse Park, 200 Benton Blvd, KCMO.

Now in its 4th year, Celebrate AMERI’KANA Music & Arts Festival is Sat, August 1, 3:00pm to 9:30pm at The Concourse Park, 200 Benton Blvd, KCMO. Celebrate Americana is a celebration of the myriad backgrounds, cultures, languages, and sounds that have shaped American music, bringing Grammy-winning artists to KC to perform at the FREE festival alongside youth performers from Art as Mentorship’s year-round mentorship programs. // Main Stage headliners include: Making Movies, RADKEY, Gina Chavez, Rosie Flores, The Freedom Threedom, The Salvation Choir, Audri Page, and Teri Quinn & Landon Hambright. // The Stars Out youth band takes the Main Stage for the 2nd time, performing a set of famous songs co-created by KC artists. // Community performers include youth from The Rebel Song Academy and base academy of music, dance groups, and more multicultural and multimedia performances. // Sample the food of the world with multicultural food and drink options. // Artmaking tents and music activities for all ages. // Physical activities including yard games, an obstacle course, and Copa de Calla soccer with Rygoku Soccer. // Interactive experiences including a bring-your-own-instrument parade with @sass.a.brass.band, drum circles with @drumsafari, a community art project, water toys. // MERCADO international open-air marketplace offering global goods, crafts, resources, and cuisine.// “AMERI’KANA is our living love letter to the Black, indigenous, immigrant and Latino heroes of American music. We want kids like us to know that they come from heroes.” –Making Movies // The AMERI’KANA project grew alongside Art as Mentorship, and its reach has brought Art as Mentorship into the national spotlight. Art as Mentorship is the only organization in the Midwest building a network of GRAMMY award-winning and world-class musicians to serve as mentors to young, Black, Indigenous, immigrant and Latino artists. As mentors, these professional musicians inspire youth to, like themselves, raise their voices and create original music that is grounded in their culture and personal experience. // The AMERI’KANA project’s ability to attract high level collaborators benefits Art as Mentorship greatly, providing mentoring and exposure from nationally-touring, Grammy-level artists. The events and content creation associated with AMERI’KANA provide opportunities for young artists in the programs to gain real world performing experience and develop transferable digital skills, as both performers and producers of its output. // Celebrate AMERI’KANA serves as a “graduation” for young artists in Art as Mentorship’s programs. The opportunity to play alongside historically significant NEA heritage award-winning musicians is the punctuation mark on the learning and success the young artists have achieved. // The AMERI’KANA brand is leveraged as a fundraising mechanism for Art as Mentorship. // AMERI’KANA highlights the influence of the Black and Brown musicians that created and continue to carry the legacy of American music, honoring lineage and legacy while exploring its impact. // AMERI’KANA is a response to intolerance and division, and a step toward healing the deep fissures in American society, reminding us of the connections we share. // AMERI’KANA engages underserved, immigrant and Latinx communities in a retelling of the American music story; inviting students, audiences, and performers to reassess their own sense of identity through an exploration of music history. // AMERI’KANA fills a gap in education, particularly for immigrant and BIPOC students, engaging and empowering young people through music, mentorship and performing opportunities.

10:17

5. Radkey – “Ready To Burn”
   from: Bedroom Sand / Little Man Records / July 14, 2026
   [Most recent EP from Radkey. // Radkey released the EP Victory on July 30, 2025. It was part of WMM’s 120 Best Recordings of 2025. // single “Falling Out of Grace” on October 24, 2025. Radkey released the single “Victory” on March 28, 2025. On September 23, 2022 Radkey released the single “Better Than This.” The band released “Games (Tonight)”: on January 28, 2022 on Little Man Records. Isaiah, Dee, and Solomon Radke of the critically acclaimed rock trio Radkey joined us live in our 90.1 FM studios on September 5, 2018. Radkey was formed in 2010 in St. Joseph, where the brothers were raised. The family moved to Kansas City. The band has released multiple full-length recordings. In 2021 Radkey was featured in Dave Grohl’s van-touring documentary film, WHAT DRIVES US. Radkey released GREEN ROOM on Little Man Records on November 27, 2020. On Green Room the band serve as their own producers. Radkey released DARK BLACK MAKE UP in 2015 and DELICIOUS ROCK NOISE in 2016 — plus multiple EPs and singles, and were part of a MasterCard advertising campaign on digital billboards in NYC along with a national television commercial that aired during the 2018 Grammy Awards that brought the band to the attention of Jack White who asked the band to tour with him. In 2018 the band went back on the road with The Damned throughout the United States. In December they went back into the studio to record with producer Bill Stevenson of the California punk rock group Descendents. In early 2019 they played shows in Amsterdam and Stockholm. In 2018 the band released “Basement,” “St. Elwood,” “Rock & Roll Homeschool,” as well as several other singles. On February 22, 2019, Radkey released “No Strange Cats…P.A.W.” a 7-song EP is essentially a collection of the band’s most recent singles. It comes after the January 11, 2019 release of No Strange cats…Spiders – EP a 6 song EP of several new songs mixed with several singles from late 2018.]

[Radkey plays Celebrate AMERI’KANA Music & Arts Festival 2026, Saturday, August 1, at 3:00pm at The Concourse Park, 200 Benton Blvd. KCMO with Making Movies, Gina Chavez, Rosie Flores, The Freedom Threedom, The Salvation Choir, Audri Page, Teri Quinn & Landon Hambright.]

6. SEYKO – “So Wonderful”
   from: “So Wonderful” – Single / Groove King Records – Fat Beats / June 5, 2026
   [“So Wonderful” wass written by Seyko. She told Michelle Bacon at The Bridge, that itstarted out as a possible Freedom Affair song (Seyko is one of the band’s three lead vocalists), but ultimately didn’t fit their second album thematically. So, she brought the song to a few bandmates Cole Bales for recording and production, Dave Brick on drums and Branden Moser on bass to release this as a solo single. // Seyko released the single “Anybody High: on Cecember 2, 2023 also through Groove King Re cords. And also Produced by Colby Bales of the band Black Light Animals and also a bandmate of SEYKO’s in The Freedom Affair. // Seyko released the single “What I Want” on June 23, 2023. //From www.seykomusic.com: Seyko has always found music to be a reflection of her innermost thoughts and feelings, a way of self-expression but even deeper than that. Music was always a life-giving, constant companion from the happiest moments to the darkest days. Music continues to be Seyko’s way of communicating with the world around her. // Seyko developed her musical talent during her formative years through church and school choirs, friendships that evolved into singing groups, and professional training through voice lessons and songwriting. Opportunities presented themselves, but Seyko also created opportunities for herself as she chased her dream to create and perform her own music. // The Freedom Affair and SUNU, two Kansas City bands Seyko performs and writes with, have solidified her place in the music scene and provide a solid foundation for beginning her solo career. Seyko’s singing and songwriting career has spanned twenty years, and it shows! Her creative growth has led to her being a well-respected artist in Kansas City, allowing her to participate in recording projects for fellow musicians and even singing background vocals for Michael Bublé at a live concert in 2022.]

[Seyko with The Freedom Threedom plays Celebrate AMERI’KANA Music & Arts Festival 2026, Sat., August 1, at 3:00pm at The Concourse Park, 200 Benton Blvd. KCMO with Making Movies, Radkey, Gina Chavez, Rosie Flores, The Salvation Choir, Audri Page, Teri Quinn & Landon Hambright.]

7. Gina Chavez – “Pitaya Roja (feat. Mexican Institute of Sound)”
   from: Pitaya Roja (feat. Mexican Institute of Sound) – Single / Gina Chavez / April 14, 2021
   [Gina Chavez (born May 24, 1982) is an American bilingual Latin-folk singer and songwriter who has been performing since 2004, releasing her first recording in 2007. Chavez’s parents are of Mexican and Swiss-German descent. Chavez’s father, Gene Chavez, is a second generation Mexican-American from the south side of San Antonio, Texas. Chavez holds a unique style of mixing the content of her music and visuals and is an eight-time Austin Music Award winner. She was named Austin Musician of the Year in 2015. A review by Sonicbids describes the style in her songs containing traversings of cumbia, bossa nova, vintage pop, reggaeton, and folk combined with dynamic vocals and sharp social commentary. Chavez does not work alone, she is teamed with a band of six members. Her recent major album is titled Up.Rooted, and the work that she has compiled together, has earned her various awards, such as Best Latin Band. // Chavez was born in Austin, Texas. She began songwriting and performing at the University of Texas at Austin at the age of 18. Growing up, Chavez’s musical interests included Lyle Lovett, Little Richard, and Michael Jackson. She did not grow up listening to Latino music. It wasn’t until her first year of college when she began writing music while studying in Buenos Aires, Argentina that she discovered a love for folk music and dance. Ever since her time in Argentina, Chavez has incorporated Spanish lyrics as well as rhythms of Latin into her music. Her genre is mainly considered Latin-folk. Chavez’s vocal styling ranges from yearning to sensual to wailing. // On January 1, 2007, Chavez released her debut solo independent album, Hanging Spoons. On December 6, 2014, Chavez released Gina Chavez Live at the Music Club under The Good Music Club that contained five total tracks.[8] Chavez released her first independent studio album, Up.Rooted, on February 11, 2016, online to iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, with physical copies available on CD Baby. // Chavez highly promoted her single Siete-D which takes a stand against gang violence in Central America was published on her YouTube channel March 8, 2016. The visual was filmed in El Salvador in October 2015. // As of April 2016, Chavez is touring solo, and with her full six-person band. // She’s made her presence known with her work in El Salvador, being named one of 11 southern iconic women who have left a beautiful footprint across the south” by Southern Living and Olay. Her work in El Salvador continues to make a worldwide difference outside of music. In an interview with The Austin Chronicle, Chavez is described as “no stranger to the benefit rounds. She routinely puts on productions of her own to support the nonprofit she started after an eight-month mission trip to El Salvador.” // The Austin native has made such an impact and influence in the music scene that in 2015, Austin, Texas mayor, Steve Adler, announced that April 2 is officially known as “Gina Chavez Day.” // While living in El Salvador in 2009, Chavez and her wife Jodi, who also acts as her booking agent, spent eight months educating teenage girls who were surrounded by poverty in gang-dominated barrios.]

[Gina Chavez plays Celebrate AMERI’KANA Music & Arts Festival 2026, Sat., August 1, at 3:00pm at The Concourse Park, 200 Benton Blvd. KCMO with Making Movies, Radkey, Rosie Flores, The Salvation Choir, Audri Page, Teri Quinn & Landon Hambright.]

8. Roșie Flores & The Talismen – “Oh Yea Do You Love Me?”
   from: “Oh Yea Do You Love Me?”- Single / Mule Kick Records / July 31, 2026
   [The unstoppable Rosie Flores – known widely as the Rockabilly Filly – is coming at you this week with a new single “Oh Yea Do Ya Love Me?” co-written by firebrand Ruby James. // Weeks before her continuing tour with Robert Plant and Saving Grace, Rosie’s single offering is a tongue in cheek, reggae styled jaunt with her own unique spin. // Rosie Flores (born Rosalie Flores; September 10, 1950) is an American rockabilly, blues and country musician who has been writing and performing since the 1970s. She currently resides in Austin, Texas, where August 31 was declared Rosie Flores Day by the Austin City Council in 2006. // Rosie Flores was born in San Antonio, Texas, United States,[2] where she lived until the age of twelve, when her family moved to San Diego.[2] In interviews, Flores has recalled that growing up, she loved to watch musical television shows like The Dick Clark Show and Hit Parade. She began singing as a young child, picking up a guitar at age 6, and eventually learning how to play rhythm guitar from her older brother, Roger. // Flores formed her first band, Penelope’s Children, while still in high school in California. In the 1970s, Flores played the San Diego nightclub circuit and was the namesake of the alt country/cowpunk band Rosie and the Screamers. By 21, she was in Los Angeles at her first recording session, though her first EP, Hit City L.A., wouldn’t be released until 1982, possibly after leaving the Screamers. // In 1983, after the Screamers disbanded, she joined a cowpunk all-female band called Screamin’ Sirens. The latter band produced a series of 7-inch singles and tracks for compilation albums before releasing an album in 1984, Fiesta, produced by Brian Ahern, Michael Reid and Greg Humphries. // Flores’s debut album Rosie Flores came out on Warner Bros./Reprise in 1987. The single, “Crying Over You,” put her on the Billboard chart for the first time. Since then, Flores has recorded 13 additional solo albums. // Flores has toured widely, appearing in the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. and also performing frequently in Austin, continuing into 2024. In 1995, she organized a tour with Wanda Jackson on a coast-to-coast North American tour, and she toured for eight months as a member of Asleep at the Wheel in 1997. She has also traveled with a concert tribute she created to honor Janis Martin, who she cites as a major influence early on in her career. She also performed the tribute concert’s program at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, where, in 2012, she was also part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s tribute to Chuck Berry. Her media appearances include Austin City Limits and Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and she had a cameo role in the 1993 film The Thing Called Love featuring River Phoenix and Sandra Bullock. // In addition to her work as a performer and songwriter, Flores has helped to revive the careers of female rockabilly musicians from previous generations and to create new interest in their music. Her album Rockabilly Filly, released on Hightone Records in 1995, included vocals from early rock and roll musicians Janis Martin and Wanda Jackson. In 2007, Flores brought Janis Martin to a recording studio in Blanco, Texas, to procuce with Bobby Trimble a record that would be both Martin’s first solo album in thirty years as well as her last before her death of cancer. After the project was turned down by a number of record labels, Flores raised more than $16,000 on Kickstarter to release the album, which was titled Janis Martin: The Blanco Sessions. Flores is credited as a producer. // Flores’s current (as of 2013–2018) guitar of choice is her James Trussart SteelTopCaster. She uses Fender amplifiers, and has also played Fender Telecasters, Gretsch electrics, Gibson Les Pauls, and various acoustic guitars. // In 2019, Flores released her album, Simple Case of the Blues in the UK. // Flores has revealed that, under pressure from her manager, she had an abortion in 1986, shortly after signing with Warner Bros. She later regretted the decision. She has never been married, and has said that her lifestyle, which involves frequent touring, makes it difficult to maintain long-term relationships.]

[Rosie Flores plays Celebrate AMERI’KANA Music & Arts Festival 2026, Sat., August 1, at 3:00pm at The Concourse Park, 200 Benton Blvd. KCMO with Making Movies, Radkey, Gina Chavez , Freedom Threedom, The Salvation Choir, Audri Page, Teri Quinn & Landon Hambright.]

10:29 – Underwriting

9. Joel Kraft – “Start It Over”
   from: The End / Joel Kraft / March 1, 2026
   [Joel Kraft on voice, guitar, drums, bass, synth, production, programming, writing, dishwashing, slide flute & guitar; Nick Baker on drums on Awakening, Queen of Kings & The Foundness; Stephen Flanery on vocals on Awakening; Ross McLeron on synthesizers on Start It Over; Marty Kraft on vocals on Awakening; Adam Selzer -on mixing & mastering; Shane Ogren on album art; Philip Cheaney on graphic design. // The End is the fourth album from Kansas City–based singer-songwriter and producer Joel Kraft. It’s a layered indie pop record with roots in folk and a twist of art pop—featuring toy pianos, disco bass lines, square wave synths, and field recordings stitched together by hand. Ten years in the making, it’s the first album Kraft fully produced himself after years of learning from collaborators and experimenting with tape, MIDI, and microphones. // Kraft’s songs are rich with impressionistic lyrics, unconventional structures, and sonic textures that reward repeated listening. His songwriting blends the personal and surreal, moving between vivid imagery and quiet emotional weight without ever settling into one mode for long. // The result is a dreamy, bittersweet, and slightly eccentric pop record built on “slow-release architecture,” as Kraft calls it. The End doesn’t sound like goodbye—it sounds like waking up with a new sense of clarity. All songs written by Joel Kraft ℗ & © 2026 Joel Kraft (BMI). All rights reserved. License all rights reserved.]

[Joel Kraft plays an Album release show on Friday, August 7, 2026 at 6:00pm, Matinee Show with Miss Boating at The Ship, 1221 Union Avenue, KCMO West Bottoms.]

10:35 – Interview with Joel Kraft

Joel Kraft joins us to share details about his new album, THE END released March 1, 2026. Joel Kraft is a curious animal that grew up among the rolling hills of Missouri. Climbing trees and walking through tunnels of Brush Creek, his head swam with all kinds of notions he could only just pin down and understand by singing them out loud over and over again. At first he sang them to himself, then into microphones he found at coffee shops and bars around the US. The End is the fourth album from Kansas City–based singer-songwriter and producer Joel Kraft. It’s a layered indie pop record with roots in folk and a twist of art pop—featuring toy pianos, disco bass lines, square wave synths, and field recordings stitched together by hand. Ten years in the making, it’s the first album Kraft fully produced himself after years of learning from collaborators and experimenting with tape, MIDI, and microphones. Joel Kraft plays an Album release show on Friday, August 7, 2026 at 6:00pm, Matinee Show with Miss Boating at The Ship, 1221 Union Avenue, KCMO West Bottoms.

Joel Kraft thanks for being with us on Wednesday Midday Medley

We just heard “Start it Over”

This one was nearly lost on a failed hard drive. Joel actually did some soldering and borrowed a recovery rig to bring it back from oblivion.

“Start it Over” – lyrics

Let us all look at your fuzzy crumpled little mess
Is that the broken project you’ve been polishing to death
Whenever you are naked out in public, it’s just a dream
But this is definitely happening

Try to play it cool but the spasms won’t subside
You’re in charge of something that keeps turning into light
When you get to hold it, try to love it but it’s hot
And it’s never going to be the way you thought
It’s just not

You thought what you thought
You thought and it’s never gonna be the way

There’s a place in the sky
That is passing you by
Feel yourself start to cry
But it’s over
Yes the moment goes by
In the blink of of an eye
It’s ok, say goodbye
And start it over

Ross McLeron: Moog
Joel Kraft: everything else

Joel Kraft is a curious animal that grew up among the rolling hills of Missouri. Climbing trees and walking through tunnels of Brush Creek, his head swam with all kinds of notions he could only just pin down and understand by singing them out loud over and over again. At first he sang them to himself, then into microphones he found at coffee shops and bars around the US. There were other people then, who would listen while sitting, or dance or sometimes sing along.

What were those songs about? I don’t think Joel himself knew all the way. Were they about someone in particular? About an event? His songs are built with impressions, one stacked upon another to arrive at something new, perhaps the same way each letter in our alphabet was once a symbol for a thing or action, but now can be arranged in strings to mean all kinds of different things.

This fascination with language and experience begins every moment of Joel’s performance, which often feels more like a series of discoveries than a broadcast. He likes people very much (especially singing people), and his favorite part of performing is discovering new moments with them.

Joel Kraft Album release show w/ Miss Boating Matinee Show Friday, August 7, 2026 at 6 PM – 9 PM at The Ship 1221 Union Avenue, KCMO, Doors 6 // Show 7-9pm

The End credits: Joel Kraft – Voice, Guitar, Drums, Bass, Synth, Production, Programming, Writing, Dishwashing, Slide Flute & Guitar; Nick Baker – Drums on Awakening, Queen of Kings & The Foundness; Stephen Flanery – Vocals on Awakening; Ross McLeron – Synth on Start It Over; Marty Kraft – Vocals on Awakening; Adam Selzer – Mixing & Mastering; Shane Ogren – Album Art; Philip Cheaney – Graphic Design

Joel Kraft Discography

Gold in the Bargain Bin – released October 25, 2003

All songs by Joel Kraft. Lisa Donald played cello on Alien Phoneline, Gone, Ocean Song, and she sang harmony on Flowerpatch. Recorded by Joel Kraft, Pete Minda & Dan Balsinger. Mastered by Justin Mathews

1. The Country Song 02:58
2. Lionsong 03:35
3. Alien Phoneline 04:59
4. Gold in the Bargain Bin 02:18
5. Scared 06:29
6. Gone 02:30
7. Rubix Heart 04:18
8. Breathe 02:05
9. Ocean Song 04:31
10. Freefallin Cowboy 02:24
11. Gold in the Bargain Bin (Icecream Truck Remix) 03:25
12. Birthplace 06:18

Born in Midwestern U.S., Joel first learned the word ‘ocean’ from an orange Speak ‘n’ Spell one cold Christmas day in the ’80s. The angled glow-green letters with the queer, patient voice of the toy sent him into a kind of wondering dream. Ocean. It was something he had heard of before, he thought. Maybe from television where one could sometimes find broadcasted pictures of California. He didn’t know it yet, but he was going to meet an ocean in person one day, and write a song about it.

As Joel grew up his teachers frequently observed he had a tendency to stare out the window and daydream. When at last he graduated from a University he continued to follow his dreams right to the edge of North America where there lay an island city called Manhattan. He took what work he could find among the lights and edifices on the crowded little island, first in offices of the financial district downtown, and then on the fashionable floor of a bistro in the East Village. Somewhere between the wordless waiting at 3 am for home-bound subway trains and the din of car alarms set off by thunderstorms, Joel lost the thread of his dreams.

And he didn’t even notice until a day when fate dropped a postcard into his mailbox. Sent from a dear friend on holiday in Amsterdam, the postcard–suspended by hand comfortably within Joel’s gaze–began to resemble a window, or perhaps a door into another world, the world of dreams. Upon stepping through the door. (Stepping through that door was not quite as simple as putting his foot or even head through the postcard, but required a series of banal steps involving ticket offices, bus rides and other fossil fuel consumption, lots of waiting in non-descript rooms. The door which opened upon the world of dreams, however, was quite real.)

Joel found himself in the city of Galway, Ireland holding all his posessions in his two hands and having an acute panic attack. Five minutes later he was uttering a seamless stream of words into the receiver of a public telephone, describing his helplessness to his mother, who listened patiently a half a world away. Suddenly he ran out of words, his voice stopped, leaving only the silence of oblivion. ‘Well, I guess that’s why you went,’ she said simply over the hiss on the receiver. There seemed to be nothing more to say, so they hung up.

Turning away from the telephone to face the green of Eyre Square, Joel stood a moment before separating one of his feet from the concrete and placing it out in front of him. Shifting his weight forward, he then repeated this procedure with his other foot. Thus he discovered–for the first time, it seemed to him–how to walk. The more he employed this new discovery, the more beautiful people and places came into his experience. He stayed on a small island called Inis Mor in the hospitality of a wonderful friend, playing guitar, writing songs, reading books, singing. He walked into the ocean and out again. He walked through Paris, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Wales, and in Liverpool he used walking to board an orange and white aircraft that took him to Barcelona, Spain.

He walked across Spain, getting up early before the sun and watching mist roll off of distant mountains like silken broth boiling over the side of a pot. His pilgrimage–particularly in Spain–taught him confidence in playing music for others. In the eveningtime he would sit in a common area, singing songs with his guitar, and people would gather around, and listen. Never particularly good at making friends, suddenly he seemed to be making many of them. He went south and studied Flamenco technique with a teacher in Seville, and wrote several songs as well.

Joel returned to Ireland again, and there realized that he wanted to learn how to record his songs. He bought a ticket back to Kansas City where he got to work performing and recording. It took him a year and a half, but he has finally released his debut album, titled Gold in the Bargain Bin. The album contains work written from 1998-2003 in a variety of settings, from his childhood bedroom to apartments in Seville, Queens, Ireland, Illinois etc. One was written in Loose Park. They deal with love, alienation, fear, joy, but most of all dreams and the strange sense of humor life seems so often to require. Joel sings his little heart out.

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Big Ideas – released April 25, 2006

1. Something’s Got to Break 02:40
2. Teacher Showed Up to Learn 04:49
3. Raisins 02:39
4. Light in My Mind 02:03
5. EOW 04:49
6. Catalpas 02:27
7. Rainsong 06:35
8. Big Ideas 02:38
9. Blessed Be the Name 04:28
10. Hymn for Sal 04:08
11. Gone 02:37

All songs written by Joel Kraft except “Blessed Be the Name,” by Joel Kraft & Bill Belzer. Joel Kraft: lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitars, accordion, glockenspiel and electric guitar on “Big Ideas”; Nick Baker: drums; Brandon Curtis: trumpet; Jeremy Harman: cello, electric guitars; Rachel Gaither: backing vocals, violin; Adam Greene: bass on “Raisins”; Justin Mathews: backing vocals; Devin McCollum: bass; Matt Wilber: trombone; Strings on “Big Ideas” arranged by Rachel Gaither

Produced, mixed and engineered by Justin Mathews, Intone Creative
Mastered by Paul Wickliffe at Skyline Productions, Warren, NJ
Cover photography and concept: Joshua Hoffine
Sleeve drawings, paintings and design: Shane Ogren
Layout Design: Kalyn Mathews
Pizza and other kindnesses: Jodi Mathews
Muse, amused, bemusing: Bill Belzer

Big Thank Yous: Nick Baker for your huge heart. Justin Mathews for clarity, perseverance and ingenuity – Love and Respect: Rachel Gaither, Jeremy Harman, Bill Belzer, Shane Ogren Lollipop Barbershop, Duane and Nancy Benton, Kasey Rausch, Kaya Rausch-Santee, Mikal Shapiro, David and Cathy Basse, Adam Greene, Eudora, Mollie Fisher, Marwan Chebaro, Mica Stumpf, Desmond Poirier, Caleb Hawley, Jodi Mathews, Mom, Chris Wells, Joshua Hoffine, S. J. Bushman for drawings curious and wonder, Heather, Dad, Jane Gotch, Greg Ansley, Annette (hineighbor!), Felix, Ellyn Herr, Beth Sarver, Whitney Fell, Quinton Mathews, Bassam Helwani, Cindy Woolf, Crystal Hansen, Bonnie Bailey, Trace, Arinna, Shiva, Chloe, Sadie, Jordan Whitney Smith, Las familias Tarrida, Brennan, Pattison, Gibbs, Harrington, McDermott, Linhardt, Potter, Poirier, Lisa Donald, Kalyn Mathews, Prospero’s Bookshop, UG, Shining Heart Community, Annie MacGill, Café Rumi, Cristina Heeren, Regina Basse, Bill Wright, Emily Pattison, Rahima, all of the musicians, my family, my friends—met and not—thank you.

All Songs © 2005 Joel Kraft except “Blessed be the Name” ©1998 W. F. Belzer/J. Kraft.
All Songs published by Joel Kraft (BMI), except “Blessed be the Name,” published by Joel Kraft (BMI) and Nihill Song Music (ASCAP). Made in the U.S.A. Re-recording of this material is a violation of applicable copyright laws. © 2006 Joel Kraft All Rights Reserved.

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The Lighting Project – released December 25, 2021

1. Queen of Kings 03:41
2. Heart of Candy 03:09
3. Even in the Darkness 03:30

Joel Kraft – guitars, percussion, slide whistles, vocals, keyboards; Nick Baker – drums. Recorded, engineered & produced by Joel Kraft; Mixed & mastered by Adam Selzer; Cover art and design by Shane Ogren; Thank you Emily Mentzel for making this possible.

Thank you to so many of my friends for all the inspiration and conversations about music: Israel Nebeker, Shane Ogren, Simone Sharda, Shelby Sifers, Kevin Dolan, Luke Ydstie, Ellen Osborn, Kati Claborn, Jonas Jenkins, Graham Harriman, Skyler Butenshon, Mikal Shapiro, Peter Murray, Konnor Ervin, Bill Belzer, Nick Baker, Nikolos Ray, Ross McLeron, Natasha Ria El-Scari, Nathan Wade Carter, Ama Bentley

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The End – released March 1, 2026

1. Wooden Castle 03:27
2. Natural Wonder 03:50
3. Start it Over 04:18
4. Heart of Candy 03:05
5. Awakening 04:11
6. Queen of Kings 03:42
7. The Foundness 04:04
8. Even in the Darkness 03:07
9. Can’t Go Back 01:02

Nick Baker – Drums on Awakening, Queen of Kings & The Foundness; Stephen Flanery – Vocals on Awakening; Ross McLeron – Synth on Start It Over; Marty Kraft – Vocals on Awakening; Joel Kraft – Voice, Guitar, Drums, Bass, Synth, Production, Programming, Writing, Dishwashing, Slide Flute & Guitar; Adam Selzer – Mixing & Mastering; Shane Ogren – Album Art; Philip Cheaney – Graphic Design

The End is the fourth album from Kansas City–based singer-songwriter and producer Joel Kraft. It’s a layered indie pop record with roots in folk and a twist of art pop—featuring toy pianos, disco bass lines, square wave synths, and field recordings stitched together by hand. Ten years in the making, it’s the first album Kraft fully produced himself after years of learning from collaborators and experimenting with tape, MIDI, and microphones.

Kraft’s songs are rich with impressionistic lyrics, unconventional structures, and sonic textures that reward repeated listening. His songwriting blends the personal and surreal, moving between vivid imagery and quiet emotional weight without ever settling into one mode for long.

The result is a dreamy, bittersweet, and slightly eccentric pop record built on “slow-release architecture,” as Kraft calls it. The End doesn’t sound like goodbye—it sounds like waking up with a new sense of clarity.

All songs written by Joel Kraft ℗ & © 2026 Joel Kraft (BMI). All rights reserved.

www.joelkraft.bandcamp.com

Queen of Kings – Lyrics

You’re a magic wish with sparkle power
Half a sandwich in the morning shower
Write a letter on a ragged apron
Throw a bottle in the flooded basement

You and I we swam troubled water
All the doubts that we refused to slaughter
Now we know what crazy means
Now we know who killed the childhood queen
We’re on the inside now, o my
Don’t cry

We’re the oracles of paste and makeup
All the love notes we get paid to rake up
After all the crowds have gone
After the killing in the Colosseum

It’s a tragedy of tiny portions
Lose your strength in spite of your contortions
Through your whiskers you detect a change
The queen of kindergarten pushes you on stage
You better give it all away
You may still save the day

10:54

10. Joel Kraft – “Queen of Kings”
    from: The End / Joel Kraft / March 1, 2026
    [Joel Kraft on voice, guitar, drums, bass, synth, production, programming, writing, dishwashing, slide flute & guitar; Nick Baker on drums on Awakening, Queen of Kings & The Foundness; Stephen Flanery on vocals on Awakening; Ross McLeron on synthesizers on Start It Over; Marty Kraft on vocals on Awakening; Adam Selzer -on mixing & mastering; Shane Ogren on album art; Philip Cheaney on graphic design. // The End is the fourth album from Kansas City–based singer-songwriter and producer Joel Kraft. It’s a layered indie pop record with roots in folk and a twist of art pop—featuring toy pianos, disco bass lines, square wave synths, and field recordings stitched together by hand. Ten years in the making, it’s the first album Kraft fully produced himself after years of learning from collaborators and experimenting with tape, MIDI, and microphones. // Kraft’s songs are rich with impressionistic lyrics, unconventional structures, and sonic textures that reward repeated listening. His songwriting blends the personal and surreal, moving between vivid imagery and quiet emotional weight without ever settling into one mode for long. // The result is a dreamy, bittersweet, and slightly eccentric pop record built on “slow-release architecture,” as Kraft calls it. The End doesn’t sound like goodbye—it sounds like waking up with a new sense of clarity. All songs written by Joel Kraft ℗ & © 2026 Joel Kraft (BMI). All rights reserved. License all rights reserved.]

[Joel Kraft plays an Album release show on Friday, August 7, 2026 at 6:00pm, Matinee Show with Miss Boating at The Ship, 1221 Union Avenue, KCMO West Bottoms.]

11. Miss Boating – “Not My Life”
    from: Jewel In The Trash / High Dive Records / June 29, 2024
    [Miss Boating is a KC based, five-piece with multi-instrumentalist & lead singer Charlie Coleborne, drummer Bill Belzer, Aaron Jones on trombone, Tom Gillespie on Saxophone, and Bryan McGuire on bass. (Phil Dickey played bass on the album.) Charlie and Bill met in the late 1980s. In the beginning they were called The Sympathetic Fringe, and then The Sleazebeats. In recent years Charlie & Bill added Aaron, Tim and Bryan. Described by one local radio host as “the perfect house band for a John Waters After Party.” One of their songs is about a friend’s mom’s dynamic relationship with prescription medication. Another is a tribute to the late Evan Jolly, their former bassist. All of the songs are written by Charlie Colborne. // From the ashes of their former band The Sleazebeats, Charles Colborne and Bill Belzer faced a difficult 2019 when combined with the death of Charlie’s own beloved mother, their friend and bassist Evan Vhargon died. The band wrote that they “were lost when Evan passed.” Through the tough times Bill and Charlie kept playing and wrote that they “were blown away when Phil Dickey wanted to jam with us… the jamming turned into something more and we were going again. We couldn’t be more thankful and humbled.” Phil is part of the bands Dragon Inn 3, and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. // On Jan 1, 2020 Miss Boating released The Vhargon Sidestep with: Charlie Colborne on keyboards, guitar, vocals; Bill Belzer: drums, vocals; Phil Dickey on bass; Aaron Jones on trombone; Tim Gillespie on saxophone. Ross Brown served as engineering, did all of the mixing for The Vhargon Sidestep and Mike Nolte handled all of the mastering.]

[Miss Boating plays the Joel Kraft Album release show on Friday, August 7, 2026 at 6:00pm, Matinee Show with Miss Boating at The Ship, 1221 Union Avenue, KCMO West Bottoms.]

11:00 – Station ID

12. The JWB – “MidDay”
    from: In Perspective / James Ward Band / January 18, 2010
    [James Ward and Angela Ward of The James Ward Trio and James Ward Band also known as The JWB. The JWB is a Jazz Fusion band formed over 20 years ago that combines Jazz, R&B, Funk, and Gospel. The Wards consist of Angela Ward on keyboards, James Ward on bass, and Jaylen Ward on drums. In addition to performing, they also run a Music School where they facilitate Music Education Programs in the community. Their goal is to offer the gift of music to all. The Wards perform regularly at The Blue Room located on the Historic 18th and Vine Jazz District. They also perform individually in various bands in the Kansas City Music Scene.]
    [Angela Ward will be performing with Lee Langston at 1587 Prime, Thurs, July 30, at 6:30pm.]
    [The James Ward Band will be performing at the Blue Room on Friday, July 31, at 8:30pm.]
    [James Ward will be at Eddie V’s on Wednesday, August 12, at 6:30pm.]
    [Angela Ward plays with Lee Langston at 1587 Prime Friday, on August 7, at 6:30pm.]
    [The James Ward Trio play Jazz by the River on Saturday, August 8, in Leavenworth, Kansas.]

11:04 – Interview with James Ward and Angela Ward

James Ward and Angela Ward of The James Ward Trio and James Ward Band also known as The JWB. The JWB is a Jazz Fusion band formed over 20 years ago that combines Jazz, R&B, Funk, and Gospel. The Wards consist of Angela Ward on keyboards, James Ward on bass, and Jaylen Ward on drums. In addition to performing, they also run a Music School where they facilitate Music Education Programs in the community. Their goal is to offer the gift of music to all. The Wards perform regularly at The Blue Room located on the Historic 18th and Vine Jazz District. They also perform individually in various bands in the Kansas City Music Scene.
James Ward and Angela Ward thanks for being with us on Wednesday Midday Medley
[Angela Ward will be performing with Lee Langston at 1587 Prime, Thurs, July 30, at 6:30pm.]
[The James Ward Band will be performing at the Blue Room on Friday, July 31, at 8:30pm.]
[James Ward will be at Eddie V’s on Wednesday, August 12, at 6:30pm.]
[Angela Ward plays with Lee Langston at 1587 Prime Friday, on August 7, at 6:30pm.]
[The James Ward Trio play Jazz by the River on Saturday, August 8, in Leavenworth, Kansas.]

Angela is originally from Florida, and went to Florida A & M University in Tallahassee, Florida. It was there that she met James Ward.

Later Angela came to Kansas City for work and eventually married James

James and Angela created the Comprehensive Arts Institute – with a mission is to equip and develop our youth with active and creative minds.

The Wards perform regularly at The Blue Room located on the Historic 18th and Vine Jazz District. They also perform individually in various bands in the Kansas City Music Scene.

James Ward and Angela Ward collaborate with many musicians, One such project was Erin Keller’s 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 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.

Erin Keller also 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 Unity Temple on the Plaza,West 47th, KCMO.

James Ward and Angela Ward thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

11:22

13. The JWB – “Groove Axis”
    from: Groove Axis / James Ward Band / January 10, 2010
    [James Ward and Angela Ward of The James Ward Trio and James Ward Band also known as The JWB. The JWB is a Jazz Fusion band formed over 20 years ago that combines Jazz, R&B, Funk, and Gospel. The Wards consist of Angela Ward on keyboards, James Ward on bass, and Jaylen Ward on drums. In addition to performing, they also run a Music School where they facilitate Music Education Programs in the community. Their goal is to offer the gift of music to all. The Wards perform regularly at The Blue Room located on the Historic 18th and Vine Jazz District. They also perform individually in various bands in the Kansas City Music Scene.]
    [Angela Ward will be performing with Lee Langston at 1587 Prime, Thurs, July 30, at 6:30pm.]
    [The James Ward Band will be performing at the Blue Room on Friday, July 31, at 8:30pm.]
    [James Ward will be at Eddie V’s on Wednesday, August 12, at 6:30pm.]
    [Angela Ward plays with Lee Langston at 1587 Prime Friday, on August 7, at 6:30pm.]
    [The James Ward Trio play Jazz by the River on Saturday, August 8, in Leavenworth, Kansas.]

14. Malek Azrael & The Vibez – “Anxiety (feat. Mike Dillon)”
    from: Live At Greenwood Social Hall with Mike Dillon / MAZ.EL Records / May 15, 2026
    [Along with 12 track album recorded LIVE at Greenwood Social Hall with Malek Azrael, Josh Luke, Calvin Haverkamp, Quinn Cosgrove, and Mike Dillon. With Kaydee Gabel, Katie Benyo, Victor Daniel Diaz-Sanchez, and Madi Tozier // Malek Azrael also has a new single, “ANNOY MY FRIENDS” released July 17, 2026 one of three singles he has released this year. // Malek Azrael /]released the EP FEELS LIKE on March 1, 2025. // On February 28, 2025, Malek Azrael released the single “Room 4U”. // On March 1, 2024 Malek Azrael released his single, “in ur mind.” On October 15, 2021 Malek Azrael released his 10-track album “Waves” which first featured members of his live band “The Vibez”. Since then, they have grown their fanbase in KC and surrounding areas through live concerts land appearances at Boulevardia Festival, Ameri’Kana, and the 18th and Vine Gumbo Fest, and shows at RecordBar, The Truman, Grinders, and Knuckleheads and collaborated with larger acts such as Making Movies, The Greeting Committee, and D Smoke debut. Male Azrael lives in KCMO. He has worked for Boys Grow, and Art As Mentorship (Making Movies non-profit organization). 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 & The Vibez played Boulevardia Festival at Crown Center, on June 16, 2024.]

11:30 – Underwriting

15. Mumford & Sons – “Here (with Chris Stapleton)”
    from: Prizefighter / Glassnote Records / February 20, 2026
    [Prizefighter is the sixth studio album by the British folk rock band Mumford & Sons, released on 20 February 2026 via Island Records and the group’s label Gentlemen of the Road. Produced by the band with Aaron Dessner, the group began writing songs for Prizefighter before the release of their previous album Rushmere (2025), and recorded the entire album in ten days at Dessner’s studio in New York. It was accompanied by four singles: “Rubber Band Man” (with Hozier), “Prizefighter”, “The Banjo Song”, and “Here” (with Chris Stapleton). In addition, the album features collaborations with Gigi Perez, and Gracie Abrams. // After completing their fifth album Rushmere (2025), Mumford & Sons continued to write and record music. During one of their sessions at Electric Lady Studios, the group ran into Aaron Dessner, who previously worked on their 2015 album Wilder Mind. They shared demo recordings with him while he played them songs he had written with Justin Vernon and Jon Bellion. Frontman Marcus Mumford travelled with Dessner to various parts of the world to write songs, including “Rubber Band Man”. The album was recorded in ten days at Dessner’s Long Pond Studios in New York, with the group writing “more songs than [they] had in the last seven years combined”. // Unlike previous Mumford & Sons albums, Prizefighter features several featured collaborations with other artists, including Chris Stapleton, Hozier, Gigi Perez, and Gracie Abrams; group member Ben Lovett attributed their desire to work with other musicians to “a place of security that was formed through the work with Pharrell [on 2024’s ‘Good People’] and with Dave Cobb on Rushmere.” The group sent a rough version of the album to Hozier, a longtime friend, and he asked to sing on “Rubber Band Man” after it “jumped out to him”. Abrams’ involvement began when she heard a version of “The Banjo Song”, which was not originally written by the group, and encouraged Mumford to record it. She became “a sounding board for the entire album”, providing feedback on lyrics throughout its production. She was offered to appear on any track and selected “Badlands”, which she “envisaged that song as a duet” and lead to the group approaching it as “a Bonnie and Clyde-style getaway song”. Mumford sent a demo of “Here” to Stapleton, his “favourite vocalist in the world right now”, and asked him to feature on the track he described as their “Brokeback moment”. Justin Vernon, Brandi Carlile, and Finneas also contributed to the album. // Mumford & Sons are an English folk rock band formed in Greater London. The band consists of Marcus Mumford (lead vocals, guitar, drums), Ben Lovett (vocals, keyboards), and Ted Dwane (vocals, bass, guitar). // Mumford & Sons have released six studio albums: Sigh No More (2009), Babel (2012), Wilder Mind (2015), Delta (2018), Rushmere (2025), and Prizefighter (2026). Their debut, Sigh No More, peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart and the Billboard 200 in the US, with Babel, Wilder Mind, and Delta all debuting at number one in the US, the former becoming the fastest-selling rock album of the decade and leading to a headline performance at Glastonbury Festival in 2013. // The band has won music awards throughout their career, with Sigh No More earning the band the Brit Award for Best British Album in 2011, a Mercury Prize nomination and six overall Grammy Award nominations. The live performance at the 2011 Grammy ceremony with Bob Dylan and The Avett Brothers led to a surge in popularity for the band in the US. The band received eight total Grammy nominations for Babel and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The band also won the Brit Award for Best British Group in 2013 and an Ivor Novello Award for International Achievement in 2014. // Mumford & Sons was formed in December 2007 by multi-instrumentalists Marcus Mumford, Ted Dwane, Ben Lovett, and Winston Marshall. Band members play acoustic guitar, drums, keyboard instruments, bass guitar, and traditional folk instruments such as banjo, mandolin and resonator guitar. The band name originates from Marcus Mumford being the most visible member, organising the band and their performances. Lovett indicated that the name was meant to evoke the sense of an “antiquated family business name”. // Mumford and Sons were amongst a handful of similar southern English bands who were increasing their visibility in West London around the same time, giving rise to the label “West London folk scene”. Mumford downplays that characterisation as an exaggeration—Mumford & Sons and a few other folk acts just happened to be operating in the same general area at the time. In an interview with the Herald Sun, Marcus Mumford said, “It’s not folk really. Well, some of it is, and it’s certainly not a scene. Someone got over-excited about a few bands who live in a hundred-mile radius and put it in a box to sell it as a package. It’s a community, not a scene. It’s not exclusive.” Having developed in the same musical and cultural environment, Mumford & Sons’ sound has been compared to that of artists such as Noah and the Whale, Johnny Flynn or Laura Marling, whose backing band had included Marshall, Mumford, and Dwane.]

[Mumford and Sons play The Morton Amphitheater Sunday, August 2, 2026 at 8:00pm]

16. Jamogi – “HOLLABACK (feat. Les Izmore)”
    from: J’DAY / Jam Tunes / June 12, 2026
    [J’Day is a celebration of growth, creativity, and self discovery. Three years in the making, the album represents the culmination of Jamogi’s journey through a wide range of genres, influences, and sonic landscapes. The result is a body of work that not only showcases his musical versatility but also reveals the many facets of his personality. // Produced alongside OceanLife Gianni, J’Day captures the energy, emotion, and moments that make life memorable. From the horn driven fanfare of “Go Big or Go Home” to the flirtatious blend of West Coast, Midwest, and Southern influences on “Back N’ Forth,” Jamogi demonstrates a clear understanding of both his sound and his audience. Tracks like “Do It to Me” transport listeners through different eras and musical inspirations, while songs such as “Storybook,” “Treasure,” and “Georgia Peach” reveal his romantic side through storytelling, heartfelt lyricism, and poetic imagery. // The album also features collaborations with a talented lineup of friends and fellow artists on tracks including “What’s It Gonna Be?” and “HOLLABACK,” adding even more personality and perspective to the project. // More than just a collection of songs, J’Day marks a defining moment in Jamogi’s artistic journey. It is a bold statement of who he is today and a testament to the creative vision he has spent years refining. Rich with personality, versatility, and heart, the project positions Jamogi for his next era and leaves listeners wondering where he’ll take them next. // Jamogi is also know as Byron Hyde a Kanas City based singer, songwriter, MC, producer, originally from Los Angeles, California.// Jamogi released the single “Georgia Peach (feat. Burgandy)” on September 5, 2025. Jamogi released Jamogi & The Jammers: Live at Flew The Coop Sessions (Flew The Coop Live) through Jam Tunes on April 11, 2025. // Jamogi released the single “Do It To Me” on March 28, 2025. // Jamogi released the single “Go Big or Go Home” on August 30, 2024, Jamogi released the single “Hot Block” on May 30, 2024. Jamogi released the EP, Star-Crossed Lover on March 3, 2023. Jamogi then released a “Star-Crossed Lover GALACTIC REMIX (feat. Watchman)” single on June 9, 2023.Jamogi previously released the AGE OF AQUARIUS EP on March 3, 2023, and the single “Celebration” on Dec. 9, 2022, and the single “Anymore” on May 6, 2022. // Jamogi played the ROCK IS BLACK—a celebration of Black artists in rock music, happening February 28, 2025 at 7:00 PM at the Zhou B Art Center, 1801 E 18th Street, KCMO. Rock is Black features: Malek Azrael & The Vibez, Jamogi and The Jammers, Stephonne, and Frankie Shorez & Mercy Fire. Kamogi and the Jammers played Boulevardia 2025]

[Les Izmore & The Goats plays The Brick, McGee St., KCMO, Friday, July 31 with Super Massive Blackholes and Phaze II.]

17. Mavis Staples – “Human Mind”
    from: Sad And Beautiful World / Anti / June 10, 2025
    [Sad And Beautiful World contains covers of songs by Tom Waits, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Frank Ocean, Curtis Mayfield, Leonard Cohen, and Kevin Morby’s including ”Human Mind” written especially for the album by Hozier & Allison Russell. // Lead Vocals – Mavis Staples; Background Vocals – Anjimile; Acoustic Guitar – Brad Cook, Phil Cook; Electric Guitar – Rick Holmstrom, Phil Cook; Bass – Brad Cook; Drums – Matt McCaughan; Drum Programming – Matt McCaughan, Brad Cook; Wurlitzer – Phil Cook; Piano – Phil Cook; Organ – Phil Cook; Saxophone- Matt Douglas // A legendary performer who turned 86 next month on July 10, Mavis Staples continues to be a tour-de-force in music and a voice for the voiceless in today’s divided society. Well known for her work in the gospel and Americana space, Staples is also an R&B icon who famously worked with the one and only Prince in his 80’s heyday. // Hailed by NPR as “one of America’s defining voices of freedom and peace,” Staples is the kind of once-in-a-generation artist whose impact on music and culture would be difficult to overstate. She’s both a Blues and a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer; a civil rights icon; a GRAMMY Award-winner; a chart-topping soul/gospel/R&B pioneer; a National Arts Awards Lifetime Achievement recipient; and a Kennedy Center honoree. She marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., performed at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, and sang in Barack Obama’s White House. // At a time when most artists begin to wind down, Staples ramped things up, releasing a trio of critically acclaimed albums in her 70’s with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy that prompted Pitchfork to rave that “her voice has only gained texture and power over the years” and People to proclaim that she “provides the comfort of a higher power.” “I sing because I want to leave people feeling better than I found them,” Staples says. “I want them to walk away with a positive message in their hearts, feeling stronger than they felt before. I’m singing to myself for those same reasons, too.” // On July 9, Staples and award-winning children’s poet Carol Boston Weatherford will release the new children’s book ‘Bridges Instead of Walls: The Story of Mavis Staples’, a vibrant and poetic new picture book that introduces young readers to Staples’ life story, who began singing at age 8 and ever since has used her voice as a rallying cry to the country at numerous civil rights protests and continues to sing and share her message of love, faith and justice in front of large audiences today. // Staples recently celebrated her upcoming birthday early in stellar fashion at Los Angeles’s YouTube Theater this past April, gracing the stage alongside a star-studded lineup including Hozier, Chris Stapleton, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Black Pumas, and more. Currently on tour in Europe, Staples will return to the US and perform at Willie Nelson’s 4th of July picnic on the nation’s birthday. The next day she begins a run of dates with Norah Jones, who she affectionally calls “my baby sister.” All upcoming dates are listed below. // Mavis Staples (born July 10, 1939) is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer and civil rights activist. She rose to fame as a member of her family’s band The Staple Singers, of which she is the last surviving member. During her time in the group, she recorded the hit singles “I’ll Take You There” and “Let’s Do It Again”. In 1969, Staples released her self-titled debut solo album. // Staples continued to release solo albums throughout the following decades and collaborated with artists such as Aretha Franklin, Prince, Arcade Fire, Nona Hendryx, Ry Cooder, and David Byrne. Her eighth studio album You Are Not Alone (2010), earned critical acclaim, and became her first album as a soloist to reach number one on a Billboard chart, peaking atop the Top Gospel Albums chart. It also earned Staples her first Grammy Award win. Following this, she released the albums One True Vine (2013), Livin’ on a High Note (2016), If All I Was Was Black (2017), and We Get By (2019); she is also featured on the single “Nina Cried Power” by Hozier. // Staples is the recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and has won three Grammy Awards, including one for Album of the Year as a featured artist on We Are by Jon Batiste.[6] Named one of the ‘100 Greatest Singers of all Time’ by Rolling Stone in 2008; Staples was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, and in the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2018, as a member of The Staple Singers. Additionally, she was made a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2016. The following year, she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame as a soloist. In 2019, she received the inaugural Rock Hall Honors Award from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a soloist. // Staples was born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 10, 1939. She began her career with her family group in 1950. Initially singing locally at churches and appearing on a weekly radio show, the Staples scored a hit in 1956 with “Uncloudy Day” for the Vee-Jay label. When Mavis graduated from what is now Paul Robeson High School in 1957, The Staple Singers took their music on the road. Led by family patriarch Roebuck “Pops” Staples on guitar and including the voices of Mavis and her siblings Cleotha, Yvonne, and Pervis, the Staples were called “God’s Greatest Hitmakers”. // With Mavis’ voice and Pops’ songs, singing, and guitar playing, the Staples evolved from enormously popular gospel singers (with recordings on United and Riverside as well as Vee-Jay) to become the most spectacular and influential spirituality-based group in America. By the mid-1960s The Staple Singers, inspired by Pops’ close friendship with Martin Luther King Jr., became the spiritual and musical voices of the civil rights movement. They covered contemporary pop hits with positive messages, including Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” and a version of Stephen Stills’ “For What It’s Worth”. // During a December 20, 2008, appearance on National Public Radio’s news show Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, when Staples was asked about her past personal relationship with Dylan, she admitted that they “were good friends, yes indeed” and that he had asked her father for her hand in marriage. // The Staples sang “message” songs like “Long Walk to D.C.” and “When Will We Be Paid?,” bringing their moving and articulate music to a huge number of young people. The group signed to Stax Records in 1968, joining their gospel harmonies and deep faith with musical accompaniment from members of Booker T. and the MGs. The Staple Singers hit the Top 40 eight times between 1971 and 1975, including two No. 1 singles, “I’ll Take You There”, produced by Al Bell and recorded and mixed by Terry Manning, “Let’s Do It Again,” and a No. 2 single “Who Took the Merry Out of Christmas?” // Mavis made her first solo foray while at Epic Records with The Staple Singers, releasing a lone single “Crying in the Chapel” to little fanfare in the late 1960s. The single was finally re-released on the 1994 Sony Music collection Lost Soul. Her first solo album would not come until a 1969 self-titled release for the Stax label. After another Stax release, Only for the Lonely, in 1970, she released a soundtrack album, A Piece of the Action, on Curtis Mayfield’s Curtom label. A 1984 album (also self-titled) preceded two albums under the direction of rock star Prince; 1989’s Time Waits for No One, followed by 1993’s The Voice, which People magazine named one of the Top Ten Albums of 1993. Her 1996 release, Spirituals & Gospels: A Tribute to Mahalia Jackson, was recorded with keyboardist Lucky Peterson. The recording honors Mahalia Jackson, a close family friend and a significant influence on Mavis Staples’s life. // Staples singing during the 2006 NEA National Heritage Fellows concert. // Staples made a major national return with the release of the album Have a Little Faith on Chicago’s Alligator Records, produced by Jim Tullio, in 2004. The album featured spiritual music, some of it semi-acoustic. // In 2004, Staples contributed to a Verve release by legendary jazz-rock guitarist, John Scofield. The album, entitled That’s What I Say, was a tribute to the great Ray Charles and led to a live tour featuring Staples, John Scofield, pianist Gary Versace, drummer Steve Hass, and bassist Rueben Rodriguez. A new album for Anti- Records entitled We’ll Never Turn Back was released on April 24, 2007. The Ry Cooder-produced concept album focuses on gospel songs of the civil rights movement and also included two new original songs by Cooder. // Her voice has been sampled by some of the biggest selling artists, including Salt ‘N’ Pepa, Ice Cube, Ludacris, and Hozier. Staples has recorded with a wide variety of musicians, from her friend, Bob Dylan (with whom she was nominated for a 2004 Grammy Award in the “Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals” category for their duet on “Gonna Change My Way of Thinking”, from the album Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan) to The Band, Ray Charles, Prince, Nona Hendryx, George Jones, Natalie Merchant, Ann Peebles, and Delbert McClinton. She has provided vocals on current albums by Los Lobos and Dr. John, and she appears on tribute albums to such artists as Johnny Paycheck, Stephen Foster and Bob Dylan. // In 2003, Staples performed in Memphis at the Orpheum Theater alongside a cadre of her fellow former Stax Records stars during “Soul Comes Home,” a concert held in conjunction with the grand opening of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music at the original site of Stax Records, and appears on the CD & DVD that were recorded and filmed during the event. In 2004, she returned as guest artist for the Stax Music Academy’s SNAP! Summer Music Camp and performed again at the Orpheum with 225 of the academy’s students. In June 2007, she again returned to the venue to perform at the Stax 50th Anniversary Concert to Benefit the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, produced by Concord Records, who now owns and has revived the Stax Records label. // In 2009, Staples, along with Patty Griffin and The Tri-City Singers, released a version of the song “Waiting For My Child To Come Home” on the compilation album Oh Happy Day: An All-Star Music Celebration. // On October 30, 2010, Staples performed at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear alongside singer Jeff Tweedy. In 2011 she was joined on-stage at the Outside Lands Music And Arts Festival by Arcade Fire singer Win Butler. The two performed a version of “The Weight” by The Band. // Staples also performed at the 33rd Kennedy Center Honors, singing in a tribute to honoree Paul McCartney. // Staples headlined on June 10, 2012, at Chicago’s Annual Blues Festival in Grant Park. // On June 27, 2015, Staples performed on the Park Stage of Glastonbury Somerset UK. On October 31, 2015, Staples performed with Joan Osborne in Washington, D.C. at The George Washington // University’s Lisner Auditorium as part of their Solid Soul Tour. // In February 2016, Staples’s album Livin’ on a High Note was released. Produced by M. Ward, the album features songs written specifically for Staples by Nick Cave, Justin Vernon, tUnE-yArds, Neko Case, Aloe Blacc, and others. Discussing the album Staples said: “I’ve been singing my freedom songs and I wanted to stretch out and sing some songs that were new. I told the writers I was looking for some joyful songs. I want to leave something to lift people up; I’m so busy making people cry, not from sadness, but I’m always telling a part of history that brought us down and I’m trying to bring us back up. These songwriters gave me a challenge. They gave me that feeling of, ‘Hey, I can hang! I can still do this!’ There’s a variety, and it makes me feel refreshed and brand new. Just like Benjamin Booker wrote on the opening track, ‘I got friends and I got love around me, I got people, the people who love me.’ I’m living on a high note, I’m above the clouds. I’m just so grateful. I must be the happiest old girl in the world. Yes, indeed.” // In January 2017, Staples was featured as a guest vocalist on “I Give You Power”, a single from Arcade Fire benefiting the American Civil Liberties Union. In February 2017, Staples appeared on NPR’s Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me! in the “Not My Job” segment, answering questions about the rock band The Shaggs. In April 2017, “Let Me Out”, a single from the fifth studio album by Gorillaz, Humanz, was released, featuring Staples and rapper Pusha T. // Staples’s sixteenth album If All I Was Was Black was released on November 17, 2017. The record was again produced by Jeff Tweedy and contains all original songs cowritten by Mavis and Tweedy. Following the release, Staples toured with Bob Dylan. She also appeared on the 2017/18 Hootenanny. In 2018, she sang on Hozier’s single “Nina Cried Power”. // In May 2019, Staples celebrated her 80th birthday with a concert at the Apollo Theater, 63 years after first appearing at the theater as a teenager with her family band, the Staple Singers, in 1956. The show, which featured special guest artists, including David Byrne & Norah Jones, is one of a series of collaborative concerts she staged in May to commemorate her 80th birthday. She performed at the 2019 Glastonbury Festival. // In 2022, Staples released Carry Me Home, a collaboration with Levon Helm, recorded at Helm’s Midnight Ramble in 2011. // She released the single “Worthy” on June 18, 2024. // On May 13, 2022 Kevin Morby released THIS IS A PHOTOGRAPH on Dead Oceans. It was #7 on WMM’s 120 Best Recordings of 2022. It was Kevin Morby’s 7th album as a solo artist. From www.rollingstone.com: “In January 2020, songwriter Kevin Morby witnessed his father collapse from a medical event while visiting his childhood home in Kansas. In a state of shock, the singer spent the evening looking at old family photos and fixated on an image of his father as a young man, looking, as Morby states, ‘full of confidence.’ The experience forced Morby to confront both the idea of mortality and the passage of time — and, after an extended sojourn in Tennessee, these reflections came together in the form of his upcoming album, This Is a Photograph. To mark the announcement, the singer released the record’s eponymous single, accompanied by a music video directed by Chantal Anderson. Produced by frequent Morby collaborator Sam Cohen, This Is a Photograph was primarily written in Memphis’ historic Peabody Hotel, where the singer-songwriter holed up in search of inspiration and self-realization amongst the city’s dark past.” // On October 16, 2020 Kevin Morby released SUNDOWNER, ranked #20 on WMM’s 120 Best Recordings of 2020 and was his 6th release. Kevin Robert Morby was born April 2, 1988. SUNDOWNER was the follow up to his 2019 release OH MY GOD. Kevin Morby released CITY MUSIC in 2017. Kevin learned to play guitar when he was 10. In his teens he formed the band Creepy Aliens. 17-year-old Morby dropped out of Blue Valley Northwest High School, got his GED, and moved from his native KC to Brooklyn in the mid-2000s, supporting himself by working bike delivery and café jobs. He later joined the noise-folk group Woods on bass. While living in Brooklyn, he became close friends and roommates with Cassie Ramone of the punk trio Vivian Girls, and the two formed a side project together called The Babies, who released albums in 2011 & 2012. He began a solo career in 2013 releasing his debut HARLEM RIVER. His 2nd album STILL LIFE was released in 2014. SINGING SAW was in WMM’s 116 Best Recordings of 2016. CITY MUSIC was in WMM’s 118 Best Recordings of 2018.]

18. Lucy Dacus – “Planting Tomatoes”
    from: “Planting Tomatoes” – Single / Interscope / April 18, 2026
    [Lucy Dacus released “Plantong Tomatoes” as a Record Store Day “ 7” vinyl release. Dacus explains “I wrote most of the song on tour in Europe last year and walking around my neighborhood. It’s about trying to stay present and grateful when you know that life ends, for yourself and everyone you love, and how to avoid disenchantment by seeing through as many of your little ideas as possible.”​ // Lucy Dacus released Forever is a Feeling on February 21, 2015, part of WMM’s 120 Best Recordings of 2025. Lucy Elizabeth Dacus was born May 2, 1995. She is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Originally from Richmond, Virginia, Dacus first gained fame following the release of her debut album, No Burden (2016), which led to a deal with Matador Records. Historian, her second album, was released in 2018 to critical acclaim. Home Video, her third studio album, was released in 2021. Forever is a Feeling, her fourth album, was released in 2025. // In addition to her solo work, Dacus is also a member of the indie supergroup Boygenius, with Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers. The band has released one studio album and two EPs to critical acclaim and widespread touring. The band won 3 Grammy Awards in 2024, including Best Alternative Music Album. They also became the first all-female band to win Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance. // In October 2023, Rolling Stone named Dacus the 213th-greatest guitarist of all time, noting: “[her] guitar is as essential an instrument as her voice”. // Lucy Elizabeth Dacus was adopted as an infant and grew up in Mechanicsville, Virginia, a suburb of Richmond. She is of Uzbek and Irish descent.[8] Her adoptive mother is a professional pianist and music teacher, and her adoptive father is a graphic designer. Dacus had an early interest in music, and bought her first guitar, an Ibanez, from Craigslist when she was in middle school. After graduating from Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School in 2013, she began studying film at Virginia Commonwealth University, but left to avoid student debt and the “feeling of being misunderstood” in her university program. Prior to becoming a full-time musician, she was employed by Richmond Camera as an editor for children’s school photos. During this time, she wrote approximately 30 songs, nine of which would make up the tracklist of No Burden.] [Lucy Dacus brought her a Forever is a Feeling Tour to The Midland Theatre on May 7]

19. Kevin Morby – “100,000”
    from: Little Wide Open / Dead Oceans / May 15, 2026
    [Kevin Morby’s 8th studio album. // From Kevin’s Bandcamp page: For Kevin Morby, the “little wide open” is the big sky, the small lives, it’s his origins in the Midwest, and every duty and modesty and familiarity and isolation: the land, the people, and the parts of that inside him. “There’s something unintentionally musical about the Midwest; cicadas chirping in the trees, a train passing, a tornado siren going off,” explains Morby. “If you listen, there are these almost ominous sounds taking place beneath the wide-open sky—its ugliness and its beauty and how the two are often working together simultaneously. And while the Midwest isn’t technically the badlands, it’s my badlands.” // Little Wide Open is the title of Kevin Morby’s eighth studio album, produced by Aaron Dessner. In the summer of 2024, Dessner had asked Morby to support The National at their London show in Crystal Palace Park. Shortly after, Dessner—who was on a hot streak, having produced albums for Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, and Gracie Abrams—reached out to Morby to say he’d love to produce his next album. They began recording at Aaron’s Long Pond Studio in Stuyvesant, NY, early in 2025 and finished in September of that year. // The album, which features a host of contributors such as Dessner—who plays multiple instruments across it—Amelia Meath, Andrew Barr, Justin Vernon, Katie Gavin, Lucinda Williams, Meg Duffy, and more, has been described by Morby as the third in a trilogy of releases, following 2020’s Sundowner and 2022’s This Is a Photograph, which catalogued his time in the Midwest after moving back to Kansas City. This time out, Dessner’s production elevates Morby’s recordings while never losing focus of the songs themselves. There’s a newfound confidence and clarity in both Morby’s writing and Dessner’s production that recalls Tom Petty’s 1994 classic Wildflowers. // Now primarily living in LA, the atmosphere that runs through Little Wide Open has changed somewhat from its predecessors. As Rachel Kushner writes of Morby in the album’s accompanying essay: “It’s about time, about feeling like he has shifted from nostalgia and the losing game, losing but beautiful, of holding onto the past. He has accepted that time is ceaselessly flowing, and you can’t stop it. Instead, he feels like he’s riding it. He’s riding passenger with time.” // Kevin Morby’s single “Beautiful Strangers’ was recently recorded by Mavis Staples for her 2025 album SAD AND BEAUTIFUL WORLD. Mavis Staples won a Grammy at the 68th Annual Grammys for Best American Roots Performance for her interpretation of Kevin’s song. Kevin released this song only as a single in 2016 in tribute to the victims of the Orlando Pulse shooting. Kevin Morby is pretty bowled over by the existence of this cover. Morby says. “It isn’t easy to put into words what it feels like having one of the best, most important vocalists and cultural figures of both the 20th and 21st century sing one of my songs.” // Kevin Robert Morby was born April 2, 1988. Kevin learned to play guitar when he was 10. In his teens he formed the band Creepy Aliens. 17-year-old Morby dropped out of Blue Valley Northwest High School, got his GED, and moved from his native KC to Brooklyn in the mid-2000s, supporting himself by working bike delivery and café jobs. He later joined the noise-folk group Woods on bass. While living in Brooklyn, he became close friends and roommates with Cassie Ramone of the punk trio Vivian Girls, and the two formed a side project together called The Babies, who released albums in 2011 and 2012. Kevin Morby began a solo career in 2013 releasing his debut album HARLEM RIVER on November 26, 2013. STILL LIFE, his 2nd album, was released in October 14, 2014. SINGING SAW his 3rd album was released April 15, 2016 and was in WMM’s 116 Best Recordings of 2016. His 4th album CITY MUSIC was released June 16, 2017 and was in WMM’s 118 Best Recordings of 2018. Kevin Morby released his 5th album OH MY GOD on April 26, 2019. On October 16, 2020 Kevin Morby released SUNDOWNER, his 6th release, #20 on WMM’s 120 Best Recordings of 2020. On October 8, 2021 Kevin Morby released A NIGHT AT the LITTLE LOS ANGELES (Sundowner 4-Track Demos) on Dead Oceans Records. On May 13, 2022 Kevin Morby released THIS IS A PHOTOGRAPH his 7th album as a solo artist, on Dead Oceans. It was #7 on WMM’s 120 Best Recordings of 2022. From www.rollingstone.com: “In January 2020, songwriter Kevin Morby witnessed his father collapse from a medical event while visiting his childhood home in Kansas. In a state of shock, the singer spent the evening looking at old family photos and fixated on an image of his father as a young man, looking, as Morby states, ‘full of confidence.’ The experience forced Morby to confront both the idea of mortality and the passage of time — and, after an extended sojourn in Tennessee, these reflections came together in the form of, This Is a Photograph. Produced by frequent Morby collaborator Sam Cohen, This Is a Photograph was primarily written in Memphis’ historic Peabody Hotel, where the singer-songwriter holed up in search of inspiration and self-realization amongst the city’s dark past.” On January 25, 2023 Kevin Morby released MUSIC FROM MONTANA STORY a 13 track film soundtrack. On May 26, 2023 Kevin Morby released MORE PHOTO-GRAPHS (A Continuum) on Dead Oceans Records. Throughout his 10 album releases Kevin has also released 25 singles. Kevin Morby played The Uptown Theater, 3700 Broadway,May 29, at 7:00 with Liam Kazar.]

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

11:55

20. The Creepy Jingles – “Vow Down”
    from: Washed Up / Enigmatic Brunch Records / May 22, 2026
    [WASHED UP was written by Jocelyn Nixon, and recorded, engineered, and mixed by Paul Malinowski at Massive Sounds Studios in Shawnee, Kansas, with Jocelyn Olivia Nixon on lead vocals, piano, rhythm guitar; Andrew Woody on bass; Nick Robertson on drums; and Wills Van Doorn on lead guitars. // The Creepy Jingles line up originally included “Drummer Nick Robertson charges the group forward with a fiery fueled obsidian backbeat. Andrew Woody on bass guitar; Rounding out the band is Guitarist Travis McKenzie who generously spins a holographic spectrum of color that lift the catchy Brit pop melodies that effortlessly dance about the rapidly changing landscapes of New York Garage Rock and 60s/70s folk music.“ // Earlier this year Jocelyn Olivia Nixon shared with us the unreleased single “fight for your say” for our March 4, 2026 radio show. // Last year Jocelyn Olivia Nixon released the single, “YOU AIN’T RIGHT! YOU MUST BE WRONG!” on May 2, 2025. Jocelyn Olivia Nixon is lead singer of the band The Creepy Jungles. The Creepy Jingles are getting ready to release a new alum called WASHED UP coming this spring. Jocelyn told Nick Spacek of The Pitch, “that the songs she presents to her bandmates in The Jingles’ songs are poppier stuff, typically, while solo songs are more folky, mellow, weird, and lyrical. Solo work also gives her the opportunity to work with others outside the group. As Nixon explains, “It’s basically a tongue-in-cheek song making fun of hard right conservatives and social cliques who think only their way is ‘right.’” She said, “I felt like I needed something where I can be a bit more vulnerable and naked, I suppose,” the musician says. “I think because Jingles do rock n roll pop songs well, I think I’m kinda boxed in as an artist and singer. This is my way of saying I have many sides to myself as an individual and as an artist, and I can forge my own path and defy expectations.” Jocelyn Nixon’s next single, “Real Deal,” is due later this summer . // The Creepy Jingles released a series of 4 new singles in 2024 including “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 play Hillsiders in KCK Fri, July 31, at 8:00 w/ Eggs On Mars, and Shared Walls]

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

Next week, on Wednesday, August 5 we welcome very special guest: D Rashaan Gilmore who hosts UNBOSSED and UNBOTHERED Saturdays at 5:00pm on KKFI; and BOSCO who is playing The Folly Theatre August 11 at 8:00pm.]

You can find our playlists at: www.wednesdaymiddaymedley.org & www.kkfi.org
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Thank you to KKFI Staff: Executive Director – Bess Wallerstein-Huff, Chief Operator – Chad Brothers, Director of Development & Communications – J Kelly Dougherty, Volunteer Coordinator – Darryl Oliver, and Office Manager Book Keeper – Shaina Littler.

THANK YOU to everyone who donated to KKFI’s Summer Fund Drive during WMM we had a total of 33 people donate a total of $3513.50. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

This radio station is more than the individual hosts of each individual radio show. It is a collective spirit of hundreds of people, setting aside ego, to work for the greater good of community building and the goal of keeping our airwaves, non-commercial, and open! Thank you to programmers who create content for over 85 locally produced radio shows & volunteers who made 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:
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Show #1158

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

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

WMM presents: Margaret Cho + FlareThaRebel + Brodie Rush & Cody Calhoun of An Evening of Pink Floyd

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

2. Radkey – “Ready To Burn”
   from: “Ready To Burn” – Single / Little Man Records / May 22, 2026
   [To single from upcoming New Album Bedroom Sand to be released on July 14, 2026Radkey released the EP Victory on July 30, 2025. It was part of WMM’s 120 Best Recordings of 2025. // single “Falling Out of Grace” on October 24, 2025. Radkey released the single “Victory” on March 28, 2025. On September 23, 2022 Radkey released the single “Better Than This.” The band released “Games (Tonight)”: on January 28, 2022 on Little Man Records. Isaiah, Dee, and Solomon Radke of the critically acclaimed rock trio Radkey joined us live in our 90.1 FM studios on September 5, 2018. Radkey was formed in 2010 in St. Joseph, where the brothers were raised. The family moved to Kansas City. The band has released multiple full-length recordings. In 2021 Radkey was featured in Dave Grohl’s van-touring documentary film, WHAT DRIVES US. Radkey released GREEN ROOM on Little Man Records on November 27, 2020. On Green Room the band serve as their own producers. Radkey released DARK BLACK MAKE UP in 2015 and DELICIOUS ROCK NOISE in 2016 — plus multiple EPs and singles, and were part of a MasterCard advertising campaign on digital billboards in NYC along with a national television commercial that aired during the 2018 Grammy Awards that brought the band to the attention of Jack White who asked the band to tour with him. In 2018 the band went back on the road with The Damned throughout the United States. In December they went back into the studio to record with producer Bill Stevenson of the California punk rock group Descendents. In early 2019 they played shows in Amsterdam and Stockholm. In 2018 the band released “Basement,” “St. Elwood,” “Rock & Roll Homeschool,” as well as several other singles. On February 22, 2019, Radkey released “No Strange Cats…P.A.W.” a 7-song EP is essentially a collection of the band’s most recent singles. It comes after the January 11, 2019 release of No Strange cats…Spiders – EP a 6 song EP of several new songs mixed with several singles from late 2018.]

[Radkey plays Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St., Lawrence, KS. On Friday, June 12, with Godzillionaire.]

3. Sweeping Promises – “Shooting Shadows”
   from: You Say I Romanticize / Feel It Records – Sub Pop / August 14, 2026
   [From bandcamp page: Sweeping Promises’ introduction to the global punk underground was their debut album, Hunger for a Way Out, one of the breakout successes in music during 2020’s pandemic lockdown. In 2023, they followed up with the acclaimed Good Living Is Coming for You, which made Album of the Year lists for Pitchfork, NPR, Paste, and BBC, just to name a few. The album found guitarist/producer Caufield Schnug and bassist/vocalist Lira Mondal testing the limits of their home-recording resourcefulness as freshly minted Kansans – new place, new space. Now, the band is back with a frenetic new offering: You Say I Romanticize. // Recorded over an 18-month period, largely prepared and periodically interrupted by Schnug’s non-SP production work, You Say I Romanticize is a tribute to the chaos of creation and collaboration under shifting circumstances. For years now, Schnug and Mondal have embedded themselves in their combination tour house and recording studio in Kansas, annually working on dozens of albums from other bands, hosting tour stops, planning shows, and the like. After an immersive process of tracking and whittling down YSIR demos and carving out an idiosyncratic chamber recording method for the album’s intentional wall-of-sound, the duo brought in touring drummer Spenser Gralla to play the songs like the band would on stage. // The album’s frenzied execution, akin to the group’s renowned live show, prevails most of all in Mondal’s vocals. Whereas previously, you might have heard a growl here and there on certain Sweeping Promises tracks, the band’s formidable singer shouts, roars, hits all sorts of tricky notes, and shreds her throat all over the record, notably on the pummeling opener “Shooting Shadows” and the smoldering “Cocoon.” // A shadow side exists along with Sweeping Promises’ love of their artistic community—borne of weirdos channeling their misfit status into vibrant art and punk rock music, often passing through the revolving door that is their home studio. You Say I Romanticize takes the art-by-any-means-necessary ethos Mondal and Schnug have developed over the years and turns the prompt upside-down, landing on a personality epidemic manifesting across all ten tracks. // A big theme of You Say I Romanticize is hinted at in its title. Taken from a lyric sung on driving album closer “Write Lightly”—a narrative about the importance of self-expression in writing being scrubbed away by “professional” concerns—many of the characters Mondal fleshed out here are outcasts, marginalized by society and morphed into longing fanatics. The personalities depicted on You Say I Romanticize are often writerly types; as writing is, by and large, an art of obsession. To wit, “Last Man,” by equal turns musically nervous and cathartic, loosely takes after Mary Shelley’s literary work of the same name, The Last Man—a dystopian 19th Century novel written in wake of a cholera outbreak. Similarly, “My Anchoress” resonantes in its portrayal of 15th Century author Julian of Norwich—centered around her enduring Revelations of Divine Love (one of the earliest English-written works by a woman), which details her eccentric, sensuous religious visions. // Sweeping Promises have long been progenitors of concept-forward art-punk music that is remarkably immediate and irresistible. For being largely about personalities boxed in by isolation, You Say I Romanticize is carried by an outright soaring energy. —Martin Douglas ]

[On September 9 through November 18 Sweeping Promises go on a 32 City U.S. Tour that include: St. Paul, Denver, and even Omaha, but not KC. Local promoters passed, because it’s not a tribute show.]

4. Til Willis & Erratic Cowboy – “Come Up High”
   from: Art, Luck and Architecture – EP / Til Willis / May 8, 2026
   [Til Willis on vocals & guitar; Bradley McKellip on guitar; Eric Binkley on bass; and Austin Sinkler on drums. With Randy Wills on Organ on December’s Clover and East Bijou. Recorded and Mixed by Randy Wills at Exceptions Studios (Topeka, KS). All songs written by Til Willis. (c) 2026 Lemon Zephyr Music BMI. // Til Willis & Erratic Cowboy released Glass Cactus on March 27, 2025 with Til Willis on vocals, guitar, percussion, mixing, & production; Bradley McKellip om guitars & lap steel; Eric Binkley on bass, and Austin Sinkler on grums with Nate Holt on keyboards for: Ten Miles of Days, Horizon, Smells Like Honey, Recovering Sunday; Chance Dibben on Sonic Manipulations on Homecoming, Recovering Sunday, Natural Law; and Steve Faceman on backup vocals on Lost. Recorded in The Barn in Tecumseh, Kansas. Mixed in The Cabin in Ouray, Colorado, and at 1509 Recording Service in Lawrence, Kansas. // Til Willis, born in the heat of 1980, has been making music for a long time. Currently, when not performing solo, he makes noise with Erratic Cowboy. The style of music is lyric driven rock, that draws influence from many sources. Some have described it as Tin-Roof-Rain-Water-Bop. Til has had the pleasure to have performed with Pete Seeger.]

5. youbet – “Ground Kiss”
   from: youbet / Hardly Art / May 1, 2026
   [From Bandcamp page: The best teachers never stop learning. They listen closely, stay curious, and let what they discover shape how they guide others. On their new self-titled album as youbet (due May 1st 2026, via Hardly Art), longtime music educators Nick Llobet (he/they) and Micah Prussack (she/her) proudly act as both explorer and guide, sharing three-dimensional musical sculptures so confidently and esoterically their own that they couldn’t have been released under any other name but youbet. Created in motion and shaped between long stretches of touring, the album reflects a moment of ecstatic possibility and grit. Both sharpened and expansive, youbet grows from the confines of home recording and “bedroom pop” into something sturdier, louder, and unmistakably their own. // “I myself am a constant student of life, of creating,” Llobet says. “I see people’s creative anxieties because I have lived them. It’s very therapeutic because I can tell that I’m giving people strong advice based on all my failures.” Llobet relocated to New York from Denver in 2013 and forged initial connections in the local scene, while creating youbet and writing two albums, but it wasn’t until meeting Prussack in 2022 that they discovered a different level of musical connection. When the duo started playing together, they quickly realized their uniquely shared musical language and eagerness to learn from everything, connecting over a vast array of musical influence and their own practice of teaching. “Early in our friendship, Nick and I were playing guitar in the park and we decided that the Beatles were so good because they learned how to play hundreds of songs together,” Prussack says. “So we began our quest to learn 1,000 songs. Nick started compiling a massive playlist called ‘Learn Me’ filled with music that we habitually study and generate new ideas from.”  // The duo began experimenting musically, and their subsequent year of touring led to a new, more refined sound. “We had a huge opportunity for reinvention,” Prussack says. “Nick will never play the chord that you expect, and is always pushing me outside of my creative box. Their compositions are so exciting to explore, and on tour we began to reconsider and transform the kernel of each song to match our new environment.” // That depth of surprise and expansive warmth radiates from album opener “Ground Kiss”, a late-night existential query written when Llobet found themselves adjusting to living alone after the end of an 11-year relationship. “The song represents an endless search for that something and the rebuilding that goes along with trial and failure,” they say. The song unites the spectrum between clouds of plucked Big Thief-esque glow and bursts of distorted frustration. To that end, youbet demonstrates Llobet and Prussack’s ability to weave beguiling musical and lyrical expression, pushing and pulling at the resulting mesh. // Developing their finely tuned fusion between complex musicality and deeply felt emotion required more than hoping inspiration would strike. Instead, the process of creating youbet involved countless hours of precise engineering, meticulous craft, and gritty dedication. The duo were consistently listening, learning, and writing. But that hard work boils down into every facet of their work, including bringing a set of dumbbells on tour so they could keep active and stay disciplined. For their part, Llobet sees the resulting album as a statement of that hard work and the opening of a new chapter. “It’s the beginning of a new era for youbet,” they say. “The band started as a sort of bedroom project for myself, but it has transformed into something expansive since working with Micah. It’s like we’re running a family business.” // The broiling “Undefined” draws from that personal soul-searching, a musical mosaic of life before and after a complicated breakup. Llobet first worked out the verses while waiting for a guitar student, a fitting backdrop for the song’s balance of wizardly art pop experimentalism and diligent power pop hookiness. Co-producers Katie Von Schleicher and Julian Fader help round out the mix, the former adding synth glisten and the latter a drum backbone hammered into place by Prussack’s bass. // The concussive “See Thru” rushes headlong through heavy alt rock chop, moments of gentler curve, and even bubbly electronics—a track Llobet notes began when they were toying with a Debussy piano part on guitar and then stamped in the harmonics and energy of Japanese hard rock band Boris. Elsewhere, “Receive” finds Llobet carving away at generational conflict, tethering propulsive bursts of guitar reverie with raw emotional vigor in the vein of Pile. “On the verse, the bass is playing variations on the vocal melody,” Prussack says. “Throughout the album, there’s unique interplay and variation that you can only get from a lot of hard work together.”// Echoing their strengths as educators, the ability to voraciously learn from a breadth of influences informs youbet—from the dizzying score to Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo to dazzling flamenco—but their ability to recognize meaning beyond signposts and find connections to emotional experience pushes everything into a topographical realism. “Having respect for the canon doesn’t mean we’re ever limited by revivalism. There’s a whole universe of musical vocabulary that we can borrow from and translate into our language,” Prussack says. // That willingness to learn from the past while building the future is something tied deeply to the band’s New York City roots, with so many visionary artists having previously built new worlds within the city’s confines. “For years, I was too intimidated to step into the scene. It’s been such a breath of fresh air to build this new craft, this new philosophy of songwriting in a scene I respect and feel in community with,” says Llobet. / Compelling art requires an unimaginable burst of new life, a shift from two-dimensional ideas to viscous, sinewy reality. As much as the hard work bolsters the music, it’s truly the resounding spirit of Llobet and Prussack’s relationship at the core of youbet. “Micah has brought a lot of order to my chaotic neurodivergence,” Llobet reflects. “I consider her my musical confidant. She can be cleverly critical and extremely encouraging. She’s probably the most opinionated person I know. Together we build this musical balance.” What emerges is an album that doesn’t just break free of its former constraints, but reconfigures them into something sturdier: a collaborative language capable of holding contradiction, growth, and connection all at once.]

6. Yaya Bey – “Blue”
   from: Fidelty / drink sum wtr / April 17, 2026
   [When Queens-born Yaya Bey released her 3rd album, do it afraid, in 2025, she yearned to move past the topic of grief after feeling her work was increasingly viewed through the narrow lens of loss. That said, there was plenty to mourn, from the death of her father, the acclaimed Juice Crew MC, Grand Daddy I.U. as well as a creeping sense that a particular Black American experience, the one she grew up in, was disappearing. The week the album dropped, despite the critical acclaim, she found herself on the road in a Miami hotel room, crying uncontrollably. She wasn’t just tired, but also coming to the realization “there was no place for that grief to exist that would not become a spectacle. I had been holding it in. Maybe, to protect myself. Maybe to prove the onlookers wrong. Whatever the case, it was spilling over now.” // What Bey was pondering was “what part of that ache is specifically Black?” and clarity followed. Yaya quickly returned to the studio after last summer and crafted a new body of work, an album that works as an accomp-anying piece to do it afraid, called Fidelity, the result of that breaking point. It is a record born from a summer of reflection on what it means to be a Black artist when your grief becomes a commodity, another sob story for onlookers to feast upon. Fidelity is a bold step forward, and in this new act, Bey moves past the surface-level labels to examine what she calls the “Three Deaths”: the personal, the communal, and the loss of innocence. // The album confronts Personal Death through the passing of her father in 2022. Bey questions why the life expectancy of Black musicians is so short as we continue to lose consequential artists, only to receive their flowers too late, too far after the fact. “Why are we more interesting as ghosts?” she asks, looking at the mid-career mark where so many artists are left to die by a system that prioritizes the “shiny & new.” // On Fidelity, the social and the personal are inseparable. Bey explores the Death of Home & community, charting the displacement of native New Yorkers and the fracture of the Black diaspora. She critiques the rise of Black capitalism, or the “individualism and tribalism” that have replaced community solidarity. From the gentrifi-cation of her native Queens or Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy to the “diaspora wars” online, Bey navigates the ways we’ve been pulled apart, weaponizing our differences instead of addressing the collective ache of being “made new” in a world that demands our constant adaptation. // Finally, the record addresses the Death of Innocence—the crash back to reality for a generation raised on the empty promises of the 90s and Y2K eras. Bey reflects on the transition from the “Golden Era” of Black media to a landscape of global pandemics, state violence, and an industry that exploits and disposes of Black artists that were once held in high esteem. // The songs show-case Bey’s range as a performer from lead-off single “Blue” which opens like a breath of fresh air to the project. Yaya says: “Blue” is the first song I wrote for the album. I wrote it when I was rock bottom coming off the heels of do it afraid. When I realized I had to make a big shift mentally and emotionally or I was gonna drown. The production is really reminiscent of early 2000’s Pop/R&B like something red-haired Kelly Rowland would sing over on one of her solo projects. The nostalgia drew me to it. Almost like I’m coaching my young-er self through something. Which I guess ultimately I am.” // Equally bright & effusive, “Forty Days” glim-mers with clarity, a song with a heavy theme about a phase transfer that is unexpectedly buoyed with a Disco-Funk confidence. “There’s a belief that after a loved one dies you give them 40 days to pass over into the ancestral realm and that got me thinking about what is the time frame for the grieving to transition into a new life that is absent of the lost one’s physical presence. How do both accli-mate to new conditions of the relation-ship?” // Fellow Queens native NESTA drops in for “Egyptian Musk”, a surprise chance moment turning into a key moment in the album. “I ran into NESTA at an event the night before and invited him to a session. We had this really dreamy reggae track that sounds like something old with a fresh spin. I named it Egyptian Musk ‘cause it reminds me of the scent. Rich, sweet and comforting.” // The core of the album is indeed found in its title. For Bey, Fidelity is the ultimate Black skill. It is the ability to fall down and get back up, to be “religious-ly joyful” even while the world is on fire. It is a grand pivot away from a yearning for mainstream accessibi-lity, and toward a radical faithfulness to self and community. Fidelity is not just a foil to do it afraid; it’s a re-clamation. She puts it, the veil is lifting, the work is being done, she’s still here. Cheers to hers, & our fidelity.]

7. Lee Walter Redding – “It Should Be Ours” (CD #7) (4:02)
   from: “It Should Be Ours” – Single / Lee Walter Redding / February 4, 2025
   [Lee Walter Redding released the EP Student Loan Forgiveness Program – EP on July 18, 2025. It was part of WMM’s 120 Best Recordings of 2025. // Lee Walter Redding released the single “All My Text Messages Are Verification Codes” on July 11, 2025. Lee Walter Redding released the single “It Should Be Ours” on February 24, 2025. // On July 15, 2022 Lee Walter Redding released the EP live From The Argyle Wallpaper. Lee Walter Redding on vocals, guitar; Justin Rogers on bass; Andy Kirk on guitar/synth and Justin Skinner on drums. // Lee Walter Redding released “Elephant Man (feat. Stephonne)” on April 9, 2021. Lee told us that he learned about Stephonne Singleton from listening to Wednesday MidDay Medley and hearing Stephonne for the first time. WMM bringing musical collaborations together since 2004. // Kansas City based Lee Walter Redding was raised on 60s rock, steeped in 90s Britpop ennui, and guided by contemporary neo-soul, Lee Walter Redding weaves dry humor into vibrant sonic textures that sway from wistful to chaotic. Think 2010s Nick Lowe fronting The Velvet Underground. On warped vinyl. More info at: http://www.leewalterredding.bandcamp.com] [Lee Walter Redding was our guest on WMM on July 13, 2022]

10:24 – Underwriting

8. Black Light Animals – “sleeptalking”
   from: LAST CALL FOR LOVE SONGS / The Record Machine / March 28, 2025
   [Black Light Animals are: Cole Bales on lead vocals, background vocals, guitar, keyboards; Cody Calhoun on lead guitar & percussion; Branden Moser on bass, guitar, keyboards, drums & percussion; and Alex Hartmann on drums & percussion. All songs written and produced by Black Light Animals. Lyrics by Cole Bales, Cody Calhoun, Branden Moser. Mixed and engineered by Cole Bales. Mastered by Adam Boose. Featuring Nate Hubert on keyboards & background vocals; spoken word intro and outro by Jass. Seyko Groves & Paula Saunders on additional background vocals and vocal arrangements. Brett Jackson on saxophone. Recorded at Groove King Studios in KCMO. // Formed from the ashes of their last band, Instant Karma the new record contains lush pop vocals crooned over spaghetti western riffs, psychedelic synth, and hip hop drums. Playboys of the Western World is a sprawling, decadent examination of what it means to be a human being through the lens of horror movie organs, spaghetti western guitars, hip hop grooves, psychedelic sojourns, and ballads crooned to lovers in the night. More info at: http://www.blacklightanimalsband.bandcamp.com]

9. Be/Non – “Over The Moon”
   rom: A Valley of No: The Alternative A Mountain of Yeses / Haymaker Records / Apr. 8, 2020
   [Originally released May 12, 2009, A Mountain of Yeses was made by: Brodie Rush on vocals, guitar, bass, drums, keyboards; Ben Ruth on bass guitar; Ryan Shank on drums & percussion, and Jeremiah James on guitar, Moog & Vocals. Brodie writes: “This album is a journey into the sculpting process of creating “A Mountain of Yeses”. In contrast to the original release, this compilation contains alternate mixes, isolated tracks and demo versions. Be/Non presents a bizarro-like version of the AMOY album, showing an alternate universe what could have been if the creation of the album went on a divergent path. Behold the paradoxical serendipity of Be/Non’s unique take on constructing a space-themed story/album.]

10. Pink Floyd – “The Great Gig In The Sky”
    from: The Dark Side of the Moon / Capitol / March 1, 1973
    [Nick Mason (drums), Roger Waters (bass guitar, vocals) and Richard Wright (keyboards, vocals), with David Gilmour (guitar, vocals). The Dark Side of the Moon is the eighth studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released March 1, 1973 by Capitol Records in the US, and March 16, 1973 by Harvest Records in the UK. Developed during live performances before recording began, it was conceived as a concept album that would focus on the pressures faced by the band during their arduous lifestyle, and also deal with the mental health problems of former band member Syd Barrett, who had departed the group in 1968. New material was recorded in two sessions in 1972 and 1973 at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) in London. // The group employed multitrack recording, tape loops, and analogue synthesisers, including experimentation. The engineer Alan Parsons was responsible for many aspects of the recording, and for the recruitment of the session singer Clare Torry, who appears on “The Great Gig in the Sky”. // The Dark Side of the Moon explores themes such as conflict, greed, time, death, and mental illness. Snippets from interviews with the band’s road crew and others are featured alongside philosophical quotations. The sleeve, which depicts a prismatic spectrum, was designed by Storm Thorgerson in response to the keyboardist Richard Wright’s request for a “simple and bold” design which would represent the band’s lighting and the album’s themes. // The Dark Side of the Moon has received widespread critical acclaim and is often featured in publication listings of the greatest albums of all time. It brought international fame and wealth to all four band members. As a blockbuster release of the album era, it also propelled record sales throughout the music industry during the 1970s. The Dark Side of the Moon is certified 14× platinum in the United Kingdom, and topped the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart, where it has charted for 996 weeks. By 2013, The Dark Side of the Moon had sold over 45 million copies worldwide, making it the band’s best-selling release, the best-selling album of the 1970s, and the fourth-best-selling album in history. In 2012, the album was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. // Waters conceived an album that dealt with things that “make people mad”, focusing on the pressures associated with the band’s arduous lifestyle, and dealing with the mental health problems suffered by the former band member Syd Barrett. // The band approved of Waters’ concept for an album unified by a single theme. Waters created demo tracks in a small studio in a garden shed at his home in Islington. Parts of the album were taken from previously unused material; the opening line of “Breathe” came from an earlier work by Waters and Ron Geesin, written for the soundtrack of The Body, and the basic structure of “Us and Them” was borrowed from an original composition, “The Violent Sequence”, by the keyboardist, Richard Wright, for Zabriskie Point. The band rehearsed at a warehouse in London owned by the Rolling Stones and at the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park, London. They also purchased extra equipment, which included new speakers, a PA system, a 28-track mixing desk with a four channel quadraphonic output, and a custom-built lighting rig. Nine tonnes of kit was transported in three lorries. This would be the first time the band had taken an entire album on tour. // The album had been given the provisional title of Dark Side of the Moon (an allusion to lunacy, rather than astronomy). // Pink Floyd’s lengthy tour through Europe and North America gave them the opportunity to make improvements to the scale and quality of their performances. After more concerts in Europe and North America, the band returned to London on January 9, 1973 to complete the album. // Each side of the vinyl album is a continuous piece of music. The five tracks on each side reflect various stages of human life, beginning and ending with a heartbeat, exploring the nature of the human experience and, according to Waters, “empathy”. “Speak to Me” and “Breathe” together highlight the mundane and futile elements of life that accompany the ever-present threat of madness, and the importance of living one’s own life – “Don’t be afraid to care”. By shifting the scene to an airport, the synthesiser-driven instrumental “On the Run” evokes the stress and anxiety of modern travel, in particular Wright’s fear of flying. “Time” examines the manner in which its passage can control one’s life and offers a stark warning to those who remain focused on mundane pursuits; it is concluded with a retreat into solitude and withdrawal in the reprise of “Breathe”. The first side of the album ends with Wright and Clare Torry’s soulful metaphor for death, “The Great Gig in the Sky”. // “Money”, the first track on side two, opens with the sound of cash registers and rhythmically jingling coins. The song mocks greed and consumerism with sarcastic lyrics and cash-related sound effects. “Money” became the band’s most commercially successful track and was covered by other artists. “Us and Them” addresses the senseless nature of war, the ignorance of modern-day humans who have been taken over by materialism, and the isolation of the depressed with the use of simple dichotomies to describe personal relationships. “Any Colour You Like” tackles the illusion of choice one has in society. “Brain Damage” looks at mental illness resulting from the elevation of fame and success above the needs of the self; in particular, the line “and if the band you’re in starts playing different tunes” reflects the mental breakdown of Syd Barrett. The album ends with “Eclipse”, which espouses the concepts of otherness and unity while encouraging the listener to recognise the common traits shared by humanity. // The Dark Side of the Moon was recorded at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) in approximately 60 days between May 31, 1972 and February 9, 1973. Pink Floyd were assigned staff engineer Alan Parsons, who had worked as the assistant tape operator on their fifth album, Atom Heart Mother (1970), and had gained experience as a recording engineer on the Beatles albums Abbey Road and Let It Be. // The Dark Side of the Moon sessions made use of advanced studio techniques, especially the Studer A80 16-track recorders, an appreciable advantage over the eight- or four-track recordings they’d previously made, although the band often used so many tracks that second-generation copies were still needed to make more space available on the tape. The mix supervisor Chris Thomas recalled later, “There were only two or three tracks of drums when we came to mixing it. Depending on the song, there would be one or two tracks of guitar, and these would include the solo and the rhythm guitar parts. One track for keyboard, one track for bass, and one or two sound effects tracks. They had been very, very efficient in the way they’d worked.” // “The Great Gig in the Sky” features Richard Wright’s piano composition accompanied by improvised vocals from Clare Torry, a session singer and songwriter and a regular at Abbey Road. Parsons liked her voice, and when the band decided to use a female vocalist he suggested that she could sing on the track. The band explained the album concept to her, but they were unable to tell her exactly what she should do, and Gilmour, who was in charge of the session, asked her to try to express emotions rather than sing words. In a few takes on a Sunday night, Torry improvised a wordless melody to accompany Wright’s emotive piano solo. She was initially embarrassed by her exuberance in the recording booth and wanted to apologize to the band, who were impressed with her performance but did not tell her so. Her takes were edited to produce the version used on the track. She left the studio under the impression that her vocals would not make the final cut, and she only became aware that she had been included in the final mix when she picked up the album at a local record store and saw her name in the credits. For her contribution she was paid her standard session fee of £30, equivalent to about £360 in 2025. // In 2004, Torry sued EMI and Pink Floyd for 50% of the songwriting royalties, arguing that her contribution to “The Great Gig in the Sky” was substantial enough to be considered co-authorship. The case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum, with all post-2005 pressings crediting Wright and Torry jointly. // The Dark Side of the Moon became one of the best-selling albums of all time and is in the top 25 of a list of best-selling albums in the United States. Although it held the number one spot in the US for only a week, on the week of May 5, 2006 The Dark Side of the Moon achieved a combined total of 1,716 weeks on the Billboard 200 and Pop Catalog charts. // In 2007, one in every 14 people in the US under the age of 50 was estimated to have owned a copy.]

10:36 – Interview with Brodie Rush, Cody Calhoun, Liam Sumnich, Nate Hubert, and Tim Jenkins

Brodie Rush is a musician, songwriter, band leader, graphic artist, actor, father and survivor. He has served as the Director of Animation & Motion Graphics at Crush Media. He is the creative genius behind Be/Non, a Kansas City band that has been making music for over 25 years. In October 2019, Brodie Rush survived having an Aortic Dissection, and after being in a coma, and after months of therapy, recovery, and healing through two dangerous years of Covid-19, Brodie returned to the studio to create new music and bring Be/Non back to life on stage, after a six year hiatus. Brodie Rush is considered a musical genius from his musical peers, including Haymaker Records Founder – Brenton Cook and many area music radio DJs. Be/Non has continued to move the boundaries of music and performance with special live shows at the Scottish Rite Temple, creating film and video to be presented wit h lie concerts, opening for Thomas Dolby. In the summer of 2008 Brodie was part of a Kansas City Theatre production of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, produced at at the former La Esquina Gallery, where Brodie played the “psychologically disintegrating” character of Pink, the role Bob Geldof played in the 1982 Alan Parker film version

We came to know Cody Calhoun as lead guitarist for the Kansas City based band Instant Karma. Cody immediately charmed our radio listeners with his clever sense of humor, and impecable musical taste. When Instant Karma went through their identity shift and became Black Light Animals we all followed awith Cole Bales, Branden Moser. And now Nate Hubert and Liam Sumnicht . The band members have recorded and performed lives with fantastic collaborations with Jass, Seyko Groves, Paula Saunders and others. Through their own Groove King Studios in KCMO. // Black Light Animals debut album, Playboys of the Western World was their own sprawling, decadent examination of what it means to be a human being through the lens of horror movie, organs, spaghetti western guitars, hip hop grooves, psychedelic sojourns, and ballads crooned to lovers in the night. Last year Black Light Animals released LAST CALL FOR LOVE SONGS on The Record Machine on March 28, 2025. It was in the Top Ten of WMM’s 120 Best Recordings of 2025.

Also with us are: Liam Sumnicht (Black Light Animals, Not A Planet), Nate Hubert (Black Light Animals), and Tim Jenkins (Ramona Clay).

These guys join us to share details about An Evening of Pink Floyd, Friday, May 29, doors at 7:00pm, show at 8:00pm, at Warehouse On Broadway, 3951 Broadway, KCMO. The night will feature, The Dark Side of the Moon, performed in its entirety along with many more of Pink Floyd’s biggest hits and deep cuts. The band features some of Kansas City’s finest Rock, Soul, and Psychedelic musicians: Brodie Rush (Be/Non), Cody Calhoun (Black Light Animals), Liam Sumnicht (Black Light Animals, Not A Planet), Nate Hubert (Black Light Animals), SEYKO (The Freedom Affair and SUNU), and Tim Jenkins (Ramona Clay). With special guest performances by Aryana Nemanti and Michael Tipton (Found A Job, Michael Tipton & The Scoundrels) among others! For more information you can visit: https://warehouseonbroadway.com/

Brodie Rush, Cody Calhoun, Liam Sumnich, Nate Hubert, and Tim Jenkins thank you for being with us on WMM. An Evening of Pink Floyd, Friday, May 29, doors at 7:00pm, show at 8:00pm, at Warehouse On Broadway, 3951 Broadway, KCMO.

The night will feature, The Dark Side of the Moon, performed in its entirety along with many more of Pink Floyd’s biggest hits and deep cuts.

Pink Floyd:
Nick Mason (drums)
Roger Waters (bass guitar, vocals)
Richard Wright (keyboards, vocals),
David Gilmour (guitar, vocals).

The band features some of Kansas City’s finest Rock, Soul, and Psychedelic musicians:
Brodie Rush (Be/Non) – bass & Vocals
Cody Calhoun (Black Light Animals) – Guitar
Liam Sumnicht (Black Light Animals, Not A Planet) – Drums & vocals
Nate Hubert (Black Light Animals) – Keyboards & Vocals
SEYKO (The Freedom Affair and SUNU) – Vocals
Tim Jenkins (Ramona Clay) – Guitar

With special guest performances by Aryana Nemanti and Michael Tipton (Found A Job, Michael Tipton & The Scoundrels) among others!

For more information you can visit: https://warehouseonbroadway.com/

The Dark Side of the Moon is the eighth studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released March 1, 1973 by Capitol Records in the US, and March 16, 1973 by Harvest Records in the UK.

Developed during live performances before recording began, it was conceived as a concept album that would focus on the pressures faced by the band during their arduous lifestyle, and also deal with the mental health problems of former band member Syd Barrett, who had departed the group in 1968. New material was recorded in two sessions in 1972 and 1973 at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) in London. The group employed multitrack recording, tape loops, and analogue synthesizers, including experimentation.

The engineer Alan Parsons was responsible for many aspects of the recording, and for the recruitment of the session singer Clare Torry, who appears on “The Great Gig in the Sky”.

The Dark Side of the Moon explores themes such as conflict, greed, time, death, and mental illness. Snippets from interviews with the band’s road crew and others are featured alongside philosophical quotations.

10:46

11. Pink Floyd – “Breathe (In the Air)”
    from: The Dark Side of the Moon / Capitol / March 1, 1973
    [Nick Mason (drums), Roger Waters (bass guitar, vocals) and Richard Wright (keyboards, vocals), with David Gilmour (guitar, vocals). The Dark Side of the Moon is the eighth studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released March 1, 1973 by Capitol Records in the US, and March 16, 1973 by Harvest Records in the UK. Developed during live performances before recording began, it was conceived as a concept album that would focus on the pressures faced by the band during their arduous lifestyle, and also deal with the mental health problems of former band member Syd Barrett, who had departed the group in 1968. New material was recorded in two sessions in 1972 and 1973 at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road) in London.]

10:49 – More Interview with Brodie Rush, Cody Calhoun, Liam Sumnich, Nate Hubert, Tim Jenkins

Brodie Rush & Cody Calhoun & Company join us to share details about An Evening of Pink Floyd, Friday, May 29, doors at 7:00pm, show at 8:00pm, at Warehouse On Broadway, 3951 Broadway, KCMO. The night will feature, The Dark Side of the Moon, performed in its entirety along with many more of Pink Floyd’s biggest hits and deep cuts. The band features some of Kansas City’s finest Rock, Soul, and Psychedelic musicians: Brodie Rush (Be/Non), Cody Calhoun (Black Light Animals), Liam Sumnicht (Black Light Animals, Not A Planet), Nate Hubert (Black Light Animals), SEYKO (The Freedom Affair and SUNU), and Tim Jenkins (Ramona Clay). With special guest performances by Aryana Nemanti and Michael Tipton (Found A Job, Michael Tipton & The Scoundrels) among others! For more information you can visit: https://warehouseonbroadway.com/

Brodie Rush & Cody Calhoun, thank you for being with us on WMM

The sleeve, which depicts a prismatic spectrum, was designed by Storm Thorgerson in response to the keyboardist Richard Wright’s request for a “simple and bold” design which would represent the band’s lighting and the album’s themes.

The Dark Side of the Moon has received widespread critical acclaim and is often featured in publication listings of the greatest albums of all time. It brought international fame and wealth to all four band members. As a blockbuster release of the album era, it also propelled record sales throughout the music industry during the 1970s.

The Dark Side of the Moon is certified 14× platinum in the United Kingdom, and topped the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart, where it has charted for 996 weeks.

By 2013, The Dark Side of the Moon had sold over 45 million copies worldwide, making it the band’s best-selling release, the best-selling album of the 1970s, and the fourth-best-selling album in history.

In 2012, the album was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

An Evening of Pink Floyd, Friday, May 29, doors at 8:00pm, at Warehouse On Broadway, 3951 Broadway, KCMO. The night will feature, The Dark Side of the Moon, performed in its entirety along with many more of Pink Floyd’s biggest hits and deep cuts. The band features some of Kansas City’s finest Rock, Soul, and Psychedelic musicians: Brodie Rush (Be/Non), Cody Calhoun (Black Light Animals), Liam Sumnicht (Black Light Animals, Not A Planet), Nate Hubert (Black Light Animals), SEYKO (The Freedom Affair and SUNU), and Tim Jenkins (Ramona Clay). With special guest performances by Aryana Nemanti and Michael Tipton (Found A Job, Michael Tipton & The Scoundrels) among others! For more information you can visit: https://warehouseonbroadway.com/

Brodie Rush, Cody Calhoun, Liam Sumnich, Nate Hubert, Tim Jenkins thank you for being with us on WMM – An Evening of Pink Floyd, Friday, May 29, doors at 7:00pm, show at 8:00pm, at Warehouse On Broadway, 3951 Broadway, KCMO. For info you can visit: https://warehouseonbroadway.com/

10:58

12. Pink Floyd – “Eclipse”
    rom: The Dark Side of the Moon / Capitol / March 1, 1973
    [Nick Mason (drums), Roger Waters (bass guitar, vocals) and Richard Wright (keyboards, vocals), with David Gilmour (guitar, vocals). The Dark Side of the Moon is the eighth studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released March 1, 1973 by Capitol Records in the US, and March 16, 1973 by Harvest Records in the UK. Developed during live performances before recording began, it was conceived as a concept album that would focus on the pressures faced by the band during their arduous lifestyle, and also deal with the mental health problems of former band member Syd Barrett, who had departed the group in 1968. New material was recorded in two sessions in 1972 and 1973 at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road) in London.

13. Be/Non – “Journey”
    from: A Valley of No: The Alternative A Mountain of Yeses / Haymaker Records / Apr. 8, 2020
    [Originally released May 12, 2009, A Mountain of Yeses was made by: Brodie Rush on vocals, guitar, bass, drums, keyboards; Ben Ruth on bass guitar; Ryan Shank on drums & percussion, and Jeremiah James on guitar, Moog & Vocals. Brodie writes: “This album is a journey into the sculpting process of creating “A Mountain of Yeses”. In contrast to the original release, this compilation contains alternate mixes, isolated tracks and demo versions. Be/Non presents a bizarro-like version of the AMOY album, showing an alternate universe what could have been if the creation of the album went on a divergent path. Behold the paradoxical serendipity of Be/Non’s unique take on constructing a space-themed story/album.]

11:00 – Station ID

14. FlareThaRebel – “Dear City”
    from: Dear City / Shafer Publishing / May 1, 2026
    [Amplifying the tension between having love for one’s city while not dismissing its inequities, Dear City is a lyrical reflection of truth-telling and hometown pride. The album highlights commonalities experienced by many urbanites regardless of where they call home.  // In the weeks leading up to the album release concert, Flare has been releasing music video reels on social media featuring snippets of the new songs from Dear City. Filmed by Flaming Heart Productions, each reel features only the first verse or at most the first verse and chorus of each song, giving fans a taste of what’s to come and building hype for the album’s release. // Elevating the concoction further, Flare collaborated with bar owner, Bryan Ari, to film the music video reel of “Mixology” at Fern Bar. Flare turned the filming into a “fishbowl experience” inviting guests to watch him create the reel live while sipping cocktails of their own. Flare landed the scene, which involved rapping while mixing a cocktail and flaming an orange rind a precise moment within the song’s verse. The outcome? Confidently smooth – after about six takes and some hands-on coaching from Bryan Ari.// Career and love brought hip-hop MC Flare Tha Rebel™ back to his hometown of Kansas City, MO, which sparked a creative renaissance. As The Pitch noted, “As a member of hip-hop collective Anti-Crew, Flare Tha Rebel made quite an impact on the Kansas City hip-hop scene. After making the leap from KC to Chicago in the late ’00s, he’s now back…” His homecoming has proved fruitful – his track “Playground” was voted the Number 1 Song of 2022 by listeners of 90.9 FM The Bridge. Throughout his career, Flare has shared stages with heavyweights including Chance The Rapper, RZA of Wu-Tang Clan, Mac Lethal, Nappy Roots, and CES Cru. His most recent release is the locally acclaimed EP, “Summer You, Summer Me”, followed by his feature on the Kemet Coleman song “Android”. // Flare Tha Rebel aka Jeff Shafer is Executive Director for City Year Kansas City, an educational-equity nonprofit that places mentors/tutors in schools to keep kids on track to graduate. This was the job that brought Jeff back to KC, where he became Executive Director. ]

[FlareThaRebel plays Day Eight of Manor Fest 8 on Saturday, May 30 at 1:00pm at The Kemper Museum 4420 Warwick Blvd., KCMO with\Kadesh Flow and True Lions.]

11:02:30 – Interview with FlareThaRebel

FlareThaRebel returns to Wednesday MidDay Medley to share details about his new, epic full length album, DEAR CITY that was released May 1, 2026. Dear City is an incredible testimony of life as an artist in Kansas City making Hip Hop music. Dear City features 12 tracks with guest appearances from Jazlyn, Kemet Coleman, Ryan Marquez, Edie Moore, Kadesh Flow, The Epitome, The Royal Chief, Shay Lyriq, Joey Cool, and Paula Sunders, Shon Ruffin and SEYKO of The Freedom Affair. FlareThaRebel has just returned from special performance in Ireland with Kemet Coleman and Kadesh Flow. FlareThaRebel plays Day Eight of Manor Fest 8, on Saturday, May 30 at 1:00pm at The Kemper Museum 4420 Warwick Blvd, KCMO, with Kadesh Flow and True Lions. FlareThaRebel is also known as Jeff Shafer who serves as Executive Director for City Year Kansas City, an educational-equity nonprofit that places mentors/tutors in schools to keep kids on track to graduate. This was the job that brought Jeff back to KC. More info at: http://www.cityyear.org

FlareThaRebel, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

FlareThaRebel has just returned from special performance in Ireland with Kemet Coleman and Kadesh Flow.

FlareThaRebel plays Day Eight of Manor Fest 8, on Saturday, May 30 at 1:00pm at The Kemper Museum 4420 Warwick Blvd, KCMO, with Kadesh Flow and True Lions.

DEAR CITY that was released May 1, 2026. Dear City is an incredible testimony of life as an artist in Kansas City making Hip Hop music. Dear City features 12 tracks with guest appearances from Jazlyn, Kemet Coleman, Ryan Marquez, Edie Moore, Kadesh Flow, The Epitome, The Royal Chief, Shay Lyriq, Joey Cool, and Paula Sunders, Shon Ruffin and SEYKO of The Freedom Affai

Career and love brought hip-hop MC FlareThaRebel back to his hometown of Kansas City, MO, which sparked a creative renaissance. As The Pitch noted, “As a member of hip-hop collective Anti-Crew, FlareThaRebel made quite an impact on the KC hip-hop scene.

After making the leap from KC to Chicago in the late ’00s, he’s now back…” His homecoming has proved fruitful – his track “Playground” was voted the Number 1 Song of 2022 by listeners of 90.9 FM The Bridge. Throughout his career, Flare has shared stages with heavyweights including Chance The Rapper, RZA of Wu-Tang Clan, Mac Lethal, Nappy Roots, and CES Cru. His most recent release is the locally acclaimed EP, “Summer You, Summer Me”, followed by his feature on the Kemet Coleman song “Android”.

FlareThaRebel last joined us on WMM on February 11, 20926 to talk about Music Maker Mondays presented by Manor Records Foundation, & Brewery Emperial on the First Monday of every month, 5:00pm-7:00pm (through August) at Brewery Emperial, 1829 Oak St. KCMO, to provide local music makers of all types – any genre, a laid-back, non-gig environment to connect, organize, and build community through a new monthly happy hour occurring on the first Monday of each month.

Flare Tha Rebel aka Jeff Shafer is Executive Director for City Year Kansas City, an educational-equity nonprofit that places mentors/tutors in schools to keep kids on track to graduate. This job brought Jeff back to KC, where he became Executive Director.

11:11

15. FlareThaRebel – “A City Called Killah (Remix)”
    from: Dear City / Shafer Publishing / May 1, 2026
    [Amplifying the tension between having love for one’s city while not dismissing its inequities, Dear City is a lyrical reflection of truth-telling and hometown pride. The album highlights commonalities experienced by many urbanites regardless of where they call home.  // In the weeks leading up to the album release concert, Flare has been releasing music video reels on social media featuring snippets of the new songs from Dear City. Filmed by Flaming Heart Productions, each reel features only the first verse or at most the first verse and chorus of each song, giving fans a taste of what’s to come and building hype for the album’s release. // Elevating the concoction further, Flare collaborated with bar owner, Bryan Ari, to film the music video reel of “Mixology” at Fern Bar. Flare turned the filming into a “fishbowl experience” inviting guests to watch him create the reel live while sipping cocktails of their own. Flare landed the scene, which involved rapping while mixing a cocktail and flaming an orange rind a precise moment within the song’s verse. The outcome? Confidently smooth – after about six takes and some hands-on coaching from Bryan Ari.// Career and love brought hip-hop MC Flare Tha Rebel™ back to his hometown of Kansas City, MO, which sparked a creative renaissance. As The Pitch noted, “As a member of hip-hop collective Anti-Crew, Flare Tha Rebel made quite an impact on the Kansas City hip-hop scene. After making the leap from KC to Chicago in the late ’00s, he’s now back…” His homecoming has proved fruitful – his track “Playground” was voted the Number 1 Song of 2022 by listeners of 90.9 FM The Bridge. Throughout his career, Flare has shared stages with heavyweights including Chance The Rapper, RZA of Wu-Tang Clan, Mac Lethal, Nappy Roots, and CES Cru. His most recent release is the locally acclaimed EP, “Summer You, Summer Me”, followed by his feature on the Kemet Coleman song “Android”. // Flare Tha Rebel aka Jeff Shafer is Executive Director for City Year Kansas City, an educational-equity nonprofit that places mentors/tutors in schools to keep kids on track to graduate. This was the job that brought Jeff back to KC, where he became Executive Director. ]

[FlareThaRebel plays Day Eight of Manor Fest 8 on Saturday, May 30 at 1:00pm at The Kemper Museum 4420 Warwick Blvd., KCMO with\Kadesh Flow and True Lions.]

11:14 – More Interview with FlareThaRebel

FlareThaRebel returns to Wednesday MidDay Medley to share details about his new, epic full length album, DEAR CITY that was released May 1, 2026. Dear City is an incredible testimony of life as an artist in Kansas City making Hip Hop music. Dear City features 12 tracks with guest appearances from Jazlyn, Kemet Coleman, Ryan Marquez, Edie Moore, Kadesh Flow, The Epitome, The Royal Chief, Shay Lyriq, Joey Cool, and Paula Sunders, Shon Ruffin and SEYKO of The Freedom Affair. FlareThaRebel has just returned from special performance in Ireland with Kemet Coleman and Kadesh Flow. FlareThaRebel plays Day Eight of Manor Fest 8, on Saturday, May 30 at 1:00pm at The Kemper Museum 4420 Warwick Blvd, KCMO, with Kadesh Flow and True Lions. FlareThaRebel is also known as Jeff Shafer who serves as Executive Director for City Year Kansas City, an educational-equity nonprofit that places mentors/tutors in schools to keep kids on track to graduate. This was the job that brought Jeff back to KC. More info at: http://www.cityyear.org

FlareThaRebel, Thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Flare has shared stages with heavyweights including Chance The Rapper, RZA of Wu-Tang Clan, Mac Lethal, Nappy Roots, and CES Cru. His most recent release is the locally acclaimed EP, “Summer You, Summer Me”, followed by his feature on the Kemet Coleman song “Android”. FlareThaRebel is also known as Jeff Shafer who serves as Executive Director for City Year Kansas City, an educational-equity nonprofit that places mentors/tutors in schools to keep kids on track to graduate. This was the job that brought Jeff back to KC. More info at: http://www.cityyear.org

The DEAR CITY album was connected to DEAR CITY Reels – filmed by Lava Dreams, Directed by FlareThaRebel. Each Reel showcases verses and chorus of songs from DEAR CITY album.

Jeff Shafer is Executive Director for City Year Kansas City, an educational-equity nonprofit that places mentors/tutors in schools to keep kids on track to graduate.

FlareTheRebel wants to encourage Kansas City to form a music office of MUSIC OFFICE AND MEETING IN OCTOBER WITH DALLAS MUSIC OFFICE

Flare’s brother Sike is known for his pristine community murals’s located all over Kansas City. Sike’s time at Recycled Sounds was memorable for Jeff as a young kid and as he developed into a DJ and graphic designer and got heavily into the scene with The Guild, CES Cru, Sounds Good, Brother of Moses, etc. This influenced Jeff and Anti-Crew to start releasing music and performing as well.

Many of Flare’s songs are connected to his Art to Empower initiative, raising awareness and funds for a variety of social justice causes and nonprofits, such as his Royalty EP poster designed by muralists JT Daniels, which raises funds for the Equal Justice Initiative. Flare’s Art to Empower initiative, and about merchandise that was designed by your brother muralist Sike Style to raise funds and awareness for BLOC (Brothers Liberating our Communities).

As Flare explains, in our country Black men are being mistreated, demonized, killed, and not given the same structures that they need to be successful.

Flare writes: “We have to pull together ourselves as a community,… that’s something that I’m very passionate about. I can’t just talk about it. I got to walk the walk and, if I can use art to promote and raise funds for nonprofits and social justice causes that are making difference on the front lines, then that’s what I want to do.”

“You can’t do this without being empathetic, in my opinion,” Flare concurs. “I might be bringing up topics that are hard for people to swallow, but I hope I do so in a way that’s still motivating. Music is supposed to make you feel an emotion and hopefully, the emotion that people feel from this music is motivation to make a change, to make a stand, or–at the very least–to educate themselves about the realities of our country.”

“I’m motivated by my ancestors,” states Flare emphatically. “I’m motivated by the revolutionaries and civil rights activists that have come before me and I’m motivated by the ones that exist today. I’m learning from them and when I’m creating art, I’m interweaving what I’ve learned from them into what I’m addressing. It was a way to create a lyrical pro-Black narrative that I felt was very relevant.”

Flare Tha Rebel & Bob Pulliam joined us live in our 90.1 FM studios on August 11, 2021. the year his EP, THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE HASHTAGGED, was released (on July 9, 2021). This was the 50th anniversary of Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”

FlareThaRebel thanks for being with us on WMM

FlareThaRebel hosts Music Maker Mondays presented by Manor Records Foundation, & Brewery Emperial on the First Monday of every month, 5:00pm-7:00pm (through August) at Brewery Emperial, 1829 Oak St. KCMO, to provide local music makers of all types – any genre, a laid-back, non-gig environment to connect, organize, and build community through a new monthly happy hour occurring on the first Monday of each month

11:22

16. FlareThaRebel – “Powder Blue”
    from: Dear City / Shafer Publishing / May 1, 2026
    [Amplifying the tension between having love for one’s city while not dismissing its inequities, Dear City is a lyrical reflection of truth-telling and hometown pride. The album highlights commonalities experienced by many urbanites regardless of where they call home.  // In the weeks leading up to the album release concert, Flare has been releasing music video reels on social media featuring snippets of the new songs from Dear City. Filmed by Flaming Heart Productions, each reel features only the first verse or at most the first verse and chorus of each song, giving fans a taste of what’s to come and building hype for the album’s release. // Elevating the concoction further, Flare collaborated with bar owner, Bryan Ari, to film the music video reel of “Mixology” at Fern Bar. Flare turned the filming into a “fishbowl experience” inviting guests to watch him create the reel live while sipping cocktails of their own. Flare landed the scene, which involved rapping while mixing a cocktail and flaming an orange rind a precise moment within the song’s verse. The outcome? Confidently smooth – after about six takes and some hands-on coaching from Bryan Ari.// Career and love brought hip-hop MC Flare Tha Rebel™ back to his hometown of Kansas City, MO, which sparked a creative renaissance. As The Pitch noted, “As a member of hip-hop collective Anti-Crew, Flare Tha Rebel made quite an impact on the Kansas City hip-hop scene. After making the leap from KC to Chicago in the late ’00s, he’s now back…” His homecoming has proved fruitful – his track “Playground” was voted the Number 1 Song of 2022 by listeners of 90.9 FM The Bridge. Throughout his career, Flare has shared stages with heavyweights including Chance The Rapper, RZA of Wu-Tang Clan, Mac Lethal, Nappy Roots, and CES Cru. His most recent release is the locally acclaimed EP, “Summer You, Summer Me”, followed by his feature on the Kemet Coleman song “Android”. // Flare Tha Rebel aka Jeff Shafer is Executive Director for City Year Kansas City, an educational-equity nonprofit that places mentors/tutors in schools to keep kids on track to graduate. This was the job that brought Jeff back to KC, where he became Executive Director. ]

[FlareThaRebel plays Day Eight of Manor Fest 8 on Saturday, May 30 at 1:00pm at The Kemper Museum 4420 Warwick Blvd., KCMO with\Kadesh Flow and True Lions.]

11:28 – Underwriting

17. Margaret Cho – “Lucky Gift”
    from: Lucky Gift / Clownery Records / February 14, 2025
    [Margaret Cho’s 3rd music album. She released In Transistion in 2013, and American Myth in 2016. // Produced and co-written with Garrison Starr and Roger Rocha. Acoustic Guitar Garrison Starr and Margaret Cho. Backround Vocals Kate Willett. // Stef Rubino, Feb 18, 2025, http://www.autostraddle.com – In her over 30-year queer career, Margaret Cho has managed to leave her mark on just about every mainstream creative endeavor we have available to us as artists. Since beginning her career as a stand-up comedian in the early 1990s, Cho has grown to be one of our most prolific multi-hyphenate artists, constantly working across genres and willing to share her creative pursuits with her fans and the general public. Over the last 30 years, she’s gone on several comedy tours and recorded many comedy specials and albums; she’s been in films and on TV; she’s co-produced podcasts, written books, and recorded and written her own music. She has also collaborated with other musicians like Fiona Apple, Grant Lee Phillips, Ben Lee, Andrew Bird, Ani DiFranco, Tegan and Sara, and Patty Griffin. // Her first two albums of original songs, Cho Dependent and American Myth, were released to critical acclaim in 2010 and 2016 with the former earning her a Grammy nomination in 2011 for Best Comedy Album. Both of those albums featured Cho’s signature style of finding ways to laugh at the more traumatizing aspects of her life while also finding new phenomena to poke fun at and lambast a little, hence being labelled as musical comedy albums. After a nearly nine year hiatus from music production, she released her newest album Lucky Gift last week on Valentine’s Day. // Cho, a self-proclaimed music lover, collaborated with musicians Roger Rocha and Garrison Starr to both write most of the tracks and produce and compose the album, which is less comedia than the previous two albums and more of an interesting examination of the last few years of Cho’s life, her personal losses, the political atmosphere in the U.S., and the kinds of music that move her the most. // The album’s opening title track, “Lucky Gift,” is undoubtedly the biggest song on the record in terms of composition and the places Cho has to take her voice in order to match the power-pop energy of the fast-paced drums, stomping electric acoustic guitar and double-neck mandolin, and celebratory background harmonies. Although the song is brand new, its structure, rises and falls, and ever-present tambourine feel especially reminiscent of late-1990s and early-2000s pop hits. In it, Cho sings to her lover, “Thought I’d lose you but I haven’t  / The worst thing I been through never happened / I could look at you and live / You are such a lucky gift.” // Then, in what feels like one of the hallmark qualities of Cho’s sense of humor, just a few songs later, we get this one’s companion in “90s Sisyphus,” a song about breaking up with the lover in “Lucky Gift.” The composition of “90s Sisyphus” feels equally nostalgic, only its led by the fuzzy power chords of an electric guitar and punchy drums with a jangly, gleaming synthesizer just above it, all rounding out the late-1990s rom-com feel of the song. Whereas “Lucky Gift” was an ode to new love, “90s Sisyphus” gives us her feelings after the fall: “You got me so unbound / And I hate you now / Love’s most bitter refrain / Spit it up and taste it again.” / Two tracks on the album, “Funny Man” and “Baked Bread,” serve as informal eulogies for two of Cho’s friends who passed away since the recording and release of her last album. The first, “Funny Man,” is a crisp, percussive piano- and horn-section-driven track about the late, great Robin Williams and the difficulty of being the kind of comedian who uses humor as a coping mechanism for the trauma they’ve experienced, Cho singing at the chorus, “Weren’t we lonely / Weren’t we sad / Weren’t we beautiful / Weren’t we bad.” “Baked Bread” was written to honor Cho’s friend Gerri Lawlor, and its composition plays with the conventions of both pop-rock and country through its thumping bassline and twangy guitar hooks. This song is not quite as straightforward as “Funny Man” is. Instead, it is imbued in metaphor and what seems like very personal recollections of Cho’s life with Lawlor. That doesn’t make it difficult to listen to by any means, but it does feel a little less accessible than many of the other tracks on the album. // Another pair of tracks, “Wheels of Gold” and “Melinda,” address Cho’s 10-year struggle to finally get sober from opiate addiction, though the positionalities of the speaker on both of the tracks are completely different, with “Wheels of Gold” focusing on the feelings of being “in love” with drugs while “Melinda” sets its sights on the experience of recovery. The compositions of each track also help set the tone for their speakers: “Wheels of Gold” rivals that of “Lucky Gift” with the soaring orchestral swell of the electric organ leading the track whereas “Melinda” is much more lowkey, instead featuring slow, glassy acoustic guitars and some subtlely emotive violin. // Being that the long-out Cho has always fearlessly and publicly stood up for queer and trans people, it’s no surprise there’s a track on the album written specifically for queer and trans youth and dedicated to Nex Benedict. Through brightly composed acoustic guitars and glittering keyboards, Cho delivers an uncomplicated anthem for queer and trans youth reminding them that they’re free to be who they are even if the world tells them they’re wrong. Cho sings, “All I know is I’ve had enough / So I’m sending this message up / And you can be you / You can be you / You can be you / And that’s what’s true.” In a recent interview about the album, Cho said “You Can Be You” is one of her favorite tracks on the album explaining that “it’s an opportunity to establish a ‘queer elder’ understanding and a relationship to the younger community.” // While her first two music albums take the opportunity to incorporate more of Cho’s humor, Lucky Gift is an album of serious writing and musical composition that occasionally has some glimmers of Cho’s humor poking through. Although it is starkly different from a lot of the work she’s done, the album serves as yet another example of Cho’s talent. Where many artists this far into their careers might feel comfortable resting on the signatures and routines they’ve built, Cho proves once again that she’s consistently and successfully evolving, not just to keep up with the times but to show how vital it is to keep uncovering new parts of yourself as time goes on. In that way, Lucky Gift is just helping us get to know Cho in a completely different way than we’re used to and is a fun, welcome addition to Cho’s incredible repertoire.

[Margaret Cho brings her new show, “Choligarchy” to The Folly Theater, 300 West 12th, KCMO, on Saturday, June 16, at 7:30pm. ]

11:33 – Interview with Margaret Cho

Comedian. Actor. Musician. Advocate. Entrepreneur. Artist. Margaret Cho is smart, she’s funny, she’s courageous, she’s outrageous, she’s charming, she’s provocative, she’s fearless, she’s raw, she’s honest, she roots for the underdog. She is the underdog. Margaret Cho the five-time Grammy and Emmy nominated comedian-actress was recently included in VOGUE Magazine’s “9 best female comedians of all-time’ alongside Joan Rivers, Gilda Radner and Wanda Sykes. Margaret Cho is the author of two memoirs, has done 12 national comedy tours including “True Colors” with Cyndi Lauper. Margaret has been in 48 films, including Fire Island, a portrayal of the LGBTQ Asian American experience on Fire Island. She has been in 72 television shows, including 19 episodes of All American Girl, 72 episodes of Drop Dead Diva, 21 episodes of Fashion Police with Joan Rivers, and 3 episodes of 30 Rock, where her portrayal of Kim Jong II was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. Margaret Cho has also created 8 television comedy specials, recorded 9 comedy albums, 3 full length musical albums, 11 musical singles and 23 music videos. Margaret Cho was the recipient of the Victory Fund’s Leadership Award, the first-ever Best Comedy Performance Award at the Asian Excellence Awards, the First Amendment Award from the ACLU of Southern California, and the Intrepid Award from the National Organization for Women (NOW). She has been honored by GLAAD, American Women in Radio and Television, the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force(NGLTF), the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), PFLAG, She Rocks Awards and LA Pride.

Margaret Cho brings her new “blistering and brutally honest” show, “Choligarchy” to The Folly Theater, 300 West 12th, KCMO, on Saturday, June 16, at 7:30pm. For more information you can visit: http://www.follytheater.org

Margaret Cho Thanks for being with us on WMM

First off – We LOVE Margaret Cho! Her stand up shows have made me laugh so hard we’ve cried. Mark writes, “as a queer person living I the United States her performance work has made her a hero to me and the queer people everywhere.”

We just played “Lucky Gift,” the title track for Margaret’s last music full length release. She worked with Garrison Starr in writing and producing. This is Margaret’s power pop anthem and the first song she wrote on her mandotar (a double neck mandolin-guitar).She writes, “It is giving gay pop in the best way and it’s my favorite song I’ve ever written.”

Margaret will be participating in the Jillith Fair Tribute concerts for Jill Sobule.

David Bowie is a big influence to Margaret.

Margaret was born and raised in San Francisco, an experience that helped to shape her worldview. She knew she was funny enough to try stand-up at age 14. Soon after, Margaret won a contest to open for Jerry Seinfeld, prompting a move to Los Angeles and work on the college comedy circuit. She performed over 300 concerts within two years. Arsenio Hall introduced her to late night audiences, Bob Hope put her on a prime time special and justlikethat, Margaret Cho became a household name

Cho was born on December 5, 1968, to a family of Korean descent. Her paternal grandfather Myung-sook Cho, a Christian minister, worked for the Japanese as a station master during their occupation of Korea. When Japan withdrew from Korea at the end of World War II, he was denounced as a chinilpa, a traitor, by North Korea and forced to move with his family, including his son, Margaret’s father Seung-hoon Cho, to South Korea. During the Korean War, Myung-sook ran an orphanage in Seoul.

According to Margaret, she was raised in “a very Christian family.” Cho grew up in a racially diverse neighborhood near the Ocean Beach section of San Francisco, which she described as “old hippies, ex-druggies, burn-outs from the 1960s, drag queens, Chinese people and Koreans. To say it was a melting pot – that’s the least of it. It was a really confusing, enlightening, wonderful time.” Cho’s parents, Young-Hie and Seung-Hoon Cho, ran Paperback Traffic, a bookstore on Polk Street at California Street in San Francisco. Her father writes joke books and a newspaper column published in Seoul, South Korea.

At school, Cho was bullied, saying that “I was hurt because I was different and so sharing my experience of being beaten and hated and called fat and queer and foreign and perverse and gluttonous and lazy and filthy and dishonest and yet all the while remaining invisible heals me, and heals others when they hear it – those who are suffering right now.”

Choligarchy continues Margaret’s mission of speaking truth to power. We are living in such crazy times, when reality is seemling so absurd already, is it harder to find the jokes?

“My new show Choligarchy is bringing me back to my roots as a political comedian. I’m so frustrated with the state of the union and I know the only weapon I have is humor. We are being taken over by the richest people in the world but the one thing they cannot afford is jokes at their expense. I want to fight fascism with everything I have. This will be my most blistering and brutally honest show yet! Let’s tear down racism, homophobia and sexism with all that we have. We have to fight for what we have now, because if we wait any longer, it might be too late to save ourselves” says Margaret.

Cho goes on to share –“Not only do we need more than impeachment. We need a full cabinet removal. Gavin Newsom has to go in with California Closets and redo the whole thing.”

“I will fight Kristi Noem at the med spa of her choosing. We would both have to dissolve our filler beforehand to ensure a fair fight.”

Margaret Cho writes a joke everyday.

Margaret started doing television when she was 24

Margaret is in Gregg Araki’s next film, “I Want Your Sex” w/ Olivia Wilde & Charli XCX

Margaret is featured alongside Sandra Bernhard & Kristen Schaal in Disney’s season 2 of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians”

Like other comedians of the time, she was soon offered a network show. Her groundbreaking ABC sitcom, All-American Girl premiered in 1994, and while producers said they wanted to work with her because she was a non-conformist Korean American woman with liberal views, they also wanted her to tone it down for television. “For fear of being too “ethnic,” the show got so watered down that by the end, it was completely lacking in the essence of what I wanted to accomplish.”

In 1999, her groundbreaking Off-Broadway one-woman show, I’m The One That I Want, toured to national acclaim and was turned into both a best-selling book and feature film of the same name. After her experience with All-American Girl, Margaret made sure she would only have to answer to herself, staying in charge of the distribution and sales of her film, an unusual move at the time. In 2001, Margaret launched Notorious C.H.O., a smash-hit 37-city national tour that culminated in a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall. 

In 2003, Margaret began her 3rd sold-out national tour, Revolution, heralded as “Her strongest show yet” by Chicago Sun Times and earning her a Grammy nomination for Comedy Album of the Year. In 2005, she released the live comedy film Assassin, which premiered in select theatres and on the LGBT premium channel, Here! TV.

Margaret returned to television in 2008 with the VH1 series, The Cho Show. Describing it as a ‘reality sitcom,’ Margaret said at the time, “It’s the closest I’ve been able to come to what I do as a comic on TV.” The aptly titled Beautiful tour followed, exploring the good, bad and ugly in the world of beauty and the marketers who try to shape our world-view. 

In 2009, Margaret nabbed a co-starring role in the dramedy series Drop Dead Diva, which aired for six seasons on Lifetime. Margaret memorably participated in 2010’s Season 11 of Dancing with the Stars, performing a dance number in a gay-pride-supporting rainbow dress during a time when there was a rise in suicides among gay youth due to bullying. 

2010 culminated in another high, a second Comedy Album of the Year Grammy Award nomination for Cho Dependent, her incredibly funny music album. Featuring collaborations with Fiona Apple, Andrew Bird, Grant Lee Phillips, Tegan & Sara, Ben Lee and more, the album received critical acclaim, not only for the topics tackled, but also for Margaret’s musicianship. In 2011, Margaret released the live concert film of Cho Dependent, shot at the Tabernacle in Atlanta, GA.

Margaret spent whatever free time she had crafting a new stand-up show, MOTHER, which she took across America and Europe in 2012. According to Margaret, “MOTHER offered an untraditional look at motherhood and how we view maternal figures and strong women in queer culture.”

Margaret’s creative side moved full speed ahead with an Outstanding Guest Actress Emmy nomination for playing Kim Jong II on 30 Rock. 2015 also brought Margaret back to the stand-up stage, where she filmed PSYCHO at the historic Gramercy Theatre in NYC

Margaret put out her second studio album, American Myth, in 2016 on her Clownery label, earning her a third Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album. In 2017, Rolling Stone magazine named her one of the 50 Best Stand-Up Comics, calling her “the sort of funny, sex-positive feminist and LGBT activist younger comics continue to look up to.” 

Her 2018 Fresh off the Bloat tour was shuttered by Covid, but as soon as she was able to get back out on stage, she did. Margaret kicked off 2019 as the Poodle on the first season of The Masked Singer on FOX, appeared in an episode Law & Order: SVU and was in an episode of HBO’s critically acclaimed series High Maintenance. In 2020, Margaret appeared in three films –Faith Based, also starring Seinfeldalum Jason Alexander, Friendsgiving, with Kat Dennings and Malin Akerman, and in Netflix’s first major animated film, the acclaimed Over the Moon.

In June of 2021, Netflix released the hit rom-com Good on Paper, starring Iliza Shlesinger with Margaret co-starring as her best friend. Her 2022 appearances included guest starring roles on Season 2 of The Flight Attendant (HBO Max), Season 2 of Hacks (HBO Max) and two Netflix is a Joke comedy specials: Stand Out: An LGBTQ+ Celebration and Jane Fonda & Lily Tomlin: Ladies Night Live. Probably the biggest splash of that year was her role as “Erin” in HULU’s smash Fire Island with Bowen Yang & Joel Kim Booster.

2023/24 has found Margaret, well, everywhere. She guested on Amy Schumer’s Life with Beth as well as the Ryan Murphy hit Doctor Odyssey and was part of the ensemble cast of the Netflix doc Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution. A who’s who of incredible comedians, the documentary shares the history of LGBTQ+ stand-up and its importance as an instrument for social change over the past five decades.

Margaret’s latest film, All That We Love, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, with Margaret earning rave reviews. The Hollywood Reporter called the film “poignant and lovely.”  Margaret was also named the Vanguard Artist-in-Residence for Manhattan’s famed Joe’s Pub. This prestigious recognition singles out “an iconic artist who has significantly influenced the artistic community of Joeʼs Pub & American culture at large.”

Remarkably, she also managed to film a series and another movie. Margaret stars as “Wasp,” one of the “Gray Sisters” (alongside Sandra Bernhard and Kristen Schaal) in Season 2 of Disney’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians as well as in Gregg Araki’s thriller I Want Your Sex, also starring Olivia Wilde and Charli XCX.

Margaret has also developed a new solo show, Mommy, A One Woman Cho, which is noted for being her first work of fiction. “My new show, Mommy, is a completely fictional autobiography of my mother I have written for the stage. You can lie in plays but not standup comedy, so I’m super excited for my Mommy fan fiction era.” The play debuted in July 2024 to a sold-out audience at Marist College.

If that wasn’t enough, the end of 2024 brings new music from Margaret. The first single, Lucky Gift – also the album’s title – gives a taste of things to come before the February 14, 2025, release on her Clownery Records label.

Margaret continues to staunchly support the causes that are important to her: anti-racism, anti-bullying and gay rights. She was the recipient of the Victory Fund’s Leadership Award, the first-ever Best Comedy Performance Award at the Asian Excellence Awards, the First Amendment Award from the ACLU of Southern California, and the Intrepid Award from the National Organization for Women (NOW). Margaret has been honored by GLAAD, American Women in Radio and Television, the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force(NGLTF), the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), PFLAG, She Rocks Awards and LA Pride.

“Margaret Cho is my soul sister, we see the world through the same lens trying our damndest to make things just a little groovier, mellower & a lot more fun. I admire her deeply. You’ve got to experience her live to get the whole picture so get up & make it happen! She is one of a kind” – Sandra Bernhard

Margaret was also part of Netflix’s “Stand Out Comedy Special” and “Over The Moon” film with Ken Jeong & Sandra Oh which was nominated for an Academy Award & Golden Globe Award.

Margaret has been working on a 10 year project – a new one-woman show about her mother and two sisters, where Margaret plays all of the characters – hoping to eventually take the show to Broadway.

A pioneer amongst women in comedy, Margaret doesn’t take anything for granted as she continues to tackle difficult subjects with sensitivity and her razor sharp insight with her takes on addiction, abuse, activism and Asianness. It’s all about the politics of disgust and what is disgusting about politics. Margaret has received many rave reviews for her live shows with the Chicago Tribune saying “Be it on-screen (“30 Rock,” “Drop Dead Diva”) or on stage, Margaret Cho has been one of the most exciting, unpredictable stand-up comics working for some time, and that hasn’t changed. If anything, the Asian-American female comedian’s voice has become more valuable than ever, given today’s social climate, and Cho’s material remains just as compelling, thanks in part to—and sometimes in spite of—her unapologetic delivery.”

“Margaret Cho inspired me since I was a kid. She was someone who was queer, Asian and doing something that you did not immediately associate with an Asian person. There’s a dearth of representation when it comes to queer people or Asian people, but I have to give credit to the people who have been out here doing it, and that’s definitely Margaret.” – Bowen Yang

“The Notoroius C.H.O.! Margaret is a jack of all trades and master of many. Whether conjuring the spirits of George Carlin, Joan Rivers or Lenny Bruce, she is committed to navigating the world of comedy and uniquely making it her own. Completely unapologetic about the life experiences that have shaped her path and journey to where she is today. These are just some of the reasons I love Margaret.” – Wanda Sykes

“Margaret Cho is a pioneering, trailblazing, genre-busting badass. She also happens to be extremely amusing.” – Shirley Manson of Garbage

“Margaret doesn’t just kick the door down. She lights it on fire.” – Atsuko Okatsuka

“I’ve said it before but it bares repeating: I would not be doing what I do without Margaret Cho. Her comedy was daring and bawdy and incisive when I first discovered her early work and seeing her now it’s remarkable how she’s been able to evolve, stay relevant and remain one of the funniest comics working today.” – Joel Kim Booster

Margaret Cho Thanks for being with us on WMM

Margaret Cho brings her new “blistering and brutally honest” show, “Choligarchy” to The Folly Theater, 300 West 12th, KCMO, on Saturday, June 16, at 7:30pm. For more information you can visit: http://www.follytheater.org

11:50

18. Margaret Cho – “Wheels of Gold”
    from: Lucky Gift / Clownery Records / February 14, 2025
    [Margaret Cho’s 3rd music album. She released In Transistion in 2013, and American Myth in 2016. // Produced and co-written with Garrison Starr and Roger Rocha. Acoustic Guitar Garrison Starr and Margaret Cho. Backround Vocals Kate Willett. ]

[Margaret Cho brings her new show, “Choligarchy” to The Folly Theater, 300 West 12th, KCMO, on Saturday, June 16, at 7:30pm. ]

19. Mitski – “I’ll Change For You”
    from: Nothings About to Happen to Me / Dead Oceans / February 27, 2026
    [Nothing’s About to Happen to Me is the eighth studio album by Mitski. Continuing the musical through line established with The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, the album features live instrumentation by The Land touring band and ensemble arrangements. The album finds Mitski immersing herself in a rich narrative whose main character is a reclusive woman in an unkempt house. Outside of her home, she is a deviant; inside of her home, she is free.]

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

Next week, on Wednesday, June 3 we talk with David Brighton of David Brighton’s SPACE ODDITY, The Quintessential David Bowie Tribute Experience, presented by The Folly Theater, Friday, June 5, at 7:30. We also welcome back to the show Stephonne, AND Jocelyn Olivia Nixon of The Creepy Jingles joins us to talk about her band’s new album WASHED UP.

THANK YOU to everyone who donated to KKFI’a Winter Fund Drive during Wednesday MidDay Medley we had a total of 49 individuals donated $3924.00 going way over our show goal!

Thank you to KKFI Staff: Executive Director – Bess Wallerstein Huff, Chief Operator – Chad Brothers, Director of Development & Communications – J Kelly Dougherty, Volunteer Coordinator – Darryl Oliver, and Shaina Littler – Office Manager Book Keeper

You can find our playlists at: http://www.wednesdaymiddaymedley.org & http://www.kkfi.org
http://www.facebook.com/WednesdayMidDayMedleyon90.1FM
http://www.instagram.wednesday_midday_medley

This radio station is more than the individual hosts of each individual radio show. It is a collective spirit of hundreds of people, setting aside ego, to work for the greater good of community building and the goal of keeping our airwaves, non-commercial, and open! Thank you to programmers who create content for over 85 locally produced radio shows & volunteers who made 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 #1149

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

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Shaun Crowley & Music of Manor Fest 8

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

2. Ernest Melton – “Waves”
   from: “Waves” – Single / Music By Melton / April 21, 2025
   [Ernest Melton is a saxophonist, composer, and band leader currently residing in Kansas City, MO by way of Goldsboro, North Carolina. He relocated to his mother’s hometown of Kansas City, Missouri at the age of ten where he picked up his first saxophone at Longfellow Academy of the Arts. Bored with the classical curriculum of the music department, Ernest studied more contemporary genres of music and the guitar until the age of fourteen when he joined his first jazz program through the American Jazz Museum of KC. Playing mostly tenor sax by the age of fourteen, Ernest joined Lincoln High School jazz band and many other musical programs. Melton left school at the age of sixteen to study music on his own. With kind neighbors and a supportive mother, Ernest was free to practice the saxophone, study albums, and write compositions at any hour of the day. It was during this time he found his first major influences in jazz like Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane, Kenny Garrett, and Pharoah Sanders. Pharoah’s polyphony were like echoes of Melton’s father, a Primitive Baptist preacher, and became a large influence of his playing. An avid composer as well, Ernest studied with tutors in classical orchestration, big band arranging, and Afro-Cuban drumming. He cites Charles Mingus, Igor Stravinsky, and Wayne Shorter as his favorite all around composers and still tries to implement their techniques in his music today. After being accepted into Berklee College of Music he decided not to attend and began his career playing music in bands of every genre around the Greater Kansas City area. In 2018 Ernest release his first full length album entitled, “The Time Of The Slave Is Over”, which received raved reviews at home and abroad by media such as Plastic Sax, Quest TV, and JAZIZZ to name a few. Ernest Melton has played all over the country and plans to continue to travel abroad. // Melton released the singles “Waves” on April 21, 2025, “Sonnet for Sanity”on December 18, 2020 and, “Chronicles of Conception” on April 21, 2020, and “Narrative for Natives” on March 9, 2020. Ernest Melton released the album “The Standard Imperfections” on September 1, 2019. Ernest Melton is also featured on the BodaciousThang singles, “Drank!” on August 7, 2019 and “Say Hi” released Sept. 2, 2020 on Juicy Burrito Records.]

[Ernest Melton plays Night One of Manor Fest 8 Wednesday, May 20 at 7:00pm at Greenwood Social Hall 1750 Belleview Ave, KCMO, with Kapten and Lauren Lovell & The Midnight Spliffs.]

3. Dalima Kapten – “Feel the Beat, Bud”
   from: “Feel the Beat, Bud’ – Single / Dalima Kapten / September 27, 2024
   [Dalima Kapten released the single “Scrappy Rose” Sept. 27, 2024. // She is currently working on her debut album. She is a second-generation Kenyan-American pursuing a Master of Arts in Music Technology at the University of Central Missouri. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies, Theater Minor, and a specialization in Architectural Acoustics from the University of Kansas. // As a theater performer & artist, Dalima is deeply moved by a passion for storytelling and worked at Music Theater Heritage as the Manager of Artistic Operations. Additionally, she presented her self-published chapbook “Native Anomaly” for Columbia University’s HOME: Symposium.]

[Dalima Kapten plays Night One of Manor Fest 8 Wednesday, May 20 at 7:00pm at Greenwood Social Hall 1750 Belleview Ave, KCMO, with Ernest Melton and Lauren Lovell & The Midnight Spliffs.]

10:06 – Interview with Shaun Crowley & Valorie Mersman

Today we spin music from 22 artists & bands playing Manor Fest 8 including: The Greeting Committee, Calvin Arsenia, Jass, Nightosphere, Paris Williams, Hailes, Jamogi & The Jammers, The Babe Gabe, The Matchsellers, Field Daze, Spy World, Alber, Malek Azrael, Kirstie Lynn, Flare The Rebel, Kemet Coleman, toasterbath, Ernest Melton, Tidal.wav, Dalia Kapten, Maddie Lai, and Jack Summer.

We welcome Shaun Crowley the Founder & Executive Director of Manor Records, a non-profit organization that functions as a record label to support KC musicians. Shaun shares details about Manor Fest 8, featuring 60 Bands, 8 Nights, 11 Neighborhoods, 20 venues, and a KC Street Car. May 20, 21, 22, & 23 and May 27, 28 29, & 30. This festival directly supports local artists. Money raised from the festival supports the non profit mission of releasing music from local artists on physical platforms and other resources for musicians.

We also welcome Valorie Mersman who does Press and Public Relations for Manor Records

Manor Fest 8 includes: The Greeting Committee, Bobby Watson, Calvin Arsenia, Fritz & Sons, Jass, Nightosphere, Paris Williams, Sass-A-Brass, Hailes, Jamogi & The Jammers, Eddie Moore, True Lions, The Royal Chief, Brian Gerald Bulger, Kissin, The Babe Gabe, Scabb, The Matchsellers, Kadesh Flow, Miki P, Aigerue + Mikey, Teri Quinn, Field Daze, Spy World, FK Menace, Apricot Glow, Alber & I Maledetti, Malek Azrael & The Vibes, Dom Chronicles, Kirstie Lynn, Flare The Rebel, Kemet Coleman, Rebel Song Academy Ft. Base Academy of Music, Pure XTC, Nina Cherry, Henry Scamurra, Charmaine, Mosaic, Toasterbath, Ernest Melton, Jolson & The Fear of Snakes, Silvee, Freia, Natalie Prauser, Jazlyn Epps, Gracie Caggiano, Dandelion Lakewood’s Bowl of Dust, Tidal.wav, Kapten, Sammy Sheets, Maddie Lai, Danielle Ate The Sandwich, Jack Summers, Lauren Lovelle & The Midnight Spliffs, Isaiah Petrie, Ronnie Ze’Bo, Jacob E Chord Grüp, and The Soul Agenda. For more info: http://www.manorrecords.com

Shaun Crowley is a classically trained guitarist, and studied at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory. Shaun is the Founder & Executive Director 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

Crowley started playing in the KC when he was 17 in band Rev Gusto and Momma’s Boy. Shaun Crowley started Manor Records in 2017. The organization was born from the special concerts produced in the basement of the Rev. Gusto / Momma’s Boy band house, where Shaun and his band mates were living at the time. Named “The Manor” this house was located in the suburbs of Shawnee, Kansas. An almost anonymous venue, where the band invited other up and coming area bands to play a musical festival held in a basement. Even national artists joined in the show. 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.

Eventually band members moved out of The Manor, and went into different directions, some starting solo projects, through Manor Records, some getting married, some moving away from Kansas City. Shaun carried on, collaborating with actual public venues in Strawberry Hill to create a record store, creating monthly and weekly music events, and creating a non-for profit, called Manor Records.

Shaun was working full time, while also teaching himself how to run a non-for profit. When spaces in Strawberry Hill became unavailable Manor Records moved to the West Bottoms, and then later moved again to a Troost storefront retail space, continuing the Record Store-Record Label-Music Venue idea, and also providing music classes. Moving over state lines meant reapplying as a non-profit now under Missouri guidance.

Retail space, and rental cost challenges pushed Manor Records out of their Troost physical space, but gave Manor Records a geographical history of relationships with multiple neighborhoods, neighborhood small businesses, and the people and artists who inhabit these neighborhoods. This geographical history and identity is the spirit behind Manor Fest – a Music Fest unlike any other. A progressive Fest, featuring 60 Bands, 8 Nights, 11 Neighborhoods, 20 venues, and a Kansas City Street Car, held May 20, 21, 22, & 23 and May 27, 28 29, & 30.

Manor Fest is a multi-day music festival in Kansas City that goes back to the group’s early days in that 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. More information at: http://www.manorrecords.com

Manor Records Board
Khrystal Johnson – President
Danielle Krakenberg – Secretary
Tyler Fowler – Board Treasurer
Talon Ice – Board Member
Droo Long – Board Member

Record Label Operations Team
Our record label team is a mix of our core operations staff and dedicated volunteers who work hands-on with the artists on our roster each year. Beyond supporting our musicians, we’re committed to developing the next generation of music industry professionals—giving them real experience in booking, press, and other key roles. Our long-term goal is to grow Kansas City’s music industry by turning these positions into paid, part-time roles and creating sustainable career pathways right here at home.
Also with us today is Valorie Mersman – who does Press a& Public Relations for Manor

Shaun Crowley – Founder & Executive Director
Skylar Rochelle – Record Label Lead
Kayla Jarrett – Physical & Digital Distribution
Betsie Yeomans – Booking
Abigail Elwart – Social Media
Kate Whitefield – Press / PR
Valorie Mersman – Press / PR
Enrique Guiterrez – Graphic Design
Randee Wisdom – Blog Editor

Manor Records Event Volunteers & Manor Fest 8 Team
Dorian Allen – Manor Fest Sound Lead
Sarai Vega – Manor Fest Photo Lead
James Miller -Events Volunteer
Evan Herd – Manor Fest Lead Volunteer

From Manor Records Website:

Mission – Manor Records Foundation’s mission is to strengthen Kansas City’s music community by providing equitable funding and artist development to uplift and advance emerging independent artists.

Manor Records Story – Manor Records Foundation’s mission is to provide equitable funding and artist development to uplift and advance emerging independent artists in Kansas City. Manor Records Foundation is a Kansas City based nonprofit record label dedicated to sustaining and developing our local music community through direct artist funding, development programs, and community events. Our roots trace back to The Shawnee Manor, a basement venue that became a launching pad for local and touring talent, featuring early shows from bands like Glass Animals and Hinds. From these grassroots beginnings and much learning along the way – we have grown into a fully operational nonprofit label supporting local artists.

Today, Manor Records Foundation has supported more than 60 digital releases and over 30 physical albums from emerging Kansas City musicians — helping artists fund projects, build sustainable careers, and reach wider audiences. Through initiatives like our annual Manor Fest, showcasing over 60 local acts, and year-round programs like Songbird Sessions, we provide platforms that celebrate and reinvest in the creative heartbeat of our city. By combining the spirit of community with structured artist development, Manor Records Foundation ensures that KC’s vibrant music scene continues to thrive and grow.

Manor Records Record Label Program – Each year, Manor Records raises $2,000 in direct project funding for 10 local artists, helping them bring their work to life through physical releases, music videos, touring support, and whatever resources they need as they grow.

Manor Records 2026 Roster of Artists:
ALBER
CHLOE JACOBSON
FRANKIE SHOREZ & MERCY FIRE
FRITZ HUTCHISON
JAMOGI
JASS
KIRSTIE LYNN
MC RUE
PARIS WILLIAMS
TRUE LIONS

Artists Manor Records have worked with in the past:
BLANKY
CATTY CLINE
CHARLOTTE BUMGARNER
DANIEL GUM
DYLAN PYLES
FLOODING
FOREST PORRIDGE
JAIRY
KAT KING
KHRYSTAL.
MINT FATIGUES
MOMMA’S BOY
PALE TONGUE
R.I.PETER
SCABB
SUPERMOTO
THE WILD TYPE

Manor Fest 8, 60 Bands, 8 Nights, 11 Neighborhoods, 20 venues, and a KC Street Car

WEEKEND ONE – May 20, 21, 22, & 23

Night One : Wednesday, May 20 – Westside

Greenwood Social Hall, 1750 Belleview Ave, KCMO, (7-10 PM)

1. Ernest Melton
2. Kapten
3. Lauren Lovell & The Midnight Spliffs

Night Two: Thursday May 21 – Strawberry Hill

Venue One: Flagship Books, 600 Ohio Ave., KCK (5:00pm -7 PM) all ages

1. Nina Cherry
2. Dandelion Lakewood’s Bowl of Dust & Co.
3. The Matchsellers

Venue Two: Hillsiders, 403 N. 5th, KCK (7:00pm -10 PM) *21+

1. Silvee
2. Scabb
3. Tidal.wav

10:11

4. The Matchsellers – “What Am I Gonna Do Now? [ft. Kelly Hunt]”
   from: Psychobiography / Streichholz Records / August 2, 2025
   [Julie Bates is a classically trained violinist from Kansas City. Andrew Morris is a Chicago blues guitarist from Warsaw, Indiana. They met in Leipzig, Germany, during their year of living in the former East Germany, the pair began reanalyzing the songs of their homeland, and developed a tight yet gritty bluegrass style. In the summer of 2013 they left their jobs to hit the road and haven’t looked back. // In the band’s most recent iteration, mandolinist Brian McCarty brings an invaluable lifetime of experience in the Bluegrass tradition, while Brandon Day thrills audiences with his intricate bass solos. // On Feb 14, 2025, the band released “I Can’t Believe We’re Still In Love.” // On May 3, 2024 The Matchsellers released LIVE AT THE WAREHOUSE. // On Oct. 28, 2022 The Matchsellers released the album, SONGS WE MADE UP, one of WMM’s 116 Best Recordings of 2016.. In late 2014 they released their debut full length recording, “Kosciusko County,” one of WMM’s 115 Best Recordings of 2015. The Matchsellers have toured 3 European countries and 25 US States, performing 180 shows a year, including last year for the KC Fringe Festival, Bluegrass Bazaar in Flint, Michigan, Norman Music Festival in Norman, OK, and a 1st place win at the Eddie Owen Presents songwriting competition in Atlanta, GA.]

[The Matchsellers plays Night Two of Manor Fest 8 on Thursday, May 21 at 5:00pm at Flagship Books, 600 Ohio Ave., KCK with Nina Cherry, and Dandelion Lakewood’s Bowl of Dust & Co. All ages.]

5. Tidal.wav – “Whiplash”
   from: Whiplash – EP / Landlocked Recordings / October 11, 2024
   [Alex Smith on vocals & rhythm guitar; Alex Lewis on guitar & producer/beatmaker; Josh Gomez on bass & guitar & producer/engineer; Aj Ruiz Dechavez on drums & producer/beat maker/engineer. In summer of 2022 Alex Smith moved to Kansas City from Georgia. Alex met Aj and Josh working at a local music store. After several months Aj brought in lead guitarist Alex Lewis to make the band an official 4 piece. // Tidal.wav started playing shows through the support of local independent record label, Manor Records as well as networking with other artists and bands. / The band says they specialize in a more unique brand of indie rock, being more rhythm & harmony focused stemming from influences like jazz, rock, hip hop.]

[Tidal.wav play Night Two of Manor Fest 8 on Thurs, May 21 at 7:00pm at Hillsiders, 403 N. 5th, KCK with Silvee and Scaab.]

10:17 – More Interview with Shaun Crowley & Valorie Mersman

Today we spin music from 22 artists & bands playing Manor Fest 8 including: The Greeting Committee, Calvin Arsenia, Jass, Nightosphere, Paris Williams, Hailes, Jamogi & The Jammers, The Babe Gabe, The Matchsellers, Field Daze, Spy World, Alber, Malek Azrael, Kirstie Lynn, Flare The Rebel, Kemet Coleman, toasterbath, Ernest Melton, Tidal.wav, Dalia Kapten, Maddie Lai, and Jack Summer

We welcome Shaun Crowley the Founder & Executive Director of Manor Records, a non-profit organization that functions as a record label to support KC musicians. Shaun shares details about Manor Fest 8, featuring 60 Bands, 8 Nights, 11 Neighborhoods, 20 venues, and a KC Street Car. May 20, 21, 22, & 23 and May 27, 28 29, & 30. This festival directly supports local artists. Money raised from the festival supports the non profit mission of releasing music from local artists on physical platforms and other resources for musicians.

WEEKEND ONE – May 20, 21, 22, & 23

Night Three : Friday May 22 – West Bottoms

Venue One: Blip Roasters 1301 Woodswether Rd.. KCMO (5:00pm -7 PM) all ages

1. Danielle Ate The Sandwich
2. Toaster Bath
3. Mosaic

Venue Two: Black Box, 1060 Union Ave, KCMO (7:00pm -10 PM)

1. The Soul Agenda
2. The Babe Gabe
3. Hailes

Venue Three: The Ship, 1221 Union Ave. KCMO (10:00pm – 12 AM) *21+

1. MC Rue + Mikey
2. Freia
3. Dom Chronicles

10:22

6. toasterbath – “East 46th Street (edit)”
   from: Past, Present, Future Readings / toasterbath / July 21, 2025
   [Debut release from Kansas City 5-piece band. Recording, Mixing, Mastering by Eric Hargis.
   Graphic Design by Grace Westbrook. Featuring vocals by Bella Parker.]

[toasterbath plays Night Three of Manor Fest 8 on Fri, May 22 at 5:00pm at Blip Roasters 1301 Woodswether Rd.. KCMO with Danielle Ate The Sandwich, and Mosaic]

7. TheBabeGabe X The Human – “FUTURISTIC LOVERS”
   from: HONEYPOP / Seven Rings Media / March 5, 2025
   [One of two full length albums released in 2025 by TheBabeGabe, the other being HONEYPOP Reloaded on Seven Rings Media released August 8, 2025. March 5, 2025, both with production by The Human // After years of being the girl in the band, TheBabeGabe is stepping out, and standing ten toes down. As she dives into her solo career, Gabe brings the same sugary raps and addicting energy that she did as 1/3 of the alt-rap trio BLACKSTARKIDS. This time though, she’s telling her story, and forging a fresh start. The debut mixtape HONEY POP introduces the world to a young black girl from Kansas City that’s hungry for better things for herself and everyone who looks like her. Her energy is infectious, and you won’t want to be the one standing in her way, which becomes clear from the rowdy hook of the project’s lead single PSA. “It’s in my DNA, killing shit like every day, take this as a PSA, don’t give a fuck ‘bout what you say.” // With BLACKSTARKIDS, Gabe gained experience crushing a stage, opening on tour with The 1975, beabadoobee, Glass Animals, & more. That confidence shines through on braggadocios tracks like Only See Me, Pulse, and Pep Rally where she raps, “hoe shut the fuck up when I’m talking, got a pretty face but this mouth repulsive.” Pulling inspiration from future peers like Doja Cat & Tyler, The Creator, Gabe is quick to prove she isn’t restricted to one sound. There’s no shortage of variety with sticky hooks, soulful ballads, Janelle Monáe -esque pop hits, somber reflective cuts, and boomy west-coast kickbacks. // No song boasts this genre-bending ability better than the double track RIOT GRRL//DRAMA QUEEN. Starting with an inspirational pop-punk banger that could make any Olivia Rodrigo fan nod in approval, it soon turns to the emotional DRAMA QUEEN, seeing Gabe grapple with difficult changes and struggle to find the best way forward. Listening to Gabe can often feel like hanging with your bestie in that you’re getting both the yap sessions about the everyday as well as the venting about life’s drama and all its uncertainties. // These confessions, boasts, hooks, croons, screams, beats, and sounds all come together to create an extraordinary portrait of a young artist figuring it out. It’s an unfiltered showcase that sees Gabe pull back the curtain and step forward so you can meet her where she’s at. So when you listen, you’re seeing her for who she really is. And for many, that’s someone you can see yourself in. That’s TheBabeGabe. // TheBabeGabe was one-third of the Kansas City based BLACKSTARKIDZ Gen-Z upstarts BLACKSTARKIDS have released their sixth studio album Saturn Dayz on Sept. 20, 2024 through Dirty Hit Records and immediately followed with an 8-track 7th studio album HEAVEN ON URF, on Oct. 25, 2024 on Dirty Hit Records. Music writer Bill Brownlee talked with us about how the band created a double album, but the record company decided to release as two separate albums. The music from both albums relate to each other. Before the release of Saturn Dayz the band released their single and video “SOULMATEZ!” on August 30, 2024. “SOULMATEZ!,” is a magnetic, blissed-out bop that brings together pop, indie, and alt-rap, reminiscent of Dev Hynes-era Solange mixed with De La Soul. // The follow up to BLACKSTARKIDS’ acclaimed 2022 album CYBERKISS* which featured standout singles “CYBERKISS 2 U* ft. beabadoobee” and “SEX APPEAL,” SATURN DAYZ is an otherworldly, genre-crossing testament to their unrelenting artistry and is their most impressive work to date. PRESS HERE to pre-save SATURN DAYZ. // Putting out music at a prolific rate and making waves for their formidable songwriting and producing talents, as well as their endless energy and truly limitless sound, BLACKSTARKIDS have received critical acclaim from New York Times, MTV, UPROXX, Billboard, Alternative Press, SPIN, Ones To Watch, Rolling Stone France, The Line Of Best Fit, DIY, Coup De Main, and more. Blending garage rock with synth-punk and hip-hop to usher in a new surge of indie, such as on their beloved album Puppies Forever which features anthemic singles “ALL COPS ARE BASTARDS,” “JUNO,” and “FIGHT CLUB,” BLACKSTARKIDS are well on their way to indie stardom and have previously toured with the likes of The 1975, COIN, Glass Animals, beabadoobee, Christian Leave, GroupLove. // Incorporating each member’s wide-ranging influences into their blissful DIY sound, such as Toro Y Moi, NERD*, Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer, Outkast, Odd Future, and A Tribe Called Quest, BLACKSTARKIDS first captivated the internet with their “black coming of age trilogy” of projects Let’s Play Sports, Surf, and Whatever, Man that feature critically acclaimed singles including “BRITNEY BITCH” and “FRANKIE MUNIZ.” // Blackstarkids are phenomenon who came out of KC in 2020 became the soundtrack for the summer. 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 Oct. 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. KC is honestly a hidden gem when it comes to music. I feel like you can meet an artist anywhere and anyplace in this city.”]

[The Babe Gabe plays Night Three of Manor Fest 8 on Fri, May 22 at 7:00pm at Black Box, 1060 Union Ave, KCMO with The Soul Agenda, and Hailes.]

8. HAILES – “Time” (CD #8) (2:12)
   from: FIVE (EP) / Magic Mango Music / September 29, 2025
   [Debut EP from KC based R&B artist HAILES. After graduating from Blue Valley West High School and briefly attending college, Hailes spent two years in the U.S. tour of The Wizard of Oz before moving to New York in 2017 to continue her acting career. COVID-19 shut down theatre and HAILES turned her energies toward writing music. When Broadway came back to life, HAILES returned to theatre and joined the Hadestown Broadway Tour for three years. While on tour Hailes continued writing music. // The music on her debut EP FIVE came from her time attending a writing camp in Austin, Texas. // HAILES told Cameron Castaldi of KJHK “On the road, I always had my recording equipment, so in every hotel that we got to, I would set up my little studio and write sporadically throughout the week.” // After living in New York City for the last seven years, R&B artist, songwriter, and actress Hailes is back home in Kansas City. She had her first concert in Kansas City on August 5, 2025 at The Blue Room. / More info at:www.hailes.komi.io/.]

[Hailes plays Night Three of Manor Fest 8 on Fri, May 22 at 7:00pm at Black Box, 1060 Union Ave, KCMO with The Soul Agenda, and The Babe Gabe.]

10:30 – Underwriting

10:32 – More Interview with Shaun Crowley & Valorie Mersman

Manor Fest 8, features 60 Bands, 8 Nights, 11 Neighborhoods, 20 venues, and a KC Street Car. The official dates are May 20, 21, 22, & 23 and May 27, 28, 29, & 30.

West Side / Strawberry Hill / West Bottoms / Crossroads / East Stadium Drive / Historic Northeast / East KC / 18th & Vine Jazz District / Midtown / Downtown / River Park

Manor Fest is a fundraiser curated and ran by Manor Records. This festival is not just about the music — it’s about building community and directly supporting local artists. Money raised from the festival supports the non profit mission of releasing music from local artists on physical platforms and other resources for musicians at no cost to them. More information at; http://www.manorrecords.com

WEEKEND ONE – May 20, 21, 22, & 23.

Night Four: Saturday May 23 – Crossroads

Venue One: Pitchside Coffee, 1819 Grand Blvd., KCMO (3-5 PM)

1. Pure XTC
2. Gracie Caggiano
3. Field Daze

Venue Two: Brewery Emperial 1829 Oak St. KCMO (5-7 PM) *21+

1. Jack Summers
2. Natalie Prauser
3. Teri Quinn

Venue Three: recordBar, 1527 Grand Blvd. KCMO (7:00pm -10 PM)

1. Miki P
2. The Royal Chief
3. Nightosphere

Venue Four: Lifted Spirits. 1734 Cherry St., KCMO (10:00pm – 12 AM) *21+

1. Sammy Sheets
2. Charmaine
3. FK Menace

10:37

9. Field Daze – “Shade of Blue”
   from: “Shade Blue – Single / Field Daze / April 3, 2026
   [Produced, mixed, and mastered by Ian Dobyns at Element Recording Studios. Earlier this year Field Daze released the singles: “Hula Girl” on March 3, 2026, “Hate Me” on March 9, 2026, “Melona 99” on March 8, 2026. // Field Daze, is an Indie Rock/Dreampop band, originated in KCMO when Rodd Fenton & Dan Camino responded to a Facebook call to start a Dreampop band. Their collaboration led to the creation of early demos. Shortly after, they were joined by Tracer Cauy, Kyer Lasswell, & Beau Harris, solidifying the band’s lineup. // Their magnetic sound quickly found a home in the KC music community, playing The Rino, The Ship, and The Bottleneck. Field Daze’s live performances became synonymous with an immersive musical experience, drawing in crowds with their captivating melodies. // Currently, the band channels their creativity by recording homegrown tracks within Rodd Fenton’s personal studio, honing their craft and evolving their unique sound. More Info at: http://www.fielddazekc.com

[Field Daze play Night Four of Manor Fest 8 on Saturday, May 23 at 3:00pm Pitchside Coffee, 1819 Grand Blvd., KCMO with Pure XTC and Gracie Caggiano.]

[Field Daze play The Ship at 1221 Union Ave., KCMO in Historic West Bottoms, Friday, June 5, 2025]

10. Jack Summers – “Lost Dog”
    from: Konza Prairie Hymnal / Psychic Sousa Records / April 10, 2026
    [Jack Summers is an award-winning songwriter from Weston, Missouri. He found his musical roots in trips to the Walnut Valley Music Festival and Bob Dylan lyrics repurposed as bedtime stories. Jack embraces these influences and is motivated by the challenge of making them resonate with a modern audience. // In 2021, Jack released his debut album, ‘No Longer and Not Yet’ // In 2023, Jack won the Kerrville New Folk Songwriting Contest. Since then, he’s played everywhere from a honkey tonk in Austin, to the backwoods of Awendaw, SC, to Iowa’s oldest barn. In 2026, Jack released his second album, Konza Prairie Hymnal. // 2022: Walnut Valley Songs for a Better World Contest Winner // 2023: Kerrville Folk Festival Grassy Hill New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters Winner // 2024: Walnut Valley ‘Sweet Memories’ Contest Winner 2025. Walnut Valley ‘Love Songs’ Contest Winner // 2025: Ozark Folk Festival Songwriting Contest Finalist ]

[Jack Summers plays Night Four of Manor Fest 8 on Saturday, May 23 at 5:00pm at Brewery Emperial 1829 Oak St. KCMO with Natalie Prauser and Teri Quinn.]

11. Nightosphere– “Poverty Policy”
    from: “Poverty Policy” – single / Nightosphere / February 21, 2025]
    [Brittany Sawtelle on guitar; Claire Hannah on bass & vocals, Dekota Trogdon on drums. Recorded at BRC Audio Productions by Zack Hames. Mixed + mastered by Mario Quintero. Nick Spacek in The Pitch writes, “their new single sees the band leaning into pure Goth territory, courtesy of a bassline that feels like the most ominous thing ever, plodding along in the best possible way before the song explodes in its final minute as though they can’t possibly hold it in any longer, and then returning to the slow march of what was a eulogy, now becoming the funeral.”//Nightosphere released their own 6-minute version of Echo and the Bunnymen’s “The Killing Moon” on Jan. 31, 2025 // After early single releases and an excellent 3-way split with Abandoncy and Flooding, Nightosphere developed their heavy slowcore sound into a fully realized, extremely imposing full length. On April 14, 2023 Nightosphere released their 7-track album Katabasis. Katabasis was recorded & mixed by Morgan Reed Greenwood & mastered by Greg Obis at Chicago Mastering Service.]

[Nightosphere play Night Four of Manor Fest 8 on Saturday, May 23 at 7:00pm at recordBar, 1527 Grand Blvd. KCMO with Miki P., and The Royal Chief.]

10:47 Interview with Shaun Crowley & Valorie Mersman

Today we spin music from 22 artists & bands playing Manor Fest 8 including: The Greeting Committee, Calvin Arsenia, Jass, Nightosphere, Paris Williams, Hailes, Jamogi & The Jammers, The Babe Gabe, The Matchsellers, Field Daze, Spy World, Alber, Malek Azrael, Kirstie Lynn, Flare The Rebel, Kemet Coleman, toasterbath, Ernest Melton, Tidal.wav, Dalia Kapten, Maddie Lai, and Jack Summer

Shaun Crowley & Valorie Mersman of Manor Records joins us to talk about Manor Fest 8,

Manor Fest 8, features 60 Bands, 8 Nights, 11 Neighborhoods, 20 venues, and a KC Street Car. The official dates are May 20, 21, 22, & 23 and May 27, 28, 29, & 30.

West Side / Strawberry Hill / West Bottoms / Crossroads / East Stadium Drive / Historic Northeast / East KC / 18th & Vine Jazz District / Midtown / Downtown / River Park

WEEKEND TWO – May 27, 28, 29, & 30

Night One (five) : Wednesday May 27 – Stadium Drive

Venue One: Farewell, 6523 Stadium Drive, KCMO with (7-10 PM)

1. Spyworld
2. Kissin
3. Apricot Glow

Night Two : Thursday May 29 – Historic Northeast

Venue One: PH Coffee, 2200 Lexington Ave,, KCMO (5:00pm -7 PM) all ages

1. Maddie Lai
2. Henry Scamurra
3. Jacob E. Chord Grüp

Venue Two : J. Rieger & Co. 2700 Guinotte Ave, KCMO (7:00pm -10 PM)

1. Brian Gerald Bulger
2. Eddie Moore
3. Paris Williams

10:53

12. Spy World – “Follow Me (Ft. KONEY)”
    rom: World Music Vol. 1 / Enigmatic Brunch / February 1, 2026
    [11-track debut album from Spy World, the new music project of Kyle Little who played keyboards and vocals as a member of Shy Boys. Konner Ervin (also of Shy Boys and ACBs and KONEY) joins in on three tracks with lyrics and vocals. Ross Brown (also of Shy Boys and Fullbloods) offers production assistance.]

[Spy World plays Night Five of Manor Fest 8 on Wednesday, May 27 at 7:00pm at Farewell, 6523 Stadium Drive, KCMO with Kissin’ and Apricot Glow]

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 Inbetweeners, 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 Popmatters 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.” ]

Shy Boys – Upperclassmen – Single / Polyvinyl Record Co. / September 16, 2025
[New single surprise!]

Fullbloods – Magic Machine – Single / Fullbloods / January 9, 2026
[New single surprise!]

13. Maddie Lai – “Target”
    from: “Target” – Demo Single / Maddie Lai / May 13, 2026
    [Maddie Lai – Vocals & Guitar, Written and Recorded by Maddie Lai for thjs radio show!]

[Maddie Lai plays Night Six of Manor Fest 8 on Thursday, May 28 at 5:00 at PH Coffee, 2200 Lexington Ave,, KCMO with Henry Scamurra & Jacob E. Chord Grüp]

11:00 – Station ID

14. Paris Williams & Bloom Allen – “Truthfully” (radio edit)
    from: Give Em Hell, Truthfully – Single / BitterSweet Sound / August 12, 2025
    [Paris Williams is a 26-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 EP COCOA on December 10, 2020 . // He released the single , “Austin”on February 18, 2021. // Paris Williams released the single, “Sweeter” on July 9, 2021. // He released the single, “Sunsets & Solariums (feat. Bloom Allen)” on October 21, 2021 through Bittersweet Sounds. // He released the single ,“Chunky”on April 20, 2022. // He released the single, “Hopscotch” on June 21, 2022. // Paris Williams released the EP REBEL HEART on January 31, 2023. This release was part of WMM ‘s 120 Best Recordings of 2023. // Paris Williams released the single, “Pack Light” on July 25, 2023. // Paris Williams with Globetrotters & Kaleab Samuel released the single, “C’est La Vie” on September 14, 2024, // Paris Williams with Globetrotters & Kaleab Samuel released the single, “Ayo (Feat TyFaison)” on September 18, 2024. // Paris Williams & The Human released the 10-track album, A Paris Williams Joint through Bitter Sweet Sound on November 19, 2024. This release was part of WMM’s 120 Best Recordings of 2024. // Paris Williams & TheBabeGabe released the single “Me Again” on April 28, 2025, // More info at: allmylinks.com/popstarparis]

[Paris Williams play Night Six of Manor Fest 8 on Thursday, May 28 at 7:00 at J. Rieger & Co. 2700 Guinotte Ave, KCMO with Brian Gerald Bulger, and Eddie Moore.]

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11:03 – More Interview with Shaun Crowley & Valorie Mersman

Today we spin music from 22 artists & bands playing Manor Fest 8 including: The Greeting Committee, Calvin Arsenia, Jass, Nightosphere, Paris Williams, Hailes, Jamogi & The Jammers, The Babe Gabe, The Matchsellers, Field Daze, Spy World, Alber, Malek Azrael, Kirstie Lynn, Flare The Rebel, Kemet Coleman, toasterbath, Ernest Melton, Tidal.wav, Dalia Kapten, Maddie Lai, and Jack Summer

Shaun Crowley & Valorie Mersman of Manor Records joins us to talk about Manor Fest 8,

Manor Fest 8, features 60 Bands, 8 Nights, 11 Neighborhoods, 20 venues & KC Street Car. The official dates are May 20, 21, 22, & 23 and May 27, 28, 29, & 30.

West Side / Strawberry Hill / West Bottoms / Crossroads / East Stadium Drive / Historic Northeast / East KC / 18th & Vine Jazz District / Midtown / Downtown / River Park

WEEKEND TWO – May 37 28, 29, & 30

Night Seven: Friday May 29 – East KC / 18th & Vine

Venue One: Ruby Jean’s Juicery 3000 Troost KCMO. (5:00pm -7 PM) all ages

1. Ronnie Ze’bo
2. Jolson & The Fear of Snakes
3. Kemet Coleman

Venue Two: Zhou B. Arts Center, 18901 E. 18th St. KCMO (7:00pm-10 PM) all ages

1. BAM & Rebel Song Academy Students
2. Malek Azrael & The Vibe
3. Bobby Watson

Venue Three: Vine Street Brewing, 2010 Vine, KCMO (10-12 AM) *21+

1. Jazlyn Epps
2. Isaiah Petrie
3. Alber & I Maledetti

11:11

15. Kemet Coleman – “What You Want From Me”
    from: Two Ships in the Night – EP / Kemet Creative (Vine Street Brewing) / March 6, 2026
    [Kemet Coleman is a KC 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 Street” on May 21, 2021.] [The Phantastics released their single “All That Fine”on May 6, 2022. The Phantastics are an 8 member band from KC formed in December of 2010. Kemet the Phantom on lead vocals; Kimology 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. ]

[Kemet Coleman plays Night Seven of Manor Fest 8 on Friday, May 29 at 5:00pm at Ruby Jean’s Juicery 3000 Troost Ave, KCMO, with Ronnie Ze’bo and Jolson & The Fear of Snakes.(All ages)]

16. Malek Azrael – “You”
    from: “You” – Single / Malek Azrael / February 27, 2026
    [Malek recently wrote to me about this new single, saying,”This record means a lot to me. “YOU” lives in that pop/indie pop space with smooth R&B vocals and textures, blending traditional pop sensibility with the singer songwriter honesty I always try to bring. It’s about that unexpected moment of falling in love and choosing to be fully open — even when it feels a little scary. Very warm, very intentional.” // On March 1, 2025 Malek Azrael released the EP, FEELS LIKE. It was part of WMM’s 120 Best recordings of 2025. On February 28, 2025, Malek Azrael released the single “Room 4U”. // On March 1, 2024 Malek Azrael released his single, “in ur mind.” On October 15, 2021 Malek Azrael released his 10-track album “Waves” which first featured members of his live band “The Vibez”. Since then, they have grown their fanbase in KC and surrounding areas through live concerts land appearances at Boulevardia Festival, Ameri’Kana, and the 18th and Vine Gumbo Fest, and shows at RecordBar, The Truman, Grinders, and Knuckleheads and collaborated with larger acts such as Making Movies, The Greeting Committee, and D Smoke debut. Male Azrael lives in KCMO. He has worked for Boys Grow, and Art As Mentorship (Making Movies non-profit organization). 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 & The Vibez played Boulevardia Festival at Crown Center, on June 16, 2024.]

[Malek Azrael play Night Seven of Manor Fest 8 on Friday, May 29 at 7:00 Zhou B. Arts Center, 18901 E. 18th St. KCMO with BAM & Rebel Song Academy Students, & Bobby Watson.]

17. 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 plays Night Seven: of Manor Fest 8, Friday May 29, at Vne Street Brewing, 2010 Vine, KCMO with Jazlyn Epps, Isaiah Petrie, and Alber & I Maledetti.]

11:21 – Interview with Shaun Crowley & Valorie Mersman

Today we spin music from 22 artists & bands playing Manor Fest 8 including: The Greeting Committee, Calvin Arsenia, Jass, Nightosphere, Paris Williams, Hailes, Jamogi & The Jammers, The Babe Gabe, The Matchsellers, Field Daze, Spy World, Alber, Malek Azrael, Kirstie Lynn, Flare The Rebel, Kemet Coleman, toasterbath, Ernest Melton, Tidal.wav, Dalia Kapten, Maddie Lai, and Jack Summer.

West Side / Strawberry Hill / West Bottoms / Crossroads / East Stadium Drive / Historic Northeast / East KC / 18th & Vine Jazz District / Midtown / Downtown / River Park

Manor Fest is a fundraiser curated and ran by Manor Records. This festival is not just about the music — it’s about building community and directly supporting local artists. Money raised from the festival supports the non profit mission of releasing music from local artists on physical platforms and other resources for musicians at no cost to them. More information at; http://www.manorrecords.com

Manor Fest 8, features 60 Bands, 8 Nights, 11 Neighborhoods, 20 venues & KC Street Car.

WEEKEND TWO – May 27, 28, 29, & 30.

Night Eight: Saturday May 30 – Street Car

Venue One: Kemper Museum 4420 Warwick Blvd., KCMO (1:00pm) all ages

1. Kadesh Flow
2. True Lions
3. Flare Tha Rebel

3:00pm – KC Street Car
Sass-a-Brass Band

Venue Two: Kansas City Publc Library 14 W, 10th St., KCMO – 3:30pm

1. Kirstie Lynn
2. Fritz & Sons
3. Calvin Arsenia

6:00pm – KC Street Car
Sass-a-Brass Band

Venue Three: KC Current Landing, 1460 E. Front St.,KCMO – 6:30pm

1. Jamogi & The Jammers
2. Jass
3. The Greeting Committee

11:28 – Underwriting

18. FlareThaRebel – “Mixology”
    from: “Mixology” – Single / Shafer / May 1, 2026
    [“Mixology” from his upcoming full length album DEAR CITY. // Flare Tha Rebel’s lead single “Mixology” is a confidently smooth record that uses the art of the cocktail as a metaphor for ambition, drive, and balance. The song is produced by longtime collaborator, Bob Pulliam (“Happy Clouds (Bob Ross Flow)”, “Rose’ All Day”, “Royalty Pt.1/2”). The single precedes the release of Flare’s upcoming album, Dear City, which drops Friday, May 1st. // Amplifying the tension between having love for one’s city while not dismissing its inequities, Dear City is a lyrical reflection of truth-telling and hometown pride. The album highlights commonalities experienced by many urbanites regardless of where they call home.  // In the weeks leading up to the album release concert, Flare has been releasing music video reels on social media featuring snippets of the new songs from Dear City. Filmed by Flaming Heart Productions, each reel features only the first verse or at most the first verse and chorus of each song, giving fans a taste of what’s to come and building hype for the album’s release. // Elevating the concoction further, Flare collaborated with bar owner, Bryan Ari, to film the music video reel of “Mixology” at Fern Bar. Flare turned the filming into a “fishbowl experience” inviting guests to watch him create the reel live while sipping cocktails of their own. Flare landed the scene, which involved rapping while mixing a cocktail and flaming an orange rind a precise moment within the song’s verse. The outcome? Confidently smooth – after about six takes and some hands-on coaching from Bryan Ari.// Career and love brought hip-hop MC Flare Tha Rebel™ back to his hometown of Kansas City, MO, which sparked a creative renaissance. As The Pitch noted, “As a member of hip-hop collective Anti-Crew, Flare Tha Rebel made quite an impact on the Kansas City hip-hop scene. After making the leap from KC to Chicago in the late ’00s, he’s now back…” His homecoming has proved fruitful – his track “Playground” was voted the Number 1 Song of 2022 by listeners of 90.9 FM The Bridge. Throughout his career, Flare has shared stages with heavyweights including Chance The Rapper, RZA of Wu-Tang Clan, Mac Lethal, Nappy Roots, and CES Cru. His most recent release is the locally acclaimed EP, “Summer You, Summer Me”, followed by his feature on the Kemet Coleman song “Android”. // Flare Tha Rebel aka Jeff Shafer is Executive Director for City Year Kansas City, an educational-equity nonprofit that places mentors/tutors in schools to keep kids on track to graduate. This was the job that brought Jeff back to KC, where he became Executive Director. ]

[FlareThaRebel plays Day Eight of Manor Fest 8 on Saturday, May 30 at 1:00pm at The Kemper Museum 4420 Warwick Blvd., KCMO with\Kadesh Flow and True Lions.]

19. Kirstie Lynn & Galen Clark – “Soft Landing”
    from: Kirstie Lynn & Galen Clark / Lost River Sound / August 9, 2024
    [Kirstie Lynn & Galen Clark released Cindergarden (A Sides) on May 22, 2022. They released Cindergarden (B Sidesd) on June 21, 2023. Kirstie Lynn is a classically trained soprano with a passion for songwriting, always looking to marry poetry and melody. Though Kirstie’s voice has been compared to that of Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez, her sound is uniquely her own. Kirstie Lynn is a folk singer-songwriter originally from the fingerlakes region of upstate, NY. She began her professional music studies at the age of 15, and has since received both a Bachelor’s degree from Shenandoah University and a Master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University in voice and opera performance. Her vocal training lends her the freedom to paint her nature inspired lyrics with a wide range and a beautiful and effortless sound. Kirstie Lynn is one half of the duo Kirstie Lynn and Galen Clark. // Galen Clark introduces an alternative perspective and approach to music that contains multitudes. Migratory melodies, multi-instrumental fluency, and mysterious texture all outline the stylings of the newly transplanted Cuyahoga Valley songwriter, producer, and musician. // Born into an Air Force family, Clark grew up in many places with family anchors in Vermont and Colorado. At the age of 9 following many failed piano lessons, Clark’s grandparents gifted him a Harmony parlor guitar from a Shelburne flea market, starting a journey that would span almost 2 decades of stylistic development, a plethora of ephemeral bands, a degree in music production and recording technology, and a refined take on songwriting. .. Sharing songs spanning the stoic mountains of Idaho’s lost river range to the ancient hum of the Shenandoah Valley, Galen draws upon energy strewn between varied time and place, a broader quest for belonging, and rejuvenation beyond the front door. Clark’s previous records, Providence (2018) and The Well (2020) offer a contemplative portrait of moods in natural ambiguity, collective consciousness, and introspection. His most recent collaboration with Kansas City – based artist, Kirstie Lynn is a reckoning that is to be heard live and will transport you elsewhere if not in mind than in spirit.][Kirstie Lynn & Galen Clark joined us live on WMM on June 21. // Kirstie Lynn played IN THE ROUND with Calvin Arsenia, Julia Othmer, and Christena Graves at The Bauer, 115 West 18th St., in KCMO’s West Crossroads, Oct. 17, 2025.]

[Kirstie Lynn plays Day Eight of Manor Fest 8 on Saturday, May 30 at 3:30pm at Kansas City Publc Library 14 W, 10th St., KCMO with Fritz & Sons and Calvin Arsenia]

20. Calvin Arsenia – “Rose Petals”
    from: Paradise / Calvin Arsenia / June 23, 2023
    [Paradise is Calvin Arsenia’s 14 track album. 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 VERY 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, and 2022. 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 Day Eight of Manor Fest 8 on Saturday, May 30 at 3:30pm at Kansas City Public Library 14 W, 10th St., KCMO with Fritz & Sons and Kirstie Lynn]

11:40 – More Interview with Shaun Crowley & Valorie Mersman

Manor Fest 8, features 60 Bands, 8 Nights, 11 Neighborhoods, 20 venues & KC Street Car. The official dates are May 20, 21, 22, & 23 and May 27, 28, 29, & 30.

West Side / Strawberry Hill / West Bottoms / Crossroads / East Stadium Drive / Historic Northeast / East KC / 18th & Vine Jazz District / Midtown / Downtown / River Park

Manor Fest is a fundraiser curated and ran by Manor Records. This festival is not just about the music — it’s about building community and directly supporting local artists. Money raised from the festival supports the non profit mission of releasing music from local artists on physical platforms and other resources for musicians at no cost to them. More information at; http://www.manorrecords.com

Today, Manor Records Foundation has supported more than 60 digital releases and over 30 physical albums from emerging Kansas City musicians — helping artists fund projects, build sustainable careers, and reach wider audiences. Through initiatives like our annual Manor Fest, showcasing over 60 local acts, and year-round programs like Songbird Sessions, we provide platforms that celebrate and reinvest in the creative heartbeat of our city. By combining the spirit of community with structured artist development, Manor Records Foundation ensures that KC’s vibrant music scene continues to thrive and grow.

Shaun Crowley & Valorie Mersman thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

WEEKEND TWO – May 27, 28, 29, & 30.

Night Eight: Saturday May 30 – Street Car

Venue One: Kemper Museum 4420 Warwick Blvd., KCMO (1:00pm) all ages

1. Kadesh Flow
2. True Lions
3. Flare Tha Rebel

3:00pm – KC Street Car
Sass-a-Brass Band

Venue Two: Kansas City Publc Library 14 W, 10th St., KCMO – 3:30pm

1. Kirstie Lynn
2. Fritz & Sons
3. Calvin Arsenia

6:00pm – KC Street Car
Sass-a-Brass Band

Venue Three: KC Current Landing, 1460 E. Front St.,KCMO – 6:30pm

1. Jamogi & The Jammers
2. Jass
3. The Greeting Committee

11:45

21. Jamogi – “HOLLABACK (feat. Les Izmore)”
    from: “HOLLABACK (feat. Les Izmore)” / Jam Tunes / May 15, 2026
    [Jamogi is also know as Byron Hyde a Kanas City based singer, songwriter, MC, producer, originally from Los Angeles, California.// Jamogi released the single “Georgia Peach (feat. Burgandy)” on September 5, 2025. Jamogi released Jamogi & The Jammers: Live at Flew The Coop Sessions (Flew The Coop Live) through Jam Tunes on April 11, 2025. // Jamogi released the single “Do It To Me” on March 28, 2025. // Jamogi released the single “Go Big or Go Home” on August 30, 2024, Jamogi released the single “Hot Block” on May 30, 2024. Jamogi released the EP, Star-Crossed Lover on March 3, 2023. Jamogi then released a “Star-Crossed Lover GALACTIC REMIX (feat. Watchman)” single on June 9, 2023.Jamogi previously released the AGE OF AQUARIUS EP on March 3, 2023, and the single “Celebration” on Dec. 9, 2022, and the single “Anymore” on May 6, 2022. // Jamogi played the ROCK IS BLACK—a celebration of Black artists in rock music, happening February 28, 2025 at 7:00 PM at the Zhou B Art Center, 1801 E 18th Street, KCMO. Rock is Black features: Malek Azrael & The Vibez, Jamogi and The Jammers, Stephonne, and Frankie Shorez & Mercy Fire. Kamogi and the Jammers played Boulevardia 2025]

[Jamogi plays Day Eight of Manor Fest 8 on Saturday, May 30 at 6:30pm at KC Current Landing, 1460 E. Front St., KCMO with Jass and The Greeting Committee]

22. Jass – “Where You Are”
    from: APRIL SHOWERS – EP / Jass / April 27, 2025.
    [Jass is Jasmine “Jass” Couch. Jass is currently working with her band Jass and the ConrtraBand.. Jass recently released the single, Autumn in The City” on September 22, 2025 This release captures Jass’s dynamic sound in a live band recording, tracked and recorded by bandmate Clarence Copridge. The smooth vocals from Jass and instrumentals of vibes and upright bass in this track are the perfect end of summer/welcome to fall track. // Jass writes, “My new single ‘Autumn in the City” s close to my heart—paying homage to my hometown and the fall season that inspires so much love and reflection. Huge thanks to everyone who came out and supported us.” // Jass released the EP APRIL SHOWERS on April 27, 2025. // Jass released the single “Hope.wav” on February 29, 2024. // Jass and The Boys released the single, “Daydream Girl” on August 25, 2023. // Jass and The Boys released the single “Gvn2u” on July 14, 2023. // Jass released the single, “Time&Space” on July 14, 2023. n// Jass released the single, “Eye Contact.” // Jass released the single, “Lifetime” on January 6, 2023 // Jass and The Boys released the single “Love U Like I Love U” on December 2, 2022. Jass released the single “grow” on November 26, 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, 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. Info: http://www.jassrcouch.com]

[Jass plays Day Eight of Manor Fest 8 on Saturday, May 30 at 6:30pm at KC Current Landing, 1460 E. Front St., KCMO with Jamogi & The Jammers and The Greeting Committee]

11:51 – More interview with Shaun Crowley & Valorie Mersman

Manor Fest is a fundraiser curated and ran by Manor Records. This festival is not just about the music — it’s about building community and directly supporting local artists. Money raised from the festival supports the non profit mission of releasing music from local artists on physical platforms and other resources for musicians at no cost to them. More information at; http://www.manorrecords.com

Thank you Shaun Crowley & Valorie Mersman

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

11:53

11:51 – More interview with Shaun Crowley & Valorie Mersman

Manor Fest is a fundraiser curated and ran by Manor Records. This festival is not just about the music — it’s about building community and directly supporting local artists. Money raised from the festival supports the non profit mission of releasing music from local artists on physical platforms and other resources for musicians at no cost to them. More information at; http://www.manorrecords.com

Thank you Shaun Crowley & Valorie Mersman

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

11:53

23. The Greeting Committee – “What I Wouldn’t Give?”
    from: “What I Wouldn’t Give?” / Harvest Records / October 10, 2025
    [Formed in KC in 2015 with Addie Sartino, Brandon Yangmi, Austin Fraser, & Pierce Turcotte. This EP waOn September 24, 2021 The Greeting Committee released their album Dandelion, ,which was part of WMM’s 120 Best recordins of 2021. hat release was a follow up to their Oct. 17, 2019 EP, I’m Afraid I’m Not Angry, and their October 26, 2018, full length vinyl release “This Is It.” The band has previously released the EP “Meeting People is Easy” in 2017, and “It’s Not All That Bad” in 2015.The Greeting Committee released their single “Ada” on August 27, 2021, through Harvest Records / UMG Recordings. Addie wrote about her song “Ada” explaining it was a queer narrative inspired by lived experience of a dear friend. i knew this wasn’t my story to tell, but instead the story of someone i fiercely admire. to our garden, you are loved. you are loved.]

[The Greeting Committee plays Day Eight of Manor Fest 8 on Saturday, May 30 at 6:30pm at KC Current Landing, 1460 E. Front St.,KCMO with Jamogi & The Jammers and Jass]

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

Next week, on Wednesday, May 20 – Rachel Christia & Vi Tran share info about the Kansas City Folk Fest, Saturday, May 30, 11:00am to 7:00pm at Washington Square Park with The Freedom Affair, Kaia Kater, Flutienastieness & The Soul Patrol, Julia Haile, Reach, Trevor Turla, Sisterbot, Bad Alaskan, and more! // Also Next Week Artist Madeline Marek joins us to talk about a special show at Kansas City Artists Coalition. AND KKFI radio host and producer Darin Challacombe talks about his late night radio show, All That Class and Jazz, heard late Friday Nights – Saturday Mornings 2:00am to 5:00am om 90.1 FM KKFI.

THANK YOU to everyone who donated to KKFI’a Winter Fund Drive during Wedneday MidDay Medley we had a total of 49 individuals doante $3924.00 ngoing way over our show goal!
Thank you to KKFI Staff: Executive Director – Bess Wallerstein Huff, Chief Operator – Chad Brothers, Director of Development & Communications – J Kelly Dougherty, Volunteer Coordinator – Darryl Oliver, and Shaina Littler – Office Manager Book Keeper

You can find our playlists at: http://www.wednesdaymiddaymedley.org & http://www.kkfi.org
http://www.facebook.com/WednesdayMidDayMedleyon90.1FM
http://www.instagram.wednesday_midday_medley

This radio station is more than the individual hosts of each individual radio show. It is a collective spirit of hundreds of people, setting aside ego, to work for the greater good of community building and the goal of keeping our airwaves, non-commercial, and open! Thank you to programmers who create content for over 85 locally produced radio shows & volunteers who made 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 #1147

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

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

Scott Moreau plays Johnny Cash + BCR celebrates 50 Years! + Rosie O’Brien leads Sass-a-Brass

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

10:00 – Three Musical Artists inducted into Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2026

We start the show with three legendary musical entities: Fela Kuti and Arika 70, Joy Division, and Celia Cruz. These artists were recently announced to be inducted into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The 2026 inductees include: Phil Collins, Billy Idol, Iron Maiden, Joy Division/New Order, Oasis, Sade, Luther Vandross, and Wu-Tang Clan. In addition to the performer inductees, Celia Cruz, Fela Kuti, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte and Gram Parsons will be honored with the Early Influence Award. Linda Creed, Arif Mardin, Jimmy Miller and Rick Rubin will receive the Musical Excellence Award. The annual Ahmet Ertegun Award will remember Ed Sullivan.

2. Fela Kuti, Afrika 70 & Ginger Baker – “Let’s Start (Edit with Intro)”
   from: “Let’s Start (Edit with Intro)” – Single from LIVE! / EMI London / August 30, 1971
   [In 2026, Kuti was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early/musical influence after two previous nominations. // “Let’s Start” is a single edited version of opening track from Live! – a live in-studio album by Fela Kuti’s band Africa ’70, with the addition of former Cream drummer Ginger Baker on two songs. It was released on August 30, 1971 by EMI in Africa and Europe and by Capitol/EMI in the United States and Canada. It was reissued on CD by Celluloid in 1987 and was reissued on CD in remastered form by Barclay with a bonus track from 1978. LIVE! was one of five albums Fele released in 1971 including FELA’S LONDON SCENE, WHY BLACK MEN DEY SUFFER, NA POI, and OPEN & CLOSE. // The album was recorded on July 25, 1971, at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) in London. The British-American rock band Wings was recording their album Wild Life at the same time in the adjacent studio. // Baker travelled with Kuti into Africa in a Land Rover to learn about the continent’s rhythms, as documented in Tony Palmer’s film Ginger Baker in Africa (1971). The bonus track on the Barclay CD reissue features a 16-minute drum duet between Baker and Africa ’70’s drummer Tony Allen recorded at the 1978 Berlin Jazz Festival. The album is on Rolling Stone’s list of the 50 greatest live albums of all time. The album is also included in Robert Dimery’s 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. // Fela Aníkúlápó Kútì was born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti on October 15, 1938 – died 2 August 2, 1997. He was a Nigerian musician and political activist. He is regarded as the principal innovator of Afrobeat, a Nigerian music genre that combines West African music with American funk and jazz. At the height of his popularity, he was referred to as one of Africa’s most “challenging and charismatic music performers”. AllMusic described him as “a musical and sociopolitical voice” of international significance. // Kuti was the son of Nigerian women’s rights activist Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. After early experiences abroad, he and his band Africa ’70 (featuring drummer and musical director Tony Allen) shot to stardom in Nigeria during the 1970s, during which Kuti was an outspoken critic and target of Nigeria’s military juntas. In 1970, he founded the Kalakuta Republic commune, which declared itself independent from military rule. The commune was destroyed in a 1977 army raid that injured Kuti and his mother, the latter fatally. He was jailed by the government of Muhammadu Buhari in 1984, but released after 20 months. Kuti continued to record and perform through the 1980s and 1990s. Since his death in 1997, reissues and compilations of his music have been overseen by his son, Femi Kuti. // Kuti was born into the Ransome-Kuti family, an upper-middle-class family, on October 15, 1938, in Abeokuta, Colonial Nigeria. His mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, was an anti-colonial feminist, and his father, Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti was an Anglican minister, school principal, and the first president of the Nigeria Union of Teachers. Kuti’s parents both played active roles in the anti-colonial movement in Nigeria, most notably the Abeokuta Women’s Riots which were led by his mother in 1946. His brothers Beko Ransome-Kuti and Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, both medical doctors, were well known nationally. Kuti is a cousin to the writer and fellow activist Wole Soyinka, a Nobel Prize for Literature winner. They are both descendants of Josiah Ransome-Kuti, an Anglican clergyman and musical pioneer, who is Kuti’s paternal grandfather and Soyinka’s maternal great-grandfather. // Kuti attended Abeokuta Grammar School. In 1958, he was invited to London by his younger brother Beko (a medical student at the time), to study music at the Trinity College of Music, with the trumpet being his preferred instrument. While there, he formed the band Koola Lobitos and played a fusion of jazz and highlife. The ensemble would include as members Bayo Martins on drums and Wole Bucknor on piano. In 1960, Kuti married his first wife, Remilekun (Remi) Taylor with whom he had three children (Yeni, Femi, and Sola). In 1963, Kuti moved back to the newly independent Federation of Nigeria, re-formed Koola Lobitos, and trained as a radio producer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. He played for some time with Victor Olaiya and his All-Stars. // He called his style Afrobeat, a combination of Apala, funk, jazz, highlife, salsa, calypso and traditional Yoruba music. In 1969, Kuti took the band to the United States and spent ten months in Los Angeles. While there, he discovered the Black Power movement through Sandra Smith (now known as Sandra Izsadore or Sandra Akanke Isidore), a partisan of the Black Panther Party. This experience heavily influenced his music and political views. He renamed the band Nigeria 70. Soon after, the Immigration and Naturalization Service was tipped off by a promoter that Kuti and his band were in the US without work permits. The band performed a quick recording session in Los Angeles that would later be released as The ’69 Los Angeles Sessions.]

[Afrobeats To The World – Friday, April 24, at 9:00pm at Warehouse On Broadway, 3951 Broadway Blvd KCMO, An immersive experience, with dancers and DJs, where pulsating African rhythms and music collide, creating a transformative celebration and vibrant showcase of African culture.]

3. Joy Division – “Transmission”
   from: “Transmission” – 7” single / Factory / October 7, 1979
   [In 2026, both Joy Division and New Order were inducted as one act into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. // “Transmission” is a song by English post-punk band Joy Division. Originally recorded in 1978 for the band’s aborted self-titled album, it was later re-recorded the following year at a faster tempo and released by record label Factory as the band’s debut single. // “Transmission” was released on 7″ vinyl on October 7, 1979 by record label Factory. It was re-released as a 12″ single with a different sleeve on February 20, 1981. The single charted twice in New Zealand, debuting at number 2 in September 1981 and re-appearing again at number 24 in July 1984. // The song was performed once by the band on television, for the BBC Something Else programme. Twenty seconds of the song is shown in the movie Control (2007), directed by Anton Corbijn, a film based on the biography of Ian’s wife, Deborah Curtis’s Touching from a Distance. // Greil Marcus has a chapter on this song in his book The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll in Ten Songs. According to Marcus, “‘Transmission’ is not an argument. It’s a dramatization of the realization that the act of listening to the radio is a suicidal gesture. It will kill your mind. It will rob your soul.” Marcus also quotes the band’s bassist Peter Hook about the importance of this song: “We were doing a soundcheck at the Mayflower, in May, and we played ‘Transmission’: people had been moving around, and they all stopped to listen. I realized that was our first great song.” // In May 2007, NME magazine placed “Transmission” at number 20 in its list of the 50 “Greatest Indie Anthems Ever”, one place below “Love Will Tear Us Apart”. In 2016, Pitchfork placed “Transmission” at number 10 in its list of “The 200 Best Songs of the 1970s”. // Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist, guitarist and lyricist Ian Curtis, guitarist and keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. // Sumner and Hook formed the band after attending a June 1976 Sex Pistols concert. While Joy Division’s first recordings were heavily influenced by early punk rock, they soon developed a sparse sound and style that made them one of the pioneering groups of the post-punk genre. Their self-released 1978 debut EP An Ideal for Living drew the attention of the Manchester television personality Tony Wilson, who signed them to his independent label Factory Records. Their debut album Unknown Pleasures, recorded with producer Martin Hannett, was released in 1979. // Curtis struggled with personal problems, including a failing marriage, depression, and epilepsy. As the band’s popularity grew, Curtis’s health condition made it increasingly difficult for him to perform; he occasionally experienced seizures on stage. He died by suicide on the eve of what would have been the band’s first North American tour in May 1980, aged 23. Joy Division’s second and final album, Closer, was released two months later; it and the single “Love Will Tear Us Apart” became their highest-charting releases. // Between July and October 1980, the remaining members, with the addition of keyboardist and guitarist Gillian Gilbert, regrouped under the name New Order. They were successful throughout the next decade, blending post-punk with electronic and dance music influences. Joy Division would remain a prominent influence on subsequent generations of alternative acts, particularly within the gothic rock genre. In 2026, both Joy Division and New Order were inducted as one act into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.]

4. Celia Cruz – “Yemayá”
   from: Homenaje a los Santos / Seeco Records / 1964
   [Celia Caridad Cruz Alfonso, born, October 21, 1925 – died, July 16, 2003. Known as Celia Cruz, was a Cuban singer and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century. Cruz rose to fame in Cuba during the 1950s as a singer of guarachas, earning the nickname La Guarachera de Cuba. In the following decades, she became known internationally as the “Queen of Salsa” due to her contributions to Latin music. She had sold over 30 million records, making her one of the best-selling Latin music artists. // The artist began her career in her home country Cuba, earning recognition as a vocalist of the popular musical group Sonora Matancera, a musical association that lasted 15 years (1950–1965). Cruz mastered a wide variety of Afro-Cuban music styles including guaracha, rumba, afro, son and bolero, recording numerous singles in these styles for Seeco Records. // In 1960, after the Cuban Revolution caused the nationalization of the music industry, Cruz left her native country, becoming one of the symbols and spokespersons of the Cuban community in exile. Cruz continued her career, first in Mexico, and then in the United States, the country that she took as her definitive residence. In the 1960s, she collaborated with Tito Puente, recording her signature tune “Bemba colorá”. In the 1970s, she signed for Fania Records and became strongly associated with the salsa genre, releasing hits such as “Quimbara”. She often appeared live with Fania All-Stars and collaborated with Johnny Pacheco and Willie Colón. During the last years of her career, Cruz continued to release successful songs such as “La vida es un carnaval” and “La negra tiene tumbao”. // Her musical legacy is made up of a total of 37 studio albums, as well as numerous live albums and collaborations. Throughout her career, she was awarded numerous prizes and distinctions, including two Grammy Awards and three Latin Grammy Awards. In addition to her prolific career in music, Cruz also made several appearances as an actress in movies and telenovelas. Her catchphrase “¡Azúcar!” (“Sugar!”) has become one of the most recognizable symbols of salsa music. // In 2026, Cruz was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early/musical influence. She is the first artist who performed in Spanish to be inducted. // Celia Caridad Cruz Alfonso was born on 21 October 1925, at 47 Serrano Street in the Santos Suárez neighborhood of Havana, Cuba. Her father, Simón Cruz, was a railway stoker, and her mother, Catalina Alfonso Ramos, a housewife who took care of an extended family. Celia was one of the eldest among fourteen children living in the house, including cousins and her three siblings, Dolores, Gladys, and Bárbaro, and she used to sing cradle songs to put them to sleep. According to her mother, she began singing as a child at 9 or 10 months of age, often in the middle of the night. She also sang in school during the Fridays’ actos cívicos and in her neighborhood ensemble, Botón de oro. // While growing up in Cuba’s diverse 1930s musical climate, Cruz listened to many musicians who influenced her adult career, including Fernando Collazo, Abelardo Barroso, Pablo Quevedo, Antonio Arcaño and Arsenio Rodríguez. Despite her father’s opposition and the fact that she was Catholic, as a child Cruz learned Santería songs from her neighbor who practiced Santería. Cruz also studied the words to Yoruba songs with colleague Merceditas Valdés (an akpwon, a Santería singer) from Cuba and later made various recordings of this religious genre, even singing backup for other akpwons like Candita Batista. // As a teenager, her aunt took her and her cousin to cabarets to sing, but her father encouraged her to attend school in the hope she would become a teacher. After high school, she attended the Normal School for Teachers in Havana with the intent of becoming a literature teacher. At the time being a singer was not viewed as an entirely respectable career. However, one of her teachers told her that, as an entertainer, she could earn in one day what most Cuban teachers earned in a month. From 1947, Cruz studied music theory, voice, and piano at Havana’s National Conservatory of Music. // One day, her cousin took her to Havana’s radio station Radio García-Serra, where she became a contestant in the Hora del té (“Tea Time”) amateur radio program. It was her first time using a microphone and she sang the tango “Nostalgia” (as a tribute to Paulina Álvarez), winning a cake as the first prize for her performance. On other occasions she won silver chains, as well as opportunities to participate in more contests. She also sang in other amateur radio programs such as La suprema corte del arte, broadcast by CMQ, always winning first prize. The only exception was when she competed against Vilma Valle, having to split their earnings: 25 dollars each. // In 2004, the Miami Herald revealed from partially declassified US State Department papers that Cruz had been linked to Cuba’s pre-Revolution communist party, the Popular Socialist Party (PSP), as early as the 1940s] The article was written by Herald journalist Carol Rosenberg from Freedom of Information Act requests. It made several revelations, among them that the US Embassy in Havana denied Cruz a US visa in 1952 and 1955 because of suspected communist affiliations. The article also states that Cruz had joined the youth wing of the PSP at age 20 and had used a concert to arrange a secret meeting with communists in South America on behalf of its then general secretary, Blas Roca Calderío, who had also founded the party in 1925. Cruz had also signed a public letter in support of one of the Party’s front groups, the Pro-Peace Congress. The article states that Cruz’s surviving husband, Pedro Knight, was asked about this, and is quoted he knew nothing about it. “She never told me about that. She never talked about politics,” the article quotes Knight.]

5. St. George & The Dragons – “Waiting For The World To End”
   from: “Waiting For The World To End” – Single / Grand Central Bell Records / April 21, 2026
   [The new single features vocals by Skeet Hanks, written by David George and Skeet Hanks. Giving 80’s Elvis Costello vibes, the song makes a statement about how we all seem to be waiting for something to happen in our current political environment. If you haven’t seen the band recently, Scott Mize from the band She Said, and formerly of the Pedal Jets is playing guitar. Also joining the band on keys is the legend Chris Hazelton of The Freedom Affair. // On August 30, 2024, St. George and The Dragons released their debut album, KING OF KANSAS CITY with David George on vocals/guitar, Mike Greene on guitar, Skeet Hanks on vocals & guitar, Matt Kesler on vocals & bass, and Pat Tomek on drums. With Guest Players: Lin Buck on piano & organ, and Ken Lovern on organ. // Produced by David George. Recorded and Engineered by Pat Tomek at Largely Studios – KCMO. Mastered by Duane Trower at Weights & Measures Soundlabs – KCMO. Artwork by Jud Kite – Killer Kite Productions // King Of Kansas City is a ten-song album of pure rock and roll influenced by late 70s rock like the Stones and Tom Petty. // The album’s theme comes from a time when Rock ‘n’ Roll ruled the airwaves. It’s about letting go and raising your hand high into the air with your middle finger out to the world as you move on to the next big thing in your life. // Lead singer David George (Moaning Lisa, John Fogerty band) has been working with drummer/engineer Pat Tomek (The Rainmakers) since 2018 when they recorded three solo EPs for George. They found it easy to work together and had similar tastes which led them to produced and engineer an album for Kansas City artist David Luther. In the studio with Luther, they enlisted the help of Matt Kesler (The Pedaljets, She Said, The Doo Dads) on bass with Tomek on drums and George on guitars and keys. // George, Tomek, and Kesler hit it off and started working on material of their own, eventually bringing in guitarist Mike Greene (The Front/Bakers Pink) and vocalist/guitarist Skeet Hanks (Beatin’ Path) to round out the sound. Greene was the lead guitarist in the Front, a band known for their searing guitar and power rock sound. Hanks, from New Orleans fronted the band Beatin’ Path, tearing up the Bayou country with their progressive rock sound and soaring melodies. // Influenced by the works of The Stones, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, The Beatles, and many other classic rock bands from the 70s and the 80s, St. George & The Dragons came together during the Global Pandemic, giving them time to develop their sound. George, Greene, Hanks, Kesler, and Tomek have all had their share of greatness, from the collective albums they’ve released on major and indie labels to sharing the stage with legends like Paul McCartney, The Replacements, Soul Asylum, Doobie Brothers, The Black Crowes, Derek Trucks Band, Lumineers, Aerosmith, Smithereens, Mother Love Bone, and a list that could fill up a book! // More information at: http://www.stgeorgeandthedragonsband.com

[St. George & The Dragons play recordBar, 1520 Grand Blvd., KCMO on Friday, April 24, 2026, at 8:00pm with Kamera9.]

6. The Soul Agenda – “Hot Honey”
   from: “Hot Honey” – Single / The Soul Agenda / February 15, 2026
   [The Soul Agenda are Olivet on vocals, Zahara Ness on back-up vocals Charles on trumpet, Noah on guitar. The Soul Agenda were the winners of the 32nd annual 2026 KJHK Farmers Ball, a two week competition held at Liberty Hall in Lawrence Kansas]

[The Soul Agenda play Manor Fest 8 on Friday, May 22.]

[The Soul Agenda play MOD Gallery, 1809 McGee St. KCMO, on Friday June 5, 2026.]

7. Field Daze – “Shade of Blue”
   from: “Shade Blue – Single / Field Daze / April 3, 2026
   [Produced, mixed, and mastered by Ian Dobyns at Element Recording Studios. Earlier this year Field Daze released the singles: “Hula Girl” on March 3, 2026, “Hate Me” on March 9, 2026, “Melona 99” on March 8, 2026. // Field Daze, is an Indie Rock/Dreampop band, originated in KCMO when Rodd Fenton & Dan Camino responded to a Facebook call to start a Dreampop band. Their collaboration led to the creation of early demos. Shortly after, they were joined by Tracer Cauy, Kyer Lasswell, & Beau Harris, solidifying the band’s lineup. // Their magnetic sound quickly found a home in the KC music community, playing The Rino, The Ship, and The Bottleneck. Field Daze’s live performances became synonymous with an immersive musical experience, drawing in crowds with their captivating melodies. // Currently, the band channels their creativity by recording homegrown tracks within Rodd Fenton’s personal studio, honing their craft and evolving their unique sound. More Info at: http://www.fielddazekc.com

[Field Daze play Manor Fest 8]

[Field Daze play The Ship at 1221 Union Ave., KCMO in Historic West Bottoms, Friday, June 5, 2025[

8. TV Star – “Reality Cheque (Album version)”
   from: Music For Heads / Father/ Daughter Records / April24, 2026
   [On Thursday, March 19, 2026, TV Star released their single, “Reality Cheque” along with the official music video starring bassist and Supercrush vocalist/guitarist, Mark Palm. // Music For Heads, is the debut album from the Seattle/Tacoma, WA band, out April 24, 2026. Ash Nagelon on lead vocals, Che Hise-Gattone on guitar. “This is also the song that everyone was crying in the studio when Ash was recording vocals. // “Reality Cheque” distills TV Star at their sharpest – punchy, clear-eyed, and effortlessly catchy. The song captures the moment you realize love has tipped into imbalance: all projection and performance. Rather than over-explaining, the band lets the hook do the work, locking into a crisp pop pocket where jangling guitars and buoyant rhythm carry the emotional weight. It’s a deceptively bright track with a hard truth at its center, proof of TV Star’s knack for turning quiet realizations into something that lingers. Music For Heads, is the debut album from the Seattle/Tacoma, WA band, out April 24, 2026. Ash Nagelon on lead vocals, Che Hise-Gattone on guitar. “This is also the song that everyone was crying in the studio when Ash was recording vocals. “Reality Cheque” follows “Out Of My Bag,” the bands’ homage to 80’s Madchester, and “Texas Relation” which saw support from Stereogum, Post-Trash and Under The Radar.

10:28 – Underwriting

9. Scott Moreau – “I Walk The Line”
   from: Home of the Blues: A Tribute to Johnny Cash at Sun Studio – EP / July 2, 2013
   [Scott Moreau has been performing as Johnny Cash worldwide for nearly two decades. He was on the 1st National Broadway Tour of Million Dollar Quartet, playing 310 American cities as well as Tokyo and Osaka, Japan. He has reprised his role in countless regional theatres throughout the country over 1,200 times. In 2012 he created his first tribute to Johnny, Walkin’ The Line, which he has performed throughout the Americas from Celine Dion’s Les Mirage in Montreal, Les Imperial Belle in Quebec City and the M Casino in Las Vegas. His tribute to Johnny and June Carter, Darlin’ Companion has played to crowds all over the Phoenix Valley, his home state of Maine and enjoyed a 2 month sold-out run in Kansas City. His true solo show, Late And Alone made its World Premiere New York City’s famed Feinstein’s/54 Below and has sold out at The Blue Strawberry in St. Louis and countless venues in New England and the Midwest. His tribute album Home Of The Blues: A Tribute To Johnny Cash at Sun Studio was recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis, in the very place Johnny once stood. It is available for purchase on CD and to stream on Apple Music and Spotify. Scott is a native of Maine and currently lives in New York City. http://www.ultimatejohnnycash.com @ultimatejohnnycash]

[Scott Moreau brings Walkin The Line A Tribute to Johnny Cash to Quality Hill Playhouse at 303 West 10th St. KCMO, for four performances only: Thursday, April 23 through Sunday April 26. Foe Ticket info: 816-421-1700 and http://www.qualityhillplayhouse.com.]

10:32 – Interview with Scott Moreau

Scott Moreau has been performing as Johnny Cash worldwide for nearly two decades. He was on the 1st National Broadway Tour of Million Dollar Quartet, playing 310 American cities as well as Tokyo and Osaka, Japan. He has reprised his role in countless regional theatres throughout the country over 1,200 times. In 2012 he created his first tribute to Johnny, Walkin’ The Line, which he has performed throughout the Americas from Celine Dion’s Les Mirage in Montreal, Les Imperial Belle in Quebec City and the M Casino in Las Vegas. His tribute to Johnny and June Carter, Darlin’ Companion has played to crowds all over the Phoenix Valley, his home state of Maine and enjoyed a 2 month sold-out run in Kansas City. His true solo show, Late And Alone made its World Premiere New York City’s famed Feinstein’s/54 Below and has sold out at The Blue Strawberry in St. Louis and countless venues in New England and the Midwest. His tribute album Home Of The Blues: A Tribute To Johnny Cash at Sun Studio was recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis, in the very place Johnny once stood. It is available for purchase on CD and to stream on Apple Music and Spotify. Scott is a native of Maine and currently lives in New York City. http://www.ultimatejohnnycash.com @ultimatejohnnycash

Scott Moreau brings Walkin The Line A Tribute to Johnny Cash to Quality Hill Playhouse at 303 West 10th St. KCMO, for four performances only: Thursday, April 23 through Sunday April 26. Ticket info: 816-421-1700 and http://www.qualityhillplayhouse.com.

Scott Moreau thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

We just heard, I Walk The Line, Scott Moreau’s Johnny Cash tribute album Home Of The Blues: A Tribute To Johnny Cash at Sun Studio was recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis, in the very place Johnny once stood.

Scott was born in Bath, ME and raised in the small town of Litchfield, ME. After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music Theatre from Illinois Wesleyan University in 2001, he began honing his craft in theatre around the country in various regional theatres. He is most known for his critically acclaimed portrayal of Johnny Cash on the 1st National Tour of the Tony Award winning musical Million Dollar Quartet, and for his work on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire (Eldorado, series finale). Scott currently resides in New York City.

From the Portland Press Herald (August 1, 2021)

Singing the songs of Johnny Cash the way Johnny Cash sang them requires practice and repetition. For Scott Moreau, whose natural voice is a lyrical baritone with a sweet, bright quality, finding the rugged bottom end that’s required to effectively sing the songs of Johnny Cash does not come naturally or without effort.

“I am sure people assume I open my mouth and it just comes out, but a lot of trial and error – and a lot of time – goes into it,” said Moreau, 41, who grew up in Litchfield and whose uncanny ability to sing like Johnny Cash has taken him from Maine to stages across the country and around the world.

“It is still a work in progress, and something I have to work at all the time. To do a lot of the lower stuff, it’s not necessarily in my voice’s nature. I think about it exactly the way I look at working out – you have work up to it. If I haven’t sung Johnny Cash music in six weeks and I try to sing an entire show, my voice does not understand what I am trying to do.”

Moreau grew up listening to Cash. He talks about how when he was little, his parents would play their favorite records and dance in the living room. He would do his best to sing along with such artists as Cash, the Everly Brothers and the Beach Boys.

WALKIN’ THE LINE – A Tribute to Johnny Cash
Starring Scott Moreau April 23 – 26

Filled with anecdotes, stories, and history pulled from Johnny’s many biographies, concerts, and live interviews, you will truly feel as though you are the watching The Man In Black in his heyday. Featuring songs from Johnny’s nearly 50 years in the music business including “Ring of Fire,” “I Walk the Line,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” “A Boy Named Sue,” “Folsom Prison Blues” and many more!

10:43

10. Scott Moreau – “Rock Island line” (LIVE)
    [Scott Moreau brings Walkin The Line A Tribute to Johnny Cash to Quality Hill Playhouse at 303 West 10th St. KCMO, for four performances only: Thursday, April 23 through Sunday April 26. Ticket info: 816-421-1700 and http://www.qualityhillplayhouse.com.]

10:46 – More Interview with Scott Moreau

Scott Moreau has been performing as Johnny Cash worldwide for nearly two decades. He was on the 1st National Broadway Tour of Million Dollar Quartet, playing 310 American cities as well as Tokyo and Osaka, Japan. He has reprised his role in countless regional theatres throughout the country over 1,200 times. In 2012 he created his first tribute to Johnny, Walkin’ The Line, which he has performed throughout the Americas from Celine Dion’s Les Mirage in Montreal, Les Imperial Belle in Quebec City and the M Casino in Las Vegas. His tribute to Johnny and June Carter, Darlin’ Companion has played to crowds all over the Phoenix Valley, his home state of Maine and enjoyed a 2 month sold-out run in Kansas City. His true solo show, Late And Alone made its World Premiere New York City’s famed Feinstein’s/54 Below and has sold out at The Blue Strawberry in St. Louis and countless venues in New England and the Midwest. His tribute album Home Of The Blues: A Tribute To Johnny Cash at Sun Studio was recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis, in the very place Johnny once stood. It is available for purchase on CD and to stream on Apple Music and Spotify. Scott is a native of Maine and currently lives in New York City. http://www.ultimatejohnnycash.com @ultimatejohnnycash

Scott Moreau brings Walkin The Line A Tribute to Johnny Cash to Quality Hill Playhouse at 303 West 10th St. KCMO, for four performances only: Thursday, April 23 through Sunday April 26. Ticket info: 816-421-1700 and http://www.qualityhillplayhouse.com.

Scott was born in Bath, ME and raised in the small town of Litchfield, ME. After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music Theatre from Illinois Wesleyan University in 2001, he began honing his craft in theatre around the country in various regional theatres.

From Phoenix.org By Bridgette M. Redman | January 22, 2021

In his early 20s, he was introduced to the music Cash was making toward the end of his life, and it transformed his career.

“That’s when I started to get obsessed, buying everything and reading everything, and wouldn’t let him go,” Moreau says. “It has just kind of continued. Luckily it wasn’t just fandom; it was a large part of my career. Johnny’s music and his message and life have had an immeasurable impact on my life.”

Moreau says performing as Cash has taken him all over the country and to Japan. He’s met members of the Cash family, been able to wear his clothes and play Cash’s guitars.

Moreau spent years on tour playing Cash in “The Million Dollar Quartet,” a musical about the December 4, 1956, afternoon Cash, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins got together for an impromptu jam session. Moreau says he has met some of the best people from his life while doing that musical. “I can’t be more thankful for his life and legacy,”

Exploring Cash’s life – In “Walkin’ the Line,” Moreau speaks as Cash the entire time. While he sings many of Cash’s greatest hits, he also tries to give insight into Cash’s life, his friendships, and why and how he wrote certain songs.

“One thing I try to capture a good amount that the average fan doesn’t know about or understand — he had an extremely good sense of humor,” Moreau says. “He was large and imposing and sometimes a dark person. He had an extremely outgoing personality and was a cutup. I really try to bring that into a lot of my stage banter.”

In prep for creating the musical, Moreau spends a lot of time watching and analyzing his concerts so he can replicate who Cash was as a performer. He says he tries to be as close to Cash as humanly possible, leaving any semblance of his own personality behind.

“The performances of his songs and his songwriting is a major part of his performances, but so is his sense of humor and his authenticity,” Moreau says. “The people who come to these shows want to remember what it was like to see him on television or live.”

Scott Moreau thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Scott Moreau brings Walkin The Line A Tribute to Johnny Cash to Quality Hill Playhouse at 303 West 10th St. KCMO, for four performances only: Thursday, April 23 through Sunday April 26. Ticket info: 816-421-1700 and http://www.qualityhillplayhouse.com.

10:56

10:56

11. Just Angel – “Selfish”
    from: Just Angel: Pt. 2 / Distro Kid Records / December 25, 2021
    [Just Angel is a Kansas City based, singer, musician, songwriter, dancer. and creative artist. She released the single “Dumb” through T.A.P. OUT MUSIC on August 9, 2024. Just Angle contributed vocals to the Sisterbot debut record. // Just Angel: Pt. 2 is a followup to Just Angel Pt.1 – EP released on December 24, 2020 Just Angel is a musician, songwriter, dancer, and creative artist. Just Angel, has been seen on stages of The Barn Players Community Theatre, at Johnson County Arts & Heritage Center in BEAUTIFUL, The Carole King Musical,, The Music Theater Heritage: Ruby Room performance of “Piece of My Heart” in 2023, The Black Repertory Theatre of Kansas City “After Midnight” in 2022, and playing Osceola Mays in “Texas in Paris” in 2021. Her band, The Wades, can be found playing eclectic takes on pop music, and Just Angel‘s originals, from Part 1 & 2. Her single “Dumb”, was released August 9, 2024. More at https://linktr.ee/JustAngel%5D

[Just Angel & The Wades play The Phoenix, 302 West 8th St., KCMO, Wed, April 29, 7pm to 11:00pm.]

10:59 – Station ID

12. BCR – “Teenie Boppers in Atlantis”
    from: Which Earth Are We On? / Fifth Street Records / 1987
    [Thomas Aber on Alto Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Bass Clarinet, Clarinet [Contra-alto]; Rev. Dwight Frizzell on Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone, Performer [Duck Call]; Vocals; Bill Dyeon Guitar, Steel Guitar, Bouzouki; Bird Ellington Fleming on Congas, Shekere, Drums [Talking Drum], Berimbau, Tambourine, Agogô, Percussion; Dean Allaudin Ottinger on Drums, Berimbau, Bells [Tibetan Bell], Vocals, Percussion; Jeff Rendlen on Bass, Chapman Stick, Vocals; Randy Weinstein on Harmonica [Chromatic And Diatonic], Keyboards, Vocals; Ed Herrmann on Synthesizer [Serge]; Stan Kessler on Trumpet. // BCR – Producer; Dave Brock – Co-producer, Engineer; Denis McFarling – Art Direction, Layout; Archer Prewitt – Artwork [Front Cover Woodcut]; Sandra Summers – Artwork [Back Cover Illustrations]; Jay Mandeville – Liner Notes; Mary Bodine – Typography]

[BCR presents Teenie Boppers in Atlantis, on Saturday, April 25 at 7:00pm, (doors at 6:00pm) at The Ship 1221 Union Ave, KCMO, in the historic West Bottoms.]

Which Earth Are We On?
Track List:
Mokele Mbembe Special
Robot Lips
Teenie Boppers In Atlantis
Which Earth Are We On?
Horror Story
Breakfast Atiphonal
Olmec Heads
Krankenhaus Juju
The World Is A Monkey
The Uncertainty Principle
Saints In The Trees
The Final Frontier

11:02 – Interview with Rev. Dwight Frizzell and Allan Winkler

Rev. Dwight Frizzell and Allan Winkler join us to talk about the 50th anniversary of The Rev. Dwight Frizzell’s first album Black Crack And The Sole Survivors – BEYOND THE BLACK CRACK, released in 1976. The limited edition 200 LP release inspired the formation of BCR in 1982. Since then the Afro-Nuclear Wavabilly Funk Swing Reggae Turska band has shared the stage with media-Medusoids like Sun Ra, played live concerts with the Kronos Quartet, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Wavy Gravy, and Ziggy Marley’s band. BCR has held satellite uplinks with Don Cherry and Alvin Curran, and delighted the ears of Dementians tuning in to the Dr. Demento Radio Show. BCR has remained true to their roots in swirling black holes, time-travel of the Outer World, and the endless dance of cosmo-love. The Columbia Daily Tribune called them, “Duke Ellington meets Sun Ra.” Current BCR players include: Thomas Aber, Dwight Frizzell, Patrick Alonzo Conway, Kat Nechlebová, Allaudin Ottinger, Mark Thies, Julia Thro, and Allan Winkler. Special Guests include: Ken Beck, Samantha Weber, and Greg Mackender, when BCR presents Teenie Boppers in Atlantis, on Saturday, April 25 at 7:00pm, (doors at 6:00pm) at The Ship 1221 Union Ave, KCMO, in the historic West Bottoms. More info at http://www.myth-scienc.com and http://www.theship.com

Rev. Dwight Frizzell and Allan Winkler, Thanks for being with us on WMM.

We just heard BCR’s studio version of “Teenie Boppers in Atlantis” from 1986- Ken Beck co-composed it in 1983 will be a special guest from Chicago with BCR on April 25–and there’s a wild story about it’s origin.

The beginnings of BCR – Beyond The Black Crack

Beyond The Black Crack (LP, Limited Ed.) Cavern Custom Recordings US 1976

Beyond the Black Crack is one of the most unique listening experiences in modern experimental music. It was recorded 1974-1976 in locations as diverse as factories, the pyramid opposite Harry Truman’s grave site as well as more conventional concert settings. It is a dark, dizzying and exhilarating journey through free jazz, electronics and environmental sound, all shattered by Frizzell’s radical tape editing. It was originally released in an edition of 200 LPs by Cavern Custom to commemorate the First Annual End of the World Celebration, November 18 1976.

—Clive Graham

The Performance
The original Beyond the Black Crack Sole Survivors recordings were made at the Kansas City Art Institute in the Foundation studio in 1975 and the Epperson Auditorium in 1976. I was in Foundation studying with Tommy Gomersal, Carl Kurtz and Shirley Schnell. Black Crack was entirely extra-curricular, and the administration provided the auditorium space and other support to make the 24-hour ritual possible.

A metronome set the event in motion, along with several analog reel-to-reel tape recorders with double-feedback loops, and longer tape loops between multiple machines—spread out across the stage, with audience and performers mixing in the auditorium. Nearly everyone who came interacted with the enfolding rhythms and tones.

Thirty-nine years later, we have readied our time-shifting devices for activation in the very same auditorium—the metronome, multiple delay units, electric dischargers, and group of young (and young-at-heart) artists dedicated to the same goal–to diffuse time-space boundaries and initiate eroto-cosmic passage to out alter-destiny where, as Sun Ra put it, “There’s no limit to the things you can be. There’s no limit to the things you can do. Your thoughts are free, and life is worthwhile.”

–Dwight Frizzell

How to Avoid Simultaneity was on Black Crack & the Sole Survivors- Beyond the Black Crack LP (1976), This was a 1997 remix–sonifying the time-shifting effects of black holes.

11:16

13. Black Crack & the Sole Survivors – “How to Avoid Simultaneity”
    from: Beyond The Black Crack (LP, Limited Ed.) / Cavern Custom Recordings / 1976
    [Electronic, Jazz, Experimental, Free Improvisation // Rush Rankin on Clarinet, Other [Imagistic Inspiration]; Mike Roach on Clarinet, Vocals [With Laughs], Tenor Saxophone, Other [Dancing]; Kurt Eckhardt on Flute [Mouth], Percussion, Performer [Pins, Soy, Alteration]; Radio Rich Dalton on Guitar; Sylvia Thomas on Harmonica; Rev. Jim Rogers on Kazoo; Rich on Other [Lights], Percussion; Bill Scanlan on Percussion, Tape [Tape Machine]; Rev. Tommy Gomersall on Performer [Tin Cans], Piano, Vocals; Bill Jones on Sousaphone; Rev. Dwight Frizzell on Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet, Electronics [Audio Oscillator], Performer [Chair, Trash Can, Pins, Soybeans]. // Beyond The Black Crack was originally released in mono in an edition of 200 copies by Cavern Custom in 1976 (cat.no. 6104-12). // Tracks 1-9 were originally released to commemorate the First Annual End of the World Celebration, November 18th, 1976. // Track 1 recorded live in concert at the Kansas City Art Institute Foundation Studio, November 18th, 1975, and in the KCAI Epperson Auditorium, December 4th through December 5th, 1975. ]

[BCR presents Teenie Boppers in Atlantis, on Saturday, April 25 at 7:00pm, (doors at 6:00pm) at The Ship 1221 Union Ave, KCMO, in the historic West Bottoms.]

Beyond The Black Crack

Beyond The Black Crack (LP, Limited Ed.) Cavern Custom Recordings US 1976
Beyond The Black Crack (LP, #ed, Sp. Ed, Comm. Ed.) Cavern Custom Records US 1990
Beyond The Black Crack (CD, LP, Album, Ltd. Ed., #ed, Reissue) Paradigm UK 1998

Electronic, Jazz, Experimental, Free Improvisation

1. Black Crack And The Sole Survivors (12:36)
   Rush Rankin on Clarinet, Other [Imagistic Inspiration];
   Mike Roach on Clarinet, Vocals [With Laughs], Tenor Saxophone, Other [Dancing];
   Kurt Eckhardt on Flute [Mouth], Percussion, Performer [Pins, Soy, Alteration];
   Radio Rich Dalton on Guitar;
   Sylvia Thomas on Harmonica; Rev. Jim Rogers on Kazoo;
   Rich on Other [Lights], Percussion; Bill Scanlan on Percussion, Tape [Tape Machine];
   Rev. Tommy Gomersall on Performer [Tin Cans], Piano, Vocals; Bill Jones on Sousaphone;
   Rev. Dwight Frizzell on Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet, Electronics [Audio Oscillator], Performer [Chair, Trash Can, Pins, Soybeans]

Fredrik’s Cosmic Spaced Out Blues Band And Orchestra

2. Hot Fudge (1:11)
3. Get It Out Of Your System (6:18)
4. Chili Supper Polka (2:20)

Turtle Music

5. Journey Of Turtles (6:31)
   Percussion – Bill Scanlan; Percussion, Clarinet [Reduced Speed] – Rev. Dwight Frizzell
6. Pre-Transformation Of Turtle To Bird (5:27)
   Rev. Dwight Frizzell on Percussion, Flute
7. Nocturnal (2:04)
8. Fly By Night (7:50)
   Rev. Dwight Frizzell on Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone, Electronics;
   John Scanlan on Electric Guitar; Bill Scanlan – Engineer
9. O What Joy It Is To Know You Have A Turtle Heart (4:11)
   Bill Scanlan – Engineer; Rev. Dwight Frizzell on enor Saxophone

Scenes From The Wandering Madness Of Basilea, The Great Mother

10. Embryonic Music (3:34)
11. Copulation Of Basilea And Hyperion (4:50)
12. Family, Birth Of Helio And Selene (6:47)
    Performer [Musicians]: Arnie Young*, Jack Blackett, Jim Miller, John Crain, John Thies, Mike Temple, Rob Beckner, Tommy Gomersall
13. Destruction – Slaying Of Hyperion, Drowning Of Helio, Suicide Of Selene And The Wandering Madness Of Basilea (2:24)

Black Crack And The Sole Survivors (1997 Remix)

14. “How To Avoid Simultaneity” (2:54)
    Rev. Dwight Frizzell – Producer, Remix.

Pressed By PMDC, UK – Mike Davies – Co-producer
Larry Schuermann, Sharon – Design [Assisted With Original Cover Design]
Kurt Eckhardt – Design [Poster & Cover Design],
Rev. Dwight Frizzell – Photography By [Cover Photos];
Engineer [Digital Transfer] – Scott Middleton
Engineer [Remix] – Bill Scanlan, Rev. Dwight Frizzell
Photography By [Black Crack Courtesy] – Robyn Nichols
Photography By [Original Poster Photos] – Beth Van Cleave, Rev. Dwight Frizzell
Recorded By, Mixed By, Remix – Rev. Dwight Frizzell (tracks: 10 to 13)
Tape [Source Tapes] – Rev. Dwight Frizzell
Technician [Reassembly Of The Lp], Producer, Artwork By Clive Graham
Comes with 12 page booklet.

Beyond The Black Crack was originally released in mono in an edition of 200 copies by Cavern Custom in 1976 (cat.no. 6104-12).

Tracks 1-9 were originally released to commemorate the First Annual End of the World Celebration, November 18, 1976.

Track 1 recorded live in concert at the Kansas City Art Institute Foundation Studio, November 18, 1975, and in the KCAI Epperson Auditorium, December 4 through December 5, 1975.
Tracks 2 to 4 recorded live at the 2nd RLDS Church chili supper March 24, 1974 in Independence, Missouri.

11:14 – More Interview with Rev. Dwight Frizzell and Allan Winkler

Rev. Dwight Frizzell and Allan Winkler join us to talk about the 50th anniversary of The Rev. Dwight Frizzell’s first album from BEYOND THE BLACK CRACK, released in 1976. The LP release inspired the formation of BCR in 1982.

Rev Dwight Frizzell is a Professor & Sound Head, at Kansas City Art Institute, – Photography & Filmmaking Dept. with a Terminal Degree in Sound Design. Dwight is an internationally recognized artist whose work combines video, performance, installation, music, audio art, and writing. Frizzell’s work about his boyhood neighbor, Harry S. Truman, was featured in the Peabody-awarded “Lost and Found Sound” series broadcast on National Public Radio. Frizzell has produced an opera based on the life of Charles Darwin. In addition to his B.F.A. degree from KCAI, he holds a terminal fine arts degree in Sound Design from the UMKC. Dwight Frizzell, is a founder of the “groovy polyphonic jazz/dance” band, Black Crack Revue, now in their 43rd year. Dwight Frizzell is also an Arif, with Moorish Orthodox Church, and served at First Editor, The Pitch, he is a founding member of the newEar contemporary chamber ensemble, and is host & producer of “From Arc To Microchip” heard on the fifth Thursday of each month on KKFI’s Thursday Night Special at 7:00pm on 90.1 FM.

Allan Winkler is a nationally acclaimed artist from the Kansas City area. Boasting a multi-disciplinary career creating various ceramic sculptures, paintings, paper cutouts, metal cutouts, and fabrics. Allan Winkler creates intricate paper cuts and metal cuts. Winkler also renovated three old houses in Kansas City’s West Side neighborhood and lives in one of them. A Chicago native, while in high school a teacher noticed his talent and found him his first studio. That led to a scholarship at the Kansas City Art Institute, where he studied ceramics with Ken Ferguson and then spent a year at The Archie Bray Foundation in Montana. Winkler earned a B.F.A. degree from the Kansas City Art Institute, in 1980. In 1976, Allan was a visual artist for BCR creating their T shirts and their performance visual stuff About 15 yeas ago he joined the band as a percussionist

Rev. Dwight Frizzell and Allan Winkler, Thanks for being with us on WMM

The Afro-Nuclear Wavabilly Funk Swing Reggae Turska band has shared the stage with media-Medusoids like Sun Ra, played live concerts with the Kronos Quartet, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Wavy Gravy, and Ziggy Marley’s band. BCR has held satellite uplinks with Don Cherry and Alvin Curran, and delighted the ears of Dementians tuning in to the Dr. Demento Radio Show. BCR has remained true to their roots in swirling black holes, time-travel of the Outer World, and the endless dance of cosmo-love. The Columbia Daily Tribune called them, “Duke Ellington meets Sun Ra.” Current BCR players include: Thomas Aber, Dwight Frizzell, Patrick Alonzo Conway, Kat Nechlebová, Allaudin Ottinger, Mark Thies, Julia Thro, and Allan Winkler. Special Guests include: Ken Beck, Samantha Weber, and Greg Mackender, when BCR presents Teenie Boppers in Atlantis, on Saturday, April 25 at 7:00pm, (doors at 6:00pm) at The Ship 1221 Union Ave, KCMO, in the historic West Bottoms. More info at http://www.myth-scienc.com and http://www.theship.com

Dwight’s boyhood neighbor in Independence, Missouri was Harry S. Truman, who appears in Dwight’s work as a pianist, Atlantean King and time-traveler. Dwight released the “Beyond the Black Crack” LP in 1976, studied video art with Douglas Davis (1977), clarinet with Raymond Luedeke (1979) and metaphysics with Sun Ra (1980-1990). His work was exhibited at Biennale de Paris, World-Wide Video Festival (Amsterdam), and broadcast on NPR.

Dwight’s collaborative third-mind creations with writer Jay Mandeville includes plays, essays, and Ark scripts. Their work was published in “Semiotext(e) Radiotext(e)” and “Experimental Sound and Radio” (MIT Press). They edited The Pitch in the early ‘80s.

Dwight’s music is available on Paradigm discs (England). He plays Buffet clarinets and Yamaha saxophones and wind controllers. His collaborations with Michael Henry include “Sonic Force,” where AFR A10 Warthog Attack Planes were used as musical instruments. Frizzell is a founding member of the Black Crack Revue, the newEar contemporary chamber ensemble, and the National Audio Theatre Festivals. He performed recently with David Ossman and Phil Proctor of the Firesign Theatre.

Current BCR players include: Thomas Aber, Dwight Frizzell, Patrick Alonzo Conway, Kat Nechlebová, Allaudin Ottinger, Mark Thies, Julia Thro, and Allan Winkler. Special Guests include: Ken Beck, Samantha Weber, and Greg Mackender, when BCR presents Teenie Boppers in Atlantis, on Saturday, April 25 at 7:00pm, (doors at 6:00pm) at The Ship 1221 Union Ave, KCMO, in the historic West Bottoms. More info at http://www.myth-scienc.com and http://www.theship.com

The last time Rev. Dwight Frizzell was on our show was January 28, 2026 to talk about: SOUND IN RADIO ART to be broadcast on KKFI 90.1 FM on Thursday January 29, at 7:00pm. SOUND IN RADIO ART features new sound pieces created by young audio-visual artists working in radio space for the first time.

Dwight was on our show was June 12, 2019 to share details about details about Heliophonie (Sun Sound) a midday Solstice concert, Friday, June 21, 2019 11:00 AM to Noon at KC Art Institute’s Vanderslice Reception Patio (behind historically restored Vanderslice Hall) performed in-sync to the sun’s harmonic tones. The solar sphere oscillates like a bell ringing every 4 minutes 48 seconds (as heard on a large gong). Overtones pulse in quadra-pole rotation (realized by the instruments & electronics). Solar storms moving vigorously through the resonating convection-zone are performed by instrumental duets.

Dwight Frizzell is an internationally recognized artist whose interdisciplinary work combines video, performance, installation, music, audio art and writing. He has been producing the “From Ark to Microchip” series with Jay Mandeville since 1984. “Ark 2 Microchip” radio can be heard currently on KKFI (www.kkfi.org) 90.1FM, and on KOPN, KCUR, KGNU, RESONANCE FM (London), RADIO NOVA (Paris), and WKCR (NYC).

The Turtle Music themes in from BEYOND THE BLACK CRACK are continued in a new piece Dwight recorded with Folk Music Icon, Marideth Scisco and the Wellspring Song– it’s part of Dwight’s April 30, 2026 From Ark to Microchip broadcast called Journey of Turtles, and will be performed at Pringle Fest for the National Audio Theater this summer.

Rev. Dwight Frizzell and Allan Winkler, Thanks for being with us on WMM

11:21

14. Marideth Sisco & Dwight Frizzell – “Wellspring Song”
    from: From Ark to Microchip / April 30, 2026 Episode / To Be Broadcast on KKFI April 30, 2026
    [Marideth Ann Sisco (born June 15, 1943) is an American storyteller, folklorist, singer-songwriter, author and retired journalist. Her work largely focuses on folklore related to her native Ozark Mountains. Sisco and her music were featured in the Oscar-nominated film Winter’s Bone. In 2023 she was a featured artist at the 2023 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, where she performed both in song and as a storyteller. // Sisco was born in Missouri to Marguerite Elenor (Gentry) Sisco (1920–1966) and Paul Holtz Sisco (1923–1966). Her interest in music started when she was three and a great uncle taught and encouraged her to sing. Her family moved frequently when she was young, including time spent in Kansas, Washington state, Montana and California. As she grew older she became tired of moving around and returned to live with her grandmother in Butterfield, graduating from high school in Cassville, Missouri in 1961. //After high school, Sisco attended Missouri State University (formerly Southwest Missouri State College) in Springfield, MO, where she studied performance & orchestration. But she left before finishing a degree after being told that as a woman she would not be successful in the field and was instead encouraged to switch to music education. // In 1965, Sisco left the Ozarks and moved to California, where she hoped to break into the music business as a singer, but lack of success and a hand injury that left her unable to play guitar derailed that goal. In 1976 she left California, helping her aunt and ailing uncle return to Missouri, but with the intention of moving back west, which she never did. // After returning to Missouri, Sisco received a BFA from Missouri State University and later an MA from Antioch University. She also began a 20-year career as a journalist at the West Plains Quill in West Plains, Missouri, where she worked as an investigative and environmental writer. She also authored the “Crosspatch” gardening column. // Upon her retirement from journalism in 2005, she returned to song-writing. // Currently, Sisco hosts “These Ozark Hills,” a local culture and folklore radio program on Ozarks Public Radio at KSMU-FM, which is based out of Missouri State University. As a singer, she performs both solo and with The Blackberry Winter Band. // Through a chance encounter at a singing party, Sisco was involved in the Oscar-nominated 2010 film Winter’s Bone, based on the book by Daniel Woodrell. In the film’s production she served as a musical consultant and singer, as well as appearing in the film as a singer. Her scene in the film was written specifically to feature her singing. // She also contributed to the movie by singing “The Missouri Waltz” for its opening scenes, though she reworked it to remove racist language from the song.Following the release of the film she toured with the Blackberry Winter Band to promote the soundtrack, referring to it as Amazing Geriatric Hillbilly tour. They played in 27 cities in the U.S.A. and Canada. // In 2018, Sisco received the Quill Award for lifetime achievement from the Missouri Writers Hall of Fame and Missouri Folk Arts Program has also designated her a Missouri Master Storyteller. //Sisco is lesbian & active in LGBTQ+ causes.]

11:28 – Underwriting

11:30 – Interview with Rosie O’Brien of Sass-a-Brass

Rosie O’Brien is a musician and organizer originally from Lawrence, KS. She studied Political Science, Studio Art, and Mandarin Chinese at Grinnell College in Iowa and pursued a career in political and environmental activism before transitioning into music full-time. Rosie returned to Kansas in 2017, where she studied traditional drumming with Prof. Dylan Bassett via the KU West African Drumming Ensemble; she also joined Lawrence’s annual Mardi Gras parade community as a trombonist, simultaneously founding her own Mardi Gras-style street parade brass ensemble, Sass-a-Brass. Rosie moved to Kansas City in 2021 to expand the project, which has received grants from both the Charlotte Street Foundation and ArtsKC to increase accessibility within community brass bands for women and queer musicians. Sass-a-Brass Kansas City’s only queer street parade brass band, bringing the party with a mix of street activism, street band energy, and New Orleans Mardi Gras and second-line tradition. Since its inception Sass-a-Brass has involved a wide variety of instrumentalists, encompassing many genders and sexualities. More info at: http://www.sassabrassband.com

Rosie O’Brien thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley

Taylor Babb plays drums and percussion with Sass-a-Brass band, but today he’s going to play guitar for a couple of live songs Rosie has in planned for us today.

Sass-A-Brass came together in 2018 to lead the first-ever Pride parade in downtown Lawrence. Co-leaders Kimberly (snare) and Rosie (trombone & Sousaphone) first connected at Lawrence’s annual Mardi Gras parade and were called upon by Lawrence journalist and organizer Fally Afani to form a femme-fronted, queer & nonbinary-inclusive band to play second-line and funk tunes for the community.

During her undergraduate studies, Rosie sang and toured annually with the Grinnell Singers, where she debuted and recorded the original compositions of her mentor and director, Dr. John Rommereim, in both Iowa and Taiwan.

Rosie returned to Kansas in 2017, where she studied traditional djembe & dunun with Prof. Dylan Bassett via the KU West African Drumming Ensemble; she also joined Lawrence’s annual Mardi Gras parade community as a trombonist, simultaneously founding her own Mardi Gras-style street parade brass ensemble, Sass-a-Brass. Rosie moved to KC in 2021 to expand the project, eceiving grants from Charlotte Street Foundation & ArtsKC to increase accessibility within community brass bands for women and queer musicians.

Rosie joined the KC Ballet School as an accompanist in 2023 and plays traditional djembe for modern dance classes and the ROAD program. In 2025, Rosie will enter her second season as a soprano with professional choral ensemble Te Deum; she is in her third season as a Choral Associate with Country Club Christian Church, and enjoys performing locally as a vocalist and percussionist with her 8-piece free-improvisation band Apricot Glow.

Sass-a-Brass is KC’s only queer street parade brass band, bringing the party with a mix of HONK-style activist street band energy and borrowing from the New Orleans Mardi Gras and second-line tradition. Our mission is to bring queer musical joy to the public, and provide a welcoming space where underrepresented groups experience a sense of belonging and sustained growth as musicians. As a community-minded band, we intentionally recruit amateur, multi-generational and non-traditional players to join. Since its inception in 2018, Sass-a-Brass has involved a variety of instrumentalists, of many genders and sexualities.

11:37 – Rosie O’Brien & Taylor Babb Sing Acoustic Antifascist Tunes for Earth Day!

15. Rosie O’Brien with Taylor Babb – “The Hammer Song” (LIVE)
    “If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)” is a protest song written by Pete Seeger & Lee Hays, in 1949 in support of the Progressive movement, and first recorded by the Weavers, a folk music quartet composed of Seeger, Hays, Ronnie Gilbert, & Fred Hellerman. It was a No. 10 hit for Peter, Paul & Mary in 1962 and then went No. 3 in 1963 when recorded by Trini Lopez. A May 1963 interview on Folk Music World-wide, Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary characterized the song as “a young national anthem for the United States”.
    The Weavers released the song under the title “The Hammer Song” as a 78 rpm single in March 1950 on Hootenanny Records, 101-A, backed with “Banks of Marble”.]

11:40 – More Interview with Rosie O’Brien & Taylor Babb

Sass-A-Brass came together in 2018 to lead the first-ever Pride parade in downtown Lawrence, Kansas. Co-leaders Kimberly (snare) and Rosie (trombone & Sousaphone) first connected at Lawrence’s annual Mardi Gras parade and were called upon by Lawrence journalist and organizer Fally Afani to form a femme-fronted, queer and nonbinary-inclusive band to play second-line and funk tunes for the community.

Over the years, Sass-A-Brass has benefited from the participation of many incredible musicians from the Lawrence and KC area; has involved wide-ranging instrumentation including keytar, amplified flute, and washboard; and has led musical celebrations for a diverse range of events (most notably an underground cave party and a Solstice parade ending in a public fountain).

11:48 – Rosie O’Brien & Taylor Babb Sing Acoustic Antifascist Tunes for Earth Day!

16. Rosie O’Brien with Taylor Babb – “All Those Fascists Are Bound To Lose” (LIVE)
    [Words by Woody Guthrie (1943). Music by Billy Bragg (1997) for Mermaid Avenue Vol. II, a 2000 album of previously unheard lyrics written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie, put to music written and performed by British singer Billy Bragg and American band Wilco. It continues the project originally conceived by Guthrie’s daughter, Nora Guthrie which resulted in the release of Mermaid Avenue in 1998. Both volumes were collected in a 2012 box set along with volume three as Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions.]

11:52– More Interview with Rosie O’Brien & Taylor Babb

Rosie O’Brien of the Sass-a-Brass Queer Marching Band – Kansas City’s only queer street parade brass band, bringing the party with a mix of street activism, street band energy, and New Orleans Mardi Gras and second-line tradition. Rosie returns to play a fews songs live, discuss queer street activism, and share details on Sass-a-Brass shows: Saturday, May 9, 11:00am to 3:00pm for the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art – Block Party; Friday, May 15, at 5:00pm for Open Studios at the Livestock Exchange, 1600 Genessee St., KCMO in the historic West Bottoms; Saturday, May 30 for ManorFest 8; Saturday & Sunday June 27 & 28 for PEOPLE’s PRIDE.

Sass-a-Brass Shows:

Saturday, May 9, at Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, 4200 Warwick Blvd., KCMO

Friday, May 15, at Stockyards Brewing Company, 1600 Genessee, St. Ste 100, KCMO, Historic West Bottoms, as part of the Open Studios Show.

Saturday, May 30, – ManorFest 8 (final night) – Leading two parades

Saturday, June 6 – Lawrence Pride

Sunday, June 28, The People’s Pride – organized by Sass-a-Brass (Summer Solstice)

Rosie O’Brien & Taylor Babb, thanks for being with us on WMM

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

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

11:54

17. Jamogi – “Georgia Peach (feat. Burgandy)”
    from: “Georgia Peach (feat. Burgandy)” / Jam Tunes / September 5, 2025.
    [ Jamogi is also know as Byron Hyde a Kanas City based singer, songwriter, MC, producer, originally from Los Angeles, California.// Jamogi & The Jammers: Live at Flew The Coop Sessions (Flew The Coop Live) through Jam Tunes on April 11, 2025. // Jamogi released the single “Do It To Me” on March 28, 2025. // Jamogi released the single “Go Big or Go Home” on August 30, 2024, Jamogi released the single “Hot Block” on May 30, 2024. Jamogi released the EP, Star-Crossed Lover on March 3, 2023. Jamogi then released a “Star-Crossed Lover GALACTIC REMIX (feat. Watchman)” single on June 9, 2023.Jamogi previously released the AGE OF AQUARIUS EP on March 3, 2023, and the single “Celebration” on Dec. 9, 2022, and the single “Anymore” on May 6, 2022. // Jamogi played the ROCK IS BLACK—a celebration of Black artists in rock music, happening February 28, 2025 at 7:00 PM at the Zhou B Art Center, 1801 E 18th Street, KCMO. Rock is Black features: Malek Azrael & The Vibez, Jamogi and The Jammers, Stephonne, and Frankie Shorez & Mercy Fire. Kamogi and the Jammers played Boulevardia 2025]

[Jamogi plays KKFI’s Band Auction Sat, April 25, at 12:20pm You can bid on Jamogi for your party]

[Jamogi plays Manor Fest 8]

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

NEXT WEEK on April 29 we’ll talk with Julie Bennet Hume about the Women of Rebellion Showcase presented by Heartland Song Network, KKFI, Folk Alliance & Missouri Arts Council, Thursday, May 14, 2026 at 6:30pm at recordBar 1520 Grand Ave., KCMO featuring Seyko & Carolina Mendoza, with Julie Bennett Hume, Gracie Caggiano, and Emma Jo. A benefit for Heartland Song Network.; ALSO Amelia Rose Korte share details about a UMKC Civil Rights History Project she is working on, AND, Janice Wasserman and Alan Wasserman join us to talk about moving to Kansas City form M]NYC, Alan serving on the KKFI Board of Directors, and disco dancing., AND Lava Dreams shares new music.

THANK YOU to everyone who donated to KKFI’a Winter Fund Drive during Wedneday MidDay Medley we had a total of 49 individuals doante $3924.00 ngoing way over our show goal!

Thank you to KKFI Staff: Executive Director – Bess Wallerstein Huff, Chief Operator – Chad Brothers, Director of Development & Communications – J Kelly Dougherty, Volunteer Coordinator – Darryl Oliver, and Shaina Littler – Office Manager Book Keeper

You can find our playlists at: http://www.wednesdaymiddaymedley.org & http://www.kkfi.org
http://www.facebook.com/WednesdayMidDayMedleyon90.1FM
http://www.instagram.wednesday_midday_medley

This radio station is more than the individual hosts of each individual radio show. It is a collective spirit of hundreds of people, setting aside ego, to work for the greater good of community building and the goal of keeping our airwaves, non-commercial, and open! Thank you to programmers who create content for over 85 locally produced radio shows & volunteers who made 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 #1144