Good things come to those who wait, perhaps, but sometimes they just come to those who make good things. It was announced this morning that Your Friend’s (a.k.a. Taryn Miller) Jekyll/Hyde, the sweet EP that was one of our favorite local releases of 2013, will be rereleased and distributed by Domino Records in April. Miller will be in some pretty…
Kansas politicians are making national news again this week, and as usual it isn’t for a good reason. Except this time, it’s Democrats spearheading a clumsy bit of law. Gail Finney, a House Democrat from Wichita, brought forth an ill-advised bill that would give legal wiggle room for parents and teachers in administering an arbitrary number of spankings that would…
The 26th Annual Folk Alliance International Conference kicked off last night at the Westin Crown Center with an all-local showcase. Photos by Zach Bauman.
From the moment I arrived at the 26th Annual Folk Alliance Conference at Westin Crown Center, I was a little overwhelmed. Musicians from around the world swarmed the lobby and peppered the hallways, instantly doubling the zip code’s quota for artfully shaggy hair and fedoras. Young and old alike, these guitar-slinging nomads were nonchalantly beautiful. I wanted to stare at…
As part of our International Folk Alliance Conference preview series, we’re rounding up a bunch of notable acts that are coming to town and chatting about what’s happening in their world. The International Folk Alliance Conference takes place from February 19-23. Details here. Pennsylvania folk trio the Stray Birds is a band that pulls you in with gorgeous three-part harmonies and…
We asked a few locals playing at the Folk Alliance International showcase to phone their favorite out-of-town musicians headed to KC for the conference. Here are some of the exchanges they shared with us. Betse Ellis interviews Bella Hardy If you’re attending the FAI’s Winter Music Camp this week, you might find yourself under Betse Ellis’ tutelage. Or you might…
The TV crew is here, so Louis Meyers puts on a smile. He’s a little busy for this latest last-minute interview. It’s just a week before the 26th Annual Folk Alliance International Conference and Winter Music Camp gets under way, and Meyers, FAI’s executive director, is shoring up the details at FAI headquarters. Headquarters is the Folk Store, at 509…
Nathan Louis Jackson grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, and attended Kansas State University. He gave up one Manhattan for the other to attend Juilliard, in 2007, and work on his main professional goal: becoming a playwright. He didn’t waste time. His Broke-ology was workshopped within a year of his arrival there. It was staged in 2008 and then, in…
Since returning to his hometown to direct the jazz studies program at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, Bobby Watson has played a key role in developing the young talent dominating KC jazz today. But Watson is better known internationally for his own extraordinary talent on the alto sax. Last year, he again made DownBeat’s poll of greatest living…
In the early afternoon hours of a sunny Tuesday, Tank Room co-owner Chadwick Veach is bent over the venue’s brand-new stage, applying primer. His business partner, Dustin Racen, watches casually, apparently unfazed that by this time the next week, the Tank Room will be a few hours from its first big booking. The bar is set to kick off the…
Federation of Horsepower, Drop a Grand, the Dead Girls, Scruffy and the Janitors Leave it to the Midwest Music Foundation to handpick some of the juiciest apples in the orchard. To raise funds for the annual MidCoast Takeover, the nonprofit features an all-star local lineup Saturday at its SXSW showcase at the Riot Room. Local rock veterans Federation of Horsepower…
The stark white walls inside tiny Crossroads boutique Hadley are now painted a neon chartreuse, and a school of delicate pink koi dangles from the ceiling. It’s First Friday, and designer and store owner Hadley Johnson has yielded her place to another fashion vision for the month. While Johnson spends February working on her own new collection, the women of…
In Kansas City’s highly competitive restaurant community, it’s not enough to offer Afghan-style meat kebabs and aush, a dill-scented noodle soup with yogurt, beans and chickpeas. You need a Denver omelet, too. The owners behind Ariana, the metro’s first Afghan restaurant, are hedging their bets and serving daal and American eggs, hummus and hotcakes. It’s not the kind of menu…
It’s not too late to purchase tickets to the sweetest event in Kansas City, The Pitch’s third annual Sugar Rush, a celebration of all things sweet and seductive, is tomorrow – Thursday, February 20 – from 6 to 8 p.m. The sweets-and-dessert expo will be held at the Promise Wedding & Event Space (1814 Oak), and tickets cost $12. Featured…
Ted Habiger, the co-owner – with chef Andrew Sloan – of Kansas City’s two Room 39 restaurants, shouldn’t have had his phone recharging this morning. “It’s my day off,” Habiger says. “I was relaxing, reading the Steve Jobs biography, and when I finally looked at the phone, I saw that I had 20 messages.” One of those messages was from…
For a while, it looked like Teal Bunbury would be a longtime fixture for Sporting Kansas City and in the United States soccer scene. And maybe one day he will return to prominence for the United States, but it won’t be as a member of Sporting Kansas City. Bunbury is off to the New England Revolution. Sporting Kansas City traded…
Crispin Rea made his candidacy for the Kansas City Council’s 3rd District at-large seat official on Wednesday. Rea, currently the vice president of the board for the Kansas City Public Schools, will run for Melba Curls’ seat on the council. Curls will be termed out in 2015. Dee Evans, a director in the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s External Affairs office,…
With the Folk Alliance International Conference kicking off today, we knew we’d need to pick a really spectacular song to end our big FAI song du jour buildup. We landed on one of the conference’s hidden treasures: Kansas City’s own Howard Iceberg. If you ask local musicians – particularly the local musicians playing tonight on the FAI’s opening showcase bill…
Krystal and Matthew Scroggs made several consecutive bad decisions. Well, this is a new one. In November, police in Pleasant Hill found the body of an infant encased in a bucket of concrete after being called to a home to investigate a stolen car and potential drug activity. Yesterday, the Cass County prosecutor announced second-degree murder charges against the parents…
Ask Cinder Block Brewery owner Bryce Schaffter about his latest project, and you’ll hear from the mad scientist in him. And the ambitious businessman in him. And the proud husband. “I’ll be the first in Kansas City to do it, for sure,” Schaffter says. “The only thing that comes close to this in the surrounding area would be wineries doing…
