Thanks to bands like Mumford and the Lumineers, it’s easy enough these days to be weary of bands sporting wide-brimmed hats and boots, offering bundles of songs lazily lumped under a stretched-thin Americana flag. At first glance, the Wild Feathers don’t exactly challenge that image. The group’s debut self-titled full-length, though, is a surprisingly nuanced take on the whole southern-fried…
How does someone like Charles Macheers get elected? Easy. Let a well-funded incumbent keep the seat warm until the very last minute. But who is Macheers? That’s a tougher question. Macheers, who represents the 39th District in the Kansas House of Representatives, had virtually no public profile before getting elected. So when people tried to learn more about this man…
This week’s cover story about the International Folk Alliance conference features a Shop Talk section, in which The Pitch invited a few local artists to interview out-of-town conference attendees they were fond of. Local fiddle heroine Betse Ellis participated in the Shop Talk edition with an interview of Scottish fiddler Bella Hardy. But Ellis, who might be one of the busiest women at the conference…
Name: Kate Nickols Occupation: Owner and designer, Katie Lee: Bridal + Eveningwear Hometown: Lenexa Current neighborhood: Lenexa What I do (in 140 characters): I work with individuals to design custom, made-to-measure wedding gowns and eveningwear. I use high-quality fabrics, couture techniques and handsewn details to create one-of-a-kind dresses. What’s your addiction? Buying fine fabrics. I love beautiful fabrics and, in…
Miley Cyrus began her ‘Bangerz Tour’ with a… bang last night in Vancouver. Already there are reports of her all-too-familiar shocking behavior, and that will most likely continue as her tour speeds right along. Miley’s efforts to get in the tabloids have certainly aided ticket prices on the secondary market, as her tour is currently one of the most expensive…
The one-year anniversary of the tragic explosion at JJ’s Restaurant on the Country Club Plaza is tomorrow, February 19, and owner Jimmy Frantze would have loved to use the occasion to announce that he has found a new location for a new JJ’s Restaurant – a popular wine bar and bistro since 1985 – but he’s not quite ready for that step….
The last Waid’s gets a gentle nudge eastward, toward Afghan dishes. Pitch food critic Charles Ferruzza reviews Ariana (click here to read it), and photographer Angela C. Bond gives a peek at the menu.
The International Folk Alliance Conference & Winter Music Camp comes to KC February 19-23. To get you geared up for the folk blowout, every day we’re posting a song we like by one of the event’s showcase artists. Since releasing its debut full-length in 2012, Massachusetts’ Darlingside has lost a member – down now to a four-piece – but doesn’t…
%{}% Mounting legal pressure has caused Tulsa, Oklahoma, pharmacy the Apothecary Shoppe to back out of the lethal-injection business, at least as far as Missouri executions are concerned. On the eve of a court hearing in Oklahoma, on whether to prolong an injunction against the pharmacy from supplying Missouri with pentobarbital, the Apothecary Shoppe reached a deal with Michael Taylor’s…
Zach Moores is turning half of a midtown Pride dry cleaners into a coffee house. There hasn’t been a coffeehouse in the 90-year-old shopping strip on 51st Street, between Oak and Brookside Boulevard, since the 17-year-old Muddy’s closed in 2011. Kin Lin Chinese restaurant eventually expanded into the former Muddy’s location. But a local entrepreneur, 38-year-old Zach Moores, is returning a…
Valentine’s Day may be (gratefully) over, but you can rest assured that nine-time Grammy winner John Legend will be showering Helzberg Hall with all kinds of gooey romanticisms when he arrives there on Wednesday, May 7. The R&B prince is embarking on a special concert hall tour this spring and summer in support of his 2013 full-length, Love in the Future….
When I saw Mayer Hawthorne just under two years ago, as he was touring in support of his 2011 full-length How Do You Do, he was a suave, unstoppable showman fully dedicated to the whole retro-soul thing he’d been working. He was dapper and charismatic, if not a little bit cocky. He had the kind of vibes you’d expect from the…
Katlyn Conroy is one of the metro’s busiest musicians. When she isn’t collaborating with the rest of her Cowboy Indian Bear crew, Conroy devotes her time to her solo project, La Guerre. Since releasing Violent, her debut album as La Guerre, last August, Conroy has distinguished herself as a local favorite and one of Kansas City’s most promising young songwriters. And…
