‘YeeHaw!’ benefit from KC Tenants Union finds joy within the work

Now in its third year, YeeHaw!, a variety show benefiting the KC Tenants Union, has grown by leaps and bounds. Its first year took place at the Ship, last year was at the Truman, and this year moves to the Midland. The lineup is rather stellar for the Saturday, November 23, event as well, with comedian Beth Stelling (fresh off her Netflix special, If You Didn’t Want Me Then, released just last month), musical guests Briston Maroney, The Salvation Choir, and Samia, and hosted by comedian Caleb Hearon and Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield, along with a Waxahatchee performance, to boot.

It’s kind of a big deal, and coming just before the holiday season kicks into high gear with Thanksgiving less than a week later, it’s one last chance to chill out and have fun, but for a great cause. YeeHaw! came about because of Hearon’s chance interaction with Tara Raghuveer, director of KC Tenants, while out and about one night.

“Tara and I met for the first time at the Ship when we were both just out in Kansas City,” Hearon explains when we speak by phone. “I had already been a fan of the Tenant Union’s work, and Tara was just telling me that she was involved in it and that she was doing work with them.”

The pair became friends, and then the two of them got to know Chris Mallory, who was programming at the Ship at the time, and as Hearon puts it, they just kind of threw together a show that sold out and raised something in the range of $7000 to $8000 for the Tenants Union. From there, Chris stayed on, Katie Crutchfield came on, last year moved to the Truman, and this year sees YeeHaw! moving to the Midland.

“It’s really a beautiful, collaborative thing that has sparked from all of us,” Hearon continues. “It really stems from an excitement about the work that the Tenant Union is doing and Tara introducing me to that work and a little fortuitous group energy around wanting to do something cool for Kansas City.”

In addition to raising money for KC Tenants, the event also raises the profile of the organization, says Raghuveer on the same call.

“YeeHaw! is one of the best nights of the year,” says Raghuveer. “It’s grown into something really magical, and it is such a powerful thing to have people like Caleb and Katie in our corner, and it absolutely makes it so that the Tenants Union is a known quantity to a bunch of people in Kansas City who might not have known about us before.”

As Raghuveer continues, YeeHaw! brings together people across a lot of different lines in support of their cause. When we mention that the event might be something that folks can take to their gatherings in the coming weeks as something to consider when sitting around the dinner table, Hearon says that it reminds him of something that Raghuveer says, which has always inspired him.

“Tara’s always talking about, ‘We get to wake up every day and choose whose team we’re on and decide who we’re fighting for,’” Hearon recalls. “I think this show is a really cool example of how every day I’m trying to choose working class people in Kansas City as my team and that’s who I want to be fighting for.”

Additionally, Hearon says, they group knows quite a few really cool, well-known musicians and comedians who live in other place and that makes YeeHaw! Not only the perfect opportunity to choose their team and benefit their team, but also showcase the city to people who haven’t been here. It’s something with which Crutchfield voiced when we spoke with her the previous day.

“We’ve talked about moving it to different points of the year just because all of our schedules are so crazy,” Crutchfield says. “But I love that it keeps kind of falling in the same time and yeah, we’re moving into that that time of year so I think it’s fun and a lot of times people who maybe wouldn’t be in Kansas City are traveling there for the holidays.”

While YeeHaw! falls in line with the music Waxahatchee has been making as of late, especially on this year’s ANTI- release, Tigers Blood, it’s more kismet that Crutchfield’s music falls in line with the name than intention.

“That was Caleb’s name,” Crutchfield says. “And I was like, ‘I feel like this weaves everything together here–it feels really KC, it feels really in line with my music, it feels really in line with Caleb’s entire aesthetic.’ I feel like it really brings us all together.”

The KC aspect of YeeHaw! is something upon which Hearon is also quick to focus, explaining that the work that KC Tenants is doing has not only been the only thing that has inspired him politically in the last several years, personally, but also, it makes him love Kansas City.

“I think the Tenants Union is a perfect example of what Kansas City is, which is hardworking, industrious, interested in fairness, and ust a really genuine place with good people who are trying to make a good life for themselves,” Hearon declares. “I think that is already something that was true and inspiring about Kansas City, but the Tenants Union reminds me of it all the time.”

The KC Tenants Union is a local organization, but the work they do is analogous and relatable to people the world over. Hearon notes that the comments on the episode of his So True podcast featuring Raghuveer are frequenlt from people saying, “Hey, I live in I live in Denver. I live in Salt Lake City. I want something like this. How do I do this?” and it’s all coming from a place of seeing and being inspired by the work that the Tenants Union is doing in Kansas City.

“Listen, the rent is too damn high everywhere,” agrees Raghuveer. “Every corner of this country is impacted by this issue and I think more and more, people are recognizing the need to act as powerful collective. You know, we’re stronger together than we are as individuals. That’s the kind of core premise of the union and KC has absolutely led the way. We are a local organization, but we have a national footprint by now.”

As Raghuveer puts it, KC Tentants is in cahoots and collaborating with unions across the country who are teaching them, while at the same time are borrowing from them, as well, so KC Tenants definitely see themselves as connected to a movement.

That said, she also sees YeeHaw! as an incredible illustration of what she thinks is a big part of KC Tennants’ success, which that they have fun.

“Our union is a place of joy and soul and there’s a spirit and swagger at KC Tenants that I think is actually really critical to our power,” Raghuveer emphasizes. “It’s not coincidental to the power, it’s actually critical to it, and I hope that that is also something that spreads in these other places.”

This type of organizing can be really intense, with the systems that they are critiquing being entrenched, powerful, and oppressive and Raghuveer says that these organizations can really only make it if they find joy and connection to one another.

Both Hearon and Crutchfield’s connections make it easy to bring in the talent that they’ve acquired for this installment of the benefit, they both say, because the cause is also just.

“My pitch is, ‘Wouldn’t you love to be on stage with Waxahatchee?’” Hearon says. “’Wouldn’t that be a dream come true?’ I mean, no, it’s not a hard pitch to make at all. This is a slam dunk cause, and this is an issue that makes sense to everybody. I think everyone can be on the side of the good thing here, which is affordable housing for absolutely everybody.”

The show will have a house band, put together by Liam Kazar, who has himself worked with KC Tenants in the past, along with artists coming in who are on their come up like Samia and Briston Maroney, but there’s also a very special Kansas City connection with the Salvation Choir. That massive Congolese Rumba band came to be a part of YeeHaw! through–once again–some very personal connections.

“I really credit [Tara] to helping me fall in love with Salvation Choir,” says Crutchfield. “She occasionally attends their rehearsals. They rehearse every weekend and she invited Kevin [Morby] and I to one of their rehearsals and we went and watched them. That was the first time I really heard them live and I think about that experience all the time because it was just so incredible and joyful.”

As can be confirmed by anoyone else who’s ever seen the Salvation Choir perform, when Crutchfield explains that “There’s just something so moving about hearing that that many people singing in harmony together–there’s something that, no matter what, it just fills you up to hear,” she’s not wrong, and getting to see them in a venue which is as beautiful and sounds as good as the Midland is almost worth the price of admission alone.

That said, you will get a Waxahatchee set, says Crutchfield, and she’s going to play the hits.

“If there’s a Waxahatchee song you think of when you think of me, you’ll probably hear it,” she says, not quite jokingly. “It’s a short set because there’s a lot of music but yeah, we’re going to do the hits. I think the whole show is just gonna be so much fun. You’re gonna laugh so hard and the music’s gonna be amazing. The band’s gonna play lots of fun covers. It’s gonna be just a good time. I think you’re gonna leave feeling like you had the best night ever.”

As we wrap up with Hearon and Raghuveer, we end by asking if they’re already spitballing ideas for next year, and before Hearon can speak, he’s interrupted by Raghuveer’s laugh.

“I was just giggling ’cause Caleb’s always thinking about bigger, better, stronger, faster,” she explains, before passing the baton to Hearon, saying, “You should talk about it ’cause I’m sure you already have a bunch of schemes and I’ll be along for the ride, very happily.”

“The show is on Saturday night,” says Hearon. “We’re going to kill it. We’re going to have a blast. We’re going to raise a fuck ton of money for the tenant union and have so, so much fun with all of our neighbors.”

Hearon hopes everyone who comes will meet somebody new and that people will look at their neighbor in the audience and go, “Hey, I should know you because we live next to each other and I might need you and you might need me.” He feels that it can be a space for some real community-building space, as it has been in the past. From there, on Sunday, they’ll rest and Monday, they’ll get back to work and start thinking about what the KC Tenants Union needs from them.

“What building isn’t isn’t being treated right by their owners, how can we raise money to get them fans because their air conditioning isn’t on and it’s summer?” are but a few of the questions Hearon posits as needing answered, but yes, they’ll also be looking to next year’s YeeHaw!

“We’ll see how it goes at the Midland,” concludes Hearon. “We’re really excited to be there and just trying to plan further and further out so we can get bigger and bigger guests to come and be a part of it. The end goal is just yes, to put on a good show, but always with the mission in mind of just raising the most money possible because money makes the work possible and so, we want to raise more and more every year.”

YeeHaw! is Saturday, November 23, at the Midland, featuring comedian Beth Stelling, musical guests Waxahatchee, Briston Maroney, The Salvation Choir, and Samia, and is hosted by comedian Caleb Hearon and Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield, along with surprise guests. Details on that show here.