Tasty Brew Music Diana Linn

It always lovely to welcome Montreal’s Genevieve Racette back to the KKFI studios whenever she can make it to Kansas City; this visit was facilitated by Genevieve’s attendance at the 2024 Folk Alliance International Conference.  Please excuse some background construction noise that may be discernible while she and I are having our conversation…Both the street in front of the station and our building itself is under some serious reconstruction to accommodate a street car line extension and new tenants.

As a woman in the music industry, Genevieve prioritizes surrounding herself with like-minded women-identifying individuals, taking pride in the fact over 80% of her team consists of woman-identifying musicians and industry members.  She has showcased at prestigious music events
such as Folk Alliance, Folk Music Ontario. Americanafest, Canadian Music Week and more.   Her fourth record, “Golden” is set to be released this Fall.

Next up in the Folk Alliance 2024 Takeover… Arizona’s Remi Goode is a trained classical guitarist and choral singer turned alternative folk/pop singer-songwriter. When she first decided to put her voice and guitar together and write original music, she quickly developed a style that highlights her careful classical sensibilities, pure vocal quality, and the distinctive sound of a nylon-string guitar. With an affinity for small arrangements and modest production, Remi’s highest priority is lyricism. She writes
with blunt honesty and introspection, searching for the root of the dynamics within a relationship or a deeper understanding of her own self-conception. Although Remi’s analysis of herself and others is often unforgiving, her songs always contain a qualifying aspect of emotional ambiguity—an expression of both grief and acceptance at having to navigate a world that isn’t black or white. 

 

Enjoy 
these conversations and performances in Episode 1 of the Folk Alliance
2024 Take Over of the Tasty Brew Music Podcast.

Originally from the mountain state of West Virginia, Eades began making music at the age of 12, when out of boredom her father handed her a 1950's Gibson that had been stored away, waiting for someone to play.   It wasn't long before she began writing songs, recording her first album at age 17 as part of the duo Special Guest.  After a more than decade-long hiatus from music, Eades began playing music again after moving to Kansas City and began her solo career in 2015.   Her music is genuine, and shares bits of her story, drawing from experiences that many find relatable.  Influenced by the strong female singer-songwriters she listened to growing up, including
Joni Mitchell, Carole King, and Jewel, she followed their lead and added her own tinges of twang, angst, and blues.

I am a fan of her versatility and fluidity between genres and it is always a pleasure just to have a regular
conversation with her on any number of given topics.  Erin has played out in public somewhat sparingly since the pandemic but as you’ll hear on this recent visit to the
Tasty Brew Music Radio Show, Erin recently released some new music after nearly a 5-year hiatus of publishing any new work and is ramping up her in person footprint to promote the new music that is coming.  It was an honor to air the radio broadcast debut of her new song “Lesser of Two Evils.”

Enjoy my conversation with Erin Eades! 

I am so honored when a friend and artist such as songwriter Kelly Hunt recommends a fellow musician to me for consideration.  In the case of songwriter and fellow Buckeye Ben Gage, she could not have been more spot on with her recommendation.    As you will  hear in this conversation and performance on a recent Tasty Brew Music Radio Show, Ben sounded totally at ease and seemingly is a rather comfortable space in his lyrical life.  A couple of corrections to note in my on air comments. The Folk Alliance International Conference for 2025 will be in
Montreal not Toronto and although its true Travis Kelce played college ball at the University of Cincinnati, he is in fact from Cleveland. 

 I love how Ben blends folk and roots blues. I understand how he grew up in the rust belt of Northeast Ohio along the great Lake Erie with roots running  deep alongside hard
working Ohio blue collars. His tenacity, love of family, and respect for a long day can be heard in his music.  He now travels the country full time sharing and collecting stories and songs. 


Enjoy this episode of the Tasty Brew Music Podcast and be sure and check out Ben’s work and schedule at https://www.bengagemusic.com/



 

I met Emma Jo via other songwriting friends in Kansas City and it has been interesting, even instructive, to witness her evolution as a young woman who follows a lyrical life. Raised in Kansas City by a mother who loved country music and a father who breathed rock & roll, Emma Jo has spent the better part of her life latching onto a deep-rooted passion for music and performing. From stealing the spotlight at age four during a local talent show,
to learning guitar on an Esteban purchased from an infomercial, to releasing a full-length acoustic album titled Waiting to Be Heard at fifteen, there has not been a moment when she wasn’t living and breathing melody.  I was gratified to learn in this conversation that Emma Jo loves is committed to living and creating here in America’s Heartland. 

I knew when I first heard her newest record, “Girl Bandit” I wanted to have her on the radio for a more robust conversation than what I could grab in between or after
a set at a local gig.  Ultimately, Girl Bandit is a record that was destined to be written. It serves as not only as documentation of one woman’s search for strength in dark times and her eventual triumph, but as an emotional support record for life changes.   Emma Jo says “I’ve dealt with loss and trauma and pain, just like everyone. Girl Bandit is a record about how I discovered I was living the wrong life, grappled with that, and made the decision to change it – and it’s a call to action to take the first step out of darkness.”

I have the privilege of hosting shows on community radio that permits me to play the songs and talk to whomever I want. I take into consideration what may be of interest
and entertaining to my listening audience.  I am grateful for the opportunity to memorialize these experiences for the Tasty Brew Music podcast. 

Enjoy this conversation and in studio live performance from the Heartland’s own Emma Jo.  

In the Fall of 2023, a contingent of folk and jazz artists from Frutilla, Chile (fru-tee-ya Chill-ay) came to Kansas City as part of a cultural exchange facilitated by The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and their Creative Cities Network.  The Network was created in 2004 to promote cooperation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development. Almost 300 cities around the world which currently make up this network work together towards a common objective: placing creativity and cultural industries at the heart of
their development plans at the local level and cooperating actively at the international level.  To date, Kansas
City is the ONLY US City with the UNESCO Creative Cities designation. Martina performing as Medicentuna and
Daniela Conejero visited with me at the KKFI studios for a lively conversation  and enchanting on air performance.  Enjoy this unique and captivating episode of
the Tasty Brew Music Podcast!

Alicia Stockman was in Kansas City to play an intimate house concert for the Labyrinth Listening Room Series curated and hosted by fellow music lover Howard Dolginoff.  I happened to be hosting Siren Song on 90.1 FM KKFI that same day and Howard brought Alicia to the studios so we could have a chat and share some tunes with our listeners who were not able to make it to the show.

Alicia is a Utah-based folk meets Americana Singer Songwriter whose songs are written like intimate moments that draw listeners into a relatable emotional journey.  You’ll hear that her musical start was in a loud rock and roll band playing cover songs in bars with sticky floors; she eventually broke away to perform her own songs, finding a home in the Americana scene.   Her work sparked the interest of
“Nashville’s Americana Queen, and former Tasty Brew Music Podcast guest, Mary Bragg, who began collaborating with and producing Alicia’s album, “Four Walls.”  Enjoy this on air conversation with and musical performance by Alicia Stockman.