AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Jessie Mueller

Artist:Jessie Mueller

Song:(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman

Album:Beautiful: The Carole King Musical: Original Broadway Cast Recording

Jessie Mueller won a Tony Award for starring in the 2014 musical Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. This is a jukebox musical featuring the songs of Carole King. A lot of times jukebox musicals don't even have a story. They just perform the songs. In this case, veteran writer Douglas McGrath wrote a story about Carole's career as a songwriter in New York's Brill Building with husband and songwriting partner Gerry Goffin. The show concludes with the release of the 1970 album Tapestry. The big difference with Beautiful is Carole was mainly a songwriter in the 60s. So the musical performances don't rely on Jessie. She was born Feb. 20, 1983 in Evanston, IL. She has two brothers and a sisters and all are actors. After graduating from Syracuse University in 2005, Jessie returned to Chicago to work for the Chicago Shakespeare Company. After she was named 2011 Actor of the Year by the Chicago Tribune, Jessie moved to New York. Her Broadway debut was as Judy Garland in a revival of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. She got a Tony nomination. After a few more shows, she got the role of Carole King in Beautiful. Others in the cast included Jake Epstein as Gerry Goffin, Anika Larsen as Cynthia Weil and Jarrod Spector as Barry Mann. Jessie won a Tony Award. The original cast album is available on two CDs. Beautiful ran until 2019. Jessie continues to perform on Broadway. She appeared in the Sara Bareilles musical Waitress and was in a 2018 revival of Carousel. She was Tony nominated for both. Her most notable TV role was as Loretta Lynn in the 2019 Lifetime film Patsy & Loretta about the friendship of Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn. She appeared in the 2023 film A Good Person written and directed by Zach Braff and starring Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman. I expect her to return to Broadway in the near future. Here's Jessie Mueller performing (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman in the recording studio.

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Priests

Artist:Priests

Song:Pink White House

Album:Nothing Feels Natural

Priests is a post punk band from Washington, DC. A couple of interesting things about them. One is that they are female led. The other is they are a DIY band meaning they did everything including release the music on their own label Sister Polygon. Well, at least that gives them complete control. Priests started in 2012 when drummer Daniele Daniele (real name-Daniele Yandel) moved from Brooklyn to Washington to get her master's degree in English from Georgetown University. She met singer Katie Alice Greer at a show and Katie met guitarist G.L. Jaguar at another show. She knew him from social media. They started jamming and recorded a cassette. After adding bassist Taylor Mulitz, Priests started their own label and released a single. It was produced by Kevin Erickson who owns a recording studio. After releasing a couple more singles, Priests went to Olympia, WA to record the 2017 album Nothing Feels Natural. When they weren't happy with it, they returned to Washington and did it over with Erickson. The album was critically acclaimed and was on several Best of 2017 lists including Billboard and NPR. They toured to support it. This album is available as a budget CD. For the 2019 album The Seduction of Kansas, Priests recorded with St. Vincent producer John Congleton in Dallas. It looks like they softened their sound. But the album was critically acclaimed. But I guess there was trouble in paradise because Priests announced in Dec. 2019 that they were going on an "indefinite hiatus" meaning they split up but they don't want to actually say it. They closed Sister Polygon too. It looks like the disagreement was over the softening of Priests' sound. Daniele joined the post punk band Gauche. They were on Sister Polygon but they released a 2019 album on the popular indie label Merge Records. Katie Alice moved to Los Angeles and released a 2022 album that sounds like Portishead. There's your disagreement. Here's the video for Pink White House by Priests.

   

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-The Farm

Artist:The Farm

Song:Groovy Train

Album:Spartacus

The British band The Farm scored a couple of hit singles at home in the early 90s. Groovy Train should remind you of The Stone Roses. My guess is listeners thought it was The Stone Roses which is probably why The Farm only had brief success. The Farm was started in Liverpool in 1983 by singer Peter Hooton, a youth worker looking for a musical outlet for his political concerns. Hooton and guitarist Stevie Grimes wrote all the songs. At first they were a soul band called The Excitements. When Hooton took over, he changed the band name to The Farm because they rehearsed in a farm. BTW, it's a terrible name. After original drummer Andy McVann died in a 1986 car crash and The Farm toured with The Housemartins, Hooton decided to change their sound to the popular Madchester sound of The Stone Roses but retain some of the dance elements. He approached former Madness lead singer Graham "Suggs" McPherson about producing. They released the 1990 single Groovy Train on their own label. When it started getting airplay, Jive Records picked it up for distribution in England and Europe and Sire Records picked it up for US release. Groovy Train reached #6 on the British Singles chart and #41 on the Billboard Hot 100. The second single All Together Now reached #4 on the British Singles chart. The album Spartacus was certified Gold in England. The album is available as a budget CD. The Farm signed with Sony. They were still on Sire in the US. When the 1992 album Love See No Colour was more electropop that the first album, it didn't do well and Sony dropped them. They returned to Sire for the 1994 album Hullaballoo but the damage was already done and The Farm split up in 1996. They reformed in 2004 and still perform but have not recorded new music. So that means The Farm's whole appeal was they sounded like The Stone Roses over 30 years ago. A band needs to have a more distinctive sound for long term success. Here's the video for Groovy Train by The Farm. This is the British video. There is also a US video.

  

Big Bad Blog Video Theater-Roxanne Perez vs Giulia

Here's the match video of Roxanne Perez defending her NXT Women's Championship against Giulia from last night's episode of NXT. This was the first episode on the CW and they kicked off the show with this match. The match was fine but it never kicked into high gear. And the worst thing was the ending was flat. After Stephanie Vaquer appeared during last week's press conference, one would think she would get involved in this match or at least be at ringside. But instead they decided to have Cora Jade return under a mask and cost Giulia the match. Cora has been out with an injury. I understand this was done as this big surprise. They wanted it to be special. It was one of those times where a swerve was done for no particular reason. And I don't think it was effective. I don't know if I would do a title change. But Stephanie is more interesting than Cora. Enjoy the video! 

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Romeo Void

Artist:Romeo Void

Song:Never Say Never

Album:Warm, In Your Coat

The New Wave band Romeo Void had success in the early 80s with songs like Never Say Never. They had potential but they split up in 1985 after recording three albums. Romeo Void was from San Francisco. Lead singer Debora Iyall was from Fresno. She would travel to San Francisco occasionally to watch her favorite singer Patti Smith perform. Debora was inspired by a fortune cookie to pursue an art career at the San Francisco Art Institute. She went to a local club to watch punk bands. She even formed a parody band. She met bassist Frank Zincavage at school and they decided to form a band with guitarist Peter Woods and drummer Jay Darrah who were in Debora's parody band. The name Romeo Void referred to a lack of romance in her life. They started as a Punk band though it became clear that Punk was becoming New Wave. They started playing clubs and added saxophonist Benjamin Bossi who was really a jazz musician. After Darrah was replaced by John "Stench" Hanes, Romeo Void released the 1981 album It's a Condition on the local Punk label 415. They toured to support it and Larry Carter replaced Hanes. There was interest in Romeo Void from unexpected places like The Cars leader Ric Ocasek. And that led to 415 signing a distribution deal with Columbia. And they put pressure on Romeo Void to be more commercial. I guess Columbia thought they could be like Blondie. The album was produced by recording engineer Ian Taylor. But Ocasek was brought in to produce the lead single Never Say Never. The single did well in dance clubs. But it was not the big hit single that Columbia wanted. The song was even featured in the 1984 film Reckless starring Aiden Quinn and Daryl Hannah. It didn't help. For the 1984 album Instincts, Romeo Void rebelled against Columbia and made a less commercial album with their old producer David Kahne. But when the album was more successful and the single A Girl in Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing) reached #35 on the Billboard Hot 100, that upset Columbia and they pulled all promotional support while Romeo Void was on tour. That led to the band split. There wasn't much point in continuing if Columbia was going pull that kind of nonsense. Debora released the 1986 album Strange Language on Columbia. And then they dropped her because she wouldn't lose weight. This comp CD was released in 1992. Debora became an art teacher and that's what she does today. She did release a couple of albums in 2009 and 2012 with former Pearl Harbor and the Explosions guitarist Peter Dunne on her own label. She now lives in New Mexico with her husband. Here's the video for Never Say Never by Romeo Void.  

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Vicki Lewis

Artist:Vicki Lewis

Song:Shoeless Joe from Hannibal Mo.

Album:Damn Yankees: 1994 Original Broadway Cast Recording

Actress Vicki Lewis is probably best known for playing Beth in the late 90s sitcom News Radio. She has appeared regularly on TV and in films since the early 90s. She has also appeared on Broadway, most notably as reporter Gloria Thorpe in the 1994 revival of Damn Yankees. She was born Mar. 17, 1960 in Cincinnati. After graduating from high school, Vicki studied musical theater at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. After graduating, she moved to New York. Damn Yankees was probably her first major role in anything. The show ran for about a year. Shoeless Joe from Hannibal Mo. is her big song in the show. The original cast album is available on CD. Then she landed the role of Beth in the sitcom NewsRadio. That show ran for four seasons. She's done plenty of TV guest shots and lots of voice work in animation. In films she appeared in Godzilla (1998) and Pushing Tin (1999). Again, she does a lot of voice work on animated films like Finding Nemo (2003). As I have said before, voice work can be very lucrative. She also returned to Broadway in a 2000 revival of Chicago. She recorded an album on her own label in 2010. I expect her to continue doing TV guest shots and voice work. Here's Vicki Lewis performing Shoeless Joe from Hannibal Mo. from the 1994 Tony Awards broadcast. The second half of the video is the entire cast performing Heart.