Women's History Month 2020

Eight One Sixty w/ Chris Haghirian

The Bridge has been celebrating Women's History Month by playing great music and sharing stories from so many amazing women in music. On this week's episode of Eight One Sixty, we'll do a deep dive into historic women in KC music, and to do so we brought in Bill Brownlee.

Bill Brownlee is a long time concert reviewer and music writer for The Kansas City Star, contributor to KCUR 89.3, he’s been blogging since before the word “blog” was a word, he’s worked for music labels/distributors but most importantly for this show, he knows his stuff when it comes to KC music history.

Here’s a couple teasers for you: in 1985, Tears for Fears were playing in KC and stayed at the hotel that is now the InterContinental Kansas City at the Plaza. While staying there, a woman was in the lounge singing and they loved her voice. Two years down the road, they reached out to her and had her sing on a massive song of theirs, which also featured Phil Collins on drums. After that her solo career launched and she’s gone on to massive success... and she still has a house here!

Another: Remember Johnny Carson? Did you know that the No. 1 most visited musical guest to his show is 91 years old and she still calls KC home? She was a guest on his show 26 times!

On the show we’ll hear from these powerful women: Marva Whitney, Deborah Brown, Oleta Adams, Myra Taylor, Mary Lou Williams, Marilyn Maye, Melba Liston, Priscilla Brown, Julie Lee and a little Janelle Monáe.