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Featured Artist

Our monthly featured artist

Byron James
Byron James was born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1955. In 1968, he obtained his first guitar. His father became a Methodist minister and moved his family to a series of small towns in the midwest, settling in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1970. Shortly thereafter, Byron started a band called Raven, who played church functions, pool parties, battle of the bands, and various other venues. In 1973, he joined a band called Wakefield, who traveled the midwest playing various clubs, high school and middle school proms, college functions, and an occasional concert. Wakefield opened for Sugarloaf at Cowtown Ballroom.In the late seventies, he started a solo career and played clubs, restaurants and parties. Many restaurant gigs were long term with decent pay. This continued well into the late nineties. In 2001, he moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where he resides to this day. In the early part of the decade, he formed a band called Big Stack Daddy. This band dissolved after several years, and he formed another band called Sugarfoot Detour. This band is still operating in and around the Lawrence area. While in Lawrence, he started a songwriting partnership with his then wife, Rita Beyer, who is a skilled writer, poet, and lyricist. While Byron wrote many songs on his own, a new flavor was born in the music as a result of working with Rita. In 2023, Byron submitted two songs as an audition for the Kerrville New Folk Festival in Texas. His songs were chosen, and he travelled to Kerrville, sang his songs and won. The following spring, he toured south Texas with the five other winners and played House Concerts in various homes of supporters. Since living in Lawrence, he has recorded two CDs in the name of Sugarfoot Detour, and has hopes of following up on more recordings, and is not ready to retire from the joy of music!

Industry spotlight

Harris Wilder

Harris Wilder, entertainment lawyer from The Wilder Law Firm, sits down with Danny Powell (co-founder of Heartland Song Network) for a conversation on the current music industry and gives his advice for music creatives.

For more on Harris Wilder: https://kcbusinesslawyer.com/

Industry spotlight

Shaun Crowley - Manor Records

For Manor Records, it all started in a basement of “The Shawnee Manor,” a D.I.Y. venue located in Shawnee, KS. From Glass Animals to Shy Boys, the underground venue hosted numerous local acts, as well as some national touring acts. Then, founder Shaun Crowley got the itch to host a house show music festival with the creation of Manor Fest. It started with 10 bands in one night, then grew to a two night event featuring 20 local bands from Shy Boys to BLK FLANL. After years passed and a community was built, it was time for the boys to move out of the deteriorating house.

In October of 2017, we officially launched as Manor Records. A DIY record label based on the foundation of infamous D.I.Y. venue The Shawnee Manor. Manor Record is a label that takes no money or profits from our artists, is hands-on, and self-run, with intentions of good music from good people. We began by hosting showcases featuring local and regional bands in addition to putting out cassette releases. In the summer of 2019, after growing as a label for two years, we decided to bring back the idea of Manor Fest. Manor Fest 3 came to Kansas City with 33 bands spread across three nights
in different regions of the city. We hosted showcases in traditional & non-traditional venues and featured up & coming locals such as bigfatcat and regional favorites such as Paul Cherry. After successfully putting on our first large sized festival, we realized that it was an event that helped promote and propel local artists to larger platforms. There was a need and hope to bring it as a regular event for the Kansas City music scene to look forward to every summer.

Alongside the festival, Manor Records has been actively providing booking, tour management, cassette releases, blog premieres/reviews, marketing and promotion services for indie acts all over the midwest. None of this would be possible without the addition of our new board members Skylar Rochelle, Kayla Jarrett, and Connor Randell who voluntarily joined the Manor Records team along the way.

On October 20th of 2023 Shaun will be opening a new record store location for Manor Records in the West Bottoms in the basement of The 12th Street Post that will hold over 4,000 records and host live events!

Website
Manor Records
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