Jedd Beaudoin

Lalanea Chastain has been performing music since she was a teenager, focusing on blues and jazz, although she is comfortable in most genres. “I’ll sing virtually anything,” she says. She lives in Wichita, where she is currently honing her guitar skills.

My name is Lalanea Chastain. I’m a local singer. My latest project is with the blues band Yale Street Players. I also play with a cover band, Blue Eyed Soul. I started playing music with my family.

The Wichita State University School of Performing Arts presents Violet March 6-9. Violet is based on The Ugliest Pilgrim by Doris Betts and set in 1964 in the deep south. The story follows the growth and enlightenment of a bitter young woman scarred by an accident as a young girl. One of the most acclaimed off-Broadway shows of the 1990’s, Violet is currently being staged on Broadway in a production starring Sutton Foster. This production is directed by guest director Stephen Kopel .

Monday, March 3: Blank Project is the latest release by Swedish-born singer-songwriter Neneh Cherry and her first album in 18 years. Cherry has said that the album is in part a mourning of her mother, who died in 2009. The singer is perhaps best known for her 1989 dance hit “Buffalo Stance.” We’ll hear from that record plus selections from featured artist Beck’s latest album, Morning Phase, his first album since 2008 and a record he has called a companion piece to his somber 2002 album Sea Change.

Formed in 2010 by guitarist and vocalist Andrew Brown and violinist Brandon Smith, the Appleseed Collective was initially inspired by music that came from Europe and New Orleans in the years before World War II. Brown explains how he and his bandmates took that music as a template and updated it with more contemporary leanings.

Monday, Feb. 24 2014: Lake Street Dive is comprised of musicians who met at the New England Conservatory in Boston a decade ago. The collective draws on elements of Stax, Motown, and jazz for its unique sound, which can be heard on the group’s latest release, Bad Self Portraits. We’ll hear from that as well as from Dark Night of the Soul, the latest from Jimbo Mathus and The Tri-State Coalition.

Musicians Kerry Bainum and Cody Cloud have played in bands together for more than 15 years. When it looked like their current band, Vehicles, was on the verge of collapse a few years ago, the two friends decided that instead of letting the band come to an abrupt end, as they’d done in the past, they’d keep it together. After all, Cloud says, a new band always faces serious challenges when it tries to get off the ground.

After nearly 10 years of non-stop touring, the members of Kansas-based band Split Lip Rayfield decided to take a break—an unbelievably long one by the trio’s standards. The hiatus spanned nearly 15 months, starting in October 2012 and ending on New Year’s Eve in Lawrence. The band’s Wayne Gottstine says it was something the members all felt they needed.

Monday, Feb. 17 2014: We team up with Global Village and Night Train for a Presidents’ Day special featuring selections from some politically active musicians, including Joe Walsh, Frank Zappa, Jello Biafra of Dead Kennedys, and others, plus some quasi-political musings from Little Feat, Ian Hunter, and selections from Of Great and Mortal Men: 43 Songs For 43 U.S. Presidencies.

Now through February 22, the Crown Uptown presents Godspell. Godspell is a musical by Stephen Schwartz that paints a portrait with various musical parables from the Gospel According to Matthew. Jesus Christ recruits a group of followers and teaches them lessons through song and dance featuring a wide range of musical genres including bluegrass, R&B and rock and roll.