Wichita, KS is home to the greatest rock and roll dive bar in the whole country, and Split Lip Rayfield, America's finest alt-bluegrass band. The band suffered a brutal blow in 2007 when founding guitarist Kirk Rundstrom in 2007 succumbed to esophageal cancer. This was one of his final performances.

Every Monday night, C&L's Late Nite Music Club will feature an act from every state, alphabetically by state, as part of LNMC's 50 State Strategy. Know a band or artist that you think is the best in their state? Email suggestions to latenitemusicclub [at] gmail.com. Next week: Kentucky. Will we get bluegrass two weeks in a row?

Willie Nelson will be 75 next year. I used to be a dj in a country bar in San Francisco and he was always a national treasure to me. Great singer, great songwriter, great spirit. He did this duet with Susan Tedeschi on the first of his three 2000 album releases, Milk Cow Blues. I'm not going to Kansas City on this trip, but I thought you might like to see what it looked like.

Wow, we haven't done a contest in a long time. I found this great song from 1948 by Julia Lee, "King Size Papa." It was #1 on the R'n'B charts for 9 weeks but white folks never heard it-- until Harry Truman caused a scandal by inviting his homestate gal to perform at the White House. The KKK wasn't that happy about that. Julia may have had a bit of a dirty mind but she unquestionably was Kansas City's first lady of the blues and "King Size Papa" was her biggest hit. Watch the video and correctly identify the most celebrities in it and win yourself a lovely impeach Cheney baseball cap. Send your answer to downwithtyranny@aol.com

"Jay "Hootie" McShann, a jazz pianist and bandleader who helped refine the blues-tinged Kansas City sound and introduced the world to saxophonist Charlie Parker, died Thursday. He was 90...read on."

I couldn't find any of Jay's music online so I'm posting Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie to honor his passing.