Deeper Roots Radio Podcast: Recent Episodes
Deeper Roots
A walk through the last century of America's roots music, the podcasts for Deeper Roots come to you from productions at two Northern California community radio stations: www.kowsfm.fm, www.krjf.org and www.kwtf.net.
We’re heading on over to the Alibi Room, or Red’s Recovery Room, or whatever your local watering hole might be named and we’ll be doing so with the idea that the hair of the dog is what’s in order this Friday morning, recalling if we can the previous night’s bar hop celebrating country music’s favorite songs of cigareets, whiskey and wild wild women. Songs about whiskey and the glasses on the bar where stories and faces go from long to bright as the jukebox fires up. We’ll hear some classic songs from Webb Pierce, George Jones, Roger Miller and Merle Haggard alongside some contemporary sounds from the late Bill Staines, Chris Stapleton, and Dale Watson, all celebrating Johnnie Walker, Jim Beam, and Maker’s Mark…alongside a little bit of scotch and rye…neat or on the rocks. The honky tonk joints we’ll visit will likely have sawdust on the floor and a well-worn bar. Tune for the very best from the past century with your host, Dave Stroud, on KOWS Community Radio.
It’s summer and what better time to roll out the scorchers; vocals with an emphasis on big beats, screamin’ guitars and performances that sweat quite profusely in the noonday sun. This week on Deeper Roots we’ll be digging through the archives of early rock, rhythm & blues and rockabilly for some tumultuous and head-splitting numbers from the past. Songs that woke up the neighbors if only played at a moderate level and woe be the terrified fifties’ parents when they heard the hi-fi blaring these songs from the youngster’s room. We’ve put together a collection of wildcat tamers, killer dillers, and not a bit of filler in the show today that will leave you breathless. Among those sparking the fuel that could set the hair on fire are Tarheel Slim, Jimmy Breedlove, Chan Romero, Big Mama Thornton, and the one and only Richard Penniman. Tune in for another Friday morning collection of the very best from the past century with your host, Dave Stroud, on KOWS Community Radio
We go back to the church for a rousing celebration for the converted and soon-to-be-faithful. That’s right, we’re in the pews and joining in the hymnal, at least for this two hours, as Sunday morning forgiveness will always follow Saturday night’s sinner’s baptismal. We’re going to hear the echoes of the past century’s gospel songs with a general theme of being saved and born again…and there is certainly plenty to go around whether that’s southern Baptist, Appalachian harmonies or classic African American celebratory gospel. We’ve got it this morning including The Dixie Hummingbirds, Hank Williams, Carl Story, Lonnie Farris, and some contemporary selections from Shannon McNally, Bob Dylan and Solomon Burke. Let’s join in, you the faithful congregation of Deeper Roots from the past century of America’s music, for two hours celebrating that incredible wellspring of gospel sounds.
A fine blend of vintage sounds on the show today, all driving down a free form track. The blend mixes gospel from Mavis Staples, some classic mid-century rock from Little Feat and Rick Nelson, all dressed up alongside to lounge and cool jazz sounds of Frank Sinatra, Lionel Hampton, Pearl Bailey, and a some classic and contemporary tunes featuring the late, great Tony Bennett. We’ve got Zydeco, classic and contemporary country, some alternative sounds from E and the Eels to share as well. We enjoy sharing a mix of the very best in a free form show every month or so and today will not disappoint. There will also be some recent tracks from Sarah Jarosz, Charley Crockett and The Brother Brothers to measure up against the throwback sounds. We’d be glad to have you once again; just dial-up your internet browser to kowsfm.com/listen or, if you’re on the run, take us with you on your mobile device by installing the KOWS app from the Google Play store or Apple App Store.
This week we’ll spend our two hours in a shroud of barroom musk, out-of-tune brass, and painted ladies all spent before the tunes of an American treasure. We speak of Tom Waits. The New York Times, in a review of Barney Hoskyns’ 2009 biography of Tom Waits, Lowside of The Road describes our subject today thusly: “He is as potent and unpredictable a musical force as most of us have witnessed in our lifetimes, and that’s not faint praise. The graveyard croak of his gravelly, bellowing baritone is righteous, paint-scraping, unmistakable; it scatters small animals and slaps your synapses to startled attention. With what’s left of your adrenalized wits, you can attend to his mordant lyrics, which he packs into songs he divides (as his wife, Kathleen Brennan, put it) into two primordial categories: “the grand weeper” and “the grim reaper”. He’s our neighbor here in Sonoma County and we could not be more proud of the boy…really.
Roots music found commercial success in 2000 with the release of the movie O Brother Where Art Thou, a finely crafted but outrageous tale of Depression-era America with fantastical imagery of hair wax, baptisms, and chain gangs woven into a tapestry built from Homer’s Odyssey. The music, assembled by T-Bone Burnett, was a major component of the film and recorded before the film even began with Burnett working with the Coen brothers while the script was in its working phases. It would become an effort that elevated a genre at the turn of the century called Americana. This week’s show will share some of the period-specific music that helped to propel the notion that blues, jazz, bluegrass, country, and gospel could be used to put that time and a ghostly familiar culture into focus. We'll use O Brother’s musical sensibilities to take us somewhere quite familiar (and at the same time quite terrifying) as we pay homage with Americana roots, featuring sounds from The Carters, Jesse Fuller, Dan Tyminski, Jimmie Rodgers, W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel & His Hillbilly Boys, among others.
We’re digging into the archives. Deep down into the wells…for a collection of rhythm & blues, country, gospel, and tradition with performances from Patsy Cline, Sonny Boy Williamson, Marty Stuart, Dinah Washington and nearly three dozen others. Friday morning inspiration from the courtroom bench, the gospel pew, and from the piano bench…as we bring you another episode of the very best of the past 100 years to the stream. There’s trouble and some double entendre from Julia Lee, some rousing sanctified call and response from Eugene Smith and The Roberta Martin Singers, as well as a bootleg Dylan piece that we’ll share with you. Join Dave Stroud this coming Friday morning for the very best of America’s music from the past century.
Summer’s here and you know what that means…we’ll be running through a bit of theme, this time with the focus on all that we celebrate in summer. With the Fourth of July coming up we’ll turn our attention to barbecues, baseball, ice cream treats, the warmth of the sun, swimming holes, and everything summer. Tune in for some terrific tracks from Dean Martin, Johnny Rivers, The Four Preps, Walter Wanderly and a whole lot more. It took us six months for the days to get longer and now it’s another six months of diminished daylight but that’s what make three other seasons something to relish…I guess. So whether you’re shipping kids off to summer camp, planning for this year’s visit to the Fair, or planning a trip to a ballpark or beach, know that it’ll be warmer than colder and we’re here to play the background music here on Sonoma County Community Radio, KOWS-LP, 92.5 FM Occidental, streaming to all over this big blue marble on kowsfm.com/listen.
The sound of both longing and empowerment surfaces in this morning’s Deeper Roots show as we take the wayback machine to the 1960s for some of the very best in female soul. With every female vocalist, group-based or solo, that surfaced from the Motown stable there were dozens upon dozens of hopefuls lined up by other labels and producers. We’ve visited many of them in past shows but there are always more to share and some memorable performances that can get easily overlooked in the crowded field. And while we’ve heard a number of these performers in past shows: Betty Everett, Mary Wells, and Carla Thomas…there are also the unknowns who deserve attention. We’ll spend some more time with Mitty Collier, Dee Dee Warwick and Etta James and find some other names to pay attention to including Odessa Harris, Helene Smith, and Delilah Keenebruew. Tune in Friday morning at 9 Pacific for some deep tracks and favorites from a few of those 60s soul divas.
In a June Substack tribute to Cynthia Weil’s legacy, Dan Epstein of “Jagged Time Lapse” observed that the “modern pop songbook would be significantly slimmer and less life-affirming without their work”. The ‘their’ referring, of course, to her husband and songwriting partner Barry Mann. From their early Brill Building output which included “Uptown” (The Crystals), “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” (The Righteous Brothers), and “Walking In The Rain” (The Ronettes), to the chart-topping 80s classics of “Don’t Know Much” (Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville) and “Here You Come Again” (Dolly Parton), Cynthia Weil’s contributions to popular music were indeed affirming. This week’s Deeper Roots pays due respect to Cynthia, who was married to Barry Mann for almost 62 years, and was lyricist to his music. Their contributions to the sound of rock and roll and pop music in the 1960s rivaled luminaries like Burt Bacharach, Carole King and Neil Diamond.
A theme show once again, this week with the telephone as our muse. Songs about the most important of communication devices which has fused with social media to the benefit, and equal detriment, of all mankind. From the early call from Bell to Watson to the proverbial football that our fearless leader carries around to make the one call to eradicate or, better yet, save mankind. This week we’ll visit the long lost guide known as the “operator” and the equally antiquated term “dial” with music from country, pop, soul, and rock archives of yesterday. Kick back and be entertained by the sounds of Brenda Lee, Sister Wynona Carr, Stonewall Jackson, Loretta Lynn & Ernest Tubb, and Bill Fury in a collection of the very best from multiple genres here on Sonoma County Community Radio, broadcasting in West County on 92.5 FM and streaming to all mankind on kowsfm.com/listen. Drop in why don’t you?
An eclectic episode full of sass, gas and plenty of brass. We’re going the free form route today and there’ll be plenty of embellishments to the morning as we take a blindfolded trip through a hall of mirrors with some classy vocals from Frankie, Peggy Lee and Helen Forrest; some honky tonk whiskey-in-the-bottle twangin’ from George Jones, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee; rocking rhythm passion from Tina Turner, The Marquees, and Elmore James; and much more including some little known nuggets from Bob Dylan, Merle Travis, and Daddy Cleanhead. We’re going to set the morning on fire with plenty of fuel from the deeper wells of the past century of America’s music. You don’t want to miss out. Join Dave Stroud for another Friday morning selection of wild tune-age on KOWS Community Radio.
December’s arrived and we’re going to get ourselves warmed up for the Hot Stove League, New Year’s Eve, football playoffs, reindeer on the roof and all the rest of it. But our show today will take on a common thread: songs about ‘the street’ or streets or boulevards, avenues … only the surface streets, not the highways. Dave’s picked out a collection of songs that are sure to stir emotion bringing home music that take on the ‘street’ topics from the genres of country, early pop, rock, folk, blues and all the rest. We’ll hear from Dylan, The Ink Spots, the Punch Brothers, Charlie Spand, the Orlons and a couple dozen others taking on an eclectic blend of songs where the streets as the muse. Tune into Sonoma County Community Radio’s KOWS 92.5 FM, streaming to all of planet earth on kowsfm.com/listen. Deeper Roots brings you a morning of sounds from the locales of Easy Street, Lonely Street and 4th Street…directly from Orchard and 7th.
When trying to put together a Deeper Roots episode that covered the great session masters from the past one hundred years it became exceedingly clear that the show would need to be broken up into multiple parts. Percussion, keyboards, brass, bass and all the rest will follow but this week we’re going to focus on the string masters; those guitar stars who account for the bulk of Top 30 hits that graced our lives over the second half of the 20th century. They include Hank Garland, Grady Martin, James Burton, Joe Messina, Glen Campbell, Jimmy Johnson and, of course, Tommy Tedesco. There are many others who deserve the recognition but our show is only a two hour show and, even at that, picking only three or four examples per performer doesn’t do it justice. We’re going to give credit where it’s due…those who stood in the shadows.
Our show this week features sweet dreams, swamp pop, Americana, doo wop, and all that makes the past century of America’s music a delight to dream on. We’ll touch on the new album from a legend who is most deservedly having his moment right now with a new album and where a one hit wonder once existed. Tommy McLain’s new album is a revelation and reminds us that music, when carried and shared with a passion like his, will always bring a bright light even in the darkest of times. This week’s show is a free form romp featuring Tommy, Mark Knopfler, Robert Plant, Bill Kirchen, Corb Lund, Bob Wills, Paul Thorn, and a couple dozen others. Some fiery rock and roll blended with country, doo wop, pop and lots of circumstance. Please join in…we’d be delighted to spend a Friday morning with you on Sonoma County Community Radio.
It’s list time! For better or worse, we’re going with the top tier of the Rolling Stone’s Top 100 Country Albums of all Time as our guidepost. There’s some great ones here, in fact the majority are agreeable in our estimation but there are also some “huh?” moments. We’ll just assume that that is par for the course with any opinion-based list by a disparate group of critics. For the most part, it captures the core of country pretty well. We’ll share music from Tom T. Hall, The Carters, George Strait and a few nineties and aught pop stars that made the list because they swim the pop country charts. Join Dave as he walks down the list, one that has its cringe-worthy moments, right alongside moments of pure Americana country gold.
This past October, we lost a couple of very important ties to two whose stars shone bright in both the Golden Age of Country and the Golden Age of Rock ‘n Roll. We’ll take on a dual tribute to the passing of Loretta Lynn and Jerry Lee Lewis. The torch has surely passed but their fire burned white hot as their stars rose, both sharing controversy and almost overnight fame. They also continued to perform into their later years, teaming up with songwriters and performers who were relevant to new generations, but true to their core calling. Our first hour take time to visit Loretta Lynn’s humble but no-nonsense storytelling and the second hour will take us into the whirlwind of unapologetic badassness that was Jerry Lee Lewis.
Crazy rhythm! Big bands, scat vocals, syncopation, snapping fingers, drum and trumpet solos, all packed into two hours on a Sonoma County autumn morning on Deeper Roots. We're celebrating that fascinating rhythm with some classic jazz, smooth vocals, and the voot of Slim Galliard as well as we take a trip through the big band sounds of Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven, Cab Calloway, and Artie Shaw. That's not all, though. We'll also hear the celebrations of rhythm with the brothers and sister teams of the Boswells, the Colemans, the Delta Rhythm Boys, and Three Sharps and a Flat. Sweet and sentimental with a celebratory blast. Join Dave Stroud on a journey that celebrates rhythm with the best rhythm-makers on KOWS Community Radio.
A mixed bag of the soulful sounds with an undercurrent of gospel mixed in this morning. Songs whose construction bears some resemblance or, in most cases, far distant ancestry to the sacred sounds of the church gatherings. The music this morning isn’t really gospel in its obvious form. It’s more the sound of performances that owe gospel music a debt of gratitude for the sound, the rhythm, and the form. Tune in for a bright, shining blend of popular sounds from Paul Simon, Laura Nyro, Curtis Mayfield, Percy Sledge, Mitty Collier, and a couple dozen others as we take a closer walk with rhythm, soul, rock, and pop on a Friday morning in Sonoma County on KOWS, your low power community station with a big heart. Tune in on 92.5 FM or stream us on kowsfm.com/listen.
We’re reaching deep into those roots Americana archives this morning for a free form blend of country, gospel, folk, and blues. Buckets of music planned for your Friday morning: whether you’re here in the warm October folds of Sonoma County or on the other side of the planet, we’re here to soothe the fray of what’s occurring at every corner. The music we have in store includes new tracks from Dr. John and Sweet Megg, Neko Case, the Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Haden, Randy Newman and more than a dozen others. Songs about the long road, six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline, and sunrise and sunset couplets. It’s a Friday morning here on the West Coast and our community is always willing to share with you on KOWS-LP Community Radio. Join us, why don’t you.
The 40s and 50s post-war migration brought tough working conditions in Chicago which offered stability over the miserable sharecropper existence of the Delta. Both were fodder for the some of the very best in classic blues. The production lines of Detroit and other cities on the Eastern seaboard were models of a different kind of work that the Industrial Age had to offer. But the West Coast wasn’t the place you’d expect to find the blues: shipyards, agriculture, and urban sprawl would aggregate so many different styles that rhythm and blues was a fusion of the many different sensibilities that were brought with both performer and listener alike westward from east of the Mississippi. Having the hub of the world of entertainment in the Southland didn’t hurt either. We’ll be browsing the sounds of some of the greats: McCracklin, Fulson, Otis, Mayfield, and (of course) T-Bone Walker in the Deeper Roots morning show today. West Coast Blues led to blues-based rock in large part because of the exposure to the many different styles of the mid-century blues bands and solo rockers. West Coast Blues Roots is the name of our show this morning on KOWS-LP Occidental.
No tribute here, only an exploration of the musical legacy left behind by one of the premier production geniuses of 20th century rock and roll. We won’t dwell on the poor example of a human being attached to his personal legacy; but the music he gave us was pure gold and his ‘wall of sound’ became synonymous with early sixties classics from The Ronettes, The Righteous Brothers, The Crystals, Gene Pitney, and so many others. His later career found him turning up in production studios with the likes of The Beatles, The Ramones, Leonard Cohen, and others. Along the line his name was also attached to a wide range of songs in copyright; songs that celebrated youth, love, blusterous rivers deep, and soaring mountains high. And we’ll fit as much as we can into our two hour show on Sonoma County Community Radio.
In the early 1950s, trade magazines were bemoaning the overabundance of vocal groups making it difficult for single artists to break through. It was just the beginning of a wave of adolescent boys finding that street corner singers were attracting the neighborhood girls. Well, that’s the story anyway. But it might not have been too far off the mark as the mid-to-late 1950s saw the charts exploding with groups with vocal prowess in both instrumental imitation and harmonies with inglorious sound effects. It would become an cultural art form born in the tradition of some of the vocal groups of the 30s and 40s. This week on Deeper Roots we’ll revisit doo wop’s golden age where the harmonies were tight and sweet and the ballads were recycled gems of the past or low-brow teen crooning of the present. Join us on Sonoma County Community Radio for some of the best examples of Doo Wop’s Golden Age.
We’ll be spending two hours on a century of hard work, little pay, striking it rich as well as failing to do so. Songs about working the mines, panning in the mother lode, welfare and pittance wages, as well as the country sounds of Merle’s Working Man Blues. Plenty to keep us reflecting on a lifetime of keeping afloat knowing full well that you can’t take it with you. Not necessarily money for nothing and kicks for free but we’ve also got songs about blowing it all on a Saturday night. Join us for music from Johnny Horton, Wynn Stewart, Tex Ritter, Merle, Hazel Dickens, Roy Orbison and a cast of the very best of performances from the past century here on Sonoma County Community Radio.
Welcome to a common theme we share on Deeper Roots: an eclectic blend of stories featuring grifters, the gallows, the law and prison time. Today we’ll be mixing current events with the rule of law and the focus takes on historic anthems of good versus evil. Playlists will feature topics of blind justice, the fate of liars and thieves, and stories of false prophets and demagogues. We’ll welcome them in their own words with pearls of justice that even the January 6th looters, traitors and thieves cannot escape. It’s a cult…and neither democracy nor faith abide much by the cult of personality that’s soiling our Constitution. We’ve got tracks from Dr. John, Three Dog Night, Hugh Laurie, Booker T and Ted Hawkins this week. Join us here on Deeper Roots for an expose about “Fear and Loathing at Mar-a-Lago”.
Break out the libations! Deeper Roots celebrates it’s ten year anniversary on Sonoma County Community Radio and today’s show takes some time to celebrate the blend of sounds we’ve featured with the focus being on our first ten shows. I’ll be grabbing some of my very favorites from those early playlists and sharing them with everyone this morning. Great sounds featured include a trip to Chickashay with Roy Rogers, gospel tradition from Fern Jones, jitterbugging with The Roosevelts, some Duke, Fats, The Louvins, and, of course, Miss Morse (Ella Mae, that is). I’ll look back at some of the shows featured, the many sites visited and the folks that dropped by along the way. A little nostalgia on a Friday morning on KOWS radio and Saturday morning on KRJF and KWTF.
"Gather ‘round everybody, gonna tell you a story, about a little fella, he’s really very mella’, sells the daily papers on Main Street USA. " That’s how we’ll open this week’s show, with a story told by Bill Haley and the Comets from 1955. It’s a free form throwback road trip from Main Street to the deep South with some blues, country, and roots sounds from the past 100 years. Got some blues from Bertha Idaho, classic country from Hank Williams, some fresh southland sounds from Los Lobos, locally fresh sounds from Doug Blumer and JL Stiles…and so much more as we venture in and around all of the corners, north, south, east and west in today’s show. Friday morning breakfasts have never been so entertaining. Tune us in on 92.5 FM in West County or stream us on your listening device at kowsfm.com/listen.
We’ll take a step back and revisit the songwriting of Cindy Walker in today’s show…told in her own words and lyrics. The music of Bob Wills wouldn’t have been the same without her and neither would the 20th Century American songbook. Her ability to turn a phrase, tailoring songs for diverse styles would lead to country, rock and pop standards alike. Her music was as comfortable in the hands of Gene Autry and it was on a crooning binge with Dean Martin or as a passionate performance of Roy Orbison. We’ll hear from these performers and more, including Asleep at the Wheel, Les Paul, Tennessee Ernie Ford, and The Byrds in the show today as our antenna work at the KOWS is about to move forward. Exciting times. Tune into KOWS radio on kowsfm.com/listen or download the free app from the App Store or Google Play.
We’ll revisit the Carter Family this week on Deeper Roots with a collection of covers by their family’s inheritors, classic country and bluegrass favorites, as well as contemporary Americana artists. Aside from being a key ingredient in the ‘big bang’ of country music that occurred at the Bristol, Tennessee recordings in 1927, they would establish a rich catalog of songs and a monument to what American country music would hold as a torch for generations to come. The gathering of the elements of prose, poetry, passages and melodies that A. P. Carter gathered over his years of wandering predates the Lomax era and crossed the threshold when the 1927 encounter with Ralph Peer made history. We’ll hear from The Carters, but also Johnny Cash, Ashley Monroe, Loretta Lynn, Red Allen, and Emmylou Harris (among others) in our show today. Tune in for some of the classics from the family Carter.
A mix of just about everything your ears might need on a Friday morning with the focus being on preparing you for the weekend here in Sonoma County. Wake up sounds with themes that sport the connective tissue of a variety of genres and performers. We’ll hear some Bo Diddley, Chris Montez, Steve Earle, Del Reeves, and more than two dozen others. We’ll be highlighting small themes of trains, boogie Woogie daddies, sad and happy songs, weed and invitations to the party here on KOWS Community radio where free speech is coupled with a promise of no bull. We stream all over the planet on kowsfm.com/listen and will be celebrating the return of our antenna and the FM signal sooner rather than later. Join us.
What a decade. The Sixties. There was, of course, the mainlining of rock that took place, The Beatles, The Stones, Dylan, folk-rock, a rediscovery of tradition and the blues…and then there was something that had been bubbling underneath the pop, gospel, jazz, and rock elements. It would come to be called ‘soul’ and the sixties urban explosion out of a post-war northern cities like Chicago and (especially) Detroit, gave us something uniquely American. And the sixties charts were brimming with Motown, funk, cold sweat, and brassy ballads with a back beat and synchronicity of voice that established itself for good. The Isley Brothers, The Four Tops, The Supremes, Chuck Jackson, Mary Wells, The Temptations, The Impressions…the list goes on…all of these acts and hundreds of others staked their claim to the charts, easily competing (if not comfortably sharing) with the British wave and psychedlic sounds that had stormed the gates. Join Dave Stroud for a taste of 60s soul.
There’s no telling where this week’s show could lead because we’ve got the musical evangelists, pentacostals, and Baptists right alongside those charming bluesmen and rock and rollers to turn up the heat. We’ve got a burning revival of rockabilly, rhythm and blues, and God-fearing country and hillbilly sounds to take us into the weekend. Hooligans and bible-thumping holy rollers are pushing their way through the doors today and we’re here to tell you that we’re not gonna take anyone telling he or she what they can do with their bodies. Today’s performers will feature Sister Rosetta, Brother Claude, The Louvins, Hank Jr., Moon Mullican, and Jerry Lee Lewis…and that’s just a taste. Join us on Sonoma County Community Radio.
The archivists went back to the well for the core of a show first broadcast seven years ago, polished it up some by adding some fresh musical paints to the themes, but left the vintage drapes and findings alone. And this week’s Deeper Roots show is all the better for it. Tune in on Friday morning for songs about the ‘love bug’, private property and trespassers, biblical tales from about fellows named John, and some musical musings about dog houses and ramblers. We’ve the likes of Ry Cooder, Moses Mason, Arthur Smith, The Drifters, and Sharon Jones to help you get your head straight for a weekend to kick off a long summer of our discontent. Your rights. Our rights. When they come for some today, who says they won’t come for you tomorrow.
Country music started genre-life out as something different. Searching for a term more palatable than simply ‘folk’ or, more so, ‘hillbilly’, or ‘western’ music, music industry marketing found the term ‘country’ or ‘country and western’ a much smoother alternative. It softened the fiddle and accordion sounds and, at the same time, tempered the fears of human de-evolution through cultural disappropriation. Although what passes for country music today is a more a caricature of itself, the Golden Age of country, running through the decades of the fifties, sixties and seventies built a solid foundation with some of the great songwriters and performers that weren’t from the big east and west coast hubs. And their music would often be heard ‘peeking through’ the pop charts in a big way, reinforcing the notion that it was, and always had been, a common cultural denominator. Our show this week features some of the very greatest of the latter. Join us!
A little bit of surf…just a bit…and some folk favorites right alongside some local performers in this week’s episode brought your way directly from the KOWS Studios in downtown Santa Rosa, California. Our theme is the Golden State where the living may be costly but the core soul is one of progressive culture and hard work: whether that’s in the fields, behind the desk, in the service industry, or on the road. This week’s show focuses on California, from the LA Freeway to the Streets of Bakersfield, on up to Lodi and the Monterey Bay. The past century has found the state a popular subject of song and we’ve got some favorites and off-the-wall nuggets just for you this Friday morning including tracks from Dave Alvin, Albert Hammond, and Red River Dave. Tune in.
We're taking a free form route this week featuring an eclectic blend of some favorites from the not-so-distant past...but we'll be sprinkling in a generous dose of tunage from the very distant past as well. It's all in keeping with the standards we keep. Tune in for the likes of Etta Jones, Little Joe and the Thrillers, Bruce Springsteen, The Drifters, and some piano favorites from the Crescent City this Friday on Deeper Roots. Oldies? Yes. Instrumentals? Yes. Soul and vocal gems? Yes. Boring? No. Tune us in on your radio at 92.5 FM or, better yet, listen to us anywhere on planet Earth on kowsfm.com/listen. It's going to be a hot day here in the North Bay so why not cool off with some cool sounds here on Sonoma County Community Radio.
From sunrise to sunset and then back. This Friday morning we take a journey on the roller coaster of life on the big blue marble using music as our rails. We’ll rise and shine in the cold grey light before dawn and follow summer rain with the summer wind as sundown approaches. This week’s theme is a fusion of sunrise, sundown and a misty moonlight rhapsody featuring the music of Ray Charles, Norah Jones, Chet and Les, Bobby Bare, Mahalia Jackson and a couple dozen others. We’ll take you from dawn to midnight as we bring on the best of America’s music from digital, vinyl and ethereal dustbins of the past 100 years. Join us once more for music from long ago, today, and far away here on Sonoma County Community Radio.
Hot weather this week and we’ll be sweatin’ out the oldies in the KOWS Studio this coming Friday. Summer may be just around the corner but we’re running hot already here in Sonoma County. Today’s show features a ‘double play’ collection of traditions and covers, focusing primarily on gospel tradition and contemporary covers. Brook Benton, Josh White, Wilson Pickett, Neko Case, and Hank Williams are among the performers we’ll be featuring this week. Covers of the Gambler’s Blues, Stormy Weather, Denomination Blues, and more coming your way from the studios located in the Cherry Street Historic District of Santa Rosa, California. Streaming at kowsfm.com/listen.
We make a big tip of the hat to an institutional…who turns 77 years old this coming week. John Cameron Fogerty grew up in these parts, growing up in El Cerrito to a second grade teacher and linotype operator for the Berkeley Gazette. He was a part-time Army reservist who, after completing his gig in 1968, formed a band with brother Tom called The Golliwogs and then, eventually, Creedence Clearwater. A talented songwriter clearly influenced by the core elements of gospel, bluegrass, rhythm and blues, country, and (certainly) rock ‘n roll, John’s catalog of music, his distinctive vocals, and driving melodies are immediately recognizable, if not for Doug Clifford’s percussive direction, then for the rhythm and twang that took a Northern California ensemble sound into the mossy swamps and humid climes of the deeper South. Through a messy transition to his solo career to his late career recognition, John Fogerty is a legend and our show today takes some time to reflect…with music from contemporaries, solo efforts new and old, and most certainly a collection of Creedence classics. Tune in.
Bad luck and trouble are supposed to be common watchwords on a Friday the 13th but we're not the superstitious kind. Those vintage holdovers from a Christian time gone long past are just reminders of the stinkin' thinkin' that got us to where we are today. We'll be taking our chances with a themed show today that blends vocal nuggets from Frank Sinatra and Elvis with blues from Bobby "Blue" Bland, Ray Charles, and Chester Burnett. We've also got some Jimmy Smith, Raul Malo, Chance Halladay, and Gale Storm to keep you entertained while the rest of the world goes by. Tune us in on your radio at 92.5 FM or, better yet, listen to us anywhere on planet Earth on kowsfm.com/listen. Adopt a black cat. Despite longstanding superstitions, they have the very best of personalities.
The story of R&B, gospel, and early rock were embellished by many performers, artists, and personalities. The early influencers behind the scenes also included people like Art Rupe, a native of Pittsburg who lept into the entertainment industry with both feet after the Second World War, co-founding a small West Coast label called Juke Box Records in 1944. Breaking away from his partners, he would later form a label of his own: Specialty Records. His keen ear for what he termed the "secret [that] lay in a big band sound with a churchy feel" was spot on. Specifically, he took the stigma out of the 'race' of 'race records' of the day and targeted larger audiences. There were dozens of performers that came from the Specialty stable, chief among them being Roy Milton, Percy Mayfield, Sam Cooke and, of course, Little Richard Penniman. Art Rupe passed away this month at the age of 104 and we'll be sharing the early-to-mid-century classic pieces from a cross-section of Specialty performers that spanned the gospel, R&B and rock genres that Art helped bring into the mainstream.
Let’s have ourselves a natural ball. We’ve done shows whose themes include traditional covers done by The Grateful Dead as well as paying tribute to the songwriting talents of Robert Hunter. We’re truckin’ down one more alley of dead themes in today’s show: covers of Grateful Dead songs done by others. And what a lineup we have for you this bright Saturday morning, celebrating springtime in Sonoma County. We’ve got Jorma, Jimmy Buffet, Graham Parker, Joan Osborne, Levon Helm and Bruce Hornsby queued up for you as we celebrate the return of the FM signal for Community Radio in West Sonoma County. That’s right! The rest of the world gets to share Sonoma County with….uh, Sonoma County, as the streaming returns to sharing the stage on a Community Radio signal that runs 24×7. Deeper Roots will celebrate with a New Speedway Boogie, honoring the new FM signal and raising a glass or Ripple with Uncle John’s Band. Tune us in.
We've got ourselves a blend of free form sounds from the Deeper Roots archives with themes of midnight runs, trains, and happiness spiced with instrumental punch. Tune in on a Friday morning on KOWS Community Radio for some oddball tunes from John D. Loudermilk, Bob Gibson, and Chip Taylor and The New Ukrainians. We're already halfway through the month and we'll find ourselves with a brighter eclectic blend of sounds from the past century. The antenna is installed and now the volunteers who pedal the wheels to churn those dynamos will soon have our signal spreading it's joy throughout the county. Go volunteers!! Tune in why don't you...
This week we’re taking a look back at a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, musician, and performer who helped to enlighten a younger set to Tex Mex music, even making inroads into the sixties San Francisco ‘summer of love’ with a top 20 hit in 1965. Considered a child prodigy, he would appear on the Louisiana Hayride by the age of eight and would find his influences in blues, country, r&b, and conjunto sounds from across the border. Our retrospective will feature contemporaries and music from his close-knit cadre of compadres that would go on to form a sort-of supergroup called The Texas Tornados. Tune in on a Spring morning in April for a collection of pure Americana treats from Texas as we overlook (for a brief two hours) its abhorrent decline into a state of hate and anti-democratic principles.
It’s a fool’s paradise for all of us as April Fool’s Day lands on a day where Deeper Roots debuts a new episode. So why not take advantage, I say! We’ll fill the airwaves today with songs about fools today and add a garnish of novelty to keep the show moving on notes that are as light as air. Foolish hearts, king of fools, poor little fools, and fools who fall in love. We’ll be featuring a blend of country from Charlie Rich and Dwight Yoakam, blues with Etta James and Delbert McClinton, vocals from The Cadillacs and Frankie Lymon, and the so many more on this April Fool’s Day, 2022. Come on along…and don’t forget that tomorrow is the annual April Fool’s Day Parade in Occidental, home to KOWS.
We’re taking a bit of a break to pull the covers out. A lot of the covers we’ll be sharing today come from recent years and cut a broad swath through the past, with a special emphasis on ‘modern sounds’ including new wave, country and rock covered by some of the modern Americana performers that you hear on KOWS Community Radio’s Blue Moon Americana each week (and mornings at 5). Tune in for Jason Isbell, Bill Kirchen, Carrie Rodriguez, Sarah Jarosz, Nick Lowe, and a host of others. A fun run of sounds this morning as we kick off spring with fresh Americana covers.
The year was 1955. Bill Haley's Rock Around The Clock blasted off and just around the corner on the charts was Elvis who had a minor hit in 1954 that made some waves with That's Alright, Mama and Good Rockin' Tonight. RCA bought his contract from Sun Records for $35K. The minimum wage reached new heights of $1.00 per hour. The Brooklyn Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in the World Series. The Honeymooners and Gunsmoke debuted on television. And we'll be digging through the top ten charts of country, rhythm & blues, and pop in a year where the Cold War was a fact of life leading us to duck and cover. Tune in for some Webb Pierce, Eddy Arnold, Four Aces, Mitch Miller, Fats Domino, and Chuck Berry this week on our show that browses those dusty digital bins on a weekly basis on Community Radio here in Sonoma County.
In today’s show we’ll be spinning up some special doo wop tracks, and not necessarily the ‘big hits’. We’ll be sharing some under-the-radar sounds from some of the greats and some of the ‘never-heards’. Doo wop’s heyday was clearly brief, running from the early urban street corner sounds of the early 1950s to the more commercially viable and polished sounds of the early 1960s. Tune in for the popular sounds of The Cadillacs, Little Anthony, The Flamingos, and The El Dorados as well as off chart vocal gems from The Pastels, The Quotations, The Kodaks, and The Fascinators. All with a story and all in clean fun on Sonoma County Community Radio.
When we say roots, we mean roots. This week on Deeper Roots we'll kick off Women's History Month by paying tribute to the many female performers from early country, the Golden Age, and well into our latest century. Influential, talented, and more than many of the opposite sex, not afraid to make a political statement now and then. We'll also be sharing some recent Americana 'cowboy sweethearts' with songs that are both winsome and traditional. Tune in to Community Radio for Sonoma County as we go back to the 30s with the Girls of The Golden West, Patsy Montana, and The Tune Wranglers. We've also got some favorites from Margo Smith, Dale Evans, Rose Maddox and Dolly Parton to share with you.
A carefully curated concoction of sounds on a Friday morning will keep you on your toes going into the weekend here in Sonoma County. We'll pay tribute to Beverly "Ruby" Ross, a songwriter and musician who co-wrote some early rock n' roll classics who passed away last week. And there's no stopping the classics from rolling in with some country from the Golden Age including The Browns and Johnny Horton, an eclectic run of blues with Jimmy Reed and BB King, and some of the sweeter sounds from Patti Page, Jo Stafford, and Linda Ronstadt. Jackie Wilson will open our show this morning and we'll be sure to feed your soul with some Geraint Watkins from across the pond. Join us on the stream at kowsfm.com/listen.
This Friday’s Deeper Roots takes another dip into the brass and sass of soul and funk sounds from Duke, Kent, Motown, and beyond. We’re taking a bright and soulful circuitous route from Detroit to Memphis, Chicago, Philly, and the Chitlin’ Circuit. A little bit of rare soul beach music thrown in with some northern soul. We’ll hear from Mitty Collier, Donnie Elbert, Eddie Floyd, Willie Tee and an incredible roster of the known and not-so known from the past century. We’ll also pay tribute to Betty Davis, a soul and funk pioneer songstress who we lost this past week. Dial us up every Friday morning at 9 Pacific.
Music comes in all shapes and sizes. There are always the also-rans, the one hit wonders, the bright little shiny piece that gets lost among the thousands of others of the same mint, the ones that couldn’t afford to compete, as well as all the B-sides and album leftovers. We’re picking a few of those and a couple dozen others that we found as we ‘walked the beach’ in search of the perfect playlist to share this morning. Tune in for a sweet mix of just about everything featuring David Seville, Scatman Crothers, Lou Monte, Neil Young, Esquivel, and Johnny Cash as we lay out a brimming sea of sound like so much flotsam and jetsam on the Sonoma County airwaves this morning. Tune in for an earful and more.
The decade of the fifties found the sounds of rhythm and blues being best represented on the Atlantic Records label. Founded in 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson, the catalog of artists and the quality of production were unparalleled for their time. And while Ertegun’s biography is subtitled “The House That Ertegun Built”, the performers were also undisputed heavyweights: Big Joe Turner, Ray Charles, Clyde McPhatter, and Lavern Baker to name a few. Things, however, exploded when a lady dubbed “Miss Rhythm” arrived with “Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean” leading to another moniker: “The House That Ruth Built”. This week’s show will feature some of the great tracks from Ruth Brown and the many contemporaries who made the label synonymous with R&B well into the seventies and beyond. Tune in for a special treat. Rock, rhythm, and dynamite doo wop from the Atlantic vaults on a Friday morning.
Classic pairings with some rocking gospel from Elvis, country and bluegrass classics, some sacred steel, tradition, and some of the richest black gospel performances from the past century, with the focus being on those performers who put the passion into the ‘word’. The roots of rock, jazz, blues, and country are closer to the surface than you’d imagine and we’re here to share it with you: The Golden Gate Quartet, Willie and Bobbie Nelson, The Jordanaires, Nina Simone, and a couple dozen others here to celebrate and evangelize through great music. Deeper Roots heads back through the church and barn doors from the past century where the power of music tells a story in all it’s glory. Join us!
We lost one of the great country songwriters last week. You know his songs, no doubt, but it’s not likely you know his name. Dallas Frazier grew up with songsmithing in his blood. And he got around: the Bakersfield scene, penning a bit hit for The Hollywood Argyles and The Oak Ridge Boys, Portland, Los Angeles, Capitol Records and, of course, Nashville. He penned music for the likes of Elvis, Ferlin Husky, Connie Smith, George Jones, Charley Pride and dozens of others with a blending and re-imagining the kind of music he’d always been fond of: music of the early 20th century. Join us as we share the songs of Dallas Frazier and tell you a little bit about him in our next show here on Sonoma County Community Radio.
Free form sounds with time to kill from the past century. This week's Deeper Roots show features soul, seventies rock, some gospel, country and rhythm & blues. We'll be sharing an interesting blend of under-the-radar sounds from some greats: Ben E. King, Wanda Jackson, The Band, Mavis Staples, Neil Young, and beyond. Sonoma County Community radio is community radio at it's best. Join Dave Stroud for a selection of classics from the Cherry Street Historic District of Santa Rosa. We enjoy sharing and we hope you enjoy listening on Friday mornings on KOWS Occidental (and Friday evenings on KRJF Santa Rosa).
That new car smell…applied to everything we can think of…all to celebrate this new 2022 thing…365 more rotations and one long trip around that giant luminous orb. What a long strange trip it was. So let’s celebrate all that’s new as we move into our second decade of celebrating the past century of America’s music. This week, we’re taking on the theme of ‘brand new’….new heartaches, new cars, new neighbors, new mornings, and new hopes…same as the old hopes no doubt, but with a different slant. We’ve got performances by Mel Tillis, Dion, Ruthie Foster, Fats Domino, Steve Earle and a couple dozen others to keep our dreams worth holding onto. Let’s put COVID in the rear view. Let’s send the truth-doubters back to their rat’s nests. And make good trouble. Welcome 2022 with a promise to hold those who led an insurrection and those who voted for the leaders accountable. Tune into the show. I promise we’ll keep it real.
New Year’s Eve will bring a look back at those we’ve lost this past year. 2021 was another year of COVID-19 with a couple of variants slipping into and out of the world. We wait patiently, for the most part, for vaccines and adult behavior to work. Unfortunately, there is a selfishness about our species that cannot be denied. This year’s losses have no boundaries musically: everyone from Biz Markie to Stephen Sondheim, Vicente Fernandez to Nanci Griffith, Lloyd Price to Stonewall Jackson. Performers of our lifetime. We go into 2022 having hope. Join Dave Stroud for a musical look back.
In an encore episode first broadcast in 2017, we explore the bedrock sounds of tradition. While the lyrics and music of Robert Hunter took the Grateful Dead into remarkable directions, codifying their place among the bands of the latter half of the 20th century, by the time they reached their peak their roots were already firmly established. Their early music was clearly anchored in the sounds of tradition, reaching from the Appalachians to the Texas Gulf Coast. We’ll hear early (and contemporary) performances that inspired the band with songs of Blind Willie Johnson, Red Allen, The Mississippi Sheiks, Henry Thomas and Obray Ramsey. The landscape we’ll traverse includes blues, gospel, hillbilly, and folk…no Dead music, only music that served to inspire. This week on Sonoma County Community radio.
In an encore episode from 2015, we listen in as Dave explores the multi-generational sounds of not only bluegrass with Dillard and Clark and The Hackberry Ramblers, but we’ll also cross the genres (as we are wont to do) with Cowboy Copas, Clara Ward, Otis Spann, and Doris Day. There’s a couple of different threads that run through the show today, one being that of the ‘devil’ and the other being of ‘new mornings’. Tune in at a special time and see what’s in store on a late-fall morning in West County. And please, donate to community radio: kowsfm.com.
We enter December with hope. Join us for some sounds from the French Quarter and its environs. This Friday on Deeper Roots, tune in for a sweeping celebration taking the St. Charles trolley in time from Kid Ory and Louis Armstrong to the sounds of Tuba Fats, Mac Rebennack, Allen Toussaint and beyond. We’ll also find some Big Easy rocking treats by the water: Ernie K-Doe, Sugar Boy Crawford, Fats Domino, and Larry Darnell are also on the board from the Big Easy as well as sounds of piano pounders like Archibald, Champion Jack Dupree and Professor Longhair. KOWS radio’s antenna is moving so we highly recommend that you stream us on the KOWS web site (or via the KOWS app) because the FM signal will be out of commission as the transmitter has found a new home out in the hills above Bodega Highway.
It's Black Friday here in Sonoma County and we don't really know what to expect. Worn out from the ongoing pandemic, we're still moderating here but we very much need music to help us light the way. We like to make that possible on Friday mornings on KOWS when we find another free form collection full of small themes and nuggets. With a sprinkling of classic Carole King, Sonny Bono and Brill Building sounds, we'll move forward into the holidays with hand clapping gospel, soul stew from Booker T., some Leon Russell, Paul Simon, Gene Pitney, and The Cookies. The playlist this morning will circle back to celebrating all the things that matter in musical themes including true love, change, and (most of all) dance. Join us this week once again for some great sounds on KOWS 92.5 FM, Occidental. Free Speech. No Bull.
We’ll be settling into some classic country sounds from the golden age alongside some contemporary sounds that stay steadfast in a sound that rings true and authentic. We’ll hear some classics from Wynn Stewart, Buck Owens, Waylon Jennings, Webb Pierce and others. There will be plenty of original sounds from BR5-49 and Chuck Mead, k.d. lang, Don Edwards, and The Mavericks to remind us of the clear line between authentic and what’s attempting to pass for country these days. Tune in for a mix of swing, story songs, love songs, and foot-tappin’ treasures on Deeper Roots this week on Sonoma County Community radio where the music will always take you somewhere other than the main stream. We seldom venture there.