Deeper Gospel Roots

Deeper Gospel Roots
Deeper Gospel Roots

We visit a mix of genres that celebrate the sacred and the sanctified in an episode entitled “Deeper Gospel Roots”.  The mix includes early influential pieces from Arizona Dranes and the Alabama Sacred Harp Singers and explores the southern Baptist influence on gospel music with the inevitable undercurrent of themes that are also found in the country sounds of performers such as  Molly O’Day and Cumberland Mountain Folks and The Louvins…as well as the sanctified blues of Charley Patton and the Reverend Blind Gary Davis.

We’ll also take some time to sample some rare urban influences including the electric guitar disciples from the Boddie Recording Company of Cleveland, Ohio and the sounds of late century ‘sacred steel’.   Don’t miss out…join Dave Stroud as he guides us through the performances from the last century of America’s music.

This episode will be posted to Mixcloud in the near future.

 

Murder Ballads

Murder Ballads
Murder Ballads

Deeper Roots presents “Murder Ballads”. Join Dave Stroud for an exploration of the fateful legends of Naomi Wise, Pretty Polly, Hattie Carroll, and Tom Dulah…and others. Many of these ‘true crime’ ballads recall an historic event that grew in myth and legend as its thread was passed and adapted from ear to ear…eventually resolving itself in the story of the perpetrator’s fate.

This episode will be posted to Mixcloud in the near future.

Bob Dylan Special

Bob Dylan Special
Bob Dylan Special

We wished Bob Dylan a happy 72nd birthday in 2013 by spending our two hour set celebrating his work by sharing songs he’s written, performed by both his contemporaries and Dylan himself. We’ll also hear some anecdotes relayed by Bob from a couple of different sources.

Since he arrived on the music scene in 1961 up until his latest release “Tempest”, Bob Dylan has proven that he is a Renaissance Man, a musical entrepreneur, an actor, a radio personality, a sage spokesman for roots music, and a philosophical icon. To ignore Dylan’s body of work in the context of roots music is to ignore a over a half century of the inspiration, influences, and relationships he’s had with the many genres (and often the legends) of folk, jazz, blues, country, bluegrass, and gospel.

Join Dave Stroud as he shares a set of all songs written by Dylan including performances from Warren Zevon, Flatt and Scruggs, The White Stripes, and Eric Clapton.

This episode will be posted to Mixcloud in the near future.

Dreams Of Home

Dreams of Home
Dreams of Home

Every Friday night at 9 on KWTF, we visit another slice of roots music, curated with backstories about the performances, the performers, and the arch of story-telling. Dave Stroud brings us  a selection of roots inspired themes of home as muse and metaphor in artists’ performances from the past century of America’s music.  The theme of home is covered by almost 90 years of recordings, starting with the Carter Family and Da Costa Woltz’s Southern Broadcasters from the Gennett archives of the late twenties into music of the late 2000’s featuring John Prine, Bruce Springsteen, and Steve Earle. We’ll also hear from Robert Johnson, George Edgin’s Corn Dodgers and gospel from the likes of Dorothy Love Coates and Frank Sinatra…Frank Sinatra???! Join us.

Fifties Country

In a show we broadcast in May of 2013, we explore classic Country music with performers ranging from Hank Williams and Johnny Cash to Hank Snow and Webb Pierce.  With the format of the genre becoming watered down into a more mainstream format by the late 1970s, the sound of Country music of the fifties and sixties (considered by many to be the ‘Golden Age of Country Music’) has found its own niche and listening audience.  The move to digital, it turns out, has made the genre more accessible, beyond the familiar rural audiences who shunned the pop mainstream that found them alienated from their music. Join Dave Stroud as he shares two hours of Classic Country on Deeper Roots: A Century of America’s Music.

This episode will be posted to Mixcloud in the near future.

Down The Road

Down The Road
Down The Road

Roots music so often plays on the theme of ‘going home’ and uses metaphor to illustrate the journey.  In past episodes of Deeper Roots, A Century of America’s Music, we’ve explored the music of the railroad and waterways as themes in American roots music. This episode has us focusing on the muse of routes, roads, and highways. We’ll hear from Mose Allison, Chuck Berry, Lowell Fulson, and Hank Williams in a set that follows road trips, functions at the junctions, highway signs, rocky roads, dusty roads, big roads, gospel highways, and bi-ways of the heart.  Don’t miss it! And don’t forget that you can hear past episodes by subscribing to our podcasts here:  http://deeperroots.podomatic.com/

This episode will be posted to Mixcloud in the near future.

Deeper Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Deeper Sister Tharpe
Deeper Sister Rosetta Tharpe

In this installment of Deeper Roots, a special edition dedicated to the music of Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Born Rosetta Nubin in Cotton Plant, Arkansas, she began her career at age four performing with her evangelical mother in shows that were part sermon, part gospel concert, and energetic events that got the audience moving. She influenced a great number of performers who would go on to take her secular message into a realm that, for all intents and purposes, she had created: rock and roll. Her electrifying guitar work complimented her voice and she left us with a legacy of recordings that has no peer. Join Dave Stroud Friday night at 9PM as he explores her influences, those she influenced, and music from Sister Tharpe herself.

This episode will be posted to Mixcloud in the near future.

Deeper Wolf

Deeper Wolf
Deeper Howlin’ Wolf

He had become a fixture of the Delta juke joints and small clubs of the South so that when Sam Phillips first recorded him for the Chess Brothers, the change from local legend to urban blues star was a very short journey. He was a giant of a performer in both the figurative sense as well as in real life.

We’ll hear Wolf’s reflections in his own voice as well as the songs that, over the years, were honed into American roots classics. Smokestack Lightnin’, Three Hundred Pounds of Joy, Little Red Rooster, and other pieces of Howlin’ Wolf are a part of this week’s show…performed by both Wolf as well as other artists. Join Dave Stroud for an enlightening journey into the sounds of Howlin Wolf…with its twists of evil, penitence, and fiery passion.

International Women’s Day – 2013

International Women's Day 2013
Celebrating International Women’s Day 2013

Join us for a musical celebration dedicated to International Women’s Day, 2013.  We’ll be playing two hours of performances from some of the greatest female artists of the past century including Ethel Waters, Little Sylvia, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and many others. Dave Stroud cues it up with music and stories in a show first broadcast in March of 2013.

This episode will be posted to Mixcloud in the near future.

Gambling Theme

Gambling
Gambling Theme

Deeper Roots explores the theme of ‘gambling’ in this episode, first broadcast in March, 2013. Songs of blackjack, cards, dice, gambling and gamblers, including some that have evolved over the centuries, and we’ll hear the inevitable stories of winner’s luck and hard times for the loser. Our performers in this episode include The Burnette Brothers, the Harlem Hamfats, Frankie Laine, and Big Joe Turner…Tune in!

This episode will be posted to Mixcloud in the near future.