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.
No. |
1 | Artist |
Title |
Album |
Buy |
2 | John Hammond, Jr. |
Clap Hands |
Wicked Grin |
|
3 | Courtney Marie Andrews |
Downtown Train |
Come On Up To The House – Women Sing Waits |
|
4 | Tom Waits |
Tom Traubert's Blues |
Small Change |
|
5 | Willie Nelson;Sheryl Crow;Lukas Nelson |
Come On Up To The House |
Heroes |
|
6 | The Blind Boys Of Alabama |
Way Down In The Hole |
Spirit Of The Century |
|
7 | The Holmes Brothers |
Train Song |
Promised Land |
|
8 | King Ernest |
House Where Nobody Lives |
Not The Same Old Blues Crap, Vol. 2 |
|
9 | The Blue Hawaiians |
Jockey Full of Bourbon |
Savage Night |
|
10 | Tom Waits |
Dead & Lovely |
Real Gone |
|
11 | Tom Waits |
Ice Cream Man |
Closing Time |
|
12 | Holly Cole |
(Looking For) The Heart Of Saturday Night |
Temptation |
|
13 | Norah Jones |
The Long Way Home |
Feels Like Home |
|
14 | Tom Waits |
I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You |
Closing Time |
|
15 | Hayes Carll |
I Don't Wanna Grow Up |
Trouble In Mind |
|
16 | Eagles |
Ol' '55 |
The Very Best of the Eagles [2003] Disc 1 |
|
17 | Willie Nelson |
Picture In A Frame |
It Always Will Be |
|
18 | Tom Waits |
On The Nickel |
Heartattack And Vine |
|
19 | Marc Ribot |
Bella Ciao (Goodbye Beautiful) (feat. Tom Waits) |
Songs of Resistance 1942 – 2018 |
|
20 | Tom Waits |
The Soul Of A Man |
God Don't Never Change: The Songs Of Blind Willie Johnson |
|
21 | Solomon Burke |
Diamond in Your Mind |
Don't Give Up on Me |
|
22 | Tom Waits |
Whistlin4 Past The Graveyard |
Used Songs 1973-1980 |
|
23 | Tom Waits |
Georgia Lee |
Mule Variations |
|
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.
No. |
1 | Artist |
Title |
Album |
Buy |
2 | Estil C. Ball |
Lonesome Valley |
Sounds of the South [Disc 3] – Negro Church Music & White Spirituals |
|
3 | The Carter Family With Special Guest Johnny Cash |
Lonesome Valley |
Keep On The Sunny Side |
|
4 | Harry McClintock |
Big Rock Candy Mountain |
O Brother, Where Art Thou? |
|
5 | Jimmie Davis With Charles Mitchell's Orchestra |
You Are My Sunshine |
Decca Country Classics 1934-1973 [Disc 1] |
|
6 | Alison Krauss |
Down To The River To Pray |
A Hundred Miles Or More: A Collection |
|
7 | Peasall Sisters |
Fair and Tender Ladies |
Home to You |
|
8 | Roberta Martin Singers |
The Old Ship of Zion |
Halleluja Gospel & Prayers |
|
9 | The Stanley Brothers |
A Life Of Sorrow |
Stanley Brothers & Clinch Mountain Boys |
|
10 | Dan Tyminski/Soggy Bottom Boys |
Man of Constant Sorrow |
O Brother, Where Art Thou? |
|
11 | W. Lee & His Hillbilly Boys |
Please Pass The Biscuits Pappy |
Western Swing Chronicles Vol. 4 1933-1938 |
|
12 | Country Gentlemen |
I Am Weary (Let Me Rest) |
1963 (Warped 6305) |
|
13 | The Stanley Brothers & The Clinch Mountain Boys |
Clinch Mountain Backstep |
Constant Sorrow: Bluegrass From Root To Flower [Disc 3] |
|
14 | The Whites |
Keep on the Sunny Side |
O Brother, Where Art Thou? |
|
15 | Chuck Wagon Gang |
I'll Fly Away |
1941-1948 (Warped 4128) |
|
16 | Hannah Peasall/Leah Peasall/Sarah Peasall/The Peasall Sisters |
In the Highways |
O Brother, Where Art Thou? |
|
17 | Ralph Stanley |
Oh, Death (Featuring Gillian Welch) |
Clinch Mountain Sweethearts |
|
18 | Jesse Fuller |
Amazing Grace |
15 Down Home Gospel Classics |
|
19 | The Statler Brothers |
Statler Brothers – Amazing Grace |
Bless This House [Disc 3] |
|
20 | The Stanley Brothers |
Angel Band |
O Brother, Where Art Thou? |
|
21 | Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys |
Cryin' Holy Unto My Lord |
Constant Sorrow: Bluegrass From Root To Flower [Disc 2] |
|
22 | Doc Watson |
In the Jailhouse Now |
Memories |
|
23 | Robert Johnson |
They're Red Hot |
ABC Of The Blues Vol 18 |
|
24 | Lefty Frizzell |
My Rough And Rowdy Ways |
Songs Of Jimmie Rodgers |
|
25 | Jimmie Rodgers |
Frankie And Johnnie |
Recordings 1927 – 1933 [Disc 2] |
|
26 | Peerless Four |
Trouble in My Way |
Southern Journey Vol 8 (Velvet Voices: Eastern Shores Choirs, Quartets, and Colonial Era Music) |
|
27 | Chuck Wagon Gang/Jack Greene |
Family Bible |
70th Anniversary |
|
28 | J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers |
Goin' Down To The River Of Jordan |
Take Me To The Water |
|
29 | The Carter Family |
River Of Jordan |
Can The Circle Be Unbroken |
|
30 | W. Lee O'Daniel |
O'Daniel radio show sign off |
Western Swing Chronicles Vol. 4 1933-1938 |
|
31 | The Carter Family |
Can The Circle Be Unbroken |
Can The Circle Be Unbroken |
|
32 | John Hartford |
Indian War Whoop [Instrumental] |
O Brother, Where Art Thou? |
|
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.
No. |
1 | Artist |
Title |
Album |
Buy |
2 | Bob Dylan |
I Want You (Take 4, Alternate Take) |
The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 12 (Sampler) |
|
3 | Eugene Smith And The Roberta Martin Singers |
Satisfied |
How Sweet it Was |
|
4 | Marie Knight |
Satisfied With Jesus |
Hallelujah What A Song! |
|
5 | Spiritual Five |
Satisfied With Him |
I Heard The Angels Singing : Electrifying Black Gospel From the Nashboro Label 1951-1983 [Disc 3] |
|
6 | Sam Cooke And The Soul Stirrers |
I Have A Friend Above All Others |
The Complete Specialty Recordings [Disc 2] |
|
7 | Johnnie Taylor/The Soul Stirrers |
Walk With Me |
20 Gospel Greats |
|
8 | Sam Cooke |
Trouble In Mind |
The Rhythm And The Blues |
|
9 | Steve Forbert |
Devil (Here She Comes Now) |
Compromised |
|
10 | Shorty Long |
Devil With a Blue Dress On |
Hitsville USA: The Motown Singles Collection 1959-1971 Disc 1 |
|
11 | Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels |
Devil with the Blue Dress On /Good Golly Miss Molly |
Detroit Breakout! 1 |
|
12 | Julia Lee |
Trouble In Mind |
Kansas City Star [Disc 1] |
|
13 | Julia Lee |
Lotus Blossom |
Kansas City Star [Disc 1] |
|
14 | Wynonie Harris |
Good Morning Judge |
All She Wants To Do Is Rock |
|
15 | Chuck Berry |
Have Mercy Judge |
The Chess Box Disc 3 |
|
16 | Carl Martin |
Good Morning, Judge |
Carl Martin, Tennessee Chocolate Drops, Louie Bluie & Ted Bogan, Willie "61" Blackwell — Complete Recorded Works |
|
17 | Sonny Boy Williamson |
Your Funeral And My Trial |
His Best: Sonny Boy Williamson – The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection |
|
18 | Hugh Laurie |
Send Me To The 'Lectric Chair |
Didn't It Rain (Deluxe) |
|
19 | Dinah Washington |
Send Me To The 'Lectric Chair |
The Bessie Smith Songbook |
|
20 | Johnny Otis |
Court Room Blues |
Various Artists: Rhythm & Blues Goes Rock & Roll/Volume 2/[Disc 1] |
|
21 | Jorma Kaukonen |
Judge, I'm Not Sorry |
The Land Of Heroes |
|
22 | The Country Gentlemen |
The Sentence |
The Early Rebel Recordings [Disc 2] |
|
23 | Ernest Tubb |
Dear Judge |
Last Sessions: All Time Greatest Hits Disc 2 |
|
24 | Patsy Cline |
A Church, a Courtroom, and Then Goodbye |
Live at the Opry |
|
25 | Washboard Sam |
Bucket's Got a Hole in It [Remastered 2002] |
That's Chicago's South Side (When the Sun Goes Down series) |
|
26 | Hank Williams |
My Bucket's Got A Hole In It |
The History Of Country & Western Music – Vol. 18 |
|
27 | Louis Armstrong & All His Stars |
My Bucket's Got A Hole In It |
The Ultimate Collection [Disc 2] |
|
28 | Page & Plant |
My Bucket's Got A Hole In It |
Good Rockin' Tonight: The Legacy Of Sun Records |
|
29 | Joe Ely |
Rock Me My Baby |
Musta Notta Gotta Lotta [rem] (1981) |
|
30 | Marty Stuart |
A Satisfied Mind |
Country Music |
|
31 | Tennessee Ernie Ford |
Cool, Cool Kisses |
Masters 1949-1976 [Disc 3] |
|
32 | Bea Foote |
Weed |
The Ultimate 30's & 40's Reefer Songs |
|
33 | Sam & Dave |
Soothe Me |
The Best Of Sam & Dave |
|
34 | The Persuasions |
Soothe Me |
Good News |
|
A Century of America's Music