What a show for the day after Thanksgiving! This week we roll out a two-hour celebration of bakery-inspired tunes—an irresistible mix of cakes, pies, donuts, cookies, and every sugary delight ever to find its way into a lyric. We’ll be mixing up a blend from a century’s worth of music, from early jazz confections and country-fried treats to soulful blues pastries, golden-era pop indulgences, and rock-and-roll slices served hot from the oven. It’s all about how bakery imagery has sweetened American music’s storytelling. Jazz bands swing like a spoon in batter; country artists offer homestyle wisdom baked into every verse; blues singers lean into the bittersweet with slow-cooked grooves; and rock outfits bring the heat with songs that crust, crackle, and pop. Whether it’s a dusty 78 from the 1920s or a modern track with sprinkles of retro charm, the playlist draws straight from the musical pantry of the past hundred years. This week’s highlights include performances from Dan Hicks, NRBQ, Curtis Salgado, Ella Fitzgerald, Fats Waller and a whole lot more. Tune into community radio for West Sonoma County. KOWS-LP 92.5 FM Occidental, streaming to planet Earth at kowsfm.com/listen.
Monthly Archives: November 2025
Harmonica Legends
Got a harmonica romp through the past one hundred years of America’s Music this coming Friday morning. We’ll be following the harmonica’s journey along and across the American crossroads…one that began in the 19th century, when inexpensive German-made “mouth harps” made their way into the hands of soldiers, travelers, and rural families. Its portability and expressive bends made it a natural fit for early blues and country porch settings. From that country blues porch setting to the juke joints where electric blues, rock, soul, blues, and Americana meet and mingle. We’ll be opening the vaults for some classic tracks from the likes of Little Walter, DeFord Bailey, Mickey Raphael, Sonny Boy Williamson, Charlie Musselwhite, and a couple dozen others as we celebrate the “mouth harp” for its blistering, distorted lead influencing generations of performers of all stripes. Drop in…we’d be glad to have you visit this Friday morning.
Rock Roll and Soul
This week’s Deeper Roots takes a wide turn down the backroads of American music, delivering a two-hour free form ride through the crossroads where rock, soul, blues, and Americana meet and mingle. We’ll be opening the vaults for an eclectic blend honoring the roots while keeping one foot in the groove — where a deep cut from Garland Jeffreys might slide right up against raw King Curtis Memphis soul, a bouncy David Lindley number, or the tight shuffle of a Chess Records blues side. We’ll be connecting the dots between decades and genres with warmth and curiosity. Whether it’s Louvin-soaked harmonies, road-weary country soul, or the smoky after-hours mood of the juke joint, this week’s celebration once more explores the shared DNA of American sound. Tune in for stories between the songs, unexpected transitions, and a handpicked setlist that speaks to both memory and motion — a sonic journey that proves the roots run deep, wide, and ever surprising.
Rhythm & Bayou Romp
The sounds of New Orleans carry a mood that’s both jubilant and deeply human; it dances and mourns in the same breath. It’s the sound of the street parade meeting the juke joint: syncopated, earthy, and alive with horns, piano rolls, and that unmistakable backbeat shuffle. Unlike the more urban polish of Chicago blues or the rural cry of the Delta, New Orleans R&B has always felt like a conversation between the sacred and the profane, where gospel chords meet barroom swagger. Just beyond the Crescent City’s lights, where the waters of the bayou take form, we’ve got the accordians and fiddles of the swamp, where there’s humor, head and heartbreak woven into the DNA of the deep South. It is joyous and haunted, elegant and raw, as well as endlessly resilient. The music of New Orleans inspired an ethos — that music could be communal, unrestrained, and celebratory no matter the hardship. It taught America how to dance through its troubles, to find rhythm in resilience, and to turn sorrow into sound that still shakes the rafters and demands a communal dance to this day. This week’s show raises the flag of the Crescent City and her environs with a rhythm and bayou romp!
Halloween 2025
Halloween in America, on the anniversary of the first quarter century of the millennium. We celebrate the night by wearing masks, by flirting with fear, by turning the grotesque into entertainment. But here in 2025, you can’t help but feel like the masks didn’t come off this year. The trick-or-treaters will return home tonight, but the parade of make-believe monsters marched straight into the daylight this past January — and some of them are occupying the most important offices in our fragile democracy. What used to be a night for play-acting power, for pretending to be the villain, has turned into a movement that’s forgotten the difference between costume and conviction. The slogans sound patriotic, the anger sounds righteous, and the cruelty wears the grin of normalcy. Halloween, at least, has an ending — sunrise, candy wrappers, a hangover of sugar and smoke. But America’s current masquerade? The lights came on, and the masks stayed put.
