We bring you an encore of part 2 of our 2025 remembrance where we pay tribute to another group of performers and contributors who left us with an Americana legacy. Over the past century, American music has been shaped by rare combinations of talent, wit, wisdom, and deeply personal approaches to arrangement, rhythm, and delivery. This year we reflect on the contributions from artists and architects of sound whose work continues to resonate. In this episode, we will move from the pop sounds of Jane Morgan and Richard Chamberlain to the legendary late century performers like the Grateful Dead, Sly Stone, and Bad Company. We’ll also take some time to remember Joe Ely, Ozzy Osbourne, Johnny Tillotson and Tom Lehrer. Hope you can drop in for this second, and last chapter of 2025. You can listen live, online, at 9 Pacific each Friday at www.kowsfm.com/listen.
Monthly Archives: December 2025
Who We Lost 2025 Pt 1
Another year turns, and once again we pause to honor the legacies that aren’t left behind so much as carried forward—alive in the music itself. Over the past century, American music has been shaped by rare combinations of talent, wit, wisdom, and deeply personal approaches to arrangement, rhythm, and delivery. This year we reflect on the contributions from artists and architects of sound whose work continues to resonate: voices and visionaries such as Raul Malo, Flaco Jiménez, Steve Cropper, Phil Upchurch, Jerry Butler, Brian Wilson, David Johansen, Tony Bennett, and Garth Hudson. Their influence spans genres, generations, and countless records that still speak loud and clear. With just two hours, hard choices have to be made—so this tribute begins as Part 1 of a two part reflection. We hope you’ll tune in for a thoughtful look back at the artists whose legacies defined the soundtrack of our lives.
Steve Cropper Tribute
Long before you ever knew his name, Steve Cropper’s music was a part of your life if you grew up with a radio tuned to soul, rock, or R&B. You were already absorbing his fingerwork: that clipped, chiming guitar on “Green Onions,” the taut groove that made Wilson Pickett sound ten feet tall, or the unmistakable snap of Stax rhythm sections he helped shape. We lost a giant who contributed to the Americana musical landscape this past week and our show this week will reflect on his body of work. He wasn’t just part of the soundtrack of our lives, he was part of the atmosphere, a presence whose playing taught you—quietly and consistently—what feel really meant. To grow up with Steve Cropper’s music is to realize, eventually, that he helped define not just a sound but a sensibility—one where the groove is tight, the soul runs deep, and the guitar part is always exactly what the song needs and not a note more.
Down & Dirty Blues
This week’s show leans into the rougher side of the tradition: the places where bruised pride, bad decisions, and raw truth find their way into song. “The down and dirty blues” isn’t a stylistic claim so much as a shared attitude — the kind shaped by rent coming due, lovers turning cold, and the kind of trouble that sits heavy in the gut. Across the past century, singers and players have used these stories to put plainspoken feeling into motion, building grooves that don’t promise comfort so much as recognition. Across two hours, we’ll move through voices that carried this edge with conviction — men and women from the 1930s onward who weren’t at all shy about calling out mean mistreaters or confessing their own missteps. You’ll hear hard-driving cuts where guitars sting, pianos roll, and vocals land with a certain bruising weight. Tune in for the likes of Victoria Spivey, Lonnie Johnson, Dirty Red, Little Joe Blue, Howlin’ Wolf and a couple dozen others. The ‘dirty dozen’ doesn’t get much dirtier than this.
