In this episode of Deeper Roots, we explore the early works of a giant of American popular music: Duke Ellington. His career spanned over a half century where he composed thousands of songs for stage, screen, and the contemporary songbook. He called his music “American Music” and his signature sound, particularly in the early years, was unmistakable. This was in large part because he searched out musicians with unique playing styles such as Bubber Miley, Joe Nanton, Cootie Williams, Rex Stewart, and the great alto saxophonist. While our focus will be on the pre-War Elligton classics, we’ll also catch the early versions of “Sophisticated Lady” and “Take the ‘A’ Train” and, at the same time, include some telling excerpts from a few different interviews.
This episode will look at the roots of Honky Tonk: a place where, on one side of the track you, as Roosevelt Sykes points out in “The Honeydripper”, you had the blues performer as Doctor who prescribed Blues as a cure for the Blues and on the other, you had the country sound of Moon Mullican who demanded that the beer bottles danced on the table when the band got rockin’. We’ll spend our time exploring the early sounds of Big Maceo, Albert Ammons, and Jimmy Yancey and move down yonder to the country bars where boogie woogie was also understood. The country honky tonk sounds of Merrill Moore, Bobbie Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis, and a handful of others will get their chance to entertain. Boogie woogie came to the country and it was retooled and renamed as honky tonk.
This episode of Deeper Roots will feature Big Band Standards done by others as well as by the greats of the genre. Swing and sway with the sounds of “At the Woodchopper’s Ball”, “Take the A Train”, “Little Brown Jug”, “One O’Clock Jump”, and a number of others. The performers cross the divide…Bob Wills, Nina Simone, The Mills Brothers, Benny Goodman, George Harrison, Merrill Moore, and others. The big band sound had an energy and personality that was made for the urban clubs, but it would also make itself known as more than just a pop or jazz phenomenon…it became the music of a generation that found a broader audience at barn dances, Elks’ Halls, theaters, and the larger venues of the present day. It’s roots music with a swinging groove and drive.
It’s ‘theme time’ in this episode of Deeper Roots. We’ll listen to performances that explore that not-so-curious passion for money, the anxiety and fear of not having enough, and stories of a time when was hard to come upon. We’ll hear what would be paid for a song or keeping quiet; fantasies of what it might be like to in a position of wealth and nightmares of when the money’s all gone. Mostly, however, we’ll hear stories about what would be paid in exchange for a man’s time, or maybe a man’s soul. Join Dave Stroud for another journey through a century of America’s music where he’ll include among the performers Buddy Guy, Lefty Frizzell, The Blue Sky Boys, Gillian Welch, Chuck Berry, and Howlin’ Wolf.
Bob Wills’ name will forever be associated with Western swing. Although he may not have invented the genre he was certainly responsible for popularizing it and would single-handedly change its rules and, in the process, reinvented the rules of popular music. Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys were a dance band with a country string section that played pop songs as if they were jazz numbers. Their music expanded and erased boundaries between genres. It was also some of the most popular music of its era. Throughout the ’40s, the band was one of the most popular groups in the country and the musicians in the Playboys were among the finest of their era. As the popularity of Western swing declined, so did Wills’ popularity, but his influence is immeasurable and he would find a resurgence in the recognition as a foundation of country and rock in later years..
Our show explores traditional pieces and versions that have been covered by contemporary artists. “Mama Don’t Allow”, “Soldier’s Joy”, “That Nasty Swing”, “Worried Mind”, and “Mary of the Wild Moor” are just a handful of the selections we’ll share in our show tonight. Some of the performers included in our set include Ivory Joe Hunter, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, The Dixon Brothers, and Byrd Moore. Join Dave Stroud tonight at 9 on KWTF as he shares the stories of the music, song stories, and performers from the last American century…it’s roots music that does matter.
Deeper Roots: A Century of America’s Music goes deeper…back 87 years to the summer of 1927 when Ralph Peer, a producer for the Victor Talking Machine Company visited the town of Bristol, Tennessee scouting for talent. He brought with him the equipment necessary to capture those first-take performances which would come to be known as The Bristol Sessions. From late July through early August artists such as The Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers and the Stoneman Family made recordings in a makeshift studio inside downtown Bristol’s Taylor-Christian Hat Company. Johnny Cash once said that “These recordings…are the single most important event in the history of country music.”
Join Dave Stroud as Deeper Roots goes beyond the more notable names from these recordings and, with a certain leaning to the country sounds, he will also reveal the gospel and folk tradition that came out of these and the later Johnson City Sessions. We’ll hear from The Johnson Brothers, The Stamps Quartet, Alfred Karnes, Uncle Eck Dunford, and a host of others.
Join Dave Stroud tomorrow night for some Fourth of July Americana from the last century of America’s music. He’s been digging into those dusty digital archives for songs celebrating America. It’s the Fourth of July and all of the fireworks, flags, bunting, barbecues, and patriotic celebrations can be traced back as well to a century of America’s music. We’ve got broadway and silver screen classics, country music new and old, songs with tongue-in-cheek flag-waving wit, and a number of ballads that celebrate the good in all of us…we’ll also reflect on a little bit of the bad. Our playlist Friday night includes The Piper’s Gap Ramblers, Dave Alvin, James Brown, Morton Gould doing Sousa, Randy Newman, and many more in an eclectic blend of patriotic pandering and tongue-in-cheek rambling.
No.
1
Artist
Title
Album
Buy
2
Woody Guthrie
This Land Is Your Land (Alternate Version)
Woody At 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection
3
Bill Chitwood & His Georgia Mountaineers
Fourth Of July At The Country Fair (1927)
Work Hard, Play Hard, Pray Hard: Hard Time, Good Time, And End Time Music, 1923-1936
4
Pipers Gap Ramblers
Yankee Doodle
Serenade The Mountains: Early Old Time Music On Record, [Disc 1]
Join Dave Stroud for the music of Louis Armstrong, from the early King Oliver days to popular tunes of the late century. Probably the most important musician to come out of the 20th century, he took the blues and established it as jazz’s harmonic foundation, well beyond the ‘fashionable’ jazz of the day. He introduced a style of singing called ‘scat’ that was to be mimicked by others including Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Bing Crosby. He created masterworks based on Tin Pan Alley songs that went beyond his original New Orleans influences, showing that jazz could expand musically and commercially. And there is little doubt that he introduced the form we know as ‘swing’ today.
With the rise of be-bop and modern jazz, some of the newcomers (Dizzy Gillespie being the most vocal) pushed Louis aside with a new sound in jazz and words that were youthful miscalculations at the least if not disrespectful altogether. But it was time that would prove Louis’ music and his stature in the history of the American musical art form that remains abiding and durable. Those newcomers would recant and recognize the true mark of genius.
We’ll feature two hours exploring the career of Louis Armstrong in both music and in his own words.
Deeper Roots digs into the early sounds of rock in another episode that explores the songwriters…this time focusing on the talents of the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, During the first decade of a rock ‘n roll, they brought the R&B music they loved to the pop mainstream, producing a catalog of enduring, influential, and spirited musical pieces. The two grew up on the East Coast, Leiber in Baltimore and Stoller in Queens, but met in Los Angeles in 1950 where they began a sixty year collaboration, Leiber serving as the sharp-witted lyricist, while the classically trained but jazz-and R&B-loving Stoller wrote the music. Join Dave Stroud in a show first broadcast on KWTF in 2014 as he’ll share the duo’s songwriting talents featuring the music of LaVern Baker, Big Mama Thornton, Bull Moose Jackson, Brian Setzer, and many, many others.
