From the cold grey light of dawn to some gospel coverage from Luther Dickinson, George Jones and The Golden Gate Quartet, Deeper Roots this week takes another pull at the thread of tapestry of the past century, once again celebrating America’s music. We’re in fine form, no doubt, because the players this week move from the ‘king of boogie’, John Lee Hooker, to one of the great contemporary songwriters, Iris DeMent. We’ll share a track from her latest album, one that ventures into the dark corners of this country’s recent history with her brilliant eight minute soliloquy “Goin’ Down To Sing In Texas”. We’ll share songs about liars, feeling good, 99 year blues, and that last train to Memphis. Join Dave Stroud for two hours from America’s songbooks, from church to steeple to songs about its people. We’ll be coming to you live from the Cherry Street Historic District of Santa Rosa, California.
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Making Believe
Fresh from a couple of weeks away, we’re going for the easy listening, classic pieces from the Great American Songbook. Join Dave Stroud on a dream-laden journey on the waters of the past century of America’s music as he pairs up some of the classic ballads and torch songs from the past. Mostly crooners but there’s plenty of jazz and pop standards to celebrate. We’ll hear pairings from The Mills Brothers and Les Paul & Mary Ford, Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan, Rosemary Clooney and Leon Redbone, Etta James, Billie Holiday, and Peggy Lee. That’s the short list. We’ll hear versions of “Fever”, “Dream”, “Smile”, “April in Paris” and “Autumn Leaves” in a show that reminds us that so many of these pop standards hold up well when put to the test of time. Drop by on a Friday morning where there’s whispering grasses among the autumn leaves here on Sonoma County Community Radio.
Ladies of Rockabilly
Sweatin’ with the oldies…that’s all we can say. This week’s Deeper Roots focuses on both the vintage and the contemporary performances by women who took on the rockabilly mantle. While a male-dominated genre, particularly when the boys (and record companies) were chasing the next Elvis, gave us hundreds (thousands?) of gyrating hips and raw rock in the form of pounding piano, thrashing guitar and duck tails, there was barely enough room for the ladies. But we’ve made some room on this morning’s show where we’ll be featuring the likes of Wanda Jackson, Janis Martin, Laura Lee Perkins and a bevy of brash rocking women from the early days of rock ‘n roll. We’ll do our best to balance the show with late breakers of the rockabilly kind: Kim Lenz, Linda Gail Lewis, Imelda May and Rosie Flores are some of the contemporary sounds we’ll be hearing from on this September morning. Tune in for a wild two hours…guaranteed.
Silver Screen Country
From those blue shadows on the trail that were only imagined in black and white to the notion of good guys with tall white hats chasing down the bad guys across the expanse of the Alabama Hills where Hollywood carved out a little piece of the West…we’re going to go riding down some musical canyons with some of the great musical cowboys of the silver screen. Fewer of us are around that once followed the serial antics of Gene and Smiley or Roy and Dale on Saturday morning reruns of flickering cowboy ‘mysteries’ where music played a big part of the story. After all, a clean shaven singing cowboy with a scarf, white hat and a twinkle in his eye was much more appealing than what the reality was…I think that’s a safe assumption. Tune in for music from Gene Autry, The Sons of the Pioneers, Rex Allen, Tex Ritter and over a dozen others as Dave Stroud spins the shellacs from the 30s, 40s and 50s…and we might even track down later covers that tip the cap here on KOWS Community Radio.
Mix Master’s Delight
An eclectic free form blend of sounds featuring a variety highlighted by Memphis Minnie, T-Bone Burnett, The Rascals, The Miracles and Carole King…plus over a dozen others in our last show of summer 2023. As the walls of justice close in on traitors and seditionists, we lean on the hope that the constitutional provision that prevents their ilk from ever holding office is the key to saving democracy. Politics aside, the music this week features songs about baking biscuits, diamonds, shopping around, head spinning and what it’s like living here in the U.S.A. Friday morning’s Deeper Roots is a blend of classic and deep tracks designed to set the table for the weekend, right here on Community Radio for West Sonoma County and the world. Tune in, turn on but don’t, just don’t, drop out.
Stardust Memories
Time to revisit a songwriter from the 20th century whose influence is still felt today. Notwithstanding his unworldly talent for melodies, Hoagy Carmichael left a legacy of the smart alec piano player in the corner, reflecting on all that was around him, composing several hundred songs including fifty that achieved hit-record status during his long career. From his 1927 recording that introduced Stardust to later Hollywood songs that stood the test of time, including Ray Charles’ Georgia On My Mind or Willie Nelson’s Stardust, his songwriting was only matched by his personality, lowdown and smooth, able to sell his songs to lyricists, music publishers, film producers, and promoting them to the public via microphones on stage and in mass media. We’ll spend a couple hours with his music…from Paul Whiteman to The Brother Brothers, here on Sonoma County Community Radio. Hope you can join us.
Labor Day 2023
We’ve got a Labor Day collection of songs…songs celebrating working men and women and these are songs of both honor and protest, taking us back to the Great Depression when work was hard to find. We’ll also be celebrating the core fight for organizing…whether you’re fighting for the day-to-day pressure of producing faster and better in front of a computer or you’re steaming lattes for the hurried throngs, you have a right to organize and much of the music we’ll share today reinforces the concept. While unions are demonized with threats of offshoring…you know it will be done either way. Music today will include Pete Seeger, Mavis Staples, Paul Robeson, Bruce Springsteen and a whole host of others. Tune in on kowsfm.com/listen or download our app.
Two Glasses Joe
We’re heading on over to the Alibi Room, or Red’s Recovery Room, or whatever your local watering hole might be named and we’ll be doing so with the idea that the hair of the dog is what’s in order this Friday morning, recalling if we can the previous night’s bar hop celebrating country music’s favorite songs of cigareets, whiskey and wild wild women. Songs about whiskey and the glasses on the bar where stories and faces go from long to bright as the jukebox fires up. We’ll hear some classic songs from Webb Pierce, George Jones, Roger Miller and Merle Haggard alongside some contemporary sounds from the late Bill Staines, Chris Stapleton, and Dale Watson, all celebrating Johnnie Walker, Jim Beam, and Maker’s Mark…alongside a little bit of scotch and rye…neat or on the rocks. The honky tonk joints we’ll visit will likely have sawdust on the floor and a well-worn bar. Tune for the very best from the past century with your host, Dave Stroud, on KOWS Community Radio.
Hair’s On Fire
It’s summer and what better time to roll out the scorchers; vocals with an emphasis on big beats, screamin’ guitars and performances that sweat quite profusely in the noonday sun. This week on Deeper Roots we’ll be digging through the archives of early rock, rhythm & blues and rockabilly for some tumultuous and head-splitting numbers from the past. Songs that woke up the neighbors if only played at a moderate level and woe be the terrified fifties’ parents when they heard the hi-fi blaring these songs from the youngster’s room. We’ve put together a collection of wildcat tamers, killer dillers, and not a bit of filler in the show today that will leave you breathless. Among those sparking the fuel that could set the hair on fire are Tarheel Slim, Jimmy Breedlove, Chan Romero, Big Mama Thornton, and the one and only Richard Penniman. Tune in for another Friday morning collection of the very best from the past century with your host, Dave Stroud, on KOWS Community Radio.
Saved!
We go back to the church for a rousing celebration for the converted and soon-to-be-faithful. That’s right, we’re in the pews and joining in the hymnal, at least for this two hours, as Sunday morning forgiveness will always follow Saturday night’s sinner’s baptismal. We’re going to hear the echoes of the past century’s gospel songs with a general theme of being saved and born again…and there is certainly plenty to go around whether that’s southern Baptist, Appalachian harmonies or classic African American celebratory gospel. We’ve got it this morning including The Dixie Hummingbirds, Hank Williams, Carl Story, Lonnie Farris, and some contemporary selections from Shannon McNally, Bob Dylan and Solomon Burke. Let’s join in, you the faithful congregation of Deeper Roots from the past century of America’s music, for two hours celebrating that incredible wellspring of gospel sounds.