We’ll be settling into some classic country sounds from the golden age alongside some contemporary sounds that stay steadfast in a sound that rings true and authentic. We’ll hear some classics from Wynn Stewart, Buck Owens, Waylon Jennings, Webb Pierce and others. There will be plenty of original sounds from BR5-49 and Chuck Mead, k.d. lang, Don Edwards, and The Mavericks to remind us of the clear line between authentic and what’s attempting to pass for country these days. Tune in for a mix of swing, story songs, love songs, and foot-tappin’ treasures on Deeper Roots this week on Sonoma County Community radio where the music will always take you somewhere other than the main stream. We seldom venture there.
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Crazy Blues Centennial
It was the year 1920. One of the more important events in the annals of popular music in the United States occurred 100 years ago this month. Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds’ recording of Perry Bradford‘s tune “Crazy Blues” became an instant hit and was the first significant recording in the blues genre. And Mamie herself was also the first African American female popular singer to lead a commercial recording. This week on Deeper Roots we celebrate with the first installment of a show featuring two hours of music including two very special guests: Gillian and Gary Atkinson, proprietors of Document Records in the UK. I had a chance to interview the two about the label and about the dawn of blues and jazz recording including the early century social impact of black artists. A very special opportunity offered for a very special time. We’ll also hear about a recent video release called Searching for Secret Heroes, a resurrection of a long lost documentary made by Sam Charters, released by Document this past April.
The Original Spins
Deeper Roots this week digs into popular culture in the late 20th century…not so much the deeper aspect, but certainly the roots aspect. The big hits can often be traced back to the originals…sometimes in the same year, sometimes many decades before. We’ll be spinning up ‘the originals’ this week on our community radio show. We’ll take a peek at the hits and share the full blown hits including tracks from Barbie Gaye, Richard Berry, Bessie Banks, and Gloria Jones. You’ll hear the originals of James Brown’s “I Got You”, Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love”, Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock”, and a couple dozen more.
Country Leftovers
Turkey leftovers? No, country leftovers. “…and I fell asleep with a troubled dream and dreamed I road on the hellbound train.” Just one line from one track from our Friday morning Deeper Roots show which focuses on some country songs ‘from the edge’. An eclectic blend of sometimes morose and other times kitschy stories of mid-century country singers looking for the next “Big Bad John” with stories of engine mishaps, disturbances of mind and relationships, and the general consensus of lyrical country that ‘the world is a monster’. Hillbillies, rabble rousers, and would-be crooners give us those tormented testimonies of country music. Join Dave Stroud for a very unusual collection of sounds from the archives of the fifties and sixties, when country blossomed; the songs he’s going to feature had a hard time cracking the Top 100 because the stories told are ‘out there’, even for country music.
8 Songwriters 3 Hours
A special three hour show has Dave filling in for KC and I Hear You Rockin’ on KOWS Community Radio, live from the KOWS studios in the Cherry Street Historic District of Santa Rosa. Dave will walk through some of performances of songwriters who were influential in the rise of Americana sounds including blues, rock, rhythm & blues, pop, folk, and country in the late half of the 20th century. Who you might ask? In addition to the pairings of Carole King and Gerry Goffin as well as Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew, we’ll also be sharing songs written by Bob Dylan, Robert Johnson, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Hank Williams, and Tom Waits.
Golden Age of Country
It’s a time that followed the second World War and baked into its foundation were the sounds of Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell, Spade Cooley, Bob Wills among others. The music was inspired by bluegrass, folk, blues, and jazz with Country Swing and barn dances sparking a popularity that blanketed the American musical landscape from the Pacific to the southern Atlantic. It was a sound that solidified the title of “Country and Western” and he’ll be sharing some of the great performances in this week’s episode: Patsy Cline, Little Jimmy Dickens, George Jones, Ferlin Husky, and Webb Pierce…just to name a few. While the sound would fade away sometime around the turn of the seventies, when rock n’ roll would elbow it (more like steamroll it) out in popularity on the airwaves, it is revered and restated to this day as a cornerstone of what we recognize as Americana music.