It’s all about the roots of rockin’ and rollin’….including those songs that lyrically broached the subject as early as the 1920s. We follow the thread into the 1930s and 40s where a wellspring of American music, both traditional as well as experimental, inspired the sounds that would fuse into the sound that we know of as rock ‘n roll. Tonight at 9, Deeper Roots take a trip down a very wide path in an episode called “Early Rocking”…venturing into early blues, country swing, jazz, and R&B. We’ll hear from Blind Blake, Jack McVea, Stick McGhee, Hardrock Gunter, Les Paul, and others that may raise an eyebrow or two. Muddy Waters once stated that “The blues had a baby and they called it rock ‘n roll…” but there is so much more to it than just the blues…and we’ll find out what.
Nearly fifty years ago one song entered three different charts: Country, R&B, and Pop at the same time, unprecedented for the time. It was a year where the airwaves were filled with Dean Martin, Perry Como, Marty Robbins, The Platters, and the first hints of what was to be the infusion of R&B into popular music. Deeper Roots will take a peek at the year 1956 with an exploration of Elvis’ release of Hound Dog.
Dale Geist, singer-songwriter and passionate student of rock history, joins Dave Stroud in a special two-hour show that explores the impact of songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, blues and rhythm rockers Rufus Thomas, Big Mama Thornton, and Roy Brown, as well as the music of The Coasters, The Robins, Big Joe Turner, and The Drifters.
You’ve heard his music and his story is bigger than life. Jerome Felder was raised in Brooklyn to a middle class Jewish family and contracted polio at a very young age. But he also contracted a taste for the blues as an adolescent and did more than make his mark on the American musical fabric of the mid-to-late century. He adopted the stage name of Doc Pomus and, along with Lieber, Stoller, King, and a few others defined the lyric and tone of a generation. Deeper Roots explores the music of Doc Pomus this Friday night at 9 on KWTF. We’ll hear Big Joe Turner’s Piney Brown Blues, a song that inspired him as well as a couple of pieces that he would eventually write for Joe when he was recording in the Atlantic stable. We’ll share the stories and music, including performances by Doc himself, The Coasters, Elvis, Dr. John, and Ray Charles.
Sam Phillips launched his Memphis record company in February of 1952 naming it Sun Records as a sign of his perpetual optimism: a new day, and a new beginning. Phillips rented a small space at 706 Union Avenue for his own all-purpose studio. The label was launched amid a growing number of independent labels. In a short, while Sun gained a reputation throughout Memphis as a label that treated local artists with respect and honesty. Sam provided a non-critical, spontaneous environment that invited creativity and vision.
His promotional line was “We record anything, anywhere, anytime”… and so we explore the music that Sam Phillips shared with the world out of his Memphis recording studio. The sounds of blues, gospel, and rockabilly fused into a distinct sound and included the likes of Howlin’ Wolf, Carl Perkins, Rufus Thomas, Little Junior’s Blue Flames, as well as, you know, *that* guy…Elvis. Join Dave Stroud for two hours of ‘fun in the Sun’ … with the music and back stories on Deeper Roots: A Century of America’s Music.
