Willie Nelson turns 88 this month. Born during the Great Depression and raised by his grandparents, he wrote his first song at the age of seven and had his first band at the age of ten. From high school to the Air Force, then to his return home to Texas as a radio disc jockey, he was always in a band singing. In the 1950s he would write songs that would become country standards and we’ll be sharing some of them with you in today’s Deeper Roots, performed by Willie and his contemporaries. He endures just as his music does and the catalog is a legacy few parallel. We’ll hear from The Little Willies, Waylon Jennings, Faron Young, Asleep at the Wheel, and at least a dozen others performing the songs of Willie Hugh Nelson. Tune in Friday morning on KOWS.
Category Archives: American Popular
Rolling Along
We’re going to blend all the favorites into a delicious free form stew this morning, looking to the north, south, east and west for our inspiration. Not only do we have some Otis Redding soul, but we’ve also got some traditional blendings from David Johansen, The Devil Makes Three, and some southern fried sounds from James Lee Stanley and John Hammond. A lot of our playlist makes connections: moonlight drives, Memphis tributes, and a lot about our title track ‘rolling along’. I’ve also got a little splash of Frankie Laine for inspiration along those lines. Tune in on a Sonoma County Friday morning for more from the Cherry Street Historic District and the mighty KOWS, streaming to planet earth on kowsfm.com.
Torch Songs
Smoky lounges, familiar places, and torch songs to patronize those forlorn lovers alone at the bar. You get the drift. Sentimentality abounds this morning on Deeper Roots as we dig into a subset of virtually any genre out there. It’s as old as time itself, of course: songs and stories of unrequited or lost love, either where one is oblivious to the feelings of another or has moved on from a relationship, all told in teary notes by the performer. Let me just say that there was no shortage of fodder for this show whether it was country, jazz, soul, or pop. We’ll hear from Julie London, Ray Charles, Dusty Springfield, Aretha, Roy Orbison, and on and on. No rest for the pain of unrequited love. Tune in for a crazy moon, crying time, and the end of the world on KOWS Community Radio.
Breakin’ The Law
Another theme time extravaganza for our listeners on this new Spring morning here in Sonoma County. The theme focuses on bad behavior, poor judgement and legal entanglements that find themselves into the American musical lexicon. Rock, country and blues seem to lean on the theme more than any other with the country stories of cheatin’, stealin’, and petulant pistols being the most common. We’ll be hearing from Johnny Cash, Porter Wagoner, Louis Jordan, Elvis, The Cadillacs, and a number of others, sharing stories of everything from jaywalking to murder. Oh…and let’s not forget the lawyers. No lawyer jokes, though. Just a little bit of David Lindley, Kitty Wells, and Warren Zevon on visiting day behind the bars…which is every Friday morning at 9 on community radio for Sonoma County.
East Side West Side
From the Bowery to Brooklyn to Broadway to the Bronx…the sidewalks of New York is the topic of the morning, our Gotham theme this Friday on community radio from the Left Coast looking east. Join Dave Stroud for a handsome cab journey through the past century of iconic sounds where the heartbeat of the melting pot of America sings. You’ll be treated to some early Broadway musical samples, the imaginings of West Side Story, the hotel orchestras, and vocal elaborations from Darin, Sinatra, Ella, an Cohan. There will be no exclusion here as late century rock and vocal groups as we’ll hear from The Ad Libs, The Drifters, Garland Jeffreys and others. New York has always been a mirror into the soul of America and has always represented its humanity as a visit to any street in Manhattan would reveal; and its music is, in turn, a reflection itself of that humanity. Join us.
The Great American Songbook
Something different this week. We’ll be reflecting on the Spring Issue of a magazine that cuts through the heart of what we love doing here on both Blue Moon Americana as well as Deeper Roots. There are a handful of publications that make the cut but No Depression magazine is truly special and the Spring 2021 issue is something to revel in. The writing, the artists, and the arc of ‘The Great American Songbook’, from Stephen Foster to Louis Armstrong is given thoughtful and insightful treatment. Our show this week puts a soundtrack with a century of America’s music explored: Dock Boggs’ Pretty Polly, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, The Blue Sky Boys’ cover of Knoxville Girl, and some incredible Latin vocals from one Omara Portuondo. The magazine is worth the read and the music is worth a listen. Tune in on a Saturday among the Sonoma County skies for the best of community radio.
The Year 1939
While the clouds of war and fascism were spreading in earnest across Europe, here at home the movies Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz, and Gone With The Wind premiered and Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath was first published. Lou Gehrig bid farewell, A pound of hamburger cost 14 cents and the average price of a new car was $700. And the music was both dance crazy and uplifting, with the music of Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and film dominating. This week’s show will feature the music of 1939 with performances from Crosby, Garland, The Ink Spots, Cab Calloway and Billie Holiday. We’ll also be featuring the jazz and big band sounds of Jimmie Lunceford, Coleman Hawkins, Count Basie, and a handful of others. Deeper Roots sounds from over eight decades past on community radio for Sonoma County coming to you each Friday morning and evening.
Songs About Singing
Sing it loud! It’s a whole new year and our country can take heart without letting our guard down. We’ll celebrate a fresh new start knowing that hard work lies ahead with a two hour show featuring the theme of ‘singing’. Join Dave Stroud once more for a mixed bag; an eclectic blend of sounds from the past century featuring the likes of Ukulele Ike, Wingy Manone, The Cats & The Fiddle, John Sebastian, Cat Power, and a couple of dozen more, all belting out songs about the very act of singing. We’ll take you down Memory Lane with old fashioned songs, simple songs of gospel and freedom, swinging low, singing high, and those joyful sing-alongs we’ve shared over the past century. That’s right. It’s theme time on this week’s Deeper Roots show and we’d love to have you. Join in the festivities.
Wide Open Places
A bright future is in store….that’s our story and we’re stickin’ to it! Today’s show contains an inordinate amount of upbeat tickers including a trip to Tulsa with Asleep at the Wheel, a Fats Waller song about those wide open places, a journey following the North Star with Rhiannon Giddens, The Boswells, Hank Williams, Les Paul, and a whole lot more. We’re in a free form mood on a Friday morning here in Sonoma County, celebrating the Twelve Days of Inauguration the best way we know how. Join us on Sonoma County Community radio from the Deeper Roots Den with your host Dave Stroud, celebrating our democracy in a big, big way.
Who We Lost 2020
It’s hard to put into words the grief we have experienced over so many great performers lost this past year, including those who lost their battle to COVID-19. When assembling our annual list of tributes it became clear that no two hours would suffice so we’ll be doing some abbreviated observations to make sure they’re not forgotten. And we’ll also be thanking those behind the scenes, the songwriters, the session folks, and we’ll even have a short collection of British influencers who touched our lives with their talent. Tune in for a comprehensive and reflective show, our first Deeper Roots show of 2021, this new year that is filled with so much promise. And it’s likely that we can all agree that the bar couldn’t have fallen much lower than it did last year.