Our story is one that we’ve covered before, previously focusing on the Great Depression and the music of Woody Guthrie. This episode pulls in the theme of that tragic chapter of a drought that uprooted nearly 60 percent of the population from the affected region of Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. With the soil lacking a firm root due to poor farm practices, the plains winds would pick up the loose topsoil and create the dust clouds that ravaged farm and city alike. The music we’ll hear tonight brings us the stories, including those of Woody and Arlo Guthrie, Bob Gibson, Lane Hardin, Vernon Dahlart, and The Morrison Two Brothers String Band.
No.
1
Artist
Title
Album
Buy
2
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Talking Dust Bowl
Hard Travelin'
3
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Dust Storm Disaster
Hard Travelin'
4
Woody Guthrie
Great Dust Storm (Dust Storm Disaster)
Dust Bowl Ballads [Rounder]
5
Woody Guthrie
Blowing Down That Old Dusty Road (Going Down the Road Feelin' Bad)
Dust Bowl Ballads [Rounder]
6
Alison Krauss
Dust Bowl Children
Paper Airplane
7
Peter Rowan
Tumbleweed
Dust Bowl Children
8
Bob Gibson
Pastures of Plenty
Joy Joy! The Young and Wonderful Bob Gibson
9
Arlo Guthrie with The Dillards
Pasture of Plenty
Thirty Two Cents Postage Due
10
Arlo Guthrie with The Dillards
So Long It's Been Good to Know You
Thirty Two Cents Postage Due
11
The Byrds
Pretty Boy Floyd
Sweetheart of the Rodeo
12
Arlo Guthrie with The Dillards
Do Re Mi
Thirty Two Cents Postage Due
13
Cisco Houston
The Great American Bum
Dust Bowl Blues: Essential American Folk [Disc 2]
14
Mac "Harry" McClintock
Hallelujah, I'm a Bum [Remastered 2003]
Poor Man's Heaven – Blues And Tales Of The Great Depression – When The Sun Goes Down Series
15
Billy Bragg
I Ain't Got No Home
Tooth & Nail
16
Michelle Shocked
Woody's Rag
Arkansas Traveler
17
Rudy Vallee And His Connecticut Yankees
Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries
gimriper2u@yahoo.com
18
Leo Reisman And His Orchestra;Milton Douglas
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime (From The Musical Review "Americana") [Remastered 2003]
Poor Man's Heaven – Blues And Tales Of The Great Depression – When The Sun Goes Down Series
19
Woody Guthrie
Talking Dust Bowl Blues
Dust Bowl Ballads [Rounder]
20
Woody Guthrie
Dust Pneumonia Blues
Dust Bowl Ballads [Rounder]
21
Lane Hardin
California Desert Blues [Remastered 2003]
Poor Man's Heaven – Blues And Tales Of The Great Depression – When The Sun Goes Down Series
22
Red Allen
Deep Elem Blues
The Folkways Years 1964 – 1983
23
Prairie Ramblers
Deep Elem Blues
White Country Blues (1926-1938)
24
Joe Stone
It's Hard Time
Poor Man's Heaven – Blues And Tales Of The Great Depression – When The Sun Goes Down Series
25
Vernon Dalhart
The Farm Relief Song
Poor Man's Heaven – Blues And Tales Of The Great Depression – When The Sun Goes Down Series
26
The Morrison Twin Brothers String Band
Dry and Dusty
Arkansas at 78 RPM: Corn Dodgers & Hoss Hair Pullers
27
Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee
Dealing With The Devil
Dust Bowl Blues: Essential American Folk [Disc 2]
28
Jack Guthrie
Oklahoma Hills
Swinging Hollywood Hillbilly Cowboys
29
Bruce Springsteen
I Ain't Got No Home
Folkways: A Vision Shared-A Tribute To Woody Guthrie And Leadbelly
“Rhythm n’ Blues” and “Rock n’ Roll” were both born of a raw sound that was an amalgam of lyrical call-and-response, the upbeat bounce of barrelhouse and juke joint piano, traditional rhyme, and an abundance of musical brilliance from the many itinerant performers who plied their trade. This week on Deeper Roots we’ll go find the “Roots of R&B” and find a stage that we often visit, spending time with the performers that we seem to always find in its lights. Big Bill Broonzy, Roosevelt Sykes, Leroy Carr, Memphis Minnie, and Lonnie Johnson are just a sampling of the music we’ll bring you on our show produced especially for KWTF 88.1 FM, listener-supported community radio for Sonoma County.
No.
1
Artist
Title
Album
Buy
2
Mamie Smith
Crazy Blues
Folk Blues & Gospel: Will the Circle Be Unbroken
3
Tampa Red
It Hurts Me Too
Country Blues [Disc 1]
4
Tampa Red
Anna Lou Blues
The Guitar Wizard (The Blues Collection Vol.51)
5
Leroy Carr
How Long-How Long Blues
Whiskey Is My Habit, Women Is All I Crave: The Best of Leroy Carr Disc 1
6
Little Brother Montgomery
Vicksburg Blues (Pm 13006, L-502-1)
The Rise & Fall of Paramount Records, Volume 2 (1928-1932)
7
Little Brother Montgomery
No Special Rider Blues (Pm 13006, L-501-1)
The Rise & Fall of Paramount Records, Volume 2 (1928-1932)
8
Roosevelt Sykes
44 Blues
The Honey Dripper
9
Roosevelt Sykes
Night Time Is The Right Time
As Good As It Gets: Country Blues [Disc 2]
10
Georgia Tom
The Duck Yas-Yas-Yas
Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey [Disc 1]
11
Georgia Tom
Hear Me Beefin' at You
Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 1 (1928-1930)
12
Tampa Red;Georgia Tom
Dead Cats On The Line
Tampa Red The Guitar Wizard
13
Blind Boy Fuller
Truckin' My Blues Away
Country Blues [Disc 1]
14
Bill "Jazz" Gillum
Key To the Highway [Remastered 2002]
That's Chicago's South Side (When the Sun Goes Down series)
15
Bill 'Jazz' Gillum
Go Back to the Country
Heartbreakers Blue & Lonely
16
Lonnie Johnson
6 / 88 Glide
Steppin' On The Blues
17
Lonnie Johnson
Furniture Man Blues Pt. 1 (w/Victoria Spivey)
Complete Recordings Vol. 4
18
Memphis Minnie
Bumble Bee
Queen Of Country Blues
19
Memphis Minnie
Me And My Chauffeur Blues
Blues Was Her Business
20
Roosevelt Sykes
Drivin' Wheel
Chicago Boogie
21
Bill "Jazz" Gillum W/ Big Bill Broonzy
Jockey Blues
Broke, Black & Blue [Disc 3] : Good Whiskey Blues
22
Bill "Jazz" Gillum
Sarah Jane
Vintage Songs of Sex, Drugs & Cigarettes
23
Washboard Sam
Bucket's Got a Hole in It [Remastered 2002]
That's Chicago's South Side (When the Sun Goes Down series)
24
Washboard Sam
Let Me Play Your Vendor
Vol. 6 1941 – 1942
25
Big Bill Broonzy
How You Want It Done
Blues From The Vocalion Vaults
26
Big Bill Broonzy
Key to the Highway
Columbia Records' 125th Anniv.
27
Big Bill Broonzy
I Can't Be Satisfied
ABC Of The Blues Vol 5
28
Speckled Red
The Dirty Dozen
Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey [Disc 1]
29
Speckled Red
The Dirty Dozen Pt 2
Rude Dudes
30
Speckled Red
You Got to Fix It [Remastered 2002]
That's Chicago's South Side (When the Sun Goes Down series)
31
Speckled Red
Pinetop's Boogie Woogie
Classic Piano Blues
32
Sunnyland Slim
Illinois Central [Remastered 2002]
That's All Right (When the Sun Goes Down series)
33
Arthur Crudup
Mean Old Frisco Blues
Lonesome Whistle – An Anthology Of American Railroad Song
34
Arthur Crudup
That's All Right Mama
Bob Dylan Presents: Cover to Cover – The Originals
We’re going to go pretty deep this coming Saturday morning here in Western Sonoma County. It’s a mix of old time and tradition with a few themed sets including social sciences, the labor blues, calypso rhythm, minstrelsy, and some special sounds from Ira and Charlie Louvin. Performers this week include Darby & Tarlton, Riley Puckett, Fern Jones, Arizona Dranes, and a pair each from Ry Cooder and Harry Belafonte. It’s a “Great Dream From Heaven” for KOWS listeners on an August morning in Occidental. Broadcast on KOWS 107.3 FM on August 22, 2015.
No.
1
Artist
Title
Album
Buy
2
Little Jimmy Dickens
May The Bird Of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose
Columbia Country Classics, Vol. 3: Americana
3
Ry Cooder
Great Dream From Heaven
Into The Purple Valley (Remaster 2013)
4
Del McCoury
Fireside Chat, Part 1 (feat. Franklin D. Roosevelt)
Moneyland
5
Bob Miller
The Rich Man And The Poor Man [Rematered 2003]
Poor Man's Heaven – Blues And Tales Of The Great Depression – When The Sun Goes Down Series
6
Frank Crumit
A Tale of the Ticker [Remastered 2003]
Poor Man's Heaven – Blues And Tales Of The Great Depression – When The Sun Goes Down Series
7
Uncle Dave Macon
All In Down And Out Blues [2003 Remastered]
Poor Man's Heaven – Blues And Tales Of The Great Depression – When The Sun Goes Down Series
8
Ry Cooder
Denomination Blues
Into The Purple Valley
9
Washington Phillips
Denomination Blues
Bob Dylan Presents: Radio Radio, Theme Time Radio Hour, Vol. 1
10
Arizona Dranes
God's Got A Crown
He Is My Story: The Sanctified Soul Of Arizona Dranes
11
Elvis Presley
Swing Down Sweet Chariot
His Hand In Mine
12
Fern Jones
By And By
The Glory Road
13
Dave Van Ronk
That'll Never Happen No More
Sunday Street
14
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Dark As A Dungeon
Best Of The Vanguard Years
15
Emmett Miller
That's The Good Old Sunny South
Minstrel Man From Georgia
16
Emmett Miller & His Georgia Crackers
Lovesick Blues
Minstrel Man From Georgia
17
Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard
Coal Miner Blues
Classic Mountain Songs from Smithsonian Folkways
18
Riley Puckett And Ted Hawkins
Hawkins Rag
Serenade The Mountains: Early Old Time Music On Record, [Disc 3]
19
Darby & Tarlton
Lonesome Frisco Line
Lonesome Whistle – An Anthology Of American Railroad Song
20
Lead Belly
Black Betty
Lead Belly's Last Sessions
21
Odetta
Shame And Scandal
Sings Ballads And Blues
22
Harry Belafonte
Mama, Look at Boo Boo
Harry Belafonte: Greatest Hits
23
Harley Allen & Dierks Bentley
I Don't Believe You've Met My Baby
Livin', Lovin', Losin': Songs Of The Louvin Brothers
24
The Louvin Brothers
Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar
Close Harmony [Disc 5]
25
The Louvin Brothers
Keep Watching The Sky
Close Harmony [Disc 8]
26
Bonnie Guitar
Dark Moon
Hard to Find 45s On CD: Pop & Country Classics
27
Skeeter Davis
The One You Slip Around With
The Essential Skeeter Davis
28
Wanda Jackson
Savin' My Love
Rockin' With Wanda [US Bonus Tracks]
29
Webb Pierce
I Ain't Never
20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: Best Of Webb Pierce
30
The Allen Brothers
Skipping and Flying
Lead Kindly Light
31
Bascom Lamar Lunsford
Kidder Cole
The Cornshucker's Frolic Vol. 1: Downhome Music And Entertainment From The American Countryside
West County is the place to be in summer. The inland heat is pulling in the right amount of tempered cool from the coast…and Deeper Roots sounds will ride the wave on a Saturday morning. Join us for music from Arlo Guthrie, Chubby Newsome, Jimmie Revard, Mahalia Jackson, and more. The sounds we’ll hear come from country, country swing, classic gospel, mountain tradition, and just a little bit of the blues so please join us as we fill the airwaves with classic roots music on a Saturday morning, live from the KOWS studios in Occidental.
No.
1
Artist
Title
Album
Buy
2
Johnny Burnette
Let's Think About Living
The Train Kept a-Rollin' Memphis to Hollywood – CD 3
3
Roy Rogers
My Chickashay Gal
Swinging Hollywood Hillbilly Cowboys
4
Hank Snow
Music Makin' Mama From Memphis
The Essential Hank Snow
5
Asleep at the Wheel
What's the Matter With the Mill (with Pokey LaFarge)
Still the King: A Celebration of the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys
6
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Back Home In Indiana (LP Version)
Tiffany Transcriptions& Vol. 9
7
Amos Garrett, Doug Sahm & Gene Taylor
Coming Back Home
The Return of the Formerly Brothers
8
Jimmie Revard
Dirty Dog
Western Swing: 40 Bootstompers
9
Jimmie Revard
Holdin' The Sack
Country & Western, Vol.2 [Disc 9]
10
The Louvin Brothers
I'm Ready To Go Home
Satan Is Real
11
Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys
Little Birdie
Ralph Stanley 1971-1973
12
Doc & Merle Watson
Corrina, Corrina
Then And Now/Two Days In November
13
Jimmie Driftwood
Soldier's Joy
Americana, Vol. 1
14
The Rice Brothers
Soldier's Joy
The Rice Brothers
15
Merle Haggard/Willie Nelson
Don't Think Twice, It's Alright
Django and Jimmie
16
Willie Nelson & the Offenders
A Moment Isn't Very Long
Me and the Drummer
17
Red Simpson
Don't Fall Asleep At The Wheel
Lonesome Highway Songs
18
Arlo Guthrie with The Dillards
So Long It's Been Good to Know You
Thirty Two Cents Postage Due
19
Johnny Cash
Hey Porter
The Mystery Of Life
20
Elvis Presley
Memphis Tennessee
Artist of the Century Disc 2
21
Floyd Dixon
Oooh Little Girl
Marshall Texas Is My Home
22
Bob Dylan
It Takes A Lot To Laugh It Takes A Train To Cry (take 9)
No Direction Home: The Soundtrack (The Bootleg Ser [UK] Disc 2
23
Chubby Newsome
Toodle Luddle Baby
Rock 'n' Roll Mamas Vol 3
24
Anthony Butler
Judgement's Coming Soon
Mighty Day – 25 Gospel Greats
25
Mahalia Jackson
Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho
Gospels, Spirituals, & Hymns, Vol.2 [Disc 1]
26
Mahalia Jackson
I'm On My Way
The Promised Land – Original Soundtrack [Disc 1]
27
Howlin' Wolf
Moanin' For My Baby
Blues From Hell
28
Tampa Red
Crying Won't Help You
ABC Of The Blues Vol 38
29
Hadda Brooks
He's Coming Home
Jump Back Honey:Complete OKeh Sessions
30
The Four Lads
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) (Around the World 1)
Bob Dylan Presents: Radio Radio, Theme Time Radio Hour, Vol. 3
The show kicks off with some mid-century country fiddlin’ courtesy of Curly Fox but makes a quick left turn with a set about liars, tattlers, and some straight-forward testifying from Sister Rosetta Tharpe. We’ll also be entertained with some classic roots from the Dallas String Band, Lead Belly, E. C. Ball, and a tribute set to Sam Cooke.
It’s our regular (well, even Saturday mornings) show featuring an early country and bluegrass set featuring new sounds from Steve Earle and Robert Earl Keen, Jr. alongside the classic sounds of Buck Owens, Leon Chappell and The Louvins. We’ve got gospel and blues as well as a rare set of sounds from the second omnibus of “The Rise and Fall of Paramount Records”, classic late twenties country and blues. Stay tuned for your morning dose of brew d’Roots and American Roots Breakfast Tea on a spring Saturday morning in West Sonoma County.
While Bob Dylan’s greatest early influence was likely Woody Guthrie he spent his career exhibiting both love and thievery of the Americana music canon. Love, in the sense that he would pay tribute and admire the story-telling, and theft, in that he would copy old lines for his own purposes or reassemble them into a larger story. His not-so-obvious album release titled “Love and Theft” hints at his own sardonic wit in the matter.
Pablo Picasso has been quoted thusly: “Good artists borrow, great artists steal.” It’s a concept that goes back much further. The works of T.S. Eliot discuss the concept of how artistic theft leads to the creation of new ideas in art and many of the early playwrights, Shakespeare included, would steal in part or in whole. The argument that Dylan’s intentions are somewhat more nefarious in the era of copyrights and royalties is likely misguided because it assumes that no artist would have previously been paid for their ‘pilfered’ works.
In this episode of Deeper Roots, first broadcast on KWTF Sonoma County March 20, 2015, we’ll spend two hours mining through some of those influences with music from Jerry Garcia and David Grisman, Doc Watson, Frank Crumit, Mississippi John Hurt, and the bard himself in an episode titled “Bob Dylan and Tradition”. In keeping with our theme, parts of today’s show are loosely based, or maybe paraphrased, from a wonderful study of Dylan’s career in the context of American tradition including minstrelsy, gospel, folk, country, pop, and blues…all of those things that Dylan has imparted in sometimes not-so-subtle ways in his music. The book, Bob Dylan in America: the book by Sean Wilentz, contributing editor to the New Republic and Professor of History at Princeton. The book was published by Doubleday in 2010.
He was from the Piedmont school of blues guitar but would find a wider audience and following through the work of Taj Mahal, Dave Van Ronk,Bob Dylan, Jorma Kaukonen, Dave Bromberg, and Ry Cooder. The majority of those named actually studied guitar with Davis but his own tutelage was under the legendary Willie Walker. He moved to New York in 1944, preaching and singing on the streets of Harlem, resuming his recording career in the 1960s when his appearances at Newport and other folk festivals brought a seemingly brief fame…but by all indications today, an enduring legacy. If you don’t have his classic album, Harlem Street Singer, produced by Rudy Van Gelder, in your collection…you might want to reconsider. We’ll explore a wide selection of pieces by Davis, by those who influenced him, and the many who were influenced by his music. We’ll also share excerpts of interviews and classic Gary Davis stories by others. It’s a very special two hours on Deeper Roots Radio: A Century of America’s Music with your host Dave Stroud.
We have yet another free form fest of roots music emanating from the bright sun of a Saturday along the Bohemian Highway, live from the KOWS studios in downtown Occidental, California. We both start and wrap up the show with Cliff “Ukulele Ike” Edwards, sharing country, blues, and new Americana in between. We’ll hear from Flaco Jimenez pair up with Dwight Yoakum, the essence of Randy Newman’s portrait of the South, western swing with Willie and Spade, and new music that fits our roots sensibilities from Steve Earle, Robert Earl Keen, Jr., and Jorma Kaukonen. Tune in for two hours of classic roots music.
Blind Willie McTell was a gentleman songwriter and musician who could play and sing popular music and storied blues in the same voice. He could bring you into the story and emotion of a song while he picked in the Piedmont style and, with the supporting rhythm of Curley Weaver, painted a picture that could be visceral, or maybe light-hearted, sometimes stern in narrative, or whatever the mood or lyrics demanded. Bob Dylan’s own poetry about Willie is summed up in the verses of his song “Blind Willie McTell”, written in 1983 but not released by Dylan until 1991 on his “Bootleg Series 1-3”:
I can hear them tribes moaning Hear the undertaker’s bell Nobody can sing the blues Like Blind Willie McTell
Join Dave Stroud for a new two hour episode highlighting the life, words, and music of Blind Willie McTell in this week’s episode of Deeper Roots: A Century of America’s Music, produced exclusively for KWTF 88.1 FM, community radio for Sonoma County.