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.
Category Archives: Blues
Lead Belly’s Legacy
Deeper Roots goes deeper this Friday morning. We’ll be sharing the songs of tradition and folk blues from an artist who opened up a world to a generation of followers in the 1940s and 1950s. With the witting arm of Alan Lomax as his promoter and benefactor, Huddie Ledbetter’s music would get wings and find its place in America’s traditional music lexicon. This week’s show, like last week’s Bill Monroe special, revisits the music that he was identified with, much of which he is credited with bringing into this world, or at least opening our eyes to. We’ll hear from Doug Sahm, Red Smiley, Odetta, The Weavers, Bob Dylan, and many others on a show that celebrates a giant of America’s songbook. Tune into KOWS radio every Friday morning at 9 Pacific for a new episode of a show that’s heading into it’s ninth year here on KOWS Community Radio.
Begin the Beguine
This past January was as much a month to remember as it was to forget. We’ll keep the serenity we need by softening the blow with music while also celebrating the good with swing, country, rhythm and gospel in another eclectic free form show on Sonoma County community radio. Cold weather and rain arrives so we’ll share the soul sounds of William Bell and Johnnie Taylor, some folk rock from Linda Ronstadt, swing vocals from The Mills Brothers and The Four Vagabonds, and gospel with Lou Rawls and the Pilgrim Travelers. We’ll visit Shenandoah, The Red River Valley, and Forty Miles of Bad Road in our Friday morning show, recorded this week in the Deeper Roots Den. I hope you’ll join us.
New Orleans R&B
We just can’t get enough of this sound, a blend of sounds that cannot be pushed away with the urban renewal of auto-tune and electronic pasteurization. It’s long history of inspiration whose roots are driven by centuries of influence, from Congo Square to Rampart Street, and beyond. Our show today returns to the humid southern climes at the mouth of the Mississippi for some of the very best of rhythm, from Cosimo Matassa’s studios to the clubs that pepper the Crescent City on Bourbon Street. Popular rhythm and blues today from Nawlins inclues some Fats, Professor Longhair, Huey “Piano” Smith, Paul Gayen, Frankie Ford, and a couple dozen others giving us that signature percussive backbeat embellished by pounding piano. It’s a Friday evening celebration here on Sonoma County Community radio.
Christmas Joy
Happy Holidays! Proving that there is no war on Christmas and looking forward to the coming year, join Dave Stroud as he shares some of the great holiday chestnuts from years past. He’ll be sharing celebratory sounds from every decade, moving the needle from the 40s to the 10s in a new Deeper Roots Christmas shindig. Tune in for everyone from Sister Rosetta Tharpe to Frank Sinatra to Ella, The Andrews Sisters, Los Straitjackets and Otis Redding’s Merry Christmas Baby. As we barrel out of 2020 as fast as we can, we remind ourselves of the fortunes of the few and the need of the many in this season of desperation. So get out that Georgia vote, folks, and stand steadfast against the anarchy of this dying administration’s push towards fascist principles for power. We have the power to do this. We do.
Got Blues If You Want It
It’s blues time once more. We’re in for a hard winter and before we roll out the Christmas cheer and jingles, it’s time for some deeper reflection. This week’s Deeper Roots show features music from the great blues performers, acoustic and electric, of the past century: Lightnin’ Hopkins, Howlin’ Wolf, Slim Harpo, Elmore James, Ray Charles, and a large contingent of the usual suspects. We make our way from Highway 51 to 49, the waterfront to the crossroads, buzzin’, shufflin’, walkin’ blues…all for you this week on KRJF community radio here in Sonoma County. Let your conscience be your guide.
The Songs of Dan Penn
With a new album just released, Dan Penn reminds everyone that there are few songwriters, and only one living, that have influenced (if not defined) the Memphis soul sound as he has. At 78, Dan Penn’s legacy is already sealed with songs that are enduring: “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man”, “Dark End of the Street”, “Cry Like a Baby”, and so many more. Our show this Friday had to carefully curate tracks from Irma Thomas, Percy Sledge, Solomon Burke, Arthur Alexander, and a couple dozen more to pay proper tribute. As a musician and songwriter, this Muscle Shoals legend deserves a spot in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame and, while never considered a performer, his catalog includes three solo studio albums, one from 1973, another from 1994, and this year’s Living On Mercy. You’ll hear tracks from these and so much more in this morning’s episode of Deeper Roots.
Change is Gonna Come
Positive vibes and sweet sounds in another eclectic free form show on Deeper Roots. Dave Stroud will take the opportunity on this week’s Black Friday to share some golden sounds, some classics and others that you may not know. They’re the sounds from the deeper wells and the dusty digital archives of the past century. You’ll hear some Gary US Bonds’ best known and obscure tracks, gospel delicacies from The Gospel Tones and The Zion Travelers, new sounds and classic early tracks from Dion, and so, so much more in the show today as we give thanks for the decomposition of the torch bearers of racism and white supremacy that occupy the highest seats in the land. Change is gonna come and none too soon.
Finger Poppin’ Doo Wop
From Big Sandy to Hank Ballard and The Flamingos…here we go on another Deeper Roots Friday morning. High energy rhythm and blues, doo wop, and foot-tapping sounds to celebrate everything that’s happened…and revel in all that hot rockin’ stuff that erupted in the fifties. This week’s episode focuses on playlists that keep the tempo hot and the rug getting cut with slamming sounds from the high side of vocal harmonies. Wild sounds from The Cadets, The Cadillacs, The Larks, The Crests, The Regals, and The Lollypoppers; and that’s just getting the kettle hot. We got your water boiling and we’re gonna cook your goose…and “we ain’t gonna turn you loose”. Rhythm and blues and doo wop from the late century on this week’s episode of Deeper Roots. Drop on by at 92.5 FM or streaming at freespeechnobull.com/listen. We’d love to have you.
Girl Groups – 50s & 60s
Soul and rhythm, heartbreak and boy trouble, big hair and sequined dresses. Deeper Roots goes on a romp through the early years of rock and soul sharing the very special talents that filled the AM airwaves of the fifties and sixties. It was almost impossible to select one song from each of these groups but we had to given the time constraints. There were the “Ettes”: The Chordettes, The Bobettes, The Marvelettes, The Ronettes, and The Ikettes; The Angels, The Murmaids, The Crystals, The Jelly Beans, and The Tammys. There were the Detroit sounds, the Wall of Sound, the Brill Building, and the Philly sounds. Perfectly delicious and light-hearted pop and soul from every corner. Tune into for a listen. Two hours of Deeper Roots this week.