There was some devastating new this past week…nothing new; and certainly, it seems, not in Mississippi. The Mississippi John Hurt Museum, a small sanctuary of tribute located on the Mississippi Blues Trail, burned down last week. While authorities in Carroll County try to determine the cause, we mourn the loss of John Hurt’s home, a small house that had just been given landmark status on the national historical registry just hours before. Join Dave Stroud this week on Deeper Roots as he combines notes from a 2018 tribute to Mississippi John Hurt with some of the news of the day and keep with the sounds of his contemporaries (of which there are few), Taj Mahal, Ben Harper, Chris Smither and Rory Block. All paying tribute with songs of Avalon, Creole Belle, Spike Driver Blues, and Mermaids. Tune in on Radio Rethink radio or KOWSFM.COM.
Category Archives: Blues
Heart of Saturday Night
Where else but the heart of Saturday night? We’ve got an eclectic collection of performances that take you ‘there and back’ this Friday morning on Deeper Roots. No theme. No tribute. No genre sweep. Just a collection of some great sounds from the past (and present). Little themes that reach deep and a few awesome covers that you may not be familiar with. We’re making our way to the outskirts of the bayou with Cookie & The Cupcakes and Jo-el Sonnier, then into some gritty blues from Muddy Waters and RL Burnside, and we’ll also have some rollicking country and soul from Big Maybelle, Buck Owens, Mickey Baker, and The Ink Spots. Add a dose of Billie Holiday, LaVern Baker, and Tow Waits…and there you have it. Some surprises and some favorites all rolled up on this Friday morning blue plate special.
More Eccentric Soul
We revisit the Numero Groups incredible catalog of rare and obscure soul recordings from the 1960s and 1970s called “Eccentric Soul”. This series is a meticulous curation and exercise in unearthing hidden gems in the soul music landscape from old record collections, master tapes, and archives to discover unreleased or overlooked tracks by artists who may not have gained widespread recognition during their time. What sets the “Eccentric Soul” series apart is its emphasis on bringing attention to regional and independent soul labels that operated on a smaller scale, often producing music reflecting the unique local music cultures of their time. Our show digs into a number of releases that showcase a diverse array of sounds, styles, and voices, offering listeners a glimpse into this rich tapestry of American soul music, honoring the best of the day with all the rough edges you’d expect (and desire) with a sincerity of artistry and bald-face emotion. Bring on the soul here on Sonoma County Community Radio.
Jump Blues Party
Jump blues was the precursor to rock, emerging in post-war America. You can count Chuck Berry and Little Richard among those who were heavily influenced by jump blues. This lively and rhythmically driven music genre is characterized by the fusion of elements from jazz, blues, and rhythm and blues with a nod to big band. Urban migration led to this blending of musical styles and seemed to foster a faster and more electrified sound. Our show today zeroes in on some of the most influential performers in the realm of jump blues including Louis Jordan, Wynonie Harris, Lucky Millinder, and Jimmy Witherspoon. It’s a Friday morning house party once again on KOWS Community Radio’s Deeper Roots with your host Dave Stroud with some bluesy licks, upbeat tempos and joyful vocals.
Goin’ Home
Our theme of ‘returning home’ explores not just the physical place but also a reflection of our identities, memories, and the tension between the past and the present. Returning to one’s roots is often fraught with challenges and our understanding of home is deeply intertwined with our personal growth and the changing world around us. This week we’ll be pouring through memories and nostalgia to try to find the meaning of home. Thomas Wolfe’s “You Can’t Go Home Again” introduces characters who yearn for their pasts and the comforts of home, but the reality often falls short of their memories and would serve as a guidepost for our theme today. We’ll share gospel from the Gospel Hummingbirds, classic Americana from John Prine, country tradition from Hank Williams and Woody Guthrie, and the likes of Howlin’ Wolf, Big Maybelle, and Bruce Springsteen. We’re heading down that road to home in today’s show.
Jubilee Theme
It’s theme time on a Friday morning in Sonoma County on Deeper Roots and we’ll take you pretty deep today, exploring songs of jubilation and celebration. Our theme revolves around the term ‘jubilee’ and it’s meaning, at least over the past century. While its etymology is centuries deep, with roots in the Old Testament and the Hebrew word ‘yobhel’ which refers to the ram’s horn which was sounded on the Day of Atonement, there are also the jubilee references to the freeing of slaves well into the 19th century. it speaks to anniversaries, rejoicing, and freedom. We could go much deeper but what better way to celebrate than with music, and there are plenty of Americana examples that tell of jubilees. We’ll hear from country favorites like The Sons of the Pioneers, Tyler Childers, and Joe Maphis alongside early century rhythm jazz and rhythm greats like Dinah Washington, Ivie Anderson, and Benny Goodman in this week’s show. Join us
Goin’ Down To Sing In Texas
From the cold grey light of dawn to some gospel coverage from Luther Dickinson, George Jones and The Golden Gate Quartet, Deeper Roots this week takes another pull at the thread of tapestry of the past century, once again celebrating America’s music. We’re in fine form, no doubt, because the players this week move from the ‘king of boogie’, John Lee Hooker, to one of the great contemporary songwriters, Iris DeMent. We’ll share a track from her latest album, one that ventures into the dark corners of this country’s recent history with her brilliant eight minute soliloquy “Goin’ Down To Sing In Texas”. We’ll share songs about liars, feeling good, 99 year blues, and that last train to Memphis. Join Dave Stroud for two hours from America’s songbooks, from church to steeple to songs about its people. We’ll be coming to you live from the Cherry Street Historic District of Santa Rosa, California.
Mix Master’s Delight
An eclectic free form blend of sounds featuring a variety highlighted by Memphis Minnie, T-Bone Burnett, The Rascals, The Miracles and Carole King…plus over a dozen others in our last show of summer 2023. As the walls of justice close in on traitors and seditionists, we lean on the hope that the constitutional provision that prevents their ilk from ever holding office is the key to saving democracy. Politics aside, the music this week features songs about baking biscuits, diamonds, shopping around, head spinning and what it’s like living here in the U.S.A. Friday morning’s Deeper Roots is a blend of classic and deep tracks designed to set the table for the weekend, right here on Community Radio for West Sonoma County and the world. Tune in, turn on but don’t, just don’t, drop out.
Hair’s On Fire
It’s summer and what better time to roll out the scorchers; vocals with an emphasis on big beats, screamin’ guitars and performances that sweat quite profusely in the noonday sun. This week on Deeper Roots we’ll be digging through the archives of early rock, rhythm & blues and rockabilly for some tumultuous and head-splitting numbers from the past. Songs that woke up the neighbors if only played at a moderate level and woe be the terrified fifties’ parents when they heard the hi-fi blaring these songs from the youngster’s room. We’ve put together a collection of wildcat tamers, killer dillers, and not a bit of filler in the show today that will leave you breathless. Among those sparking the fuel that could set the hair on fire are Tarheel Slim, Jimmy Breedlove, Chan Romero, Big Mama Thornton, and the one and only Richard Penniman. Tune in for another Friday morning collection of the very best from the past century with your host, Dave Stroud, on KOWS Community Radio.
Celebrating Tom Waits
This week we’ll spend our two hours in a shroud of barroom musk, out-of-tune brass, and painted ladies all spent before the tunes of an American treasure. We speak of Tom Waits. The New York Times, in a review of Barney Hoskyns’ 2009 biography of Tom Waits, Lowside of The Road describes our subject today thusly: “He is as potent and unpredictable a musical force as most of us have witnessed in our lifetimes, and that’s not faint praise. The graveyard croak of his gravelly, bellowing baritone is righteous, paint-scraping, unmistakable; it scatters small animals and slaps your synapses to startled attention. With what’s left of your adrenalized wits, you can attend to his mordant lyrics, which he packs into songs he divides (as his wife, Kathleen Brennan, put it) into two primordial categories: “the grand weeper” and “the grim reaper”. He’s our neighbor here in Sonoma County and we could not be more proud of the boy…really.