Category Archives: Rhythm and Blues

Ruler Of My Heart – KOWS July 27, 2015

Deeper Roots on KOWS
Deeper Roots on KOWS

Saturday morning in West County…our first week of summer with Deeper Roots and we’ve got an early set of New Orleans swamp classics followed by shreds of rockabilly and sounds from The Killer. There’s also gospel with The Staple Singers, high octane early century pop from The Boswell Sisters and Johnny Hamp and the Orchestra. We’ll sum the day up with folk, pop, and R&B…and everything in between.

No.
1Artist Title Album Buy
2Bobby Marchan Chicken – Wah – Wah The History of New Orleans Rhythm & Blues [Disc 1] Amazon
3Lazy Lester I'm a Lover, Not a Fighter Louisiana & The Old New Orleans Sound Amazon
4Irma Thomas Ruler of My Heart Soul Queen of New Orleans Amazon
5Aaron Neville Get Out Of My Life Brother To Brother ([Disc 1]: Aaron) Amazon
6Fats Domino What a Price Fats Domino Out of New Orleans Amazon
7Shirley Gunter Oop Shoop Shirley Gunter Amazon
8Jerry Lee Lewis Let's Talk About Us A Half Century Of Hits [Disc 1] Amazon
9Wanda Jackson Man, We Had A Party Queen Of Rockabilly Amazon
10JD McPherson Fire Bug Signs & Signifiers Amazon
11Sister Rosetta Tharpe Two Little Fishes Five Loaves Of Bread Gospel Train Amazon
12Sam Cooke Touch The Hem Of His Garment The Wonderful World Of Sam Cooke Amazon
13The Staple Singers Pray On The Best of the Vee-Jay Years Amazon
14Dorothy Love Coates You Better Run The Best Of Dorothy Love Coates And The Original Gospel Harmonettes Amazon
15Andy Mosely & Hogman Maxey Brother Mosely Crossed The Water Angola Prison Spirituals Amazon
16Blind Willie Johnson Jesus Is Coming Soon The Complete Blind Willie Johnson (Disc 1) Amazon
17Lena Horne Stormy Weather Stormy Weather Amazon
18Johnny Hamp And His Kentucky Serenaders If I Had A Talking Picture Of You Johnny Hamp at Archive Amazon
19The Boswell Sisters Shuffle Off To Buffalo The Object Of My Affection Amazon
20George Olsen & His Music (v: Fran Frey) The Varsity Drag [1927] The Charleston Era Amazon
21Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers Shreveport Stomp Jelly Roll Morton – Vol. V Amazon
22Louis Armstrong On Treasure Island Rhythm Saved The World Amazon
23Django Reinhardt & Stiphane Grappelli It Don't Mean A Thing Quintesential Amazon
24Dinah Washington Teach Me Tonight Gold [Disc 2] Amazon
25Ray Charles Drown in My Own Tears The Birth of Soul Disc 2 Amazon
26Chuck Jackson Any Day Now (My Wild Beautiful Bird) Chuck Jackson The Great Recordings [Disc 1] Amazon
27Frank Sinatra Just in Time Come Dance with Me! Amazon
28Sarah Vaughan The Nearness Of You Great American Songbook Amazon
29Charlie Spand & Blind Blake Hastings Street Down In The Basement: Joe Bussard's Treasure Trove Of Vintage 78s: 1926-1937 Amazon
30Pine Ridge Boys Farther Along Classic Field Recordings Amazon
31David Bromberg I Like To Sleep Late In The Morning The Player: A Retrospective Amazon
32Doc Watson Steel Guitar Rag Memories Amazon
33The Country Gentlemen One Morning in May The Complete Vanguard Recordings Amazon
34The Stanley Brothers & The Clinch Mountain Boys This Weary Heart You Stole Away Appalachian Stomp Amazon
35The Stripling Brothers The Lost Boy Down In The Basement: Joe Bussard's Treasure Trove Of Vintage 78s: 1926-1937 Amazon

Forties Rhythm

Forties Rhythm
Forties Rhythm

Just ahead of World War II, a sound began to bubble up through the floorboards. There was the new, brash, swinging sound of big bands, country swing had surfaced, and jazz was alive and well as an evident inspiration to both. But there was a raw, bluesy, expressive, jump sound coming from the barrooms and halls of the urban expanses of Chicago, Kansas City, New York City, and beyond; something that would become known as R&B and would later be the bedrock of rock and roll. Deeper Roots explores the sounds of Big Joe Turner, Wynonie Harris, Buddy Johnson and a host of others, including the ladies: Effie Smith, Nellie Lutcher, Julia Lee, and Viola Wells. This episode has them all and more…

Deeper Roots on KOWS – January 10, 2015

Deeper Roots on KOWS - January 2015
Deeper Roots on KOWS – January 2015

Another beautiful winter Saturday morning in West Sonoma County and it’s time for a collection of hot blues, country gospel, early rock, early century pop, and swinging country on Deeper Roots… everything from Eddie Cantor’s 1922 song about a trapeze and Blind Willie McTell covering Jimmie Rodgers around mid-century, to a track from 2014 from a new band out of New Orleans called Hurray For The Riff Raff…another reason our tag line reads “A Century of America’s Music”. Join Dave Stroud on a brisk Saturday morning from the KOWS studios in downtown Occidental, California.

Deeper Roots on KOWS – December 27, 2014

Deeper Roots on KOWS
Deeper Roots on KOWS

Lots of early sounds mixed with the new this weekend. Stay tuned for music from the medicine shows, lost provinces, gospel tents, swamps, bandstands, and digital playgrounds. We’ve got Sam Samudio, Shorty Godwin, The Seldom Scene, Shel Silverstein, and Tom Russell in our bi-weekly show broadcast live from the KOWS studios in downtown Occidental, a hamlet tucked into the redwoods along the Bohemian Highway in west Sonoma County.  The drought is being beat down and, while we would welcome more rain, we’re hoping that it’s dispersed so that our neighbors can manage without threat of flooding. So we’ll flood you all with a fine collection of performances from the last century of America’s music.

Deeper Roots on KOWS – December 15, 2014

Deeper Roots on KOWS 12/15
Deeper Roots on KOWS 12/15

We’ve got a special Monday episode of Deeper Roots. The show originally broadcast live from the KOWS studios in Occidental, California, opens with some Light Crust Doughboys, fires up some modern country gospel from the Watson Twins and Johnny Cash, then goes for the jugular with a collection of Baptist-flavored gospel from Moses Mason, Mother McCollum, and Madam Edna…and that just scratches the sacred surface. The show also features the secular: jump blues from Jesse Price, jazz from Lincoln Center and Willie “The Lion” Smith. Had enough? You won’t. Be sure to check it out.

Chicago Breakdown – Part 2

Chicago Breakdown - Part II
Chicago Breakdown – Part II

It’s part two of our “Chicago Breakdown” series. In Part I, we explored the early days that promised what was to come but in Part II, we feel the warm wind of change from the south that would meet with the cold winds off of the Great Lakes. It created a vortex where jazz and barrelhouse would reign.

The urban cauldron in this city of big shoulders would fill with a sound that had its roots in the Mississippi Delta , from the cotton plantations and delta heat, and the juke joints that could be found down the side roads off of Highway 61. 

The Great Migration also provided those who relocated and found work with disposable income allowing them to establish a new life in a big city after the Great Depression and, most certainly, after the war. The resulting energy was inescapable in the clubs and barrooms throughout Chicago.

Deeper Roots on KOWS – November 22, 2014

Memphis Minnie
Memphis Minnie

Here’s your morning coffee and tea! Join Dave Stroud for a helping of ukulele, blues, gospel, and outlaw meta-modern country sounds. If you haven’t had a chance to find us on a West County Saturday morning, your chance is every second and fourth Saturday morning at 9 PST on TuneIn radio http://tunein.com/radio/KOWS-LP-1073-…. This eclectic blend of music from the past century is also played out on Sundays at 10 PM This week’s show will feature a Langston Hughes reading, some Maria Muldaur, some early century pop from The Boswell Sisters, some cold hard country facts from Sturgill Simpson and Porter Wagoner, and blues from Dave Alvin and Big Bill Broonzy.

Blues Divas

Blues Divas
Blues Divas

Some time ago, Deeper Roots explored the female blues pioneers of the early century in a show called “Black Pearls”. In this week’s episode, we’re going to move forward in time a bit, into the mid-century to explore the ‘inheritors’, those women who were influenced by the blues stylings of Sara Miles, Sippie Wallace, and Victoria Spivey. Performers this week will include Julia Lee, Lil Armstrong, Nellie Lutcher, and many others in an episode titled “Blues Divas”. Post-Depression and Post-War jazz, R&B, and blues sounds from some of the influential female artists who, in step with their early century counterparts, would go on to provide a foundation for the many who would follow. Be sure to tune in.

Deeper James Booker

Deeper James Booker
Deeper James Booker

Every now and then Deeper Roots will take a step back and look at the unknowns, not for their anonymity as much for their stories and why their music is so important to the American story. A documentary was recently released entitled “Bayou Maharajah: The Tragic Genius of James Booker”, http://www.bayoumaharajah.com/ directed by Lily Keber. It tells the story of the classically trained session man and we’re going to also explore the contributions that Booker made to the music of others, his quirky yet brilliant talent in performances of his own, and we’ll also share some of the stories of James Booker’s celebrated ups and tragic lows.

Honky Tonkin’

Honky Tonkin
Honky Tonkin

This episode will look at the roots of Honky Tonk: a place where, on one side of the track you, as Roosevelt Sykes points out in “The Honeydripper”, you had the blues performer as Doctor who prescribed Blues as a cure for the Blues and on the other, you had the country sound of Moon Mullican who demanded that the beer bottles danced on the table when the band got rockin’. We’ll spend our time exploring the early sounds of Big Maceo, Albert Ammons, and Jimmy Yancey and move down yonder to the country bars where boogie woogie was also understood. The country honky tonk sounds of Merrill Moore, Bobbie Nelson, Jerry Lee Lewis, and a handful of others will get their chance to entertain. Boogie woogie came to the country and it was retooled and renamed as honky tonk.