The past few months have been brutal for democracy. There is no silver lining in sight but this week’s music will nonetheless feature some songs of hope: our theme is one of clouds and silver linings. It’s meant to give a two hour break (if that’s at all possible) to the malevolent stewing cauldron that is brewing in the most sacred halls of our democracy. We’ll discard with the political music this week and simply ride a topical wave featuring a blend of jazz, country, gospel, rock, and pop. Tune in for music from Van Morrison, The Sons of the Pioneers, George Gershwin, Dave Van Ronk, and Pops Staples…to name but a few…this week on Sonoma County community radio.
Category Archives: Mountain Music
Celebrating the Circle
This week, Dave Stroud revisits the seminal release of 1972 that brought together multiple generations of musicians, introducing a new generation of listeners to their music and, in some cases, to each other. Will The Circle Be Unbroken was a concept made real by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, then a “bunch of long-haired West Coast boys” (as Roy Acuff would describe them) and the talent that they were able to muster would influence country, bluegrass, and rock for decades to come. In addition to the big names of decades before them like Roy Acuff, Maybelle Carter, and Jimmy Martin, the Dirt Band would bring together lesser known names like Vassar Clements, Norman Blake, and Oswald Kirby to make an album that is as fresh and listenable today as it was then. We’ll feature tracks from the album alongside some of the original performances by these legendary masters.
Field Recording Covers
Coming up on our last live show of May, what better way but to dig just a little bit deeper into some of the field recordings of the first half of the 20th century that found popularity in the country, blues, and popular charts. Some of these songs had the ‘right’ rhythm or struck a chord with the message they sent. While most were traditional pieces by the time the musicologists had arrived with their primitive recording machines, others were original and told just the right story. We’ll hear Eric Clapton, Aaron Copland, B.B. King, and Tom Waits right alongside the originals done by Smith Casey, Gwen Foster, Belton Reese, and Ora Dell Graham.
Waltzes, Polkas, and Two-Steps
It’s all about the traditional and popular dance music celebrated in the song of the past century. The show opens with the recognition of folk dance’s lineage, those ancestral elements that inhabit a very large part of our need to communicate and celebrate as a society. Most of the early rhythms we’ll hear to start the show are a blend of ancestral folk but we’ll also share the sound of popular dance. Tune in for country, pop, and folk sounds including cajun sounds from Michael Doucet, old-timey guitar and fiddle sounds of Darby and Tarlton, Tejano polka from Flaco Jimenez, and plenty more waltzes, polkas, and two steps.
Higher Power Country Gospel
We visit the classic sounds of country and bluegrass with thematic overtones of gospel. The love of country music often had its roots in a performer’s childhood memories of community church and the sound that would evolve from country and bluegrass provided a tone that grew from those memories…with a tenor that could easily echo the word’. The greatest of them elevated their popularity with their flock by invoking the name of that higher power of God and church in the community of bluegrass: The Stanley Brothers, Mac Wiseman, Ricky Skaggs, Doyle Lawson, and even country groups like the The Louvin Brothers and The Whitstein Brothers made gospel a core of their repertoire.
Back Country Blues
Our show features the sounds of the acoustic country blues. We’ll hear from early century greats like Jim Jackson, Luke Jordan, Geeshie Wiley, and Gus Cannon’s Jug Stompers. There will also be a little help from some contemporaries who were their influence by this music. Get ready for some deeper sounds from Daddy Stovepipe, Papa Charlie Jackson, and Frank Stokes to round things out on a chilly evening in the North Bay on Sonoma County community radio.
Folk Songs of North America
Folk Songs of North America was first published in 1960. Compiled by Alan Lomax (with melodies transcribed by Peggy Seeger), it featured traditional music organized by locale and topic. The anecdotes provided by Lomax and others were culled from both the oral and transcribed traditions of those who listened and performed. Deeper Roots goes deeper and features sets organized by topical pieces outlined in the book. Performers of the early century are featured including Dock Boggs, David McCarn, Gid Tanner, the Carolina Tar Heels, and The Bently Boys. We’ll also feature a handful of mid-to-late century performers to cap things off. Join Dave Stroud for another two hours of the last century of America’s music on Sonoma County’s newest member-supported radio voice, KWTF 88.1 FM, streaming to the world on kwtf.net.
Songs of A.P. Carter
He grew up with music, learning to plan violin at a young age in Poor Valley, Virginia (now known as Maces Springs), sang in a church choir and helped his uncle, Flanders Bays, who ran a mobile music school in Scott County. He would go on to form one of the seminal country music groups of the day with his wife Sara and her cousin Maybelle. Their musicianship was remarkable but the song-writing was what set them apart, the compositions by A. P. Carter representing a treasury of classic folk, sentimental pop, cowboy songs, gospel favorites, and original love songs. While there may be little doubt as to whether all songs that carried his name were original, his treatment (and that of the Carter Family group) were without peer. Tune in this Friday night for music featuring performers covering A.P. Carter songs, including The Delmore Brothers, Dave Alvin & The Guilty Men, Charlie Louvin, Ashley Monroe, and a host of others.
No Parking Here – KOWS October 10, 2015
Saturday mornings are root-bound…in the very best sense of the phrase. Tune into KOWS for an eclectic blend of gospel from Jimmy Murphy and The Loyal Five, early century pop from Cliff Edwards and Emmett Miler, R&B from Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland and Dr. John, country from Red Foley and Jimmy Littlejohn, and more of the sounds that matters from the past century of American music.
High Noon
It’s a new morning…as it always is…and was when we celebrated another Saturday morning in Occidental with Deeper Roots Radio: A Century of America’s Music with host Dave Stroud. This twice-monthly show opens with a mule kicking in the stall, some barnyard rhythm and then moves swiftly into a blend of 1950s country and big band. Ray Charles, Frankie Laine, Chick Webb, Otis Spann, and Merle Travis are just a sampling of performers we’ll hear from. West County living deserves roots music wafting over the airwaves on a Saturday morning in early autumn. Let’s set the airwaves stage with some Otis Spann.