We reflect on Columbus Day…that day of the year that something and nothing are both celebrated. While it may be another one of those “Flag Days”, it’s a day that we’ll set aside a set for in the most appropriate way. We’ll hear the “Ballad of Ira Hayes”, music from Robbie Robertson, and Maxine Sullivan in the set which is one of free form this week on Deeper Roots. A set about sin, a set about the glorious two-day event known as the weekend, ballads, bop, and and opening sweat bomb by Joyce Harris and the Daylighters. Sonoma County community radio it is…
Category Archives: Country
Happy Birthday, Mr. Prine
In a special two hours, we’re going to celebrate John Prine’s music, observing his 70th birthday which just so happens have coincided with a new release of country duets this past October. We’ll hear some Steve Goodman, Johnny Cash, Bonnie Raitt, and The Boxmasters to name a few, performing Prine alongside some of the very best of Prine (prime Prine as it were). Happy birthday to one of the great songwriters of a generation. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: a true American treasure.
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.
City Blues
Our show this week features blues and country numbers about the many different American cities that had their own personalities…good and bad. You be the judge. From Naptown and Kokomo to KC and Mobile…north, south, east, and west. We’ll hear from Barbecue Bob, Lonnie Johnson, Ernest Tubb, Charlie Poole, and Little Brother Montgomery (to name just a few). Join Dave Stroud for another two hours of America’s tradition …
Country Roots
Deeper Roots revisits the deeper roots…focusing on old-timey sounds of some of the great performers playing the classic standards. Country music roots go back into the European melodies and folk tunes and their instruments called to a celebration of the Diasporas. This week: Gid Tanner, Vernon Dalhart, Al Hopkins, Jimmie Rodgers, Bradley Kincaid, Charlie Poole, and many others provide us a glimpse at where it all began. Join us for another roots-infused evening here in Sonoma County.
Free Form – August 2016
Country, rock, gospel, tradition, blues, and ragtime…just a sampling of the styles that you’ll hear when you tune into Deeper Roots this week. We’ll feature some contemporary sounds from Luther Dickinson and Bruce Hornsby…classic country from Hank Snow and Webb Pierce…traditional standards from John Prine and Mac Wiseman…rock gems from Bo Diddley and Elvis Presley. And, believe or not…there’s more!
Hot Summer Days
As we make it over the summer hump, we’ll take time to celebrate all the things we love about the summer heat. Those stunning summer skies, sea breezes, backyard barbecues, and the lift of a summer rain. We’ve got the beach sounds of the sixties, Hawaiian medleys from the islands, sophisticated sass from Buster Poindexter, hot kissin’ from H-Bomb Ferguson, the summer rain, the summer sky, and the Summer Wind from Frank Sinatra. Rock, zydeco, country, pop, bluegrass, rock, and so much of what comes from the in-between this week on Deeper Roots.
Time is Passing
Theme time this week! We are going to dip into a sometimes raucous, other times wistful, blend of country, blues, jazz, and what-not…to celebrate (or is it bemoan) the passing of time in our show this week. The clock is ticking, the calendar flipping, and the little blue orb keeps spinning around that big bright one. And all the while we live our lives celebrating the luminous sounds on Deeper Roots; this week featuring Johnny Otis, Fenton Robinson, Bob Dylan, Texas Jim Lewis, Roy Acuff, and so many others. Time may be passing and we may like to reminisce and wax nostalgic, but we press on…driven by music from the past century (among other things).
Smoke! Smoke! Smoke!
Songs from the past century will fill the air with second hand music smoke…all songs that reflect either the hawkish or ‘dove-ish’ opinions in words and music. We have two hours of country, jazz, blues, pop, and all those adventurous styles in between that use nicotine for their muse. Country from k.d. lang to The Sons of The Pioneers, R&B from the likes of Lucky Millender to Benny Spellman, some doo-wop, some Sam Cooke soul, and a little bit of sweet big band sounds from Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians. Maybe we won’t celebrate the habit…just the music.
Johnny Cash Tribute
Johnny Cash, like so many others, followed on the heels and inspiration of Elvis at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. But while others (save for possibly Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis) would fight for the scraps from this ‘new sound’, Johnny less-than-obligingly would ignore all the best advice. He began with the simplest of songs delivered in a farm boy’s tone and, with the Tennessee Three in tow, grew the sound into an identity. Our show this week will lean on his own recordings as well as music from performers he was inspired by…we’ll also include music from contemporaries and those who he inspired.