There’s hardly a branch or root extension of American music that is not somehow connected the gospel. The themes of love, betrayal, birth, death, and the soul’s redemption have all long been played out repeatedly in the pulpit each and every Sunday. Thoughts and prayers are easily spent when the hard work isn’t as palpable to deal with. This week’s show blends the gospel of the Baptist, Pentacostal and Church of Christ as they were the big leader of the rafter shakers on the way to “Beulah Land” with a little bit of swing and country favorites. Tune in for music that runs the gospel gamut from the Soul Satisfiers of Philadelphia and the Gospel Songbirds to Sister Oda Mae Terrell and the country pairings of the Chuck Wagon Gang, Mac Wiseman, Kitty Wells, and of course, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. Deeper Roots revisits some gospel classics in another Friday morning blend of the past 100 years of America’s music. Here on KOWS Community Radio. Free Speech. No Bull.
Category Archives: Country
420 Fun
It’s a topical theme…it’s a medicinal thing…it’s a blend of sounds celebrating vipers and jives from the past century. We will join in the celebration (in spirit anyway) of the date and time that three Marin County teenagers are said to have inaugurated over a half century ago. There is no shortage of material to pull from the well of Americana…whether that be from the 1920s or from the 2010s. We’ll brighten up the playlist with music that will help us kick back. We’ll pour over a selected list of great sounds from the last 100 years that either directly or indirectly find us thinking about (or maybe imbibing in) the herb so many care about. There will be music from John Prine, Willie Nelson, Kacey Musgraves, Ray Charles and some early century jazz nuggets you will find hard to resist. Friday morning sounds from the Cherry Street Historic District of Santa Rosa, California, streaming to West County and the world on KOWS-LP, Occidental 92.5 FM and kowsfm.com/listen.
Cuppa Joe
The history of coffee consumption in 20th century America takes hold in the small cafes, truck stops and coffeehouses which became venues and social spaces for the community. Like music, they helped with the congregation of like minds and served as hubs for intellectual exchange, artistic expression and social activism. And it was all because of the caffeine. Instant and decaf coffees were just an aberration; much like disco. This week’s Deeper Roots drives the theme of coffee home with tracks that span the century including Emmett Miller, the King Cole Trio, The Bobs, Ella Mae Morse and Merle Travis (among others) to tell us a cuppa tale or two. It’s one more Friday show ahead of next week’s 420 observation…one more libation to celebrate.
Don’t Wanna
Theme time and I’m going to break it to you slow…it’s all about the negative and those that refuse. If there’s something that’s more prevalent in our lives than saying that we ‘want to’…it’s when we don’t want to. The ‘desire not to’ seems to be winning over the ‘desire to’ in our show today. We’ve got a collection of songs that all begin with the phrase “I Don’t Want” in some form or another. We’ll bring you the early sounds of The Blue Sky Boys and some country sounds of Jimmy Wakely from the hayloft, blues and soul from Magic Sam and that firecracker Sugar Pie DeSanto, and plenty of Americana from The Blasters, Wanda Jackson and Doug Sahm in our show today. It’s going to be a romp because there’s a lot of fodder to choose from when stubbornness is the theme. Tune into community radio for Sonoma County to find out. I don’t want to spoil the theme…but not ‘wanting to’ isn’t always a bad thing…
Space Race Rock
What a time it was. The surprise of Sputnik in the early fifties led to a space race, a technological competition that had a profound impact on popular music (not to mention popular culture), providing musicians (and would-be musicians) a rich source of inspiration and contributed to some of the most iconic, as well as comic and out of this world, songs of the era. Themes of space travel, the moon and Mars, and even flying saucers were rampant on the airwaves. And one can only ascribe the fear of aliens to the number attempted novelty bits that reflected that trepidation. Laughter is, after all, a natural way for fear to be released in humankind. This week we’ll be sharing some of the classics, as well as the unknowns, including Jesse Belvin & His Space Riders, The Drivers, Merv Griffin, The Big Bopper, Dave & The Detomics and quite a few more that even if we were to share their names, you’d probably scratch your head anyway.
Scenes Of Devastation
There’s going to be a free form mix of sounds this week with some ‘scenes of devastation’ as well as some blues and tradition. We’ll set the tone with a song that inspired the title lines from The Pine Hill Project and then head into some tradition and some covers that speak in the language of the sacred and secular…from Saturday night at the juke to Sunday morning in the pew. A great mix of sounds from some classic female blues gems from the 1940s like Wea Bea Booze and Ethel Waters. We’ll also go down to the crossroads and Deep Elem with the likes of Champion Jack Dupree and T-Bone Walker, some deeper/darker blues from Geeshie Wiley and Blind Lemon Jefferson as well. But we’ll also fill the air with the tops in great interpretations from Van Dyke Parks, Willie Watson and Bob Brozman. Join us for some ‘last kind words’ from the Rocky Road Blues to James Alley on a Friday morning in West County.
Your Lucky Day
Mining the archives we find that bad luck and trouble are not a concern as Spring peeks around the corner. Luck is our watchword on this March morning and we’ll try to keep our superstitions in check. We’ll be taking our chances with a themed show today that blends some vocals from past and present and with this being an election year…we need all the luck we can get. Tune in for some Raul Malo, Charley Crockett, Howlin’ Wolf, Judy Garland and a couple dozen others following the theme of ‘Your Lucky Day’. Let us keep you entertained while the rest of the world goes by. Tune us in on your radio at 92.5 FM or, better yet, listen to us anywhere on planet Earth on kowsfm.com/listen. You can change your luck by adopting a cat, you know. And black cats have, despite longstanding superstitions, the best of personalities.
Family Affair
We’ve got the family trees for you on Deeper Roots this week; proof positive that music can very well run in the family. Our show will share music from just a few of the families that have made their own way in a host of different genres. We’ll hear from the Nelsons (both of them), the family Marsalis, the Hiatts, the Wainwrights, the brothers Neville and a few others this week, spanning both the 20th and 21st centuries. Tune in to this week’s two hour mixed bag with some of the very best performances from some different lineages, here on KOWS Community Radio.
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.
Back To Schooldays
Good times, bad times…let’s take a theme trip to schooldays past in music this week. Whether you were a product of the fifties, sixties or beyond, you remember your favorite music. We’ll be zooming in on sounds from that era in the show today as we explore the high school theme with topics like ‘lettered sweaters’…what ever happened to those? Or maybe the reminder of the bell or buzzer in the hallways. Or maybe that favorite after school rendezvous spot. We’ll be sharing music that celebrated school and affairs of the young at heart with tracks from The 5 Royals, Johnny Burnette, Gary US Bonds and some other favorites as well as some unknowns from some dusty 45s buried deep in the archives. Namely Nicky & The Nobles, Johnny & The Jammers, and Herbie Alpert & His Sextet. Quite the fun today so drop by.