To say that the year 2016 was a bummer year is an understatement. While entertainment would take a backseat to the social and political conflagrations of the year, it was a very tough year for music lovers, nonetheless. Deeper Roots will be sharing tracks from some of the great, both known and unknown, who left us. We’ll hear from both Prince as well as Dan Hicks; Natalie Cole and Lonnie Mack; Juan Gabriel and Paul Kantner. It does not end there and we’ll barely be able to cover them all. Tune into our last show of the year and help us remember what these performers brought us.
Category Archives: Folk and Tradition
Go West!
The westward movement is celebrated once more as Deeper Roots spends two hours digging through those dusty digital bins to find the more popular and, in some cases, more obscure pieces about the one of the great migrations. In addition to the 19th century land-grab where the call was “Westward Ho!”, we’ll hear songs about the not-so-celebratory movement following the 20th century Dust Bowl migration. Tune in for blues from Lowell Fulson, Barbecue Bob, and Albert King; country from Merle Haggard, Asleep at the Wheel, and John Hartford; tradition and folk from Woody Guthrie, Darryl Holter, and Jay Farrar; and jazz/pop from Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, and Sol Hoopii. All on community radio for Sonoma County.
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.
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).
Mix of the Blues
Deeper Roots will spend time with a variety of blues styles this week with no focus but the roots of feeling blue, themes about being blue, junker’s blues, bar fly blues, cold rainy day blues, and the dark and somber blues. We’ll feature the urban sounds of Lowell Fulson and Bobby Blue Bland, the smooth sounds of T-Bone Walker, and we’ll also pick on some early jazz and blues vocals including Bertha “Chippie” Hill, Hattie McDaniels, and Memphis Minnie.
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.
Free Form – June 2016
Deeper Roots goes free form and our two hours will be filled with an eclectic blend of blues, gospel, tradition, and early century jazz. We’ll feature songs about vapor vipers, snakes, preachers, and a whole lot more. Join us for another summer evening in West Sonoma County, California with performances from Charley Patton, Josh White, Jimmie Driftwood, Noble Sissle, and Jumpin’ Bill Carlisle.