We take another trip down the roots rabbit hole with the usual selections of blues, bluegrass, country, gospel, and tradition in a show that follows a thread that begins with The Del McCoury Band’s bluegrass cover of Mama’s Hungry Eyes and winds its way to conclusion down the endless black ribbon. In between we’ve got kind words and last words, chain gangs and jailers, and songs about bird dogs and mockingbirds. The show is a special ‘stream of musical roots consciousness’ called “Connections”.
Category Archives: Folk and Tradition
Ragged But Right – KOWS July 25, 2015
Hot summer days…cool West County nights. Deeper Roots finds the right balance on Saturday mornings in Occidental this week with music about ramblers and gamblers featuring Ralph Stanley, Tom Russell, and Sturgill Simpson. We’ll also find ourselves in the crosshairs of country, blues, and southern gospel with songs of light and life featuring Hank Williams, Gary Davis, and Marty Stuart. Riley Puckett, The Sons of the Pioneers, and the Selah Jubilee Singers also join in on another Saturday morning filled with roots music on KOWS 107.3-LP FM. Tune in on TuneIn!
Songs About Telephones
It’s ‘theme time’ in this episode as we find a muse that songwriters have been looking to since it’s appearance in the 19th century: the telephone. Join us for operators, dial tones, party lines, busy signals, and hang-ups…just a few of the topics in a show featuring gospel from the Selah Jubilee Singers and Sister Wynona Carr, sixties soul from The Marvelettes and The Orlons, tradition from Bill Monroe and Wade Mainer, and more.
Ladies of Country Music
The story of women in country music begins in the early century with The Carters and the lesser known names of Roba Stanley, Louisiana Lou, and Patsy Montana. If the music was not about heaven and sinners, then it was about being a single girl or a cowboy’s sweetheart. But there was a sea change in post-war country music with the strength of Kitty Wells’ and the assertive independent sounds of Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, and Dolly Parton. To quote an online source, “the story of gender in post-war country music is largely the story of how women, in song and on stage, came to represent themselves in full.”
Old Devil Time
We are sitting in for Mark Hogan’s Bluegrass and Old Time Hour this week while Mark is far afield, attending the 40th Anniversary Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival in Grass Valley. Our show will explore the multi-generational sounds of not only bluegrass with Dillard and Clark and The Hackberry Ramblers, but we’ll also cross the genres (as we are wont to do) with Cowboy Copas, Clara Ward, Otis Spann, and Doris Day. There’s a couple of different threads that run through our show today, one being that of the ‘devil’ and the other being ‘new mornings’. Tune in at a special time and see what’s in store on a summer afternoon in West County.
Grapes on the Vine
Raising the roof once more on KOWS in West Sonoma County on a bright Saturday morning. And we make it count with an opening salvo of some country swing from Bob Wills, W. Lee O’Daniel, The Light Crust Doughboys, and Willie Nelson. Not to be outdone, we’ve got bluegrass from The Rice Brothers and our own David Thom, gospel from the Hummingbirds, and a special set celebrating the “Poet of the Blues” Percy Mayfield. We’ll also feature blues from Texas and, if we find the time, early century pop from Frank Crumit and Cliff Edwards. Tune in Saturday morning at 9 on KOWS for a dose of roots sounds from the past century of America’s music with Dave Stroud.
Folk & Blues Fusion
We blend sounds of the South with those of the Appalachians, sharing the sounds of performers who were known in different locales, passing lyrics and music, making them pliable as they went from town to town. Recordings were made in hotel rooms, front porches, and music stores by record company representatives who traveled from city to city with primitive recording equipment. By the time the recordings were ‘offloaded’ back at the studios, details of the performers and the differences between black and white were blurred. We’ll hear from the great Riley Puckett, Mississippi John Hurt, The Blue Sky Boys, and Pink Anderson in this week’s episode.
Fair and Warmer – KOWS May 23, 2015
The show kicks off with some mid-century country fiddlin’ courtesy of Curly Fox but makes a quick left turn with a set about liars, tattlers, and some straight-forward testifying from Sister Rosetta Tharpe. We’ll also be entertained with some classic roots from the Dallas String Band, Lead Belly, E. C. Ball, and a tribute set to Sam Cooke.
Home on the Range
Generations of youth over the last century grew up with the images of cowpokes, rustlers, bad guys, and ranching through dime novels, radio, television and, of course, the music. In this episode of Deeper Roots, we focus on the legacy of the ‘cowboy crooners’ and country balladeers who sang about life on the trail alongside the grub wagon on the lone prairie where the imagination could take you anywhere it pleased…and often did. We’ll hear the earliest ‘cowboy songs’ by Vernon Dalhart and Carl Sprague; and we’ll also find ourselves being serenaded (quite gently) by Tex Ritter and Gene Autry who reached out for the generic, mass appeal. The music was full of tradition as well and we’ll hear some contemporary reflections from David Wilkie And Cowboy Celtic, Jim Lauderdale, and (of course) Waylon, Willie, Merle, and Johnny.
Demon Alcohol
We’ve got ‘songs of the sauce’, so to speak. Our show will feature a century of America’s music with stories of moonshine, rye whiskey, bubbles in the beer, bartenders, and hangovers going as far back as 1928. But we’ve also got a Bob Wills tribute piece from a new Asleep at the Wheel release, indie rockabilly from new Austinians Tammy Lynn & Myles High, R&B truckers The Harlem Hamfats, and local favorite David Luning. Join Dave Stroud for another two hours of a century of America’s Music on KWTF, member-supported community radio for Bodega Bay and all of Sonoma County.