We’re filling in once more for Mark Hogan and his Bluegrass and Old Time Hour. This week, we’ve put together another two hours of music that spans close to a full century…including Cliff Edwards from 1933, Woody Guthrie, Jimmie Lunceford, and Dave Van Ronk (just to name a few). There will be some themes and schemes built into our sets this evening including the story of Caldonia, the Texas town of San Antone, and heading down a dusty road of a century of America’s music.
Category Archives: Folk and Tradition
Beautiful Dreamer – KOWS August 3, 2015
Mark Hogan’s Bluegrass and Old-Time Hour is on hiatus for two weeks while Mark is back in Galax, Virginia checking out the summer activities including a Fiddler’s Convention. And we’re going to honor his muse this week, the first of two Monday episodes where Deeper Roots fills his spot in the schedule on KOWS. We’ve got plenty of bluegrass in the first hour featuring new music from Trout Steak Revival and classics from Bill Monroe and Mac Martin. Our second hour rolls out a run of Stephen Foster covers done by Jack Clement, Jonathan Edwards, The Sons of the Pioneers, and others.
Songs of Protest
This week’s show on KWTF runs down a century’s worth of protest music. We’ve got some of the familiars, but we’ve also got some of the not-so-familiars. Out playlists will focus on a couple of the major issues of half century ago that we find ourselves embroiled in today. We’ll hear civil rights anthems and performances from some of the more emphatic musical voices of the sixties that were railing against a war. You’ll also hear topics of union organizing and social justice including the sounds of Nina Simone, Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday, Pete Seeger, the SNCC Freedom Singers, Marvin Gaye, and many others.
Connections II
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”.
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.