A bright future is in store….that’s our story and we’re stickin’ to it! Today’s show contains an inordinate amount of upbeat tickers including a trip to Tulsa with Asleep at the Wheel, a Fats Waller song about those wide open places, a journey following the North Star with Rhiannon Giddens, The Boswells, Hank Williams, Les Paul, and a whole lot more. We’re in a free form mood on a Friday morning here in Sonoma County, celebrating the Twelve Days of Inauguration the best way we know how. Join us on Sonoma County Community radio from the Deeper Roots Den with your host Dave Stroud, celebrating our democracy in a big, big way.
Category Archives: Free Form
Who We Lost 2020
It’s hard to put into words the grief we have experienced over so many great performers lost this past year, including those who lost their battle to COVID-19. When assembling our annual list of tributes it became clear that no two hours would suffice so we’ll be doing some abbreviated observations to make sure they’re not forgotten. And we’ll also be thanking those behind the scenes, the songwriters, the session folks, and we’ll even have a short collection of British influencers who touched our lives with their talent. Tune in for a comprehensive and reflective show, our first Deeper Roots show of 2021, this new year that is filled with so much promise. And it’s likely that we can all agree that the bar couldn’t have fallen much lower than it did last year.
Christmas Joy
Happy Holidays! Proving that there is no war on Christmas and looking forward to the coming year, join Dave Stroud as he shares some of the great holiday chestnuts from years past. He’ll be sharing celebratory sounds from every decade, moving the needle from the 40s to the 10s in a new Deeper Roots Christmas shindig. Tune in for everyone from Sister Rosetta Tharpe to Frank Sinatra to Ella, The Andrews Sisters, Los Straitjackets and Otis Redding’s Merry Christmas Baby. As we barrel out of 2020 as fast as we can, we remind ourselves of the fortunes of the few and the need of the many in this season of desperation. So get out that Georgia vote, folks, and stand steadfast against the anarchy of this dying administration’s push towards fascist principles for power. We have the power to do this. We do.
Big Band Blowout!
Swing with us here on Deeper Roots on a Friday morning, one week ahead of the Christmas festivities. The big band sound is that apple pie sound that grew out of the traveling musicians and dance hall bands of the 1920s. From the radio to ballrooms across the land, as the jazz orchestras grew in size, the arrangements had to be formalized to avoid mass confusion. The arranger became the focal point of the band. Improvisation during solos was written into the arrangements but their location and duration were controlled and the vocal stylings grew around the easy flowing style of the evolving jazz that would become known as ‘Swing’. Tune in for two hours of exploration of a century of America’s music.
Got Blues If You Want It
It’s blues time once more. We’re in for a hard winter and before we roll out the Christmas cheer and jingles, it’s time for some deeper reflection. This week’s Deeper Roots show features music from the great blues performers, acoustic and electric, of the past century: Lightnin’ Hopkins, Howlin’ Wolf, Slim Harpo, Elmore James, Ray Charles, and a large contingent of the usual suspects. We make our way from Highway 51 to 49, the waterfront to the crossroads, buzzin’, shufflin’, walkin’ blues…all for you this week on KRJF community radio here in Sonoma County. Let your conscience be your guide.
The Songs of Dan Penn
With a new album just released, Dan Penn reminds everyone that there are few songwriters, and only one living, that have influenced (if not defined) the Memphis soul sound as he has. At 78, Dan Penn’s legacy is already sealed with songs that are enduring: “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man”, “Dark End of the Street”, “Cry Like a Baby”, and so many more. Our show this Friday had to carefully curate tracks from Irma Thomas, Percy Sledge, Solomon Burke, Arthur Alexander, and a couple dozen more to pay proper tribute. As a musician and songwriter, this Muscle Shoals legend deserves a spot in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame and, while never considered a performer, his catalog includes three solo studio albums, one from 1973, another from 1994, and this year’s Living On Mercy. You’ll hear tracks from these and so much more in this morning’s episode of Deeper Roots.
Change is Gonna Come
Positive vibes and sweet sounds in another eclectic free form show on Deeper Roots. Dave Stroud will take the opportunity on this week’s Black Friday to share some golden sounds, some classics and others that you may not know. They’re the sounds from the deeper wells and the dusty digital archives of the past century. You’ll hear some Gary US Bonds’ best known and obscure tracks, gospel delicacies from The Gospel Tones and The Zion Travelers, new sounds and classic early tracks from Dion, and so, so much more in the show today as we give thanks for the decomposition of the torch bearers of racism and white supremacy that occupy the highest seats in the land. Change is gonna come and none too soon.
The Itinerant Life
The Great Depression brought to the forefront the blight of runaway capitalism and a country that was not prepared to put safeguards in place for working people, let alone the working poor, until FDR’s New Deal in the 30s. By then it was too late for the many itinerant homeless and impoverished migrant workers who moved from town to town by any means necessary, looking for hope amongst communities of those equally disenfranchised. The itinerant life brought about its own language, hieroglyphics, and rule of law. Our show today rides the rails with the music; songs of the itinerant life. We’ll hear from the likely suspects like Woody and Cisco, Doc Watson, Jimmie Rodgers, and Harry Choates as well as the Goose State Ramblers’ story of Ole Olson, Norman and Nancy Blake’s tale of Hobo Bill, Montana Slim, and Bob Dylan. Tune in Friday morning for the best in roots sounds on the might KOWS Community Radio. 92.5 FM on your dial.
Tiki Torch Exotica
This week’s Deeper Roots takes an historical journey into a sidelight of America’s music: Exotica. The music was a phenomenon mostly attributed to a popularity born of World War II; servicemen returning from the South Seas, Hawaii, and other Asian locales had been exposed to the music and culture. Post-war found two composers who nurtured this sudden boom of south sea influences: Les Baxter and Martin Denny, both releasing groundbreaking popular performances that were an instant success. Even though these two composers were among a small cast of characters, like any popular American music that showed legs on the charts, their sound led to copy-cats and variations on the theme that were too eclectic to pigeonhole and today’s show will tap into a few of those nooks and crannies. It’s all in good fun with wild and sensual sounds from the lounge of mid-century performers like Arthur Lyman, Yma Sumac, Peggy Lee, and 80 Drums Around the World. We’ll also dig into some novel easy listening sounds from the deeper, dustier archives, retooled for a new generation by the Numero Group on their anthology called Technicolor Paradise, release in 2018. Join the rest of the castaways on our two hour tour this week on Sonoma County Community Radio.
Mama’s Getting Hot
Free Form Friday is considered the calm before two upcoming events, both suspenseful in nature. Halloween and Election Day. Halloween because we’ll be sharing some of the haunted reminders as well as social distancing, whereas Election Day will send the right message and send the ghouls, rats, and seditionists scurrying back to their nests. This morning’s music is the bright reminder that good still can come of our situation, taking a time out for music that keeps us centered. We’ll make the leap from Mama Cass to Geraint Watkins, Ella to Laura Nyro, John Prine to The Beach Boys…all in perfect form. Join Dave Stroud for another celebration of a hundred years of America’s music on KOWS radio, a bastion of free speech and no bull, streaming to your ears on www.freespeechnobull.com. And donate to support community radio.