Somewhere sandwiched between pre-war big band and swing and the rock n’ roll era that erupted in the early fifties, there was foretelling in the sounds of post-war rhythm and blues, honkers and shouters, and jump bands. This week’s show will explore the sounds of post-war with Louis Jordan’s Tympany Five, Bull Moose Jackson, Babs Gonzales, Wynonie Harris, Amos Milburn and a couple dozen others. To say the burner was hot is misunderstanding the situation: it was red hot. Our morning show will have your toes tappin’, your fingers snappin’, and your hips shakin’ as the sounds of post-war rhythm in blues takes you into another Spring day here in Sonoma County. Join in the fun!
Category Archives: Jazz
Honey Don’t
Don’t tell me…it’s theme time but with the negative bent. No, no, no, honey don’t. This week’s show takes on songs of which there is no reduced supply chain: songs that ask us ‘not to’. A somewhat obscure theme, no question, but it’s all about the message after all. We’ll hear a variety of genres this week, all with their warnings prefaced with the contraction “don’t”. We’ll hear from Elvis (a favorite of the idiom), Blue Lu Barker, Julia Lee, Charles Brown, Buddy Emmons, and those representing doo wop, country, early rock, and Americana. All of this coming your way on our first show of May 2021, a rebroadcast of a KOWS show recorded live from the KOWS studios, located in the Cherry Street Historic District of Santa Rosa. Don’t get defensive, it’s all in fun.
Torch Songs
Smoky lounges, familiar places, and torch songs to patronize those forlorn lovers alone at the bar. You get the drift. Sentimentality abounds this morning on Deeper Roots as we dig into a subset of virtually any genre out there. It’s as old as time itself, of course: songs and stories of unrequited or lost love, either where one is oblivious to the feelings of another or has moved on from a relationship, all told in teary notes by the performer. Let me just say that there was no shortage of fodder for this show whether it was country, jazz, soul, or pop. We’ll hear from Julie London, Ray Charles, Dusty Springfield, Aretha, Roy Orbison, and on and on. No rest for the pain of unrequited love. Tune in for a crazy moon, crying time, and the end of the world on KOWS Community Radio.
East Side West Side
From the Bowery to Brooklyn to Broadway to the Bronx…the sidewalks of New York is the topic of the morning, our Gotham theme this Friday on community radio from the Left Coast looking east. Join Dave Stroud for a handsome cab journey through the past century of iconic sounds where the heartbeat of the melting pot of America sings. You’ll be treated to some early Broadway musical samples, the imaginings of West Side Story, the hotel orchestras, and vocal elaborations from Darin, Sinatra, Ella, an Cohan. There will be no exclusion here as late century rock and vocal groups as we’ll hear from The Ad Libs, The Drifters, Garland Jeffreys and others. New York has always been a mirror into the soul of America and has always represented its humanity as a visit to any street in Manhattan would reveal; and its music is, in turn, a reflection itself of that humanity. Join us.
The Great American Songbook
Something different this week. We’ll be reflecting on the Spring Issue of a magazine that cuts through the heart of what we love doing here on both Blue Moon Americana as well as Deeper Roots. There are a handful of publications that make the cut but No Depression magazine is truly special and the Spring 2021 issue is something to revel in. The writing, the artists, and the arc of ‘The Great American Songbook’, from Stephen Foster to Louis Armstrong is given thoughtful and insightful treatment. Our show this week puts a soundtrack with a century of America’s music explored: Dock Boggs’ Pretty Polly, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, The Blue Sky Boys’ cover of Knoxville Girl, and some incredible Latin vocals from one Omara Portuondo. The magazine is worth the read and the music is worth a listen. Tune in on a Saturday among the Sonoma County skies for the best of community radio.
The Year 1939
While the clouds of war and fascism were spreading in earnest across Europe, here at home the movies Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz, and Gone With The Wind premiered and Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath was first published. Lou Gehrig bid farewell, A pound of hamburger cost 14 cents and the average price of a new car was $700. And the music was both dance crazy and uplifting, with the music of Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and film dominating. This week’s show will feature the music of 1939 with performances from Crosby, Garland, The Ink Spots, Cab Calloway and Billie Holiday. We’ll also be featuring the jazz and big band sounds of Jimmie Lunceford, Coleman Hawkins, Count Basie, and a handful of others. Deeper Roots sounds from over eight decades past on community radio for Sonoma County coming to you each Friday morning and evening.
Begin the Beguine
This past January was as much a month to remember as it was to forget. We’ll keep the serenity we need by softening the blow with music while also celebrating the good with swing, country, rhythm and gospel in another eclectic free form show on Sonoma County community radio. Cold weather and rain arrives so we’ll share the soul sounds of William Bell and Johnnie Taylor, some folk rock from Linda Ronstadt, swing vocals from The Mills Brothers and The Four Vagabonds, and gospel with Lou Rawls and the Pilgrim Travelers. We’ll visit Shenandoah, The Red River Valley, and Forty Miles of Bad Road in our Friday morning show, recorded this week in the Deeper Roots Den. I hope you’ll join us.
New Orleans R&B
We just can’t get enough of this sound, a blend of sounds that cannot be pushed away with the urban renewal of auto-tune and electronic pasteurization. It’s long history of inspiration whose roots are driven by centuries of influence, from Congo Square to Rampart Street, and beyond. Our show today returns to the humid southern climes at the mouth of the Mississippi for some of the very best of rhythm, from Cosimo Matassa’s studios to the clubs that pepper the Crescent City on Bourbon Street. Popular rhythm and blues today from Nawlins inclues some Fats, Professor Longhair, Huey “Piano” Smith, Paul Gayen, Frankie Ford, and a couple dozen others giving us that signature percussive backbeat embellished by pounding piano. It’s a Friday evening celebration here on Sonoma County Community radio.
Songs About Singing
Sing it loud! It’s a whole new year and our country can take heart without letting our guard down. We’ll celebrate a fresh new start knowing that hard work lies ahead with a two hour show featuring the theme of ‘singing’. Join Dave Stroud once more for a mixed bag; an eclectic blend of sounds from the past century featuring the likes of Ukulele Ike, Wingy Manone, The Cats & The Fiddle, John Sebastian, Cat Power, and a couple of dozen more, all belting out songs about the very act of singing. We’ll take you down Memory Lane with old fashioned songs, simple songs of gospel and freedom, swinging low, singing high, and those joyful sing-alongs we’ve shared over the past century. That’s right. It’s theme time on this week’s Deeper Roots show and we’d love to have you. Join in the festivities.
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.