Category Archives: Featured Music

Grapes on the Vine

Percy Mayfield
Percy Mayfield

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.

No.
1Artist Title Album Buy
2Asleep at the Wheel/Johnny Gimble Big Balls in Cowtown The Very Best of Asleep at the Wheel Since 1970 Amazon
3Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys I Had Someone Else Before I Had You Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 5 Amazon
4The Light Crust Doughboys Blue Guitars Western Swing: Hot Hillbilly Jazz & Blues – 1935-1947 Amazon
5Skeets McDonald Fuss and Fight Skeets McDonald – Heart Breakin' Mama (Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight) Amazon
6W. Lee & His Hillbilly Boys Congratulate Me Western Swing Chronicles Vol. 4 1933-1938 Amazon
7Willie Nelson Cherokee Maiden You Don't Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker Amazon
8Warren Smith Got Love If You Want It The Sun Country Box CD4 So Long, I'm Gone Amazon
9Bobby Hicks & Del McCoury We're Steppin' Out Tonight Bluegrass Number 1's: A Collection of Chart-Topping Songs Amazon
10Ralph Stanley Are You Washed In The Blood A Mother's Prayer Amazon
11Ralph Stanley Dad's Old Rocky Field Old Songs & Ballads Amazon
12The Rice Brothers Grapes On the Vine Bluegrass Number 1's: A Collection of Chart-Topping Songs Amazon
13The David Thom Band The Little White Church That Old Familiar Amazon
14Selah Jubilee Singers I Saw the Light Gospel Quartets 1921-1942 Vol. 2 Amazon
15The Selah Singers I'll Be Satisfied Capitol Records' From The Vaults, Volume 5 – Roots Of Rock 'N' Roll – 1944-53 Amazon
16The Dixie Hummingbirds Christian's Automobile 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of the Dixie Hummingbirds Amazon
17Nina Simone I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free Forever Young, Gifted & Black: Songs Of Freedom And Spirit Amazon
18Aretha Franklin River's Invitation Queen Of Soul: The Atlantic Recordings [Disc 2] Amazon
19Percy Mayfield Strange Things Happening ABC Of The Blues Vol 28 Amazon
20Ray Charles Hit the Road Jack Genius & Soul: The 50th Anniversary Collection Disc 2 Amazon
21Buddy Miller Please Send Me Someone To Love Midnight And Lonesome Amazon
22Freddie King Look On Yonder Wall Woman Across the River Amazon
23The Mississppi Mud Mashers Bring It On Home To Grandma Flashbacks #3 CopulationBlues 1926-1940 Amazon
24Texas Alexander The Risin' Sun As Good As It Gets: Country Blues [Disc 2] Amazon
25Blind Lemon Jefferson Easy Rider Blues Classic Sides Disc 2 Amazon
26Ishman Bracey Woman Woman Blues (Pm 12970, L-239-2) The Rise & Fall of Paramount Records, Volume 2 (1928-1932) Amazon
27Charlie Spand Ain't Gonna Stand For That (Pm 12856, 15454–) The Rise & Fall of Paramount Records, Volume 2 (1928-1932) Amazon
28Jean Brady and Big Bill Broonzy Knocking Myself Out Flashbacks #1 Drug Songs 1917-1944 Amazon
29Lightnin' Hopkins Buddy Brown's Blues (98 Degree Blues) The Complete Prestige-Bluesville Recordings [Disc 2] Amazon
30Frank Crumit There's No One With Endurance grimriper2u@yahoo.com FRANK CRUMIT Amazon
31Cliff Edwards K-K-K-Katy & When You Wore A Tulip CLIFF EDWARDS grimriper2u@yahoo.com Amazon
32Herbert Payne Smoke Clouds Flashbacks #1 Drug Songs 1917-1944 Amazon
33Al Jolson Toot, Toot Tootsie (Goo'bye) 50 #1 Hits Of The '20s & '30s Amazon
34Billy Joe Shaver Hill Country Love Song Oxford American Southern Music Texas Amazon
35Marty Robbins The Strawberry Roan Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs Amazon

Folk & Blues Fusion

Folk & Blues Fusion
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

Deeper Roots on KOWS
Deeper Roots on KOWS

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.

Texas Bluesmen

Texas Bluesmen
Texas Bluesmen

When one thinks of the early influences of the blues, they’re taken down to the Mississippi Delta or maybe into East Georgia, where the Piedmont blues style was born. But Texas is not always a player in the discussion primarily because most do not necessarily know the origins of its native sons even though they may know their names. Let’s try Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker, and Lightnin’ Hopkins to start with and we’ll go on from there. In Friday night’s Deeper Roots show we visit the streets of Deep Ellum, Houston, and Galveston, where many of the performers would ply their trade in the Lone Star State. Although we won’t cover Blind Lemon, we’ll have plenty of music to keep us tapping out toes including Texas Alexander, Pee Wee Crayton, Freddie King, and Stevie Ray Vaughan…and all of the greats who made their name in between.

Free Form – May 2015

Free Form
Free Form

Every so often we like to spend time wandering about the last century of jazz, blues, gospel and country, sharing music that’s not lost, only tucked away. In this week’s episode we’ll do just that and share our first ‘free form’ show of the year with you all. We’ll have blues about clothes being ripped off by Lightnin’ Hopkins and the Chicago Black Swans, a gumbo of Louisiana sounds from the likes of Doug Kershaw, beer toasting Tex Mex from Doug Sahm, and pining bluegrass from Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, and Ralph Stanley. Tune in for another two hours of the very best of the last century of America’s music with Dave Stroud in a show produced exclusively for KWTF community radio.

Deep Elem Blues

Deep Elem Blues
Deep Elem Blues

Get up sleepy heads! West Sonoma County rolls out of bed on a Saturday morning at 9 with LaVern Baker in another episode of Deeper Roots featuring the music of Don Edwards, Jorma Kaukonen, The Boswell Sisters, and Mahalia Jackson (to name but a few). KOWS radio is also propelling itself in an important campaign to extend its broadcast signal to a larger audience across Sonoma County and is in it’s last month of its Indiegogo campaign where we’re asking our listeners to jump into with both feet. Please visit http://tinyurl.com/pom5kkq to donate. You can tune into KOWS on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month to get your regular dose of roots music. And there’s more to discover by visiting our Deeper Rootsweb site.

Home on the Range

Home On The Range
Home On The Rang

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.

Back To The Cotton Club

Back To the Cotton Club
Back To the Cotton Club

We follow up to a previous episode and get back to the music of the Cotton Club, the jewel that grew out of the Harlem Renaissance. While it featured the top shelf acts of Harlem, it was also the typical whites-only club where African-Americans could perform but not attend. Despite these Jim Crow policies, what the Cotton Club brought us was a legendary lineup of performers and performances that rivals none in the history of jazz. Our show features the music of Fletcher Henderson, Cab Calloway and his sister Blanche, Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford and others whose careers were launched there.

Demon Alcohol

Demon Alcohol
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.

A Dime Looks Like a Wagon Wheel

Deeper Roots on KOWS
Deeper Roots on KOWS

“A Dime Looks Like a Wagon Wheel”….a phrase that was used to indicate how fortunate you felt when just a little seemed so big when you had so little to start with. Old timey music, some sweet R&B from Sam Cooke, country styles from Johnny Cash and Hank Thompson, folk and blues from Dave Van Ronk, Woody Guthrie, and Peter Rowan….and newer sounds from The Far West, Steep Canyon Rangers, and Howell Devine. Two hours of Deeper Roots looks like that same wagon wheel…it goes by fast and we’ll have the very best of American roots music from the past century Saturday morning at 9am on KOWS.

No.
1Artist Title Album Buy
2Hardrock Gunter Boogie Woogie On A Saturday Night Boogie Man Boogie Amazon
3Rosanne Cash Big River Right or Wrong Amazon
4Johnny Cash Big River Get Rhythm [Sun] Amazon
5Bill Monroe Big River Bluegrass 1959-1969 [Disc 1] Amazon
6The Nashville Bluegrass Band The Johnson Boys American Beauty Amazon
7Don Reno/Red Smiley A Dime Looks Loke a Wagon Wheel Together Again Amazon
8Steep Canyon Rangers Good Old Country Baptizing Mr. Taylor's New Home Amazon
9Bobby Hicks & Del McCoury We're Steppin' Out Tonight Bluegrass Number 1's: A Collection of Chart-Topping Songs Amazon
10Willie Nelson Texas on a Saturday Night Revolutions of Time: The Journey 1975-1993 Disc 2 Amazon
11Red Foley Tennessee Saturday Night Hillbilly Fever [Disc 2] Amazon
12Ella Mae Morse Tennessee Saturday Night The Morse Code [Disc 2] Amazon
13Frank Sinatra Saturday Night (Is The Loneliest Night In The Week) Swing And Dance With Frank Sinatra Amazon
14Sam Cooke Another Saturday Night Portrait Of A Legend 1951-1964 Amazon
15Junior Brown Long Walk Back to San Antone Long Walk Back Amazon
16The Green River Boys feat. Glen Campbell Poor Boy Looking for a Home James Burton – The Early Years 1957-1969 Amazon
17Hank Thompson & His Brazos Valley Boys New Green Light, The Vintage Collections Amazon
18Roy Rogers I Can't Go on This Way 1942-1947 (Warped 4561) Amazon
19The Far West Maricopa City Lights The Far West Amazon
20Bo Diddley I'm Looking For A Woman His Best: The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection Amazon
21Markus James Diddley Bow and Buckets Head For The Hills Amazon
22Howell Devine Devil Got My Woman Delta Grooves Amazon
23Skip James Devil Got My Woman Ghost World Amazon
24Rory Block Devil Got My Man Gone Woman Blues: The Country Blues Collection Amazon
25Bonnie Raitt Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead Bonnie Raitt Amazon
26Peter Rowan Dust Bowl Children Dust Bowl Children Amazon
27Woody Guthrie Blowing Down That Old Dusty Road (Going Down the Road Feelin' Bad) Dust Bowl Ballads [Rounder] Amazon
28Ramblin' Jack Elliott Hard Travellin' Dust Bowl Blues Essential American Folk Amazon
29The Reverend Gary Davis You Got to Move At Newport Amazon
30Markus James Goin' Down South Head For The Hills Amazon
31Louis Jordan No Sale Jivin' With Jordan Amazon
32Benny Goodman He Ain't Got Rhythm Sing, Sing, Sing Amazon
33Johnny Hamp Orchestra Ooh! Hoo! Yoo-Hoo! Johnny Hamp at Archive Amazon