Category Archives: Featured Music

Muscle Shoals Studios

February 7, 2015 Dave

This week’s edition of Deeper Roots visits the towns of Florence and Sheffield, Alabama, specifically the Fame Records and Muscle Shoals studios, to revel in the production talent that was important to the growth of rock, soul, pop, and gospel in the latter half of the 20th century. You may not be familiar with the history, and that can be easily remedied by watching the fine documentary of the same name “Muscle Shoals” which premiered at Sundance in January, 2013. Or you can tune in to our two hour episode to get a taste of the music (which you, no doubt, know) that was the soundtrack of a lifetime for at least two generations. When you consider that “Love Me Like A Rock”, “Wild Horses”, “Katmandu”, and “Gotta Serve Somebody” are just the tip of the iceberg, then you’ll want to know more about the four (yes, four) session musicians that crafted the very distinct sound that made the music as compelling as any other in the last century of America’s music.

Country Blues, Deeper Roots on KWTF, Folk and Tradition

Blind Willie McTell’s Blues

January 31, 2015 Dave

Blind Willie McTell was a gentleman songwriter and musician who could play and sing popular music and storied blues in the same voice. He could bring you into the story and emotion of a song while he picked in the Piedmont style and, with the supporting rhythm of Curley Weaver, painted a picture that could be visceral, or maybe light-hearted, sometimes stern in narrative, or whatever the mood or lyrics demanded. Bob Dylan’s own poetry about Willie is summed up in the verses of his song “Blind Willie McTell”, written in 1983 but not released by Dylan until 1991 on his “Bootleg Series 1-3”:

I can hear them tribes moaning
Hear the undertaker’s bell
Nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

Join Dave Stroud for a new two hour episode highlighting the life, words, and music of Blind Willie McTell in this week’s episode of Deeper Roots: A Century of America’s Music, produced exclusively for KWTF 88.1 FM, community radio for Sonoma County.

Bluegrass, Blues, Country Swing, Deeper Roots on KOWS, Folk and Tradition, Gospel

Deeper Roots on KOWS – January 29, 2015

January 29, 2015 Dave

Deeper Roots on KOWS - Jan 29 2015 — Deeper Roots on KOWS – Jan 29 2015

We’re sitting in for KOWS’ astrologer Matt Savinar in a show that swings with the jive to open things up and then heads down the path of tradition, New Orleans and zydeco spicing, country swing, and an assortment of gospel classics. In particular, we’ve got sets that are a precursor to our Friday and Sunday night specials about Blind Willie McTell, country swing that opens with the magical guitar work of Les Paul, and we remind everyone that Mardi Gras is just around the corner, with a set featuring Professor Longhair, Eddie Bo, and Snooks Eaglin. Join us in this special two hour ‘stand in’ show.

African American Gospel, Bluegrass, Blues, Country Swing, Deeper Roots on KOWS, Folk and Tradition, Theme Time

The Railroad Blues

January 25, 2015 Dave

The railroad is the muse for the morning here in Occidental as the show uses the theme of the railroad: the stories of those who built it, the promise of the golden sunrise that awaits at our destination, the sorrow of a love taken away by rail, and the lonesome whistle from some far away valley. As an aside, did you know that Occidental itself was once a bustling community where the train would haul off the timber and bring tourists from San Francisco and cities beyond?

Join us for the sacred and the secular, including Peter Rowan, ELVIS PRESLEY, Kevin Russell, Paul Warmack & His Gully Jumpers, Furry Lewis, and many others as we explore the genres of bluegrass, blues, folk, jazz, country, and so much more.
#rootsmusic #railroad #Americana

Blues, Country, Deeper Roots on KWTF, Theme Time

Songs About Texas

January 24, 2015 Dave

It’s theme time once more on Deeper Roots Radio: A Century of America’s Music. Join Dave Stroud as he digs up some classic songs about the Lone Star State.

We defer now to John Steinbeck: “I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for fear of losing their bearings in mystery or paradox. But I think there will be little quarrel with my feeling that Texas is one thing. For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study and the passionate possession of all Texans.”

It’s country, bluegrass, blues, R&B, jazz, and more from the past century of America’s music.

African American Gospel, Bluegrass, Country Gospel, Deeper Roots on KOWS, Early Pop, Early Rock, Mountain Music, Rhythm and Blues

Deeper Roots on KOWS – January 10, 2015

January 10, 2015 Dave

Deeper Roots on KOWS - January 2015 — Deeper Roots on KOWS – January 2015

Another beautiful winter Saturday morning in West Sonoma County and it’s time for a collection of hot blues, country gospel, early rock, early century pop, and swinging country on Deeper Roots… everything from Eddie Cantor’s 1922 song about a trapeze and Blind Willie McTell covering Jimmie Rodgers around mid-century, to a track from 2014 from a new band out of New Orleans called Hurray For The Riff Raff…another reason our tag line reads “A Century of America’s Music”. Join Dave Stroud on a brisk Saturday morning from the KOWS studios in downtown Occidental, California.

Americana’s Best – 2014

January 10, 2015 Dave

Celebrating a recent push into promoting Americana music by KWTF, Sonoma County, Dave Stroud will look back at 2014’s collection of outstanding Americana. The playlist for the evening covers those ‘long in the tooth’ including Willie Nelson and Billy Joe Shaver, a posthumous piece by Johnny Cash, and one of the more energetic throwbacks to 70s outlaw sounds you’ll hear from a songwriter by the name of Sturgill Simpson. There are also the newcomers: Lydia Loveless, Shovels and Rope, and Parker Millsap. Join us in a show that celebrates new music that digs into the roots of the past century of America’s music.

Bluegrass, Country, Folk and Tradition, Mountain Music

Deep In Tradition

January 3, 2015 Dave

In this episode of Deeper Roots, produced especially for Sonoma County’s newest member-supported community radio station, KWTF, we go Deep In Tradition. The playlist today features just over a dozen songs whose their roots go back beyond the 20^th century. Songs in the show include Ida Red, Cotton Eyed Joe, Back Up And Push, River of Jordan, and Arkansas Traveler. Performers include Doc Watson, The Carter Family, Ricky Skaggs, and Jimmie Driftwood. You’ll hear the songs and their stories in this first broadcast of 2015. Please join us for more than just the past century of America’s music from Sonoma County, California.

Bluegrass, Country Gospel, Deeper Roots on KOWS, Folk and Tradition, Rhythm and Blues

Deeper Roots on KOWS – December 27, 2014

December 27, 2014 Dave

Lots of early sounds mixed with the new this weekend. Stay tuned for music from the medicine shows, lost provinces, gospel tents, swamps, bandstands, and digital playgrounds. We’ve got Sam Samudio, Shorty Godwin, The Seldom Scene, Shel Silverstein, and Tom Russell in our bi-weekly show broadcast live from the KOWS studios in downtown Occidental, a hamlet tucked into the redwoods along the Bohemian Highway in west Sonoma County. The drought is being beat down and, while we would welcome more rain, we’re hoping that it’s dispersed so that our neighbors can manage without threat of flooding. So we’ll flood you all with a fine collection of performances from the last century of America’s music.

African American Gospel, Deeper Roots on KWTF

Gospel and Guitar

December 26, 2014 Dave

Our show this week will focus on the fire and brimstone of the gospel guitar, including the slide guitar of Blind Willie Johnson, the evangelists like Sister O. M. Terrell, the rhythmic sounds of the Two Gospel Keys, and we’ll also devote a large block of time to the sounds of that splinter genre ‘sacred steel’. While a number of bluesmen like Blind Willie McTell or Gary Davis would use the guitar for an occasional reminder of their faith or to play guest in tent revivals, many of the performers we’ll hear in our show this coming Friday on KWTF will show the best example of the use of guitar as an integral part of the church service itself. Join Dave Stroud for another evening of Deeper Roots.

A Century of America's Music