It’s a free form episode that follows the American songbook stream of musical consciousness from the early twentieth century right up through some contemporary sounds. A river of rhythm and song…. doo wop shoo wops, the 88 key bounce of boogie woogie, master jelly roll bakers, and sweet confections for you on a warm summer Friday morning from the West County studios of KOWS radio. Performances will include Les Paul, Peggy Lee, Levon Helm, The Adderly Brothers, Jesse Winchester, and a couple dozen more of your favorites. Settle in for a free form collection of memories and musical gems from the past century with your host, Dave Stroud.
Category Archives: Deeper Roots on KOWS
Answer Songs
Answer songs. A novelty of the music business that has always had a place but it truly exploded, becoming habit-forming with the advent of Top 30 radio in the fifties and sixties. Seldom was there an answer song that responded to a question that was not a big success. This week on Deeper Roots, it will be a ’round robin’ of ‘question followed by answer’ songs including the obscure (which about 99% of the so-called answer songs were). You’ll be treated to the sounds of Tennessee Ernie Ford, Muddy Waters, Rufus Thomas, Dodie Stevens, and Elvis (of course) on a summer Friday in West Sonoma County.
Political Science
The winds of social change become the storm from every direction when authoritarianism, tyranny, and facism begin to take shape. And music has always played a part when speaking truth to power. The most important role of an American citizen is to vote. There is no greater enemy than apathy. The songs we share on Deeper Roots today focus on Civil Rights, war for the cause of oil, voting as voice, and the fight for power in the New World Order. Tune in for performances from Phil Ochs, Ben Harper, Drive-By Truckers, Roy Zimmerman, and Iris DeMent on a show that explores some political science in harmony, vocals, and melodies to make a stand.
100 Years Ago
We’re taking this ‘Century of America’s Music’ theme quite serious this week. The tracks we’ll be playing are from the the first few decades of the 20th Century. Parlor music had lost its attraction by the turn of the century in favor of minstrel, vaudeville, and the emergence of Tin Pan Alley. Ragtime and jazz would evolve in an organic manner and blues would inform much of the jazz and band music that would become popular with the advent of the Victrola. Music today includes tracks from Vernon Dahlart, Billy Murray, Frank Crumit, and Ben Selvin & His Orchestra as we find the music of the teens and early 20s on a show that keeps our tagline strong. Tune in for this celebration of American popular music in its infancy.
Tell Old Bill
We’ve got another free form collection of sounds for a Friday in Sonoma County. The July heat has us moving a little slower as everything around us appears to move at breakneck speed. So the idea is to help us find our center and we do that with sounds from the islands with Joe Keawe and Arthur Lyman, soul from the heart by Solomon Burke and Betty Everett, and some tradition with a mix of Johnny Cash, Ry Cooder, and Bob Wills. We find our muse throughout with David Lindley and El Rayo-X. Join us.
Carl Sandburg’s Songbag
Published in 1927, populist poet Carl Sandburg’s anthology of American folksongs was in print for over 70 years. It influenced generations of musicians and is a cornerstone in the foundation of American folk and tradition. Sandburg himself described it as a “ragbag of stripes and streaks of color from nearly all ends of the earth…rich with the diversity of the United States.” Today’s show pulls samples from the book featuring performances by Dan Zanes, Bob Dylan, The Weavers, The Blue Sky Boys, and David Rawlings. True Americana from the deeper wells of America’s music.
Lonely Avenue
Blues from a lonely place. From blues to doo wop to southern soul…from behind prison walls to that singular window in that singular room looking out from a high-rise hotel onto a busy street in urban anywhere, America. Today’s music is all about being alone. Our show explores songs written with the lonesome muse on the shoulder. Ray Charles, Joe Liggins, Earl King, and Champion Jack Dupree join in as we ponder lonesome times from the heart of the solitary blues.
Women of 60s Southern Soul
Their songs are iconic and their voices, unforgettable. From the deep south and southeast, from the church choirs to the small urban clubs, there were only a handful of female soul vocalists who hit it big with crossover chart sounds. But there were so many more whose voices did not find the venue or the right producer or label to take them to the next level. They were mostly unknown but in our show this week, we’ll try to share examples of what might have been. We’ll hear from Veda Brown, Carla Thomas, Ruby Johnson, and the great Judy Clay on a show full of upbeat and backbeat soul, brass, Stax, and Volt. Discover those female soul sounds that continue to inspire and influence…here on Deeper Roots on a Friday morning in West County.
Dylan & The Gospel
The argument has been made that Bob Dylan’s earliest music contained more prophetic prose than his deep dive into the Christian faith in Slow Train Coming. His pen had always leaned on the big story lines of Old and New Testaments but he went all out, much as he did in his ‘rock’ conversion, when he made the direct connection to matters of the soul that he would find in the Bible. This week’s show features the gospel songs of Bob Dylan, performed by gospel greats The Dixie Hummingbirds, The Fairfield Four, The Mighty Clouds of Joy, and so many others. Tune into Sonoma County Community radio for a Dylan gospel fest including Maria Muldaur and Willie Nile.
Highway to Heaven
The first of two gospel Friday mornings coming up on Deeper Roots in June. This week, we’ll follow a ‘heavenly’ theme. The Christian vision of afterlife’s reward is expressed in music on a Friday morning in West County (of all places). There will be country and black gospel sounds emanating from the UMC in downtown Sebastopol on KOWS radio as we share performances about heaven including the electric voices of Marion Williams and Marie Knight; the rocking celebration of the good book from Sister Rosetta and Brother Claude Ely; and country gospel enlightenment from Willie and Bobbie Nelson. This one is worth the wait and worth it’s weight in heavenly gold. Tune in!