This morning’s show finds a festive free form summer set featuring the usual suspects and a whole lot of fine sounds from the deeper wells. We’ll be sharing country classics from George Jones, Floyd Tillman, and Pee Wee King as well as some sweet upbeat R&B from Clyde McPhatter, Big Maybelle, and Ivory Joe. Taj Mahal, some doo wop pioneers, and the great Ella Fitzgerald will round things out in a free form fest on Sonoma County Community Radio. Tune in at 9am Pacific at www.kows.fm/listen.
Category Archives: Deeper Roots on KOWS
Great Gospel
Deeper Roots goes to the deeper wells of black American gospel which is one of the more powerful examples of bedrock sounds that we play here on our show. This show includes hand-picked classics such as “The Old Rugged Cross”, “Joshua Fit the Battle”, “Trouble in My Way”, and a medley of freedom classics from the SNCC Freedom Singers. It’s a mix of jubilee quartets, female gospel greats, sensational musical sermons, as well as Aretha, Sister Tharpe, Mahalia, and The Staples. Tune in for more….a whole lot more.
Deeper Merle Travis
Merle Travis’ influence on country music cannot be ignored. Along with a select few entertainers of the mid-century, he bridged the hillbilly and Appalachian folk institutions to the Golden Age of Country. His influences were not only the ‘picking style’, but also his keen sense of populist stories told from the front lines. We’ll hear from and early influence, Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers, as well as those he influenced. All songs written by Merle and some performed by Merle himself. Our show will also feature Merle Travis interview excerpts from the sixties. It’s a Friday morning collection of the very best of Merle Travis.
Tragic Country Tales
Tales of lonesome saddles, lost loves, broken hearts, and lonely rooms…a mood, a tone, and short vignettes so common among those themes of country music. We’ve got that and much more in this week’s episode of Deeper Roots. Performances from Grandpa Jones, The Stanley Brothers, Lefty Frizzell, Mel Tillis, and many others, will take us on a ride on a country road, drinking new wine from an old jug. That will also include stories of highway mishaps, the bottom of the bottle, and a mystery of the Tallahatchie Bridge. Friday solemn sounds from the past century on Sonoma County community radio.
Lies and Liars
A notorious theme in our world today. But it’s not like there is a thin line between truth and lies in the end. The line is clearly defined and yet people would rather imagine anything but what is clearly painted before them. Our show today looks at what the worst often looks like. Dirty lies, white lies, poison lies, and all of those falsehoods made in earnest or in self promotion. There are those who proudly wear the color of lies and hate to remind us that vigilance is more important now than ever. Call out the lies. This week, we look at it through the gospel lens with Sister Rosetta Tharpe, swim into the rock oldies pool with The Knickerbockers, swing soft and winsome country with Carl Smith and The Carters, and we’ll also bring in some contemporary sounds including tracks from Mavis Staples, David Olney, and Robert Ellis. I don’t know about you but I’m sick about what’s happening.
The Object of My Affection
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.
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.