What a time it was. The surprise of Sputnik in the early fifties led to a space race, a technological competition that had a profound impact on popular music (not to mention popular culture), providing musicians (and would-be musicians) a rich source of inspiration and contributed to some of the most iconic, as well as comic and out of this world, songs of the era. Themes of space travel, the moon and Mars, and even flying saucers were rampant on the airwaves. And one can only ascribe the fear of aliens to the number attempted novelty bits that reflected that trepidation. Laughter is, after all, a natural way for fear to be released in humankind. This week we’ll be sharing some of the classics, as well as the unknowns, including Jesse Belvin & His Space Riders, The Drivers, Merv Griffin, The Big Bopper, Dave & The Detomics and quite a few more that even if we were to share their names, you’d probably scratch your head anyway.
Category Archives: Deeper Roots on KOWS
Scenes Of Devastation
There’s going to be a free form mix of sounds this week with some ‘scenes of devastation’ as well as some blues and tradition. We’ll set the tone with a song that inspired the title lines from The Pine Hill Project and then head into some tradition and some covers that speak in the language of the sacred and secular…from Saturday night at the juke to Sunday morning in the pew. A great mix of sounds from some classic female blues gems from the 1940s like Wea Bea Booze and Ethel Waters. We’ll also go down to the crossroads and Deep Elem with the likes of Champion Jack Dupree and T-Bone Walker, some deeper/darker blues from Geeshie Wiley and Blind Lemon Jefferson as well. But we’ll also fill the air with the tops in great interpretations from Van Dyke Parks, Willie Watson and Bob Brozman. Join us for some ‘last kind words’ from the Rocky Road Blues to James Alley on a Friday morning in West County.
Your Lucky Day
Mining the archives we find that bad luck and trouble are not a concern as Spring peeks around the corner. Luck is our watchword on this March morning and we’ll try to keep our superstitions in check. We’ll be taking our chances with a themed show today that blends some vocals from past and present and with this being an election year…we need all the luck we can get. Tune in for some Raul Malo, Charley Crockett, Howlin’ Wolf, Judy Garland and a couple dozen others following the theme of ‘Your Lucky Day’. Let us keep you entertained while the rest of the world goes by. Tune us in on your radio at 92.5 FM or, better yet, listen to us anywhere on planet Earth on kowsfm.com/listen. You can change your luck by adopting a cat, you know. And black cats have, despite longstanding superstitions, the best of personalities.
In Honor Of Mississippi John Hurt
There was some devastating new this past week…nothing new; and certainly, it seems, not in Mississippi. The Mississippi John Hurt Museum, a small sanctuary of tribute located on the Mississippi Blues Trail, burned down last week. While authorities in Carroll County try to determine the cause, we mourn the loss of John Hurt’s home, a small house that had just been given landmark status on the national historical registry just hours before. Join Dave Stroud this week on Deeper Roots as he combines notes from a 2018 tribute to Mississippi John Hurt with some of the news of the day and keep with the sounds of his contemporaries (of which there are few), Taj Mahal, Ben Harper, Chris Smither and Rory Block. All paying tribute with songs of Avalon, Creole Belle, Spike Driver Blues, and Mermaids. Tune in on Radio Rethink radio or KOWSFM.COM.
Family Affair
We’ve got the family trees for you on Deeper Roots this week; proof positive that music can very well run in the family. Our show will share music from just a few of the families that have made their own way in a host of different genres. We’ll hear from the Nelsons (both of them), the family Marsalis, the Hiatts, the Wainwrights, the brothers Neville and a few others this week, spanning both the 20th and 21st centuries. Tune in to this week’s two hour mixed bag with some of the very best performances from some different lineages, here on KOWS Community Radio.
Hive Harmony
The bouffant and the beehive…hairstyles with a tease and some backcombing, were all the rage in the sixties. Like pop music, it had a short life before the British wave. Unlike pop music, whose sound endured, the fashion was washed away at the salon in favor of the next big thing. Girl groups set the tone for the harmonious sounds of the time, and our nostalgia cruise will be tooling the AM radio sounds of the very best of the beehive and flip hairstyles of groups like The Shangri-Las, The Paris Sisters, The Angels, Lesley Gore and a couple dozen others in this week’s show. Join Dave for the hits, the misses, and the near misses along with some of the unheard in this week’s episode of Deeper Roots. He’ll also share a number of tracks from an excellent 2018 release from Chicago’s Numero Group featuring some of ‘the others’. Girl groups emerged as a dominant force in the music industry, characterized by harmonious vocals, catchy melodies, and often choreographed performances.
Heart of Saturday Night
Where else but the heart of Saturday night? We’ve got an eclectic collection of performances that take you ‘there and back’ this Friday morning on Deeper Roots. No theme. No tribute. No genre sweep. Just a collection of some great sounds from the past (and present). Little themes that reach deep and a few awesome covers that you may not be familiar with. We’re making our way to the outskirts of the bayou with Cookie & The Cupcakes and Jo-el Sonnier, then into some gritty blues from Muddy Waters and RL Burnside, and we’ll also have some rollicking country and soul from Big Maybelle, Buck Owens, Mickey Baker, and The Ink Spots. Add a dose of Billie Holiday, LaVern Baker, and Tow Waits…and there you have it. Some surprises and some favorites all rolled up on this Friday morning blue plate special.
Back To Schooldays
Good times, bad times…let’s take a theme trip to schooldays past in music this week. Whether you were a product of the fifties, sixties or beyond, you remember your favorite music. We’ll be zooming in on sounds from that era in the show today as we explore the high school theme with topics like ‘lettered sweaters’…what ever happened to those? Or maybe the reminder of the bell or buzzer in the hallways. Or maybe that favorite after school rendezvous spot. We’ll be sharing music that celebrated school and affairs of the young at heart with tracks from The 5 Royals, Johnny Burnette, Gary US Bonds and some other favorites as well as some unknowns from some dusty 45s buried deep in the archives. Namely Nicky & The Nobles, Johnny & The Jammers, and Herbie Alpert & His Sextet. Quite the fun today so drop by.
Let’s Duet
Country duets have been a hallmark of the genre and this week we’ll spend a couple of hours sampling some old, some new, some sappy and some without peer. From Rose and Buck to George and Tammy, we’ll be spending time with some real down home pairings singing songs of loose talk, booze, suspicion, holding on to what you’ve got and a whole lot more. There’s a range of topics beyond that and most involve cheatin’, lovin’ and fightin’…just what you’d expect from the base. The pairings are not necessarily all husband and wife as we’ve got a few that go beyond that rail like Dwight and Buck, the Hanks, and Waylon and Willie. Tune in Friday morning for a countrified, if not rarified, journey with some classic country duets.
Signs & Signifiers
It’s a brand new year! Turn off the TV and tune into community radio for your best time. This year’s news will be one of politics, war, and overall bad behavior from the middling underbelly and radio will at least bring you a brief respite from what ails us. This week’s Deeper Roots will be another free form romp of genre-bending fun with a mix of soul, blues, country, rock and gospel. Tune in for some Norah Jones, Chris Isaak, Tom Petty, and Donna The Buffalo as we take our first steps into 2024. We’ll have a set that features signs and signifiers alongside the encouragement of Sister Mahalia as we keep our hand on the plow, the story telling of Luther’s picking from Johnny Cash, and we’ll also be ‘watching the signals’ with Bullmoose Jackson and Brenton Wood. Join Dave Stroud on another Friday morning featuring a century of America’s music on Sonoma County Community Radio, KOWS-LP 92.5 Occidental. Streaming all across the world on kowsfm.com/listen.