Every couple of months, Deeper Roots shares a free form playlist with host Dave Stroud. This week we’ll share ‘contemporary roots’ infused music including the sounds of Howell Devine, Jason Isbell, and Ian Tyson as well as a broad selection of R&B (from The Blenders), early blues (from Blind Lemon Jefferson), and ‘ding dong daddy’ country swing (featuring Bob Wills). We’ll also wrap it up with a festive foodie theme.
Category Archives: Deeper Roots on KWTF
Roots of Doo Wop
The early fifties brought the dawn of a musical form that became popular with a younger crowd although it was simply a version of a vocal harmony form born in the early century, if not long before. The street corner harmonies were a big hit as this new form of rhythm called ‘doo-wop’ saturated the top 40 R&B (and mainstream) airwaves. But the influences themselves had huge followings. We’ll hear from some of the early gospel inspirations like the Heavenly Gospel Singers as well as the vocal groups who were dominant in the form’s lineage: The Ink Spots, The Mills Brothers, and The Ravens. We’ll also hear from the groups who introduced ‘doo wop’ as we know it in the early fifties.
Blues Guitar Shuffle
Last week’s show paid tribute to the great country guitarists…so why not spend a couple of hours with the blues greats. We’ll cover a good number of the well knowns like Buddy Guy, Elmore James, and the three ‘kings’…B.B., Freddie, and Albert as well as the second tier innovators like Guitar Slim, J. B. Lenoir, Magic Sam, and Mighty Joe Young. It’s a big helping of blues, some soul-laden clips, and big, screaming rhythm…coming your way on KWTF every Friday night on Deeper Roots: A Century of America’s Music.
Country Strings
Our show this week revisits the great country guitar innovators and talents who contributed both session time to classic hits as well as original performances of their own. Whether they were pedal steel, Fender or Gibson electric magicians, or country pickers, we won’t discriminate. Tune in for Leon McAuliffe, Joe Maphis, James Burton, Albert Lee, Doc Watson and others on another Friday night on KWTF 88.1, Bodega Bay, listener-supported community radio for Sonoma County.
Deeper Dr. John
Mac Rebennack’s been around and the music, the culture, the people…they’ve embellished his art with a character like no other in roots music. He’s known them all: James Booker, Professor Longhair, Huey Smith, and Doc Pomus. He’s performed with them, composed for them, and broken bread with them. And when he takes the stage, whether that is in the traditional Indian celebratory garb or the frocked coat and hat, you can be certain that his performance will get your attention. He is coarse yet gentle, as punctual on the keys as he is laid back and lazy with them. This week’s show will sample a small set of his contributions to the American songbook including performances by Roland Stone, B.B. King, Charlie Rich, Solomon Burke, and Irma Thomas. And we’ll also hear plenty from the good Doctor himself.
Songs of A.P. Carter
He grew up with music, learning to plan violin at a young age in Poor Valley, Virginia (now known as Maces Springs), sang in a church choir and helped his uncle, Flanders Bays, who ran a mobile music school in Scott County. He would go on to form one of the seminal country music groups of the day with his wife Sara and her cousin Maybelle. Their musicianship was remarkable but the song-writing was what set them apart, the compositions by A. P. Carter representing a treasury of classic folk, sentimental pop, cowboy songs, gospel favorites, and original love songs. While there may be little doubt as to whether all songs that carried his name were original, his treatment (and that of the Carter Family group) were without peer. Tune in this Friday night for music featuring performers covering A.P. Carter songs, including The Delmore Brothers, Dave Alvin & The Guilty Men, Charlie Louvin, Ashley Monroe, and a host of others.
Broadway and Film
Not to ignore the obvious influences that Hollywood had on our culture and music, we dig into the archives to sample some of the greats as well as some of the unknowns. Popular entertainment began with minstrelsy, traveling medicine shows, vaudeville, and finally ‘the Great White Way’ of New York’s Broadway. Entertainers such as Al Jolson, Fanny Brice, Gene Kelly, Bing Crosby, as well as Harlem’s profound contribution in the names of Ethel Waters, Louis Armstrong, and Cab Calloway would capture a light-heartedness and nostalgic sound while telling small stories in a very big way. Tune in Friday night on KWTF and hear the musicals, the novelty pieces, and find yourselves riding down the river of some of the more energetic swells of the past century.
Songs of the Dust Bowl
Our story is one that we’ve covered before, previously focusing on the Great Depression and the music of Woody Guthrie. This episode pulls in the theme of that tragic chapter of a drought that uprooted nearly 60 percent of the population from the affected region of Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. With the soil lacking a firm root due to poor farm practices, the plains winds would pick up the loose topsoil and create the dust clouds that ravaged farm and city alike. The music we’ll hear tonight brings us the stories, including those of Woody and Arlo Guthrie, Bob Gibson, Lane Hardin, Vernon Dahlart, and The Morrison Two Brothers String Band.
Free Form – October 2015
Free form with just a dose of playlist themes…R&B and sugar from Chuck Willis, some sweeter country from Bob Wills, more of the same with a moonlight-based theme from Tommy Duncan, Dale Evans, and Elton Britt. We’ve also got a mix of early century jazz from Satchmo and blues from Tampa Red, Charley Patton, and Blind Blake. Tune into community radio locally on KWTF 88.1 on the FM dial or catch us streaming on TuneIn, RadioBox, or from our web site at kwtf.net/listen.
Wild Men and Wild Women
It’s theme time once again and we’re going to find ourselves among the wild and crazy men as well as the wild, woolly women. Round town girls celebrate, burning that candle, and Keely Smith will jump, jive, and wail with Louis Prima. Red Ingle and His Natural Seven will join the Sons of the Pioneers in spreading the word about ‘cigareets, whuskey, and wild, wild women”. Mae West, Julia Lee, Ernie Ford, and Jerry Lee Lewis will keep the party going and Deeper Roots will keep the lights on ’till 11pm sharp (that’s Pacific Time, of course). Join Dave Stroud for another two hours of a century of America’s music on KWTF, 88.1 FM, community radio for Bodega Bay.