Category Archives: Deeper Roots on KWTF

Ladies of Gospel

Ladies of Gospel
Ladies of Gospel

The influence of gospel music on the forms of rock, rhythm and blues, jazz, and soul are fairly well documented. The elements of early black gospel music arose from a tradition of work songs, anthems, spirituals, hollers, and the stylized performance of hymns. The evolution of the form, particularly in the Church of God In Christ (COGIC), reveals a freedom of expression that made its listeners ‘move with the spirit’. We’ll hear from the ladies from the COGIC as well as the traditionalists that could bring in the masses to the church with their uplifting, sometimes roaring voices including Sister Ernestine Washington, Edna Gallmon Cooke, Sister Goldia Haynes, Mahalia Jackson, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

No.
1Artist Title Album Buy
2Clara Ward Singers When The Saints Go Marching In Somebody Bigger Than You & I Amazon
3Sister Ernestine Washington Jesus Is All The World To Me Sister Ernestine Washington (1943-1948) Amazon
4Sister Ernestine Washington I Know The Lord Will Make A Way Sister Ernestine Washington Vol. 2 (1954-c.1958) Amazon
5Sister Rosetta Tharpe Teach Me To Be Right Vol. 3-1946-47 Complete Record Amazon
6Sister Rosetta Tharpe Cain't No Grave Hold My Body Down Gospel Train Amazon
7Marie Knight Marie Knight – Tharpe and Singing Interview Amazon
8Marie Knight Gospel Train Hallelujah What A Song! Amazon
9Mahalia Jackson Move On Up A Little Higher Jubilation! Great Gospel Performances, Vol. 1: Black Gospel Amazon
10Mahalia Jackson I Have A Friend Legend: The Best Of Mahalia Jackson [Disc 2] Amazon
11Mahalia Jackson & Della Reese Della Reese Interview Amazon
12Della Reece And The Meditations Hard To Get Along Nuggets Of The Golden Age Of Gospel, 1945-1958 Amazon
13Cora Martin Didn't It Rain The Great Gospel Women Amazon
14Madam Edna Gallmon Cooke & The Mount Vernon Men's Choir Angels, Angels, Angels Nuggets Of The Golden Age Of Gospel 1945-1958 Amazon
15Edna Gallmon Cooke And The Radio Four Somebody Touched Me How Sweet it Was Amazon
16Sister Goldia Haynes This Old World The Great Gospel Women Amazon
17Lucy Smith O What A Time The Great Gospel Women Amazon
18Shirley Caesar I'd Rather Serve Jesus Nuggets Of The Golden Age Of Gospel 1945-1958 Amazon
19Mary Deloatch The Lord's Gospel Train Nuggets Of The Golden Age Of Gospel 1945-1958 Amazon
20Jessie Mae Renfro I Must Tell Jesus The Great Gospel Women Amazon
21Sister Lucille Barbee Where Could I Go Nuggets Of The Golden Age Of Gospel 1945-1958 Amazon
22Sister Emily Bram Each Day Nuggets Of The Golden Age Of Gospel 1945-1958 Amazon
23Bessie Griffin And The Caravans Let Us Run Nuggets Of The Golden Age Of Gospel 1945-1958 Amazon
24Candi Staton & The Jewel Gospel Trio Jesus Is Listening Nuggets Of The Golden Age Of Gospel 1945-1958 Amazon
25Marion Williams – The Stars Of Faith When I Lay This Body Down Nuggets Of The Golden Age Of Gospel, 1945-1958 Amazon
26Clara Ward Singers Packing Up Somebody Bigger Than You & I Amazon
27Roberta Martin And The Roberta Martin Singers Rock My Soul Nuggets Of The Golden Age Of Gospel, 1945-1958 Amazon
28Clara Ward (With Unidentified Group) Peace In The Valley Golden Gospel Gals 1949-1959 [Disc 2] Amazon
29Evelyn Freeman And The Exciting Voices Chorus Didn't It Rain Nuggets Of The Golden Age Of Gospel, 1945-1958 Amazon
30Dorothy Love Coates No Hiding Place The Best Of Dorothy Love Coates And The Original Gospel Harmonettes Amazon
31Albertina Walker Albertina Walker Interview Interview Amazon
32Albertina Walker Put a Little Love In Your Heart Platinum Gospel-Albertina Walker Amazon
33Albertina Walker & The Caravans How Do You Feel Precious Lord Gospel Gold Amazon
34Marion Williams He's A High Class Physician How Sweet it Was Amazon
35Thomas A. Dorsey with Marion Williams If We Never Needed The Lord Before [Album Version] Precious Lord Recordings Of The Great Gospel Songs Of Thomas A. Dorsey Amazon
36Bunk Johnson/Ernestine Washington Where Could I Go Smithsonian Folkways: Classic African American Gospel Amazon

Songs About Telephones

Songs About The Telephone
Songs About The Telephone

It’s ‘theme time’ in this episode as we find a muse that songwriters have been looking to since it’s appearance in the 19th century: the telephone. Join us for operators, dial tones, party lines, busy signals, and hang-ups…just a few of the topics in a show featuring gospel from the Selah Jubilee Singers and Sister Wynona Carr, sixties soul from The Marvelettes and The Orlons, tradition from Bill Monroe and Wade Mainer, and more.

No.
1Artist Title Album Buy
2The Manhattan Transfer Operator The Manhattan Transfer Amazon
3The Golden Gate Quartet I Just Telephone Upstairs Vol. 6 (1949-1952) Amazon
4The Spirit Of Memphis Quartet Atomic Telephone The Best Of Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour Vol 2 Amazon
5Selah Jubilee Singers Royal Telephone Complete Recorded Works – Vol. 1 (1939-1941) Amazon
6Burl Ives Royal Telephone Greatest Hits Amazon
7Sister Wynona Carr Operator, Operator Dragnet For Jesus Amazon
8Bill Monroe When The Phone Rang Bluegrass 1959-1969 [Disc 1] Amazon
9Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver The Phone Call More Behind the Picture Than the Wall Amazon
10Wade Mainer God's Radio Phone I'm Not Looking Backward Amazon
11Doc Watson No Telephone In Heaven My Dear Old Southern Home Amazon
12The Carter Family No Telephone In Heaven The Carter Family 1927 – 1934 [Disc 2] Amazon
13The Carter Family Hello Central! Give Me Heaven The Carter Family: 1927-1934 [Disc 5] Amazon
14Orville Reed The Telephone Girl Lead Kindly Light Amazon
15Bonnie Guitar Hello, Hello, Please Answer The Phone Only The Moon Man Knows: Rare Recordings 1951-1957 Amazon
16George Jones Wrong Number Star Creek Promotions 4 Amazon
17Aaron Neville Wrong Number (I Am Sorry, Goodbye) Treacherous [Disc 1] Amazon
18Irma Thomas Sorry Wrong Number If You Want It, Come and Get It Amazon
19Mickey & Sylvia Can't Get You On The Phone Rock With A Sock Amazon
20The Orlons Don't Hang Up Malt Shop Memories: Jukebox Gems (Disc 2) Amazon
21Marvelettes Beechwood 4-5789 The Soul of Detroit – Disc 1 Amazon
22Tony & Tyrone Please Operator After Hours 3 – More Northern Soul Masters Amazon
23Mary Wells Operator The Soul of Detroit – Disc 2 Amazon
24Jorma Kaukonen Operator River Of Time Amazon
25The Grateful Dead Operator American Beauty Amazon
26Glenn Miller & His Orchestra Pennsylvania 6-5000 The Centennial Collection Disc 1 Amazon
27Hank Penny Hold the Phone King Of Hillbilly Bebop [Disc 2] Amazon
28Stonewall Jackson Can't Hang Up the Phone Original Greatest Hits Amazon
29Ernest Tubb & Loretta Lynn Answer The Phone With Loretta Lynn A Tribute To A Legend Amazon
30Tom T. Hall Jesus On the Radio (Daddy On the Phone) The Definitive Collection: Tom T. Hall Amazon
31Pee Wee Crayton Phone Call From My Baby ABC Of The Blues Vol 7 Amazon
32Pee Wee Crayton The Telephone Is Ringing ABC Of The Blues Vol 7 Amazon
33Floyd Dixon Call Operator 210 The Aladdin Story (Pt. 2) Amazon
34Floyd Dixon Telephone Blues The Cocktail Combos [Disc 3] Amazon
35Eddie Gorman And His Group Telephone Blues Bob Dylan Presents: Radio Radio, Theme Time Radio Hour, Vol. 1 Amazon
36Elana James Telephone Man Black Beauty Amazon

Ladies of Country Music

Ladies of Country Music
Ladies of Country Music

The story of women in country music begins in the early century with The Carters and the lesser known names of Roba Stanley, Louisiana Lou, and Patsy Montana. If the music was not about heaven and sinners, then it was about being a single girl or a cowboy’s sweetheart. But there was a sea change in post-war country music with the strength of Kitty Wells’ and the assertive independent sounds of Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, and Dolly Parton. To quote an online source, “the story of gender in post-war country music is largely the story of how women, in song and on stage, came to represent themselves in full.”

No.
1Artist Title Album Buy
2Patsy Montana And The Prairie Ramblers I Want To Be A Cowboy's Sweetheart 26 All-Time Country Classics Amazon
3Lulu Belle & Scotty Wish I Was A Single Girl Again Flowers In The Wildwood Amazon
4Patsy Montana My Poncho Pony Flowers In The Wildwood Amazon
5Maddox Brothers and Rose Sally Let Your Bangs Hang Down 1948 (Warped 4872) Amazon
6Carter Sisters/Mother Maybelle Carter He's Solid Gone Keep on the Sunny Side: Her Life in Music Disc 1 Amazon
7Maybelle Carter and Sara Carter Bayes I'm Leaving You Close To Home: Old Time Music From Mike Seeger's Collection, 1952-1967 Amazon
8Kitty Wells My Cold, Cold Heart Is Melted Now Country Music Hall Of Fame Amazon
9Kitty Wells Password Greatest Songs Amazon
10Kitty Wells Makin' Believe Greatest Songs Amazon
11The Davis Sisters I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know The Essential Skeeter Davis Amazon
12Skeeter Davis (I Can't Help You) I'm Falling Too The Essential Skeeter Davis Amazon
13Charline Arthur Welcome To The Club Welcome To The Club Amazon
14Wanda Jackson Makin' Believe Daydreamin' Amazon
15Wanda Jackson Don't Ask Me Why Before The Music Died – Wanda Jackson: The Complete Recordings 1954-1962 [Disc 3] Amazon
16Patsy Cline Leavin' on Your Mind 12 Greatest Hits Amazon
17Patsy Cline How Can I Face Tomorrow The Patsy Cline Collection [Disc 2] Amazon
18Ferlin Husky & Jean Shephard A Dear John Letter Bob Dylan Presents: Radio Radio, Theme Time Radio Hour, Vol. 3 Amazon
19Loretta Lynn Dont Come Home A-Drinkin (With Lovin on Your Mind) Golden Age of Country Volume 1: Waltz Across Texas [Disc 2] Amazon
20Goldie Hill It's A Lovely Lovely World I Got A Woman : Gems From The Decca Vaults [Disc 2] Amazon
21Connie Smith Once A Day The Essential Connie Smith Amazon
22June Carter Cash Strange Woman Keep on the Sunny Side: Her Life in Music Disc 1 Amazon
23June Carter Cash How Did You Get Away from Me Keep on the Sunny Side: Her Life in Music Disc 1 Amazon
24Tammy Wynette Stand By Your Man Super Hits Amazon
25Tammy Wynette D-I-V-O-R-C-E Country Legends Amazon
26Brenda Lee Johnny One Time The Brenda Lee Story: Her Greatest Hits Amazon
27Norma Jean The Gambler And The Lady The Best of Country Amazon
28Margie Singleton Old Records One More Record Please Amazon
29Dottie West Paper Mansions The Essential Dottie West Amazon
30Jessi Colter I'm Looking for Blue Eyes Wanted! The Outlaws [Bonus Tracks] Amazon
31Sammi Smith Help Me Make It Through The Night Sammi Smith early 60's the Best Of (varese sarabande 96) Amazon
32Dolly Parton Coat of Many Colors Artist's Choice: Emmylou Harris Amazon
33Emmylou Harris If I Could Only Win Your Love Portraits (1 of 3) Amazon
34Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette & Kitty Wells It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels Honky Tonk Angels Amazon
35Rosanne Cash She's Got You The List Amazon
36Alison Krauss Baby, Now That I've Found You Now That I've Found You Amazon
37k.d. lang Sugar Moon Shadowland Amazon
38k.d. lang & the Reclines Big Big Love Absolute Torch and Twang Amazon

Folk & Blues Fusion

Folk & Blues Fusion
Folk & Blues Fusion

We blend sounds of the South with those of the Appalachians, sharing the sounds of performers who were known in different locales, passing lyrics and music, making them pliable as they went from town to town. Recordings were made in hotel rooms, front porches, and music stores by record company representatives who traveled from city to city with primitive recording equipment. By the time the recordings were ‘offloaded’ back at the studios, details of the performers and the differences between black and white were blurred. We’ll hear from the great Riley Puckett, Mississippi John Hurt, The Blue Sky Boys, and Pink Anderson in this week’s episode.

Texas Bluesmen

Texas Bluesmen
Texas Bluesmen

When one thinks of the early influences of the blues, they’re taken down to the Mississippi Delta or maybe into East Georgia, where the Piedmont blues style was born. But Texas is not always a player in the discussion primarily because most do not necessarily know the origins of its native sons even though they may know their names. Let’s try Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker, and Lightnin’ Hopkins to start with and we’ll go on from there. In Friday night’s Deeper Roots show we visit the streets of Deep Ellum, Houston, and Galveston, where many of the performers would ply their trade in the Lone Star State. Although we won’t cover Blind Lemon, we’ll have plenty of music to keep us tapping out toes including Texas Alexander, Pee Wee Crayton, Freddie King, and Stevie Ray Vaughan…and all of the greats who made their name in between.

Free Form – May 2015

Free Form
Free Form

Every so often we like to spend time wandering about the last century of jazz, blues, gospel and country, sharing music that’s not lost, only tucked away. In this week’s episode we’ll do just that and share our first ‘free form’ show of the year with you all. We’ll have blues about clothes being ripped off by Lightnin’ Hopkins and the Chicago Black Swans, a gumbo of Louisiana sounds from the likes of Doug Kershaw, beer toasting Tex Mex from Doug Sahm, and pining bluegrass from Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, and Ralph Stanley. Tune in for another two hours of the very best of the last century of America’s music with Dave Stroud in a show produced exclusively for KWTF community radio.

Home on the Range

Home On The Range
Home On The Rang

Generations of youth over the last century grew up with the images of cowpokes, rustlers, bad guys, and ranching through dime novels, radio, television and, of course, the music. In this episode of Deeper Roots, we focus on the legacy of the ‘cowboy crooners’ and country balladeers who sang about life on the trail alongside the grub wagon on the lone prairie where the imagination could take you anywhere it pleased…and often did. We’ll hear the earliest ‘cowboy songs’ by Vernon Dalhart and Carl Sprague; and we’ll also find ourselves being serenaded (quite gently) by Tex Ritter and Gene Autry who reached out for the generic, mass appeal. The music was full of tradition as well and we’ll hear some contemporary reflections from David Wilkie And Cowboy Celtic, Jim Lauderdale, and (of course) Waylon, Willie, Merle, and Johnny.

Back To The Cotton Club

Back To the Cotton Club
Back To the Cotton Club

We follow up to a previous episode and get back to the music of the Cotton Club, the jewel that grew out of the Harlem Renaissance. While it featured the top shelf acts of Harlem, it was also the typical whites-only club where African-Americans could perform but not attend. Despite these Jim Crow policies, what the Cotton Club brought us was a legendary lineup of performers and performances that rivals none in the history of jazz. Our show features the music of Fletcher Henderson, Cab Calloway and his sister Blanche, Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford and others whose careers were launched there.

Demon Alcohol

Demon Alcohol
Demon Alcohol

We’ve got ‘songs of the sauce’, so to speak. Our show will feature a century of America’s music with stories of moonshine, rye whiskey, bubbles in the beer, bartenders, and hangovers going as far back as 1928. But we’ve also got a Bob Wills tribute piece from a new Asleep at the Wheel release, indie rockabilly from new Austinians Tammy Lynn & Myles High, R&B truckers The Harlem Hamfats, and local favorite David Luning. Join Dave Stroud for another two hours of a century of America’s Music on KWTF, member-supported community radio for Bodega Bay and all of Sonoma County.

Country Gospel

Country Gospel
Country Gospel

We’ve got a show jam-packed with gospel sounds set against a backdrop of fiery fields, unclouded days, and great speckled birds. Join us on our regular two hour Friday night show on KWTF as we take a trip down the country gospel highway, celebrating a style of music that was mostly inspired by the memories of ‘back home’ and the church, where a lot of our performers were first introduced to music. We’ll share that old time religion in spiritual and song from deep in the heartland. We open with some of the classic old time gospel sounds of The Carter Family and J. E. Mainer’s Mountaineer then go flying down heaven’s railway on the Gospel Cannonball while Johnny Cash, The Louvin Brothers, T. Texas Tyler, Hank Williams, and Kitty Wells will be preaching on that old country gospel stage alongside bluegrass gospel favorites from mid-century.And we’ll also hear a couple of new tracks from Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives.