We’re going to take another Deeper Roots journey exploring the many facets of the vocal group genre; from the jubilee quartets of the early century and jazz stylings that blossomed from the churches and into the mainstream. This episode takes off by highlighting groups like the Harmony Four, The Golden Gate Quartet, and the Norfolk Jubilee Quartet. We then explore a number of the inheritors of the sound in the more consumable refinements of mid-century pop vocal groups like The Mills Brothers, The Selah Singers, and The Ravens. Things will wrap up with a flavor of some of the early street corner doo wop and R&B performers like The Five Royales and The Orioles. Lots to cover, so little time…
Released in 1970, Bob Dylan’s double album “Self Portrait” was lambasted by the critics and by most of his fans. Although it was a seemingly natural progression between “Nashville Skyline” and “New Morning”, it lacked original material and seemed to be propping itself against traditional and popular country covers sung in the affected crooning voice that Dylan had introduced in Nashville Skyline. It has been re-released this past year by Columbia in a package called “Another Self Portrait” and features studio tracks not heard before offering unembellished productions that help to uncover what might have been a wholly different album…in the hands of another producer. Even Greil Marcus, the critic who originally wrote in his review of the album “What is this s***?” entertains another look.
Sam Phillips launched his Memphis record company in February of 1952 naming it Sun Records as a sign of his perpetual optimism: a new day, and a new beginning. Phillips rented a small space at 706 Union Avenue for his own all-purpose studio. The label was launched amid a growing number of independent labels. In a short, while Sun gained a reputation throughout Memphis as a label that treated local artists with respect and honesty. Sam provided a non-critical, spontaneous environment that invited creativity and vision.
His promotional line was “We record anything, anywhere, anytime”… and so we explore the music that Sam Phillips shared with the world out of his Memphis recording studio. The sounds of blues, gospel, and rockabilly fused into a distinct sound and included the likes of Howlin’ Wolf, Carl Perkins, Rufus Thomas, Little Junior’s Blue Flames, as well as, you know, *that* guy…Elvis. Join Dave Stroud for two hours of ‘fun in the Sun’ … with the music and back stories on Deeper Roots: A Century of America’s Music.
It’s a three day Labor Day weekend and Deeper Roots celebrates with music that explores the burdens and rewards of work. It’s our “Labor Day Special”. Join Dave Stroud for more from a century of America’s music. In a slightly retooled show from earlier in the year we’ll hear from Nina Simone, Zeke Clements, Hazel Dickens, and many others including a set celebrating the music of Pete Seeger and the longstanding fight for labor rights in America.
We’ve got our home state as our guide in an episode whose theme is that of California. We’ll hear performances by Ry Cooder, Howlin’ Wolf, Dwight Yoakum, and Dave Alvin to name just a few. In addition to the more popular ‘go west’ themes, we’ll hear about the pastures of plenty and the nostalgic tunes of the Golden State: our sunsets, the orange groves, the high desert, and the deep valleys. Join Dave Stroud as he shares an eclectic blend of sounds on listener-supported community radio for Bodega Bay.
How about we go for that “high lonesome sound”? We’ve got two hours of bluegrass, a truly American sound which evolved from many streams over the past 100 years. Dave Stroud spins the music of Jimmy Martin, The Monroe Brothers, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, and many others in a “Bluegrass Special”. Deeper Roots celebrates more than just that ‘high lonesome sound’ with this episode. We also celebrates a one year anniversary on KWTF.
We venture a bit deeper…into the well of Pre-Depression music. The Jazz Age had settled in and the broad and diverse sounds of jazz out of the big cities, popular tunes from Broadway, blues from the south, and folk music of the mountains, had begun to reach areas of the country that had no clubs or venues, only a couple of new technologies: radio and Victrola phonographs. These new machines would become household staples and create an industry almost overnight revealing themselves as a mainstream means of cultural dissemination. This was, of course, before some of the lesser-known artists, once sought out by recording studios, would be dropped as the Great Depression would find their funding dry up almost overnight.
We’ll hear the sounds of Al Jolson alongside those of Louis Armstrong, Tampa Red, Mississippi John Hurt, and Barbecue Bob as Dave Stroud hosts a new episode, “Pre-Depression Music”, on Deeper Roots: A Century of America’s music.
“I had heard all the symphonies there were and all the chamber music and the best jazz and I said ‘this is the greatest music’”… Alan Lomax
Deeper Roots revisits the music of Doc Watson. We’ll listen to the sounds of The Delmore Brothers, The Carter Family, and Jimmie Rodgers, all major influences on Doc’s music and we’ll also hear from his contemporaries including Chet Atkins, Earl Scruggs, and Ricky Skaggs.
For the most part though, it’s going to be about Doc’s music and family. We’ll hear Doc in his own words, in duets with his son Merle, and from a recent box set of home recordings called “Milestones”, assembled as a scrapbook of his career by his daughter Nancy and Roy Andrade, Doc’s manager and confidant as well as member of the bluegrass and old time country music studies faculty at East Tennessee State University. Join Dave Stroud for some very special music in this edition of Deeper Roots: A Century of America’s Music.
We visit a mix of genres that celebrate the sacred and the sanctified in an episode entitled “Deeper Gospel Roots”. The mix includes early influential pieces from Arizona Dranes and the Alabama Sacred Harp Singers and explores the southern Baptist influence on gospel music with the inevitable undercurrent of themes that are also found in the country sounds of performers such as Molly O’Day and Cumberland Mountain Folks and The Louvins…as well as the sanctified blues of Charley Patton and the Reverend Blind Gary Davis.
We’ll also take some time to sample some rare urban influences including the electric guitar disciples from the Boddie Recording Company of Cleveland, Ohio and the sounds of late century ‘sacred steel’. Don’t miss out…join Dave Stroud as he guides us through the performances from the last century of America’s music.
This episode will be posted to Mixcloud in the near future.
Deeper Roots presents “Murder Ballads”. Join Dave Stroud for an exploration of the fateful legends of Naomi Wise, Pretty Polly, Hattie Carroll, and Tom Dulah…and others. Many of these ‘true crime’ ballads recall an historic event that grew in myth and legend as its thread was passed and adapted from ear to ear…eventually resolving itself in the story of the perpetrator’s fate.
This episode will be posted to Mixcloud in the near future.
