Time’s Getting Hard

Music this week that speaks to hard times. From the Dust Bowl and Great Depression to personal hardships, we’ll share some bluegrass sounds, tunes steeped in tradition, soothing notes of country gospel, and folk blues. We’ll hear from The Weavers, Mavis Staples, Bobby Bare, and Pearly “Grandma” Davis (a nugget from Mike Seeger’s Old Time Music series). There will be talk of failing crops, revolution, and Oklahoma dust this week. Deeper Roots goes a little bit deeper with more songs about hard times this week on KOWS Community Radio, broadcasting live from the Cherry Street Historic District of Santa Rosa, California, where our neighbors just experienced their own hard times from flood waters. Thinking about them.

No.
1Artist Title Album Buy
2Bobby Bare Going Down the Road (I Ain't Going to Be Treated This Way) fcc warning Darker Than Light Amazon
3Tracy Chapman Talkin' Bout a Revolution Tracy Chapman Amazon
4Uncle Tupelo No Depression No Depression Amazon
5Bob Dylan Hard Times Good As I Been To You Amazon
6Dave Alvin Waiting for the Hard Times to Go Interstate City Amazon
7Mavis Staples Hard Times Come Again No More Beautiful Dreamer: the Songs of Stephen Foster Amazon
8The Byrds Old Blue The Byrds [Box Set] Disc 3 Amazon
9Peter Rowan Seeds My Daddy Sowed Dust Bowl Children Amazon
10Jimmy LaFave My Oklahoma Home (It Blowed away) Peace Town Amazon
11Pearly 'Grandma' Davis It's These Hard Times Close To Home: Old Time Music From Mike Seeger's Collection, 1952-1967 Amazon
12Pokey LaFarge & the South City Three Hard Times Come and Go Riverboat Soul Amazon
13Eddie Dattel Trickle Down Blues Trickle Down Blues Amazon
14Buck Owens Waitin' In Your Welfare Line The Very Best Of Buck Owens, Volume 1 Amazon
15Ryan Bingham Hard Times Mescalito Amazon
16Ry Cooder You Must Unload The Prodigal Son Amazon
17The Louvin Brothers Preach The Gospel The Family Who Prays: 26 Classic Tracks Amazon
18Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys Never No More Hard Times-Blues The King Of Western Swing-25 Hits 1935-1945 Amazon
19Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys Hard Times Have Been Here (But They've Gone) 1978-1979 Amazon
20Country Joe McDonald Talkin' Dust Bowl Vanguard Visionaries Amazon
21The Weavers Bring Me Li'l Water Sylvia Dust Bowl Blues: Essential American Folk [Disc 2] Amazon
22Josh White Hard Times Blues ABC Of The Blues, Vol. 51 Amazon
23Sheryl Crow No Depression In Heaven The Unbroken Circle: The Musical Heritage Of The Carter Family Amazon
24Country Joe McDonald This Land Is Your Land Vanguard Visionaries Amazon
25R.B. Morris That's How Every Empire Falls Singing Through the Wall. Songs for Western Sahara Amazon
26Bobby Bare Times Are Gettin' Hard 1964 (Warped 6425) Amazon
27The Tillers All You Fascists Bound to Lose The Tillers Amazon
28Aiken County String Band Hard Times Breakdown 78s Amazon
29Eels Rock Hard Times Shootenanny! Amazon