Saturday, Oct 17 @9am on KOWS
Stories and ‘Stretchers’
Everybody loves a good story…and this week on Deeper Roots we’ll be spinning a few of them. Tall tales, fables, murder ballads, historical yarns, talking blues and outright stretchers are all part of the American musical tradition, and we’ll be digging into that tradition this Friday morning. Our stories come mostly from the years between 1925 and 1960, when an old tale might travel from a front porch to a 78, from a newspaper headline to a country ballad, or get passed from singer to singer until fact and folklore became pretty hard to separate. We’ll hear tales of outlaws and drifters, sinners and saints, disasters and deeds of questionable truth from the likes of Mississippi John Hurt, Woody Guthrie, the Golden Gate Quartet, Tex Ritter, Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins and more. There’ll even be a few whoppers along the way.
Thursday, Oct 22 @Midnite on KOWS
Wild in the Streets
The ’ember’ months are just around the corner and that means we need to get ourselves warmed up for turkey dinners, the Hot Stove League, New Year’s Eve, football playoffs, reindeer on the roof and all the rest of it. But our show today will take on a common thread: songs about ‘the street’ or streets or boulevards, avenues … only the surface streets, not the highways. Dave’s picked out a collection of songs that are sure to stir emotion bringing home music that take on the ‘street’ topics from the genres of country, early pop, rock, folk, blues and all the rest. We’ll hear from Dylan, The Ink Spots, Tony Rice, Charlie Spand, the Orlons and a couple dozen others taking on an eclectic blend of songs where the streets as the muse. Tune into Sonoma County Community Radio’s KOWS 92.5 FM, streaming to all of planet earth on kowsfm.com/listen. Deeper Roots brings you a morning of sounds from the locales of Easy Street, Lonely Street and 4th Street…directly from Orchard and 7th.
Thursday, Oct 22 @9am on KOWS
Saturday, Oct 24 @3am on KOWS
Blue Moon Americana Episode 583
As the days of 2026 grow shorter and another year begins its slow march into memory, Blue Moon Americana takes a look at the things we leave behind, the moments that stay with us, and the music that never seems to grow old. Some things are a long time gone, but their echoes are still ringing. This week, we’re mixing yesterday’s treasures with tomorrow’s favorites, from the Everly Brothers, The Band, and Hank Thompson to fresh sounds from Rhiannon Giddens, Kimmi Bitter, Ian Noe, and Kacey Musgraves. There’s a little Texas swing, a touch of back-porch blues, some rockabilly mischief, and a few musical surprises along the way. It’s a celebration of where we’ve been, where we’re headed, and all those wonderful sounds in between. Join us Thursday morning at 9 Pacific on KOWS 92.5 FM or streaming at kowsfm.com/listen. Less talk, more music, and plenty of Americana.
Friday, Oct 23 @9am on KOWS
One Thing Leads to Another
Ever notice how one conversation can take you somewhere you never expected? Music works the same way. This week on Deeper Roots, we’re following a trail of musical connections where every song has something in common with the one before it. A shared lyric, a songwriter, a place, a name, or just an unexpected twist that takes us down another road. We’ll wander from the soulful sounds of The Undisputed Truth and Laura Nyro to the country storytelling of Merle Haggard, the sharp wit of Randy Newman, and the haunting Americana of The Handsome Family. Along the way, expect a few surprises, forgotten gems, and musical detours spanning generations. It’s a two-hour game of musical connect-the-dots, with no telling where the next tune might take us. Join us Friday at 9 AM Pacific for Deeper Roots on KOWS 92.5 FM or streaming at kowsfm.com/listen.
Saturday, Oct 24 @9am on KOWS
Under Western Stars
Saddle up, but don’t expect the usual Hollywood version of the American West. We’re heading beyond the familiar standards to explore songs, stories and voices that grew out of bunkhouses, chuck wagons and wide-open country, reaching back nearly a century for early cowboy recordings, among them Carl T. Sprague, Billie Maxwell, Harry “Haywire Mac” McClintock and Jess Morris. Tales where ornery horses, stampeding cattle, lousy wages, worse cooking and lonely nights on the trail were simply part of the job. Along the way we’ll discover a West far more diverse than the one portrayed on the silver screen, with music touching on Black cowboys, Mexican and California traditions, ranch hands, buffalo hunters, outlaws and gunfighters. We’ll then follow those old trails forward and into the hands of later storytellers including Ian Tyson, Dom Flemons, and Colter Wall. Somewhere between history and mythology lies the West that survives in these songs — sometimes romantic, sometimes brutal.