All posts by Dave

Grapes on the Vine

Percy Mayfield
Percy Mayfield

Raising the roof once more on KOWS in West Sonoma County on a bright Saturday morning. And we make it count with an opening salvo of some country swing from Bob Wills, W. Lee O’Daniel, The Light Crust Doughboys, and Willie Nelson. Not to be outdone, we’ve got bluegrass from The Rice Brothers and our own David Thom, gospel from the Hummingbirds, and a special set celebrating the “Poet of the Blues” Percy Mayfield. We’ll also feature blues from Texas and, if we find the time, early century pop from Frank Crumit and Cliff Edwards. Tune in Saturday morning at 9 on KOWS for a dose of roots sounds from the past century of America’s music with Dave Stroud.

No.ArtistTitleAlbumBuy
1Asleep at the Wheel/Johnny GimbleBig Balls in CowtownThe Very Best of Asleep at the Wheel Since 1970Amazon
2Bob Wills & His Texas PlayboysI Had Someone Else Before I Had YouTiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 5Amazon
3The Light Crust DoughboysBlue GuitarsWestern Swing: Hot Hillbilly Jazz & Blues – 1935-1947Amazon
4Skeets McDonaldFuss and FightSkeets McDonald – Heart Breakin' Mama (Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight)Amazon
5W. Lee & His Hillbilly BoysCongratulate MeWestern Swing Chronicles Vol. 4 1933-1938Amazon
6Willie NelsonCherokee MaidenYou Don't Know Me: The Songs of Cindy WalkerAmazon
7Warren SmithGot Love If You Want ItThe Sun Country Box CD4 So Long, I'm GoneAmazon
8Bobby Hicks & Del McCouryWe're Steppin' Out TonightBluegrass Number 1's: A Collection of Chart-Topping SongsAmazon
9Ralph StanleyAre You Washed In The BloodA Mother's PrayerAmazon
10Ralph StanleyDad's Old Rocky FieldOld Songs & BalladsAmazon
11The Rice BrothersGrapes On the VineBluegrass Number 1's: A Collection of Chart-Topping SongsAmazon
12The David Thom BandThe Little White ChurchThat Old FamiliarAmazon
13Selah Jubilee SingersI Saw the LightGospel Quartets 1921-1942 Vol. 2Amazon
14The Selah SingersI'll Be SatisfiedCapitol Records' From The Vaults, Volume 5 – Roots Of Rock 'N' Roll – 1944-53Amazon
15The Dixie HummingbirdsChristian's Automobile20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of the Dixie HummingbirdsAmazon
16Nina SimoneI Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be FreeForever Young, Gifted & Black: Songs Of Freedom And SpiritAmazon
17Aretha FranklinRiver's InvitationQueen Of Soul: The Atlantic Recordings [Disc 2]Amazon
18Percy MayfieldStrange Things HappeningABC Of The Blues Vol 28Amazon
19Ray CharlesHit the Road JackGenius & Soul: The 50th Anniversary Collection Disc 2Amazon
20Buddy MillerPlease Send Me Someone To LoveMidnight And LonesomeAmazon
21Freddie KingLook On Yonder WallWoman Across the RiverAmazon
22The Mississppi Mud MashersBring It On Home To GrandmaFlashbacks #3 CopulationBlues 1926-1940Amazon
23Texas AlexanderThe Risin' SunAs Good As It Gets: Country Blues [Disc 2]Amazon
24Blind Lemon JeffersonEasy Rider BluesClassic Sides Disc 2Amazon
25Ishman BraceyWoman Woman Blues (Pm 12970, L-239-2)The Rise & Fall of Paramount Records, Volume 2 (1928-1932)Amazon
26Charlie SpandAin't Gonna Stand For That (Pm 12856, 15454–)The Rise & Fall of Paramount Records, Volume 2 (1928-1932)Amazon
27Jean Brady and Big Bill BroonzyKnocking Myself OutFlashbacks #1 Drug Songs 1917-1944Amazon
28Lightnin' HopkinsBuddy Brown's Blues (98 Degree Blues)The Complete Prestige-Bluesville Recordings [Disc 2]Amazon
29Frank CrumitThere's No One With Endurancegrimriper2u@yahoo.com FRANK CRUMITAmazon
30Cliff EdwardsK-K-K-Katy & When You Wore A TulipCLIFF EDWARDS grimriper2u@yahoo.comAmazon
31Herbert PayneSmoke CloudsFlashbacks #1 Drug Songs 1917-1944Amazon
32Al JolsonToot, Toot Tootsie (Goo'bye)50 #1 Hits Of The '20s & '30sAmazon
33Billy Joe ShaverHill Country Love SongOxford American Southern Music TexasAmazon
34Marty RobbinsThe Strawberry RoanGunfighter Ballads and Trail SongsAmazon

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.

Fair and Warmer – KOWS May 23, 2015

Deeper Roots on KOWS
Deeper Roots on KOWS

The show kicks off with some mid-century country fiddlin’ courtesy of Curly Fox but makes a quick left turn with a set about liars, tattlers, and some straight-forward testifying from Sister Rosetta Tharpe. We’ll also be entertained with some classic roots from the Dallas String Band, Lead Belly, E. C. Ball, and a tribute set to Sam Cooke.

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.

Deep Elem Blues

Deep Elem Blues
Deep Elem Blues

Get up sleepy heads! West Sonoma County rolls out of bed on a Saturday morning at 9 with LaVern Baker in another episode of Deeper Roots featuring the music of Don Edwards, Jorma Kaukonen, The Boswell Sisters, and Mahalia Jackson (to name but a few). KOWS radio is also propelling itself in an important campaign to extend its broadcast signal to a larger audience across Sonoma County and is in it’s last month of its Indiegogo campaign where we’re asking our listeners to jump into with both feet. Please visit http://tinyurl.com/pom5kkq to donate. You can tune into KOWS on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month to get your regular dose of roots music. And there’s more to discover by visiting our Deeper Rootsweb site.

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.

A Dime Looks Like a Wagon Wheel

Deeper Roots on KOWS
Deeper Roots on KOWS

“A Dime Looks Like a Wagon Wheel”….a phrase that was used to indicate how fortunate you felt when just a little seemed so big when you had so little to start with. Old timey music, some sweet R&B from Sam Cooke, country styles from Johnny Cash and Hank Thompson, folk and blues from Dave Van Ronk, Woody Guthrie, and Peter Rowan….and newer sounds from The Far West, Steep Canyon Rangers, and Howell Devine. Two hours of Deeper Roots looks like that same wagon wheel…it goes by fast and we’ll have the very best of American roots music from the past century Saturday morning at 9am on KOWS.

No.ArtistTitleAlbumBuy
1Hardrock GunterBoogie Woogie On A Saturday NightBoogie Man BoogieAmazon
2Rosanne CashBig RiverRight or WrongAmazon
3Johnny CashBig RiverGet Rhythm [Sun]Amazon
4Bill MonroeBig RiverBluegrass 1959-1969 [Disc 1]Amazon
5The Nashville Bluegrass BandThe Johnson BoysAmerican BeautyAmazon
6Don Reno/Red SmileyA Dime Looks Loke a Wagon WheelTogether AgainAmazon
7Steep Canyon RangersGood Old Country BaptizingMr. Taylor's New HomeAmazon
8Bobby Hicks & Del McCouryWe're Steppin' Out TonightBluegrass Number 1's: A Collection of Chart-Topping SongsAmazon
9Willie NelsonTexas on a Saturday NightRevolutions of Time: The Journey 1975-1993 Disc 2Amazon
10Red FoleyTennessee Saturday NightHillbilly Fever [Disc 2]Amazon
11Ella Mae MorseTennessee Saturday NightThe Morse Code [Disc 2]Amazon
12Frank SinatraSaturday Night (Is The Loneliest Night In The Week)Swing And Dance With Frank SinatraAmazon
13Sam CookeAnother Saturday NightPortrait Of A Legend 1951-1964Amazon
14Junior BrownLong Walk Back to San AntoneLong Walk BackAmazon
15The Green River Boys feat. Glen CampbellPoor Boy Looking for a HomeJames Burton – The Early Years 1957-1969Amazon
16Hank Thompson & His Brazos Valley BoysNew Green Light, TheVintage CollectionsAmazon
17Roy RogersI Can't Go on This Way1942-1947 (Warped 4561)Amazon
18The Far WestMaricopa City LightsThe Far WestAmazon
19Bo DiddleyI'm Looking For A WomanHis Best: The Chess 50th Anniversary CollectionAmazon
20Markus JamesDiddley Bow and BucketsHead For The HillsAmazon
21Howell DevineDevil Got My WomanDelta GroovesAmazon
22Skip JamesDevil Got My WomanGhost WorldAmazon
23Rory BlockDevil Got My ManGone Woman Blues: The Country Blues CollectionAmazon
24Bonnie RaittDanger Heartbreak Dead AheadBonnie RaittAmazon
25Peter RowanDust Bowl ChildrenDust Bowl ChildrenAmazon
26Woody GuthrieBlowing Down That Old Dusty Road (Going Down the Road Feelin' Bad)Dust Bowl Ballads [Rounder]Amazon
27Ramblin' Jack ElliottHard Travellin'Dust Bowl Blues Essential American FolkAmazon
28The Reverend Gary DavisYou Got to MoveAt NewportAmazon
29Markus JamesGoin' Down SouthHead For The HillsAmazon
30Louis JordanNo SaleJivin' With JordanAmazon
31Benny GoodmanHe Ain't Got RhythmSing, Sing, SingAmazon
32Johnny Hamp OrchestraOoh! Hoo! Yoo-Hoo!Johnny Hamp at ArchiveAmazon