Our show is Songs of The Civil War. Deeper Roots plays a selection of music that explores the passions, purpose, and politics that led to the war. Join Dave Stroud as he shares the music of the battlefield, the hymns from homes, and the traditional music that soldiers from both sides would adopt to pass the time, to bond, and to help ease the fear of an unknown fate in their longing for home and family. We’ll hear a number of contemporary performers including the Carolina Chocolate Drops, David Wilkie, John Doe, and David Grisman as well as those long past like John Hurt, The Carter Family, and Paul Robeson. Be sure to tune in.
Deeper Roots celebrates its first holiday special this weekend spending two hours celebrating a wild yuletide journey filled with blues, jazz, gospel, R&B, and a bit of country. It’s our Blue Light Christmas Special! This year marks the release of a third volume of excavated Christmas recordings by Document Records out of the UK. These are the folks that have brought us the Blues Odyssey series by Bill Wyman and, most recently, they’ve teamed up with Third Man Records for an incredible set of re-mastered Charley Patton and Mississippi Sheiks vinyl releases. We’ll play a number of cuts from their most recent Christmas release, “Blues Blues Christmas” as well as tracks from the first two volumes. The show features performers like Kansas City Kitty, Titus Turner, Bumble Bee Slim, and Smokey Hogg…as well as a blend of country pieces from Merle Haggard, Nick Lowe, and Jimmy Martin. Keep in mind that our Deeper Roots podcasts are always available later in the weekend on deeperroots.podomatic.com for any of you who can’t make the party!
This episode has us belly up to the bar, exploring music that’s all about bad habits and those elements that are not very good for health and harmony…and the performers make that very clear. We’ll hear “It Ain’t Far To the Bar”, “Caffeine and Nicotine”, “Wacky Dust”, and a host of other songs that tell the story of misbehavior, anti-sobriety, barrooms, and dens of iniquity. We’ll hear happy, we’ll hear sad, and we’ll hear all those emotions in between…all from performers like Merle Haggard, Victoria Spivey, Johnny Tyler & His Riders of the Rio Grande…and so many others.
The story and tradition of the music of the Appalachians can be traced back to Scottish and English ancestral roots. The book “Tennessee Strings” by Charles Wolfe does a good job of finding the path from traditional ballads such as Barbara Allen and those of Lorena during the Civil War into the present day. It also traces a clear path from the early 20th century performers like Fiddlin’ John Carson to the sounds of Uncle Dave Macon and the early years of the Grand Ole Opry.
In this episode of Deeper Roots, we acknowledge the contributions of Tennessee to the country Americana art form, that drew both from sources in the white rural music of East and Middle Tennessee as well as from the church music of the singing congregations and the blues and jazz emanating from urban Memphis. With the commercialization of this musical fusion through radio and recordings, Tennessee soon became a national center for country music.
Featured performers include G. B. Grayson, Al Hopkins and His Buckle Busters, Uncle Dave Macon, and a couple of sets that feature the songs about Tennessee. We’ll hear about Nashville before it became the center of commercialism that it is today, the 1927 Bristol Sessions, and the Grand Ole Opry when it only resembled a dance hall social with WSM radio microphones held in an insurance building’s gathering hall. We’ll also hear a number of pieces celebrating the state of Tennessee.
We’ll be remembering Woodrow Wilson “Woody” Guthrie (July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967). Deeper Roots: A Century Of America’s Music host Dave Stroud visits the many different songs performed by Woody, his contemporaries, and some of the artists he influenced. In addition, we’ll hear excerpts from the Library of Congress interview where Alan Lomax asks Woody to share some of his personal stories and Woody makes the best of it.
From the Oklahoma Hills where he was born to the Great Northwest where he composed songs for the Columbia River project and into the heart of New York City, Woody spoke for those who would not be heard and railed against injustices that would not be spoken of out of fear. We’ll hear from Bruce Springsteen, The Byrds, Arlo Guthrie, and Billy Bragg (to name a few).
Our theme in this week’s episode of Deeper Roots…American Songwriters. Deeper Roots explores selections from some of the great American songwriters and a variety of interpretations by a host of performers. We’ll hear the music of Stephen Foster, Willie Nelson, Thomas Dorsey, and Johnny Cash from the likes of Bob Dylan, Jimmy Lunceford, and Sweet Honey In the Rock. Of course, two hours will only scratch the surface…
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.
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.
Every Friday night at 9 on KWTF, we visit another slice of roots music, curated with backstories about the performances, the performers, and the arch of story-telling. Dave Stroud brings us a selection of roots inspired themes of home as muse and metaphor in artists’ performances from the past century of America’s music. The theme of home is covered by almost 90 years of recordings, starting with the Carter Family and Da Costa Woltz’s Southern Broadcasters from the Gennett archives of the late twenties into music of the late 2000’s featuring John Prine, Bruce Springsteen, and Steve Earle. We’ll also hear from Robert Johnson, George Edgin’s Corn Dodgers and gospel from the likes of Dorothy Love Coates and Frank Sinatra…Frank Sinatra???! Join us.
