Soul music didn’t suddenly appear in the 1960s. Its roots were a product of decades in church pews, blues clubs, juke joints and beyond. This week, Deeper Roots begins a special two-part journey excavating the familiar classics to explore the fertile ground from which soul music grew. In this first of two episodes, we’ll hear the gospel quartets, blues shouters, rhythm & blues singers and vocal groups who provided the language: call and response, soaring falsettos, sanctified piano, hard backbeats and a delivery that could turn a song into testimony. From The Soul Stirrers, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and the Five Blind Boys to the 5 Royales, Clyde McPhatter, and Little Willie John we’ll help connect the dots. These are the sounds where Saturday night meets Sunday morning—and of gospel fervor, blues feeling and rhythm & blues, all coming together to lay the foundation for something new. Next week, we’ll follow those roots into the first flowering of soul itself.
| No. | Artist | Title | Album | Year | Start At |
|---|
| 1 | Sister Rosetta Tharpe | Strange Things Happening Every Day | Electric Blues?Part 1: Beginnings 1939-1954 | 1944 | 00:00 |
| 2 | The Pilgrim Travelers | Jesus Met the Woman at the Well | Good News Vol. 4: Glory Glory Hallelujah | 1949 | 05:35 |
| 3 | Original Five Blind Boys (Jackson Harmoneers) | Our Father | Testify! The Gospel Box | 1950 | 08:00 |
| 4 | Brother Joe May | Search Me Lord | Jubilation! Great Gospel Performances Vol. 1: Black Gospel | 1949 | 10:50 |
| 5 | The Soul Stirrers | Jesus Gave Me Water | Jesus Rocked The Jukebox: Small Group Black Gospel (1951-1965) | 1951 | 13:47 |
| 6 | Swan Silvertones | Trouble In My Way | Gospel Music | 2006 | 16:14 |
| 7 | Julius 'June' Cheeks & The Sensational Nightingales | Burying Ground | Nuggets Of The Golden Age Of Gospel 1945-1958 | 1956 | 18:45 |
| 8 | Dorothy Love Coates | That's Enough | The Best Of Dorothy Love Coates And The Original Gospel Harmonettes | 1990 | 27:03 |
| 9 | The Davis Sisters | Twelve Gates | Precious Memories | 1997 | 29:34 |
| 10 | The Dixie Hummingbirds | Christian's Automobile | 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of the Dixie Hummingbirds | 1957 | 32:24 |
| 11 | The Caravans | The Solid Rock | Golden Gospel Gals 1949-1959 [Disc 3] | 1955 | 34:35 |
| 12 | Staple Singers | Uncloudy Day | Testify! The Gospel Box | 1956 | 37:07 |
| 13 | The Royal Sons | Bedside of a Neighbor | The Complete Singles 1952-1962 | 1952 | 44:44 |
| 14 | The 5 Royales | Baby Don't Do It | The Complete Singles 1952-1962 | 1952 | 47:06 |
| 15 | Billy Ward & the Dominoes | Have Mercy Baby | Doo Wop Box Vol. 3: 101 More Vocal Group Gems from the Golden Age of Rock-N-Roll Disc 1 | 1952 | 49:49 |
| 16 | Faye Adams | Shake A Hand | Watch The Closing Doors – A History Of New Yorks Musical Melting Pot Vol 1 1945-59 (CD 1) | 2011 | 52:07 |
| 17 | Clyde McPhatter & the Drifters | Such a Night | Atlantic Rock & Roll | 1954 | 54:59 |
| 18 | Roy Hamilton | You'll Never Walk Alone | Anthology 1 | 0 | 57:26 |
| 19 | Nappy Brown | Don't Be Angry | Don't Be Angry | 1993 | 1:04:14 |
| 20 | Little Willie John | Need Your Love So Bad | This Is Charly R&B | 0 | 1:06:34 |
| 21 | Johnny Ace | Pledging My Love | Memorial Album | 1973 | 1:08:45 |
| 22 | Lula Reed | I'll Drown In My Own Tears | The Best Of Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour Vol 2 | 1951 | 1:10:54 |
| 23 | Big Maybelle | Ocean Of Tears | The Complete OKeh Sessions 1952-'55 | 1955 | 1:13:43 |
| 24 | Wynona Carr | Should I Ever Love Again | Girl Power Vol. 6 | 1956 | 1:16:11 |
| 25 | Roy Brown & His Mighty Mighty Men | Hard Luck Blues | Original Blues/Greatest Hits | 1950 | 1:18:46 |
| 26 | Amos Milburn | Let's Have A Party | Down The Road Apiece -The Best Of Amos Milburn | 2010 | 1:25:55 |
| 27 | Guitar Slim and His Band | The Things That I Used To Do | Plug It In! Turn It Up! – Teil 1: Die Anf„nge 1939 – 1954 | 1953 | 1:28:19 |
| 28 | Earl King | Those Lonely Lonely Nights | Space Guitar | 2006 | 1:31:17 |
| 29 | Smiley Lewis | I Hear You Knocking | Pure R&B: Vol. 3- Let the Good Times Roll [Disc 1] | 1955 | 1:34:06 |
| 30 | Rosco Gordon | Just A Little Bit | Living The Blues: Blues Classics 1960-1964 | 1960 | 1:39:10 |
| 31 | Bobby 'Blue' Bland | You've Got Bad Intentions | ABC Of The Blues Vol 3 | 2010 | 1:41:12 |
| 32 | Ann Cole | Got My Mojo Workin | Roll Your Moneymaker | 0 | 1:43:39 |
| 33 | LaVern Baker | Soul on Fire | Rock & Roll | 1957 | 1:46:11 |
| 34 | Ruth Brown & Her Rhythmakers | I Want To Do More | Blowing The Fuse: 1956 | 1956 | 1:52:36 |
| 35 | Ray Charles | Rock House Pts. 1&2 | The Birth of Soul | 1959 | 1:55:22 |
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.
| No. | Artist | Title | Album | Year | Start At |
|---|
| 1 | The Johnson Sisters | Ridin' Down The Trail | Cowboy Crooners Sing Songs of the West | 1939 | 00:00 |
| 2 | Carl T. Sprague | Following The Cowtrail | Cowtrails Longhorns and Tight Saddles | 1926 | 02:48 |
| 3 | Harry 'Haywire Mac' McClintock | Utah Carrol | Haywire Mac | 1950 | 05:52 |
| 4 | Joan O'Bryant | Zebra Dun | Classic American Ballads From Smithsonian Folkways | 1957 | 07:20 |
| 5 | Powder River Jack & Kitty Lee | Tying A Knot In The Devil's Tail | Cattle Call-Early Cowboy Music And It's Roots | 1930 | 09:43 |
| 6 | Billie Maxwell | Haunted Hunter | When I Was A Cowboy: Early American Songs Of The West Classic Recordings From The 1920's & 30's. Vol. 1 | 1939 | 16:09 |
| 7 | Cartwright Brothers | Texas Ranger | The Return Of The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of | 2012 | 19:18 |
| 8 | Girls Of The Golden West | My Love Is A Rider (Bucking Bronco) | Cattle Call-Early Cowboy Music And It's Roots | 1934 | 22:28 |
| 9 | Jess Morris | Goodbye Old Paint | Cowboy songs ballads and cattle calls from Texas | 0 | 24:59 |
| 10 | Johnny Prude | The Dying Ranger | Cowboy songs ballads and cattle calls from Texas | 0 | 26:23 |
| 11 | Slim Critchlow | Forty A Month And Found | Cowboy Songs The Crooked Trail To Holbrook | 2009 | 33:03 |
| 12 | Andy Hedges Pipp Gillette | Punchin' the Dough (Feat. Pipp Gillette) | Roll On Cowboys | 2023 | 34:58 |
| 13 | Harry Jackson | The Pot Wrassler | The Cowboy: His Songs Ballads and Brag Talk | 1959 | 39:05 |
| 14 | Dave Fredrickson | Cowboy's Life is a Very Dreary Life | Songs of the Wesst | 1961 | 40:46 |
| 15 | Lead Belly | Out on the Western Plains | Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection | 1943 | 41:44 |
| 16 | Dom Flemons | Steel Pony Blues | Black Cowboys | 2018 | 45:54 |
| 17 | Don Edwards | The Master's Call | Best of Don Edwards | 0 | 50:24 |
| 18 | Ian Tyson | The Gift | All The Good 'uns | 1996 | 53:45 |
| 19 | Michael Martin Murphey | Cowboy Logic | Cowboy Songs | 1990 | 57:52 |
| 20 | Sons Of The San Joaquin | The Ballad of Joaquin Murrieta | Way out Yonder | 2005 | 1:01:45 |
| 21 | Dave Stamey | The Skies Of Lincoln County | If I Had A Horse | 2007 | 1:10:07 |
| 22 | Brenn Hill | Call You Cowboy | Rangefire | 1997 | 1:15:17 |
| 23 | Corb Lund | S Lazy H | Things That Can't Be Undone | 2015 | 1:19:10 |
| 24 | Colter Wall | Cowpoke | Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs | 2020 | 1:24:29 |
| 25 | Ramblin' Jack Elliott | Diamond Joe | The Long Ride | 1999 | 1:27:33 |
| 26 | Marty Robbins | They're Hanging Me Tonight | Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs | 1959 | 1:33:28 |
| 27 | Johnny Cash | Sam Hall | Sings The Ballads Of The True West | 1965 | 1:36:29 |
| 28 | Woody Guthrie | Buffalo Skinners (traditional arr. Woody Guthrie) | Woody at 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection [Disc 2] | 1945 | 1:39:40 |
| 29 | Guy Clark | The Last Gunfighter Ballad | The Essential Guy Clark | 1976 | 1:42:54 |
| 30 | Mary McCaslin | Prairie In The Sky | Prairie In The Sky (Reissued 2015) | 1975 | 1:45:41 |
| 31 | Rosalie Sorrels | Empty Coats In The Bunkhouse Tonight | Folk Songs Of Idaho And Utah (Vinyl) | 1961 | 1:54:21 |
| 32 | Peter Rowan And Don Edwards | Trail To Mexico | High Lonesome Cowboy | 2002 | 1:56:32 |
No particular destination this week, although we’ll begin on an Island of Dreams. Deeper Roots is going free form once again, rummaging around in the dusty digital archives and following the music wherever it happens to lead us. We’ll start things off with a decidedly British flavor, with Nick Lowe, Martin Belmont & Geraint Watkins, Mickey Jupp and Dave Edmunds before crossing a few oceans, decades and musical boundaries. Along the way we’ll hear vintage country from Johnnie & Jack, Ernest Tubb and Faron Young and some newer music from Charley Crockett and Brandon Flowers. And because the blues are never very far from the heart of Deeper Roots, we’ll spend some time a roster of some of the greats as well as vocal sounds from the likes of the Donays and Cookie & The Cupcakes. It’s another musical road trip with no map and no particular reason to hurry. Join Dave Stroud for Island of Dreams, Friday morning at 9 Pacific on KOWS 92.5 FM in West Sonoma County—and streaming everywhere else on the planet.
| No. | Artist | Title | Album | Year | Start At |
|---|
| 1 | Nick Lowe | Jet Pac Boomerang | Indoor Safari | 2024 | 00:00 |
| 2 | Martin Belmont & Geraint Watkins | Island of Dreams | The Guest List | 2009 | 05:43 |
| 3 | The Springfields | Island Of Dreams | Simply ? Dusty [Disc 1] | 1962 | 09:33 |
| 4 | Geraint Watkins | It's a Wonderful Life | Watkins Bold as Love | 1997 | 12:07 |
| 5 | Mickey Jupp | You'll Never Get Me Up In One of Those | The Stiff Singles (Vol.1) | 2005 | 15:04 |
| 6 | Dave Edmunds | Worn Out Suits Brand New Pockets | Get It | 1977 | 18:13 |
| 7 | The Andrews Sisters | Money is The Root of All Evil | Golden Age of the Andrews Sisters [Disc 2] | 1945 | 20:32 |
| 8 | Johnnie and Jack | Love in the First Degree | 1947-1950 (Warped 4720) | 2010 | 29:37 |
| 9 | Leon Redbone | Desert Blues (Big Chief Buffalo Nickel) | On The Track | 1975 | 32:16 |
| 10 | Ernest Tubb | Sad Songs and Waltzes | Last Sessions: All Time Greatest Hits Disc 2 | 1999 | 35:57 |
| 11 | k.d. lang & the Reclines | Three Days | Absolute Torch and Twang | 1989 | 38:34 |
| 12 | Charley Crockett | Bad Company | Can't Get Enough: A Tribute To Bad Company | 2025 | 41:42 |
| 13 | Jack Clement | The Spell Of The Freight Train | For Once And For All | 2014 | 45:11 |
| 14 | Merle Haggard | Sin City Blues | 1996 | 1996 | 53:31 |
| 15 | Doug Sahm | Home At Last | The Last Real Texas Blues Band Feat. Doug Sahm | 1994 | 55:58 |
| 16 | Faron Young | Country Girl | 30 Years Of No. 1 Country Hits 2/4 | 0 | 1:00:22 |
| 17 | George Morgan | Country Boy – City Girl | Warped 6365 – George Morgan – 1963 – 1964 | 2010 | 1:02:53 |
| 18 | Brandon Flowers | Tiger's Blood | Thrasher | 2026 | 1:05:46 |
| 19 | Joe Liggins | Freight Train Blues | Joe Liggins & The Honeydrippers | 1952 | 1:14:39 |
| 20 | The Treniers | Long Distance Blues | Talking On The Telephone Vol.1 – Blues R&B And Gospel | 1951 | 1:17:22 |
| 21 | Muddy Waters | Young Fashioned Ways | The Anthology [Disc 1] | 1955 | 1:20:30 |
| 22 | B.B. King | Walkin' Dr Bill (ala Gotta Find My Baby) | Theme Time Radio Hour With Your Host Bob Dylan – Season 2 [[Disc 1]] | 1960 | 1:23:27 |
| 23 | Lightnin' Hopkins | Baby Don't You Tear My Clothes | The Complete Prestige-Bluesville Recordings [Disc 2] | 1961 | 1:27:04 |
| 24 | The Donays | Devil In His Heart | Theme Time Radio Hour With Your Host Bob Dylan [Disc 1] | 1962 | 1:33:24 |
| 25 | Marc Benno | Speak Your Mind | Minnows (Vinyl) | 1971 | 1:35:54 |
| 26 | Berna Dean | I Walk In My Sleep | Theme Time Radio Hour with Your Host Bob Dylan [Disc 2] | 1961 | 1:40:35 |
| 27 | Cookie & The Cupcakes | I Cried | Bob Dylan Presents: Radio Radio Theme Time Radio Hour | 1954 | 1:43:46 |
| 28 | The Prisonaires | Just Walking In The Rain | The Best Of Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour Vol 2 | 1953 | 1:46:07 |
| 29 | Billy Bunn & His Buddies | That's When Your Heartaches Begin | Bob Dylan Presents: Radio Radio Theme Time Radio Hour Vol. 1 | 1952 | 1:52:06 |
| 30 | Alphabetical Four | When the Moon Goes Down in the Valley of Time | Complete Recorded Works 1938-1943 | 1938 | 1:54:36 |
| 31 | Dean Martin | Night Train To Memphis | The Capitol Years | 1951 | 1:57:07 |
A Century of America's Music
