Deeper Roots Radio

There’s going to be a free form mix of sounds this week with some ‘scenes of devastation’ as well as some blues and tradition. We’ll set the tone with a song that inspired the title lines from The Pine Hill Project and then head into some tradition and some covers that speak in the language of the sacred and secular…from Saturday night at the juke to Sunday morning in the pew. A great mix of sounds from some classic female blues gems from the 1940s like Wea Bea Booze and Ethel Waters. We’ll also go down to the crossroads and Deep Elem with the likes of Champion Jack Dupree and T-Bone Walker, some deeper/darker blues from Geeshie Wiley and Blind Lemon Jefferson as well. But we’ll also fill the air with the tops in great interpretations from Van Dyke Parks, Willie Watson and Bob Brozman. Join us for some ‘last kind words’ from the Rocky Road Blues to James Alley on a Friday morning in West County.

Mining the archives we find that bad luck and trouble are not a concern as Spring peeks around the corner. Luck is our watchword on this March morning and we’ll try to keep our superstitions in check. We’ll be taking our chances with a themed show today that blends some vocals from past and present and with this being an election year…we need all the luck we can get. Tune in for some Raul Malo, Charley Crockett, Howlin’ Wolf, Judy Garland and a couple dozen others following the theme of ‘Your Lucky Day’. Let us keep you entertained while the rest of the world goes by. Tune us in on your radio at 92.5 FM or, better yet, listen to us anywhere on planet Earth on kowsfm.com/listen. You can change your luck by adopting a cat, you know. And black cats have, despite longstanding superstitions, the best of personalities.

 We’ve got the family trees for you on Deeper Roots this week; proof positive that music can very well run in the family. Our show will share music from just a few of the families that have made their own way in a host of different genres. We’ll hear from the Nelsons (both of them), the family Marsalis, the Hiatts, the Wainwrights, the brothers Neville and a few others this week, spanning both the 20th and 21st centuries. Tune in to this week’s two hour mixed bag with some of the very best performances from some different lineages, here on KOWS Community Radio. 

The bouffant and the beehive…hairstyles with a tease and some backcombing, were all the rage in the sixties. Like pop music, it had a short life before the British wave. Unlike pop music, whose sound endured, the fashion was washed away at the salon in favor of the next big thing. Girl groups set the tone for the harmonious sounds of the time, and our nostalgia cruise will be tooling the AM radio sounds of the very best of the beehive and flip hairstyles of groups like The Shangri-Las, The Paris Sisters, The Angels, Lesley Gore and a couple dozen others in this week’s show. Join Dave for the hits, the misses, and the near misses along with some of the unheard in this week’s episode of Deeper Roots. He’ll also share a number of tracks from an excellent 2018 release from Chicago’s Numero Group featuring some of ‘the others’. Girl groups emerged as a dominant force in the music industry, characterized by harmonious vocals, catchy melodies, and often choreographed performances.

Where else but the heart of Saturday night? We’ve got an eclectic collection of performances that take you ‘there and back’ this Friday morning on Deeper Roots. No theme. No tribute. No genre sweep. Just a collection of some great sounds from the past (and present). Little themes that reach deep and a few awesome covers that you may not be familiar with. We’re making our way to the outskirts of the bayou with Cookie & The Cupcakes and Jo-el Sonnier, then into some gritty blues from Muddy Waters and RL Burnside, and we’ll also have some rollicking country and soul from Big Mama Thornton, Buck Owens, Mickey Baker, and Calvin Boze. Add a dose of Billie Holiday, LaVern Baker, and Tow Waits…and there you have it. Some surprises and some favorites all rolled up on this Friday morning blue plate special.

Good times, bad times…let’s take a theme trip to schooldays past in music this week. Whether you were a product of the fifties, sixties or beyond, you remember your favorite music. We’ll be zooming in on sounds from that era in the show today as we explore the high school theme with topics like ‘lettered sweaters’…what ever happened to those? Or maybe the reminder of the bell or buzzer in the hallways. Or maybe that favorite after school rendezvous spot. We’ll be sharing music that celebrated school and affairs of the young at heart with tracks from The 5 Royals, Johnny Burnette, Gary US Bonds and some other favorites as well as some unknowns from some dusty 45s buried deep in the archives. Namely Nicky & The Nobles, Johnny & The Jammers, and Herbie Alpert & His Sextet. Quite the fun today so drop by.

Country duets have been a hallmark of the genre and this week we’ll spend a couple of hours sampling some old, some new, some sappy and some without peer. From Rose and Buck to George and Tammy, we’ll be spending time with some real down home pairings singing songs of loose talk, booze, suspicion, holding on to what you’ve got and a whole lot more. There’s a range of topics beyond that and most involve cheatin’, lovin’ and fightin’…just what you’d expect from the base. The pairings are not necessarily all husband and wife as we’ve got a few that go beyond that rail like Dwight and Buck, the Hanks, and Waylon and Willie. Tune in Friday morning for a countrified, if not rarified, journey with some classic country duets.

It’s a brand new year! Turn off the TV and tune into community radio for your best time. This year’s news will be one of politics, war, and overall bad behavior from the middling underbelly and radio will at least bring you a brief respite from what ails us. This week’s Deeper Roots will be another free form romp of genre-bending fun with a mix of soul, blues, country, rock and gospel. Tune in for some Norah Jones, Chris Isaak, Tom Petty, and Donna The Buffalo as we take our first steps into 2024. We’ll have a set that features signs and signifiers alongside the encouragement of Sister Mahalia as we keep our hand on the plow, the story telling of Luther’s picking from Johnny Cash, and we’ll also be ‘watching the signals’ with Bullmoose Jackson and Brenton Wood.  Join Dave Stroud on another Friday morning featuring a century of America’s music on Sonoma County Community Radio, KOWS-LP 92.5 Occidental. Streaming all across the world on kowsfm.com/listen.

We’ll look back to 2023 with the indelible sounds of those we lost this past year. There were some losses that cut deep and we intend to pay tribute to each and every one who contributed their artistry to the past century of America’s music. There is hardly room in the two hours we have to touch on all of those, no matter their contribution but we have a couple from across the pond that deserve mentioning among the musicians, songwriters and producers who made their mark. The past century of America’s music has brought talent, wit and wisdom, and the artists’ take on arrangement, delivery, and rhythm. This was another year of profound loss including the likes of the prolific Tony Bennett and Harry Belafonte, the boomer favorites like David Crosby, Jimmy Buffett and Jeff Beck, and the musical geniuses like Burt Bacharach, David Lindley, and Ahmad Jamal. Join us.