Deeper Roots Radio

A little bit of surf…just a bit…and some folk favorites right alongside some local performers in this week’s episode brought your way directly from the KOWS Studios in downtown Santa Rosa, California. Our theme is the Golden State where the living may be costly but the core soul is one of progressive culture and hard work: whether that’s in the fields, behind the desk, in the service industry, or on the road. This week’s show focuses on California, from the LA Freeway to the Streets of Bakersfield, on up to Lodi and the Monterey Bay. The past century has found the state a popular subject of song and we’ve got some favorites and off-the-wall nuggets just for you this Friday morning including tracks from Dave Alvin, Albert Hammond, and Red River Dave. Tune in.

We're taking a free form route this week featuring an eclectic blend of some favorites from the not-so-distant past...but we'll be sprinkling in a generous dose of tunage from the very distant past as well. It's all in keeping with the standards we keep. Tune in for the likes of Etta Jones, Little Joe and the Thrillers, Bruce Springsteen, The Drifters, and some piano favorites from the Crescent City this Friday on Deeper Roots. Oldies? Yes. Instrumentals? Yes. Soul and vocal gems? Yes. Boring? No. Tune us in on your radio at 92.5 FM or, better yet, listen to us anywhere on planet Earth on kowsfm.com/listen. It's going to be a hot day here in the North Bay so why not cool off with some cool sounds here on Sonoma County Community Radio.

 From sunrise to sunset and then back. This Friday morning we take a journey on the roller coaster of life on the big blue marble using music as our rails. We’ll rise and shine in the cold grey light before dawn and follow summer rain with the summer wind as sundown approaches. This week’s theme is a fusion of sunrise, sundown and a misty moonlight rhapsody featuring the music of Ray Charles, Norah Jones, Chet and Les, Bobby Bare, Mahalia Jackson and a couple dozen others. We’ll take you from dawn to midnight as we bring on the best of America’s music from digital, vinyl and ethereal dustbins of the past 100 years. Join us once more for music from long ago, today, and far away here on Sonoma County Community Radio. 

Hot weather this week and we’ll be sweatin’ out the oldies in the KOWS Studio this coming Friday. Summer may be just around the corner but we’re running hot already here in Sonoma County. Today’s show features a ‘double play’ collection of traditions and covers, focusing primarily on gospel tradition and contemporary covers. Brook Benton, Josh White, Wilson Pickett, Neko Case, and Hank Williams are among the performers we’ll be featuring this week. Covers of the Gambler’s Blues, Stormy Weather, Denomination Blues, and more coming your way from the studios located in the Cherry Street Historic District of Santa Rosa, California. Streaming at kowsfm.com/listen.

We make a big tip of the hat to an institutional…who turns 77 years old this coming week. John Cameron Fogerty grew up in these parts, growing up in El Cerrito to a second grade teacher and linotype operator for the Berkeley Gazette. He was a part-time Army reservist who, after completing his gig in 1968, formed a band with brother Tom called The Golliwogs and then, eventually, Creedence Clearwater. A talented songwriter clearly influenced by the core elements of gospel, bluegrass, rhythm and blues, country, and (certainly) rock ‘n roll, John’s catalog of music, his distinctive vocals, and driving melodies are immediately recognizable, if not for Doug Clifford’s percussive direction, then for the rhythm and twang that took a Northern California ensemble sound into the mossy swamps and humid climes of the deeper South. Through a messy transition to his solo career to his late career recognition, John Fogerty is a legend and our show today takes some time to reflect…with music from contemporaries, solo efforts new and old, and most certainly a collection of Creedence classics. Tune in.

Bad luck and trouble are supposed to be common watchwords on a Friday the 13th but we're not the superstitious kind. Those vintage holdovers from a Christian time gone long past are just reminders of the stinkin' thinkin' that got us to where we are today. We'll be taking our chances with a themed show today that blends vocal nuggets from Frank Sinatra and Elvis with blues from Bobby "Blue" Bland, Ray Charles, and Chester Burnett. We've also got some Jimmy Smith, Raul Malo, Chance Halladay, and Gale Storm to 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. Adopt a black cat. Despite longstanding superstitions, they have the very best of personalities.

The story of R&B, gospel, and early rock were embellished by many performers, artists, and personalities. The early influencers behind the scenes also included people like Art Rupe, a native of Pittsburg who lept into the entertainment industry with both feet after the Second World War, co-founding a small West Coast label called Juke Box Records in 1944. Breaking away from his partners, he would later form a label of his own: Specialty Records. His keen ear for what he termed the "secret [that] lay in a big band sound with a churchy feel" was spot on. Specifically, he took the stigma out of the 'race' of 'race records' of the day and targeted larger audiences. There were dozens of performers that came from the Specialty stable, chief among them being Roy Milton, Percy Mayfield, Sam Cooke and, of course, Little Richard Penniman. Art Rupe passed away this month at the age of 104 and we'll be sharing the early-to-mid-century classic pieces from a cross-section of Specialty performers that spanned the gospel, R&B and rock genres that Art helped bring into the mainstream.

Let’s have ourselves a natural ball. We’ve done shows whose themes include traditional covers done by The Grateful Dead as well as paying tribute to the songwriting talents of Robert Hunter. We’re truckin’ down one more alley of dead themes in today’s show: covers of Grateful Dead songs done by others. And what a lineup we have for you this bright Saturday morning, celebrating springtime in Sonoma County. We’ve got Jorma, Jimmy Buffet, Graham Parker, Joan Osborne, Levon Helm and Bruce Hornsby queued up for you as we celebrate the return of the FM signal for Community Radio in West Sonoma County. That’s right! The rest of the world gets to share Sonoma County with….uh, Sonoma County, as the streaming returns to sharing the stage on a Community Radio signal that runs 24×7. Deeper Roots will celebrate with a New Speedway Boogie, honoring the new FM signal and raising a glass or Ripple with Uncle John’s Band. Tune us in.

We've got ourselves a blend of free form sounds from the Deeper Roots archives with themes of midnight runs, trains, and happiness spiced with instrumental punch. Tune in on a Friday morning on KOWS Community Radio for some oddball tunes from John D. Loudermilk, Bob Gibson, and Chip Taylor and The New Ukrainians. We're already halfway through the month and we'll find ourselves with a brighter eclectic blend of sounds from the past century. The antenna is installed and now the volunteers who pedal the wheels to churn those dynamos will soon have our signal spreading it's joy throughout the county. Go volunteers!!  Tune in why don't you...

This week we’re taking a look back at a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, musician, and performer who helped to enlighten a younger set to Tex Mex music, even making inroads into the sixties San Francisco ‘summer of love’ with a top 20 hit in 1965. Considered a child prodigy, he would appear on the Louisiana Hayride by the age of eight and would find his influences in blues, country, r&b, and conjunto sounds from across the border. Our retrospective will feature contemporaries and music from his close-knit cadre of compadres that would go on to form a sort-of supergroup called The Texas Tornados. Tune in on a Spring morning in April for a collection of pure Americana treats from Texas as we overlook (for a brief two hours) its abhorrent decline into a state of hate and anti-democratic principles.