Deeper Roots Radio

This week’s show leans into the rougher side of the tradition: the places where bruised pride, bad decisions, and raw truth find their way into song. “The down and dirty blues” isn’t a stylistic claim so much as a shared attitude — the kind shaped by rent coming due, lovers turning cold, and the kind of trouble that sits heavy in the gut. Across the past century, singers and players have used these stories to put plainspoken feeling into motion, building grooves that don’t promise comfort so much as recognition. Across two hours, we’ll move through voices that carried this edge with conviction — men and women from the 1930s onward who weren’t at all shy about calling out mean mistreaters or confessing their own missteps. You’ll hear hard-driving cuts where guitars sting, pianos roll, and vocals land with a certain bruising weight. Tune in for the likes of Victoria Spivey, Lonnie Johnson, Dirty Red, Little Joe Blue, Howlin’ Wolf and a couple dozen others. The ‘dirty dozen’ doesn’t get much dirtier than this.

What a show for the day after Thanksgiving! This week we roll out a two-hour celebration of bakery-inspired tunes—an irresistible mix of cakes, pies, donuts, cookies, and every sugary delight ever to find its way into a lyric. We’ll be mixing up a blend from a century’s worth of music, from early jazz confections and country-fried treats to soulful blues pastries, golden-era pop indulgences, and rock-and-roll slices served hot from the oven. It’s all about how bakery imagery has sweetened American music’s storytelling. Jazz bands swing like a spoon in batter; country artists offer homestyle wisdom baked into every verse; blues singers lean into the bittersweet with slow-cooked grooves; and rock outfits bring the heat with songs that crust, crackle, and pop. Whether it’s a dusty 78 from the 1920s or a modern track with sprinkles of retro charm, the playlist draws straight from the musical pantry of the past hundred years. This week’s highlights include performances from Dan Hicks, NRBQ, Curtis Salgado, Ella Fitzgerald, Fats Waller and a whole lot more. Tune into community radio for West Sonoma County. KOWS-LP 92.5 FM Occidental, streaming to planet Earth at kowsfm.com/listen. 

Got a harmonica romp through the past one hundred years of America’s Music this coming Friday morning. We’ll be following the harmonica’s journey along and across the American crossroads…one that began in the 19th century, when inexpensive German-made “mouth harps” made their way into the hands of soldiers, travelers, and rural families. Its portability and expressive bends made it a natural fit for early blues and country porch settings. From that country blues porch setting to the juke joints where electric blues, rock, soul, blues, and Americana meet and mingle. We’ll be opening the vaults for some classic tracks from the likes of Little Walter, DeFord Bailey, Mickey Raphael, Sonny Boy Williamson, Charlie Musselwhite, and a couple dozen others as we celebrate the “mouth harp” for its blistering, distorted lead influencing generations of performers of all stripes. Drop in…we’d be glad to have you visit this Friday morning. 

 This week’s Deeper Roots takes a wide turn down the backroads of American music, delivering a two-hour free form ride through the crossroads where rock, soul, blues, and Americana meet and mingle. We’ll be opening the vaults for an eclectic blend honoring the roots while keeping one foot in the groove — where a deep cut from Garland Jeffreys might slide right up against raw King Curtis Memphis soul, a bouncy David Lindley number, or the tight shuffle of a Chess Records blues side. We’ll be connecting the dots between decades and genres with warmth and curiosity. Whether it’s Louvin-soaked harmonies, road-weary country soul, or the smoky after-hours mood of the juke joint, this week’s celebration once more explores the shared DNA of American sound. Tune in for stories between the songs, unexpected transitions, and a handpicked setlist that speaks to both memory and motion — a sonic journey that proves the roots run deep, wide, and ever surprising. 

The sounds of New Orleans carry a mood that’s both jubilant and deeply human; it dances and mourns in the same breath. It’s the sound of the street parade meeting the juke joint: syncopated, earthy, and alive with horns, piano rolls, and that unmistakable backbeat shuffle. Unlike the more urban polish of Chicago blues or the rural cry of the Delta, New Orleans R&B has always felt like a conversation between the sacred and the profane, where gospel chords meet barroom swagger. Just beyond the Crescent City’s lights, where the waters of the bayou take form, we’ve got the accordions and fiddles of the swamp, where there’s humor, head and heartbreak woven into the DNA of the deep South. It is joyous and haunted, elegant and raw, as well as endlessly resilient. The music of New Orleans inspired an ethos — that music could be communal, unrestrained, and celebratory no matter the hardship. It taught America how to dance through its troubles, to find rhythm in resilience, and to turn sorrow into sound that still shakes the rafters and demands a communal dance to this day. This week’s show raises the flag of the Crescent City and her environs with a rhythm and bayou romp!

Halloween in America, on the anniversary of the first quarter century of the millennium. We celebrate the night by wearing masks, by flirting with fear, by turning the grotesque into entertainment. But here in 2025, you can’t help but feel like the masks didn’t come off this year. The trick-or-treaters will return home tonight, but the parade of make-believe monsters marched straight into the daylight this past January — and some of them are occupying the most important offices in our fragile democracy. What used to be a night for play-acting power, for pretending to be the villain, has turned into a movement that’s forgotten the difference between costume and conviction. The slogans sound patriotic, the anger sounds righteous, and the cruelty wears the grin of normalcy. Halloween, at least, has an ending — sunrise, candy wrappers, a hangover of sugar and smoke. But America’s current masquerade? The lights came on, and the masks stayed put. Our music on Halloween morning serves as a backdrop. 

Friday mornings feature a two-hour journey through sound, soul, and even a dash of storytelling from the past century of America’s music. Tune in as Dave Stroud weaves an eclectic blend of genres that don’t always share a shelf, but definitely share a spirit. From the aching twang of country ballads to the velvet grooves of soul, as well as the thumping rhythms of rock…we’ve got it all. We’ll also be adding a touch of gospel to uplift and some shimmering pop in the show today. Legends and unsung heroes side by side—think John Fogerty easing into a track from BR5-49, or some classic Charlie Musselwhite introducing the soulful sounds of Solomon Burke. This isn’t a greatest hits show—it’s a feeling. It’s about the moments when music surprises you, connects you, and makes you feel more you. So whether you’re tuning in from the road, the living room, or somewhere in between, turn it up and let the music take you somewhere new..

 We’ll be rolling back our Hillbilly Wayback Machine to the year 1950 for romance in high pants at the barn dance. Country music really hadn’t yet caught on as a genre so a lot of the music we’ll share today had the misfortune of being coined “hillbilly music”; a blend of silver screen cowboy nostalgia for the lone prairie alongside swinging arrangements and occasional ballads of the heart. You even had yourself some down-home novelty and syncopated vocals that looked out at that land beyond the sun where the tumbleweeds bounced across the horizon. Without further waxing of the poetic, we’ll let you know that you’ll be treated to some very best from under the blanket of the prairie sky including the likes of Smiley Burnette, Jimmy Wakely, Tin Ear Tanner, Zeb Turner and Leon Chappel. These weren’t necessarily the big hits but they were honky tonk and jukebox favorites. Drop in and find out. 

We lost John Prine to COVID in 2020. We’re going to celebrate his 79th birthday along with the rest of his fans this morning as two new movies are on the horizon at just the right time. The two movies differ in their angles: one being a new tribute produced by his wife Fiona Whelan Prine called “You Got Gold” and the other is one produced by the Hello In There Foundation called “How Lucky Can One Man Get” which has its first screening this month in Denver. With today being his birth date, we’ll be doing a few different takes on John’s career in music including a couple reminiscences from Todd Snider and Steve Poltz who delivers a delightful memory of a trip to the Disney Store with John. There’s a reason that John is considered an American music treasure: as a songwriter he has few peers with his straight-ahead and simple sensibility. He delivered the goods as well as any of the legendary humorists , and that includes Mark Twain. Drop on in for something special this Friday morning.

It’s a City (with a capital ‘C’ to locals) whose cultural history practically hums with musical possibilities. This is due in large part to how the city has always been a meeting point for restless ideas and diverse communities. From the Gold Rush boomtown that lured fortune-seekers from every continent, to the Beat poets of North Beach and the psychedelic counterculture that turned Haight-Ashbury into a world stage, it’s been an easy mark for songwriters. This week’s show will visit that blend of beauty, grit and idealism with performances for and about San Francisco. Join us for a whole batch of vintage sounds covering any old genre we care to share with the likes of Harry “The Hipster” Gibson, Little Walter, Charlie Musselwhite, Linda Martell, and, of course, Tony Bennett. We’ll celebrate from a short distance away with memories of Broadway, the fog rolling through the Golden Gate, and that endless palette of imagery and mood that is a living chorus always ready to be set to music.

The days are getting darker both by season and on the sidewalks of your town. Jackboot thugs with masks, clubs, and weapons are descending for you. Make no mistake. If you believe in your right to free speech and all that our Constitution affords you, think again. Know that you and your neighbor are in the crosshairs of this regime. This week’s show won’t break the spell but it will share with its language of comfort, joy and hope that music delivers as it stimulates the release of dopamine triggering pleasure and relaxation. Our prescription this morning is a compound of a free form eclectic blend that delivers a response from all corners. America’s music has always been built on a foundation of free expression so why not make the best…and that’s what we’ll be doing this morning with tracks from Glenn Miller, Charlie Christian, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Randy Newman and Dean Martin, just to name a few. Dream when you’re feeling blue. Rise up when you’re being pushed down. This week’s show takes us where we want to go.

From the cool and sultry lounge sounds smothered in smoke to the soul venues that celebrated love and all its pitfalls, we bring you the songbirds this week. We’ll be exploring vocalists, known and unknown, that delivered the goods in the first few years of the 1960s. Rock ‘n roll was finding its foothold at the same time as soul music was beginning to bust out in a big way. You’ll be hearing some you know and some you don’t in this week’s Deeper Roots. Yeah, we’ve got The Chordettes, Brenda Lee and The Shirelles but we’ve also got some very special gems from Helen Shapiro, Judy Thomas, Kitty Ford and Betty O’Brian this week. We’ll run a chronological marathon from 1960 to 1963, ignoring the genre guardrails as we make our way along. Hope you can join in on the fun.

A whole new season of Deeper Roots lands on your doorstep…just like the Sunday paper: full of human interest stories (as told in song) and local gab (also told in song). It’s a free form collection of songs from the past century with performances from the usual (and sometimes unusual) suspects. Only minor themes and genre recaps today in a carefully crafted eclectic blend that runs the gamut from Jimmie Dale Gilmore to Mary Wells, The Velvetones, Billy Walker and Hot Lips Page. We’ll hear some Texas tradition from Deep Elem and Milwaukee’s finest from Jerry Lee. But we’re also rolling out some really fine, under the radar, female soul and R&B numbers that come from off the beaten track including Doris Allen, Faye Adams and Mary Wells. And we wonder out loud ‘how deep is the ocean’ with Big Maybelle. Drop on by!

We’re taking a slow walk back to the gospel well this morning, exploring a particularly expansive landscape of classic hymns, choir harmonies, and new-fangled secular reflections from the likes of Elizabeth King, Warren Zevon and Amy Helm. There are also the traditional pulpit pounders like Elder Charles Beck, jubilee and country groups including The Jordanaires (with and without Elvis) and The Golden Gate Quintet, as well as a sampling old favorites from Johnny Cash, The Blue Sky Boys and the Neville Brothers. It’s a morning dish of reflection and exploration once again as we take that deep dive into the gospel classics once more. Hope you can climb aboard that gospel train and redeem your ticket to the great beyond.

Deeper Roots means just that…and this week we’re spinning some blues, gospel, r&b, and swing … all music that introduced the rhythm that would become known as rock ‘n roll. We’ll go as far back as the late 1930s with Joe Turner and Pete Johnson and make the picaresque journey across the alleys, juke joints, and house parties where tradition and urban electric blues became the foundation of a sound. We’ll share blues from Little Walter, Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker and a handful of others. Also on tap, Goree Carter, Sticks McGhee, Amos Milburn and Julia Lee with some rhythm and blues and jump whose beat and attitude would influence many a rock ‘n roll musician and songwriter. Also on board: Hadda Brooks, Ray Charles, Louis Jordan and Tiny Bradshaw. Don’t miss a wailin’, rockin’ morning here on KOWS Community Radio. 

A little bit of twisting and a little bit of shouting…as well as some gospel rhythms, hand clapping, and some back beat rhythms from the gulf and whole lot more. This week’s show will be a free form extravaganza which means there’s a bright day ahead, as always. My springboard was an afternoon’s listen to the music of David Lindley who, in addition to being a fine musician, he had extraordinary taste in music. We’ll hear some gospel tracks from Sister Marie Knight and the Reverend James Cleveland, classic funk and soul from The Temptations, Billy Butler and The Isleys. We’ll also spinning up some Wild Tchoupitoulas, Otis Rush and be featuring some three-time track samples and a brand new track from the 30th anniversary release of John Prine’s Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings, slated for release in early September. There’s a whole lot more to share with everyone out there so it’s a good morning to drop in and here a Twist and Shout sample from Top Note going back to 1961…oh yes, as well as a couple David Lindley tracks.

In the long view, rock ‘n roll’s rise was no surprise as it’s sound had been peeking through the tall grass since the 1930s with some risque (and risky) rhythm and blues, gospel celebrations and fast-paced swinging country sounds. When Sam Phillips’ small operation in Memphis kicked off, who would have guessed that the fusion of all these sounds would somehow resonate with it’s blend of hillbilly, blues, rhythm and gospel influences. But it did. And here we are. Tune into Deeper Roots as we go a bit deeper into the sounds of Sun Records, beyond the Elvis, Roy, Johnny, Carl and Jerry Lees. We’ll turn our attention to others from the early years including The Miller Sisters, Slim Rhodes, Barbara Pittman and The Prisonaires. The music we’ve got is sometimes raw, sometimes wild and always headed in the same direction. Don’t miss this one!

Join Dave Stroud for another encore edition of Deeper Roots: A Century of America’s Music. With vacation from the show in full swing, he's taken the time to fill the airwaves with a free form blend of blues, hot rod rock, early century pop, gospel, soul and more. There will be some killer diller Memphis Minnie blues, some pop melodies from Annette Hanshaw and Mae West, gospel from the Blind Boys of Alabama and Sam Cooke…and some sweet soul vocals from The Ravens and Barbara Lewis. You won’t go wrong on a Friday morning in West County. Tune in on your favorite streaming service or the Radio Rethink app...all free for your ears. 

The farmer, the farm, and songs of farming are at the core of this week’s theme show, an encore presentation from 2017. Whether the songs’ focus is that of the hard-working folk of the farm, the raw materials, or the nostalgic reminders of life on the farm, we’ll push forward the playlist plough and take you to the barn for an early morning celebration with performers including bluegrass from James King, gritty Americana from Levon Helm and Bill Neely, core country from Bobby Bare and Porter Wagoner, or maybe some field recordings from the 20s featuring the likes of the Carolina Tar Heels…all of this music going Back On The Farm.

 Jukeboxes were not only cultural touchstones and vital engines for the music industry in the forties and fifties, but they also contributed to the democratization of music consumption in a way that radio could not: by allowing people to pay a nickel and choose the exact song they wanted to hear. Radio’s best effort was to feed the listener versus allow the listener to make their own choice. Over a half century later, streaming has become juggernaut replacing the jukebox. Like streaming of today, the jukebox once helped with music discovery driving regional hits and elevating lesser-known artists, turning local favorites into national stars. This week’s show will be a thematic one and, yes, we’re picking the music. But it’s a fun and mixed bag of country, early rock and pop all with the jukebox as centerpiece. Drop into Deeper Roots this morning for some classic Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, Roy Orbison and Little Richard from the edgy side of the aisle and be ready for upbeat and swinging country from Ernest Tubb, Buck Owens, and Mel Tillis. Tune in for a show that recognizes this cultural phenomenon and proves the old saw “what is old is new again”.