Episode 1: Boulevard of Broken Dreams

01/04/25 • 117 min

This week we’ll take some time away for a celebration of Americana sounds from every corner. It’s a mixed bag of jazz, blues, country, rock, and everything in between in another of our free form eclectic romps here on Deeper Roots. Count on some wild swings and some quiet moments reserved for the corner booth in the show today. Aretha, Cat Power, Etta Jones and Gale Garnett are some of the female vocalists that we’ll feature this morning. We’ll also visit that ‘boulevard of broken dreams’ with Esquivel, some lighter instrumentals from Ethel Smith and Herb Alpert; classic softer side Americana from Chris Isaak and Pokey LaFarge and the polar opposite from Creedence and BB King. What a way to blast on into 2025. Join Dave Stroud as he begins yet another year with the promise of doing the right thing...always.

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Episode 44: Who We Lost 2024

It’s our annual look back paying respect to some of the greats who we lost this past year. We find ourselves saying goodbye to a number of artists who contributed in their own way to America’s popular culture...in music. I’ll be sharing the names of the many contributors from the halls of country, jazz, pop, rock, and beyond. Time demands a filter which is based on direct lines of roots descent; either by song selection, expression of a genre, or by Americana popular cultural influence. I’m going to try to keep the talk to a minimum so I can catch you up on many of the artists...and I’m also going to be limiting some of the music to 30 second clips because, frankly...this was another year of loss. ....and I’m sure there are more of the obscure that we just couldn’t fit into our roll call. Tune in for a journey through the past century of America’s music on community radio for West Sonoma Country, streaming to all of planet Earth at the same time on kowsfm.com/listen. We’d love to have you.

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Episode 2: Over The Hill

While we often touch on the contemporary songs of our own and subsequent generations in the show, we also like to drill into the performers and sounds that contributed to our musical heritage. The foundation of America’s music is not just a single flavor. It is a melting pot of many from all corners: the British Isles, the African continent, the islands of the Caribbean, and points south and north. The resulting harmonies, topics, and musical celebrations have further woven themselves into the fabric of our culture. This week’s show leans on some pieces that were suggested by a listener and this allowed me to take liberties when digging a bit deeper for the show. We’ll hear from Pete Seeger, The Million Dollar Quartet, Buck Owens, Alison Krauss and Mississippi Fred McDowell. We’ll also take in the American Songbag’s In The Pines and then proceed down the river and over the hill in the show this week.