Deeper Roots Radio

Episode 23: Twisted Country Tales

Deeper Roots — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 19:03:30 +0000

We're taking an encore spin this morning...going back to a show first broadcast as "Country Leftovers" in late 2019. But it deserved a better name “…and I fell asleep with a troubled dream and dreamed I road on the hellbound train.” Just one line from one track from our Friday morning Deeper Roots show which focuses on some country songs ‘from the edge’. An eclectic blend of sometimes morose and other times kitschy stories of mid-century country singers looking for the next “Big Bad John” with stories of engine mishaps, disturbances of mind and relationships, and the general consensus of lyrical country that ‘the world is a monster’. Hillbillies, rabble rousers, and would-be crooners give us those tormented testimonies of country music. Join us for a very unusual collection of sounds from the archives of the fifties and sixties, when country blossomed; the songs we'll feature had a hard time cracking the Top 100 because the stories told are ‘out there’, even for country music.

Episode 22: Nine Pound Hammer

Deeper Roots — Fri, 29 May 2026 23:59:40 +0000

We’ve got ourselves a musical breadcrumb trail show featuring songs connected by titles, themes, characters, occupations, relationships, Cajun culture, tattoos, grace, summer romance, and a healthy dose of American eccentricity. We’ll be taking our journey from country to rockabilly, some Howlin’ Wolf, classic doo-wop, folk, gospel, swamp pop, and everything in between. It’s a scenic route through a century of American music. Starting with John Prine's "Nine Pound Hammer," we'll follow a trail that winds through the Louvin Brothers, Willie Nelson, Elvis Presley, The Band, Johnny Cash, John Lee Hooker, Sam Cooke, and many others. Join us for another Friday morning two hours winding through the back roads. Because that’s where the roots run deepest.

Episode 21: Rockabilly Shakin' Goin' On

Deeper Roots — Fri, 22 May 2026 23:43:43 +0000

Roll down the windows and put that pedal to the metal because we’ve got two hours of wild rhythms and deep cuts this coming Friday. We’ll be digging into those slap-back echo, train-beat rhythms and wild-eyed energy of rockabilly music — that explosive blend of country, blues, boogie and early rock ’n’ roll that rattled America in the 1950s and helped redraw the cultural map for a generation of teenagers looking for something loud, fast and a little dangerous. Now sure, everybody knows the giants — Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis — but tonight’s show leans into the side roads and back highways of rockabilly history. Alongside a few familiar names, we’ll spend two hours with the obscure cats, regional stars, one-hit wonders and forgotten firebrands producing some of the wildest sounds ever pressed onto vinyl. From Sonny Fisher and Ronnie Self to Roy Duke, Sonny Burgess, Johnny Garner and Laura Lee Perkins, this is the sound of American youth culture before it was polished, corporate or safe.

Episode 20: Burning Love Letters

Deeper Roots — Sat, 16 May 2026 07:59:43 +0000

From rocking celebrations to hard-earned reflections, this week’s episode of Deeper Roots turns its attention to the man they called “The King.” We’ve got two hours with songs about Elvis Presley — musical tributes, name-drops, eulogies, and love letters from artists across the past century. Some are playful, some reverent, and some wrestle with the contradictions that made Elvis both larger than life and painfully human. Together, they form a kind of American scrapbook around a figure who never really left the cultural conversation. From the wide-eyed devotion of artists like George Jones, Janis Martin, and Bobby Bare, to later songs reflecting on the strange and tragic arc that carried Elvis from hip-shaking revolutionary to Vegas spectacle, from the Nixon White House photo-op to a lonely and frightening decline, these recordings trace the many ways America mythologized him. Whether delivered as tribute, cautionary tale, obituary, or heartfelt fan letter, the songs on this morning’s show reveal just how deeply Elvis worked his way into the DNA of rock ’n’ roll mythology — and into the imagination of generations that followed.

Episode 19: Tears On The Vinyl

Deeper Roots — Sat, 09 May 2026 13:28:15 +0000

They say that tears are the safety valve of the heart when too much pressure is laid on it. Whether they are shed in the dark of a midnight heartbreak, the overwhelming light of a spiritual awakening, or the quiet ache of a memory that just won't fade, these tiny drops of salt water carry the weight of our history. Today, we’re tracing those trails down the cheeks of American music. with a show whose theme is 'tears'. We’ve got two hours of the lonesome, the joyful, and the broken-hearted. Featured artists include Etta James, Mac Wiseman, Big Maybelle, Faron Young and The Pilgrim Travelers, spanning the past century of America’s music from the mid-1930s to a cover of Tennessee Ernie Ford’s Ocean of Tears from 2019. We’ll experience tears that take us from remorse to pure joy and pleasant surprise full circle to tears brought on by physical pain. So pull up a chair, settle in, and let’s let the music do the weeping for us.

Episode 18: Backbeat '50

Deeper Roots — Sat, 02 May 2026 20:32:43 +0000

It’s a 1950 heatwave of rhythm and blues sounds this morning on Deeper Roots. We’ll move away from anything that might be polite or polished and turn our attention to the sweat-soaked, neon-lit world of rhythm and blues, a sound that was the early morning thunder and lightning just ahead of the dawn of rock ‘n roll. We’re focusing on the year 1950 where jump blues started to grow teeth --- where the saxophones were honking, the backbeats hitting harder, and indie labels from Memphis to LA were capturing lightning in a bottle. From the smoky corners of the Delta to the high voltage clubs of the North, we’re digging deep into the crates for the some pounding rhythms from Dave Bartholomew, Julia Lee, Bull Moose Jackson, Jimmy McCracklin as well as Buddy and Ella Johnson…oh, and some Tiny Bradshaw’s Breaking Up The House. As Chuck Berry pointed out: “…it's got a backbeat, you can't lose it, any old time you use it”.

Episode 17: Trouble In Mind

Deeper Roots — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 18:36:34 +0000

Get ready for a deep dive into the last 100 years of America’s musical DNA. This week’s Deeper Roots is a ‘romp’ in the truest sense—a free form show celebrating the winsome, the lonesome, and everything in between. We’ve got a heavy-hitting lineup including Etta James, Jimmie Davis, and Billie Holiday, spanning the full spectrum of gospel, country, blues, and jazz. Dave’s been digging through the “digital crates” of the past century to bring you two hours of essential, sometimes irreverent, always authentic sounds. Whether the selections are wholesome or a bit rowdy, this episode runs the full gamut of the American songbook. Pull up a chair at the Deeper Roots dining hall this Friday morning on KOWS Community Radio—there is plenty of soul to go around.

Episode 16: Country Shed Shakers

Deeper Roots — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 13:51:52 +0000

This week’s show peels back the velvet curtain of the Golden Age of Country music and introduces some lower chart shed shakers from the outskirts of Nashville. While the charts were full of polished crooners and weeping violins, there was a different sound brewing in and around the perimeter—a raw, frantic energy that didn’t belong in a ballroom. These are the tracks that blurred the line between the honky-tonk and the garage. We’ll deliver the distorted side of that golden age with some familiar names (Buck Owens, Jerry Reed, Johnny Bond) and some of those who were lost to those dusty Ernest Tubb Record Shop dollar bins (Eddie Zack, Jimmy Swan, Benny Barnes), all in a package meant to get those fingers poppin’. Hope you can join us for some gritty, low-fi country vibes.

Episode 15: King Cole Covers

Deeper Roots — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 18:34:23 +0000

Nat King Cole's transition from a respected jazz pianist to a mainstream icon was a perfect storm of technical brilliance, a groundbreaking vocal style, and a persona that radiated "suave sophistication." While jazz purists sometimes lamented his move toward pop, it was his ability to blend jazz's complexity with pop's accessibility that made him a household name. He delivered hit after hit with a penchant for candidates (or entries from) the Great American Songbook. With this in mind, we’ll take this week’s show in an direction that honors the songs he became most famous for…from Bobby Troup’s Route 66 to Billy Strayhorn’s Lush Life…covered by others including some rocking tributes, some ballads in the style of country and bluesy soul numbers from Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke. We don’t stop there. Join Dave Stroud for another celebration from a hundred years of America’s music

Episode 14: Berry Covers

Deeper Roots — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 18:37:14 +0000

This week’s episode finds the heart of rock ‘n roll; that recipe of a rhythm and blues with just the right pinch of just about everything else. Chuck Berry’s legacy stands as one of the most important stories in rock ‘n roll’s 75 or so years. His music, particularly in those early years, was covered ad nauseum but it was always done best in an artist’s own voice. Why? Because the music speaks for itself. We’ll share music from Sleepy Labeef to Nina Simone, Linda Ronstadt to Peter Gammons (!), and Conway Twitty to the late, great John Hammond. Covers include You Never Can Tell, Sweet Little Sixteen, Nadine, and No Money down with another dozen, all honoring the King (or is it the Prime Minister) of Rock ‘n Roll whose 100th birthday will be celebrated later this year.

Episode 13: Swingin' Out West

Deeper Roots — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 12:58:25 +0000

We’re going to take another journey through those dusty, neon-lit archives of Western swing, a genre that famously thumbed its nose at musical boundaries. While the “King” Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys rightly claim the throne, the true soul of the movement lives in the smaller, rowdier units that blurred the lines between Appalachian fiddling, big band jazz, and low-down blues. For our listeners, we’re looking past the “San Antonio Rose” to the grit of the lower Great Plains. We’ll be digging into the deep-cut recordings that highlight the genre’s technical audacity, exploring a sound that kept the dance halls jumping through the Depression proving that Western swing was always much more than just “hillbilly jazz”—it was a revolution you could dance to.

Episode 12: Heavenly Day

Deeper Roots — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 14:44:40 +0000

It’s a free form morning as Dave once again digs out some favorites and some deep tracks from the last century of America’s music. He’ll be paying his respects to Doug Sahm’s keyboard master, Augie Meyers, while at the same time picking on some thematic tones, including that of heaven, an early century legend by the name of Lulu, early rhythm and western from 1950 as well as a collection of soul tracks that glistened in the winds from 1967. Tune in for The Ink Spots, Jimmy Newman, John Prine, The Castaleers and Fats Waller…a sampler from the past one hundred years. Free form mornings here on KOWS occur only once in a blue moon so you’ll want to be tuning in for more music discovery from all genre corners. You're invited to come on up to the house where we’re ready, willing and waiting to entertain, putting the madness of a wannabe king behind you for a two-hour joyful jaunt where you'll find three chords and the truth.

Episode 11: Women's History Month

Deeper Roots — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 14:22:13 +0000

This week we celebrate Women’s History Month the way we know best — by following the music. For more than a century, women have shaped the sound of America’s story. They didn’t just sing the songs — they wrote them, bent them, electrified them, sanctified them, and sometimes had to fight just to be heard over them. From the tent shows and juke joints of the 1920s to arena stages and global spotlights, women have carried rhythm, blues, gospel, country, rock, pop — and the truth — on their shoulders. Tune in this coming Friday morning for a journey that begins at the foundation. Before rock and roll. Before crossover radio. When the blues was still carving its name into shellac and history. We’ll then make our way into the genres of jazz, country, rock, and gospel where women’ influenced the deeper roots of American music and you find their fingerprints everywhere — in the blues phrasing, in the gospel shout, in the country confession, in the pop hook, in the rock-and-roll roar.

Episode 10: The Hijacked Jukebox

Deeper Roots — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 15:15:40 +0000

Join Dave Stroud for a look at a fascinating, if somewhat cringey, slice of music history, where white cover versions of black R&B nuggets were whitewashed across the pop charts in the 1950s. While the ‘cover version’ was a standard industry practice, so were the ‘sanitized’ versions of R&B hits by black artists that made them more ‘palatable’ for white radio audiences, spotlighting white artists while the original creators stayed in the shadows. It’s certainly something that could be the topic of numerous Deeper Roots episodes but we’ll limit our scope to a two hour exploration, measuring the original against the cover. On one side of the house we’ll hear from Fats Domino (a popular source for the practic), Big Joe Turner, The Moonglows and a handful of others. The other side of the house has the names of Pat Boone, Art Mooney, The Fontane Sisters and others among the dubious roster ‘favorites’. Radio and media helped to democratize the landscape but today’s parallels with the frothing ‘look over thereness’ of right wing hate is unmistakable and hard to ignore. It was George Santayana who observed that “those who do not learn from history, are bound to repeat it.“

Episode 9: Mid-Century Modern Jazz

Deeper Roots — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:18:19 +0000

Blue and cool is the mood as we spin the dial back to the 1950s — a decade of chrome, tailfins, Cold War tension, Beat poetry, and late-night cigarette smoke curling toward the ceiling of a dimly lit club. Beneath the middle class culture of the day, there was a restless heartbeat of jazz. This was the era when bebop matured into cool, hard bop caught fire, and modal explorations began reshaping the language of improvisation. Artists like Miles Davis refined understatement into revolution, John Coltrane stretched harmony toward spiritual searching, Thelonious Monk bent notes and expectations alike, and Ella Fitzgerald turned the human voice into a virtuosic instrument. Jazz in the ’50s wasn’t background music — it was conversation, protest, poetry, and possibility. Dave’s selected some important landmarks and deep tracks that take you into those dusty digital bins of jazz and improvisation this morning on Deeper Roots.

Episode 8: Party Goin' On

Deeper Roots — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 20:35:40 +0000

Spring’s just around the corner but we’re all holding out with rain, wind and more California sunshine in our forecast until then. Don’t you think that this might call for a party? Well, some of us do and we’re going to mix up the country with the blues, the rock with the rockabilly, and the brassy with the sass as we prepare for the holiday known as President’s Day. I suppose the toddler in the basement wants that named after him, too. Can someone explain the rules of common decency and sense to President McFuddlepants? Please. I beg of you. We’ll leave him out of the party today, though, as we hang in there with a delicious spread of the very best music from the past century, including Mitty Collier, Dr. John, Marty Stuart, Merle Haggard, John Fogerty and Elvin Bishop. We’ll also hear from a local favorite, Doug Blumer and The Bohemian Highway, with a reminder that “The Party’s At Our House”.

Episode 7: Luck and Fortune

Deeper Roots — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 14:12:45 +0000

It may be Friday the 13th but that won’t stop us from fortifying ourselves with a ‘luck and fortune’ theme in today’s show. Hopefully, that will tip the scales. May our luck and fortune hold out until the next election. You’re welcome to drop in to our slightly superstitious edition of Deeper Roots on a day that usually sends people dodging ladders and eyeing black cats with suspicion. Whether you’re a believer in the 'unlucky' stigma or you consider yourself a master of your own fate, we’ve curated a playlist designed to explore the highs and lows of the cosmic dice roll. We’ll be spinning tracks that dive deep into the world of luck and fortune with some high-stakes anthems of the casino floor to the soulful laments of those down on their luck, we’re covering every corner of the wheel of fate. But...knock on wood…just in case.

Episode 6: Big Big World

Deeper Roots — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 23:34:09 +0000

Free form sounds are the order of the morning as we set sail for a two hour tour of sounds from the last century once more, leaning on a pretty exciting group of performers. You can tune in each and every Friday morning here on KOWS-LP Occidental where our word is our bond. Join Dave Stroud once again as he shares a selection of tunes by the Zion Harmonizers, Buck Owens, Mink Deville, Johnny Burnette, and Kay Kyser. It’s a fun mix of genres…some from the American Songbook, some from Bourbon Street, some from the Brill Building and a blend from the farther reaches. Tune in for a delightful Friday clamoring from Occidental’s own station.