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PODCAST · music

Deeper Roots Radio

by Deeper Roots

A walk through the last century of America's roots music, the podcasts for Deeper Roots come to you from productions at Sonoma County's own community radio station, KOWS 92.5 FM, streaming at www.kowsfm.com.

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Episodes

  1. Episode 39: Deeper Soul Roots Pt 1

    Soul music didn’t suddenly appear in the 1960s. Its roots were a product of decades in church pews, blues clubs, juke joints and beyond. This week, Deeper Roots begins a special two-part journey excavating the familiar classics to explore the fertile ground from which soul music grew. In this…

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  2. Episode 38: Under Western Stars

    Saddle up, but don’t expect the usual Hollywood version of the American West. We’re heading beyond the familiar standards to explore songs, stories and voices that grew out of bunkhouses, chuck wagons and wide-open country, reaching back nearly a century for early cowboy recordings, among them…

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  3. Episode 37: Island Of Dreams

    No particular destination this week, although we’ll begin on an Island of Dreams. Deeper Roots is going free form once again, rummaging around in the dusty digital archives and following the music wherever it happens to lead us. We’ll start things off with a decidedly British flavor, with Nick...

  4. Episode 36: Stories and 'Stretchers'

    Everybody loves a good story…and this week on Deeper Roots we’ll be spinning a few of them. Tall tales, fables, murder ballads, historical yarns, talking blues and outright stretchers are all part of the American musical tradition, and we’ll be digging into that tradition this Friday morning. Our...

  5. Episode 35: Summer's Last Stand

    Labor Day weekend may mark the unofficial end of summer, but around here, summer isn’t going quietly. In this week’s show, we’re giving the season one last fling with a free-form romp through songs of summer nights, summer rain, summer romance, warm breezes and those memories that seem to linger...

  6. Episode 34: High Lonesome Country

    There's a certain kind of poetry in country music that only it seems to understand. This week on Deeper Roots, we're embracing one of the genre's oldest companions: lonesome. From the high, mournful harmonies of Bill Clifton, The Delmore Brothers, and The Country Gentlemen to the heartfelt...

  7. Episode 33: 1925 Songs

    What did America sound like in 1925? Join us for a special episode of Deeper Roots as Dave welcomes Josh Rosenthal, founder of Tompkins Square Records, into the studio for an extraordinary musical deep dive. Josh takes us inside the newly minted anthology, Dick Spottswood & Tompkins Square...

  8. Episode 32: Good News Bad News

    No theme this week. No genre studies. No artist retrospectives. Just two hours of great American music. We're in a free-form mood, wandering once again through the dusty digital archives of the past century in search of songs that simply deserve to be heard. Pour yourself a favorite morning...

  9. Episode 31: Country Hotshots

    This Friday on Deeper Roots, we’re tipping our hats to some of the finest country artists of the 20th century with a journey far beyond the familiar hits. From the outlaw spirit of Waylon Jennings and the wit of Roger Miller to the Bakersfield fire of Dwight Yoakam, the timeless charm of Little...

  10. Episode 30: Let's Live

    This week we celebrate the simple joys that have always bound American music together. Deeper Roots travels back nearly a century—from the roaring jazz of Ethel Waters, Fletcher Henderson, and Coleman Hawkins to the contemporary wit of Kacey Musgraves—finding common threads of laughter…

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  11. Episode 29: Trouble Bound

    Free form and completely eclectic—that is the absolute best way to introduce this week’s episode of Deeper Roots. Every so often, we love to shake things up by forgoing our usual archival explorations of specific genres, artists, or historical themes. Instead, Dave is opening up his personal…

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  12. Episode 28: Travelin' Blues

    This Friday, Deeper Roots presents an encore broadcast from February 2020, exploring the rich intersection of gospel, blues, and tradition through the theme of the “Travelin’ Blues.” Whether the journey leads down the King’s Highway toward salvation or along a lonely back road toward temptation,...

  13. Episode 27: Wake Up Everybody

    Tomorrow isn’t a guarantee; it’s a promise we keep to one another. In times when the airwaves and headlines feel crowded with division, hatred, and the loud noise of demagoguery, all in reaction to barbarous and vile language from the highest quarters, the antidote has always been found in the...

  14. Episode 26: Heartland R&B

    We revisit a show from ten years back that focused on R&B, sax, and a time before rock 'n' roll shook the world. A time of honkers and shouters. This week on Deeper Roots, we dig into the wild, joyful, and groundbreaking world of mid-century rhythm and blues through the lens of Arnold Shaw's...

  15. Episode 25: The Ladies of Americana

    This week on Deeper Roots, we’re celebrating the women who helped shape Americana music. From pioneering artists who blazed trails through country, folk, blues, and gospel to the remarkable performers carrying those traditions into the 21st century, we’ll spend two hours exploring voices that...

  16. Episode 24: Let's Do It!

    This week on Deeper Roots, the records come with instructions. From dance crazes and rhythm commands to songs about not knowing what comes next, we’re asking — and answering — ‘Let’s Do It!.’ Two hours of blues, rock ’n’ roll, soul, and jukebox rhythm from the past century, all with a demand that...

  17. Episode 23: Twisted Country Tales

    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…

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  18. Episode 22: Nine Pound Hammer

    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’...

  19. Episode 21: Rockabilly Shakin' Goin' On

    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…

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  20. Episode 20: Burning Love Letters

    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...

  21. Episode 19: Tears On The Vinyl

    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...

  22. Episode 18: Backbeat '50

    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...

  23. Episode 17: Trouble In Mind

    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...

  24. Episode 16: Country Shed Shakers

    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…

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  25. Episode 15: King Cole Covers

    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…

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  26. Episode 14: Berry Covers

    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...

  27. Episode 13: Swingin' Out West

    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...

  28. Episode 12: Heavenly Day

    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...

  29. Episode 11: Women's History Month

    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…

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  30. Episode 10: The Hijacked Jukebox

    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…

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  31. Episode 9: Mid-Century Modern Jazz

    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…

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  32. Episode 8: Party Goin' On

    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…

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  33. Episode 7: Luck and Fortune

    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…

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  34. Episode 6: Big Big World

    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...

  35. Episode 5: Devil's Country Side

    We turn once again down that dark and dusty road in country music history—where temptation rides shotgun, regret sits in the back seat, and the Devil just might be waiting at the crossroads. From ballads of fear and heartfelt tales to outlaw confessions and modern Americana shadows, we’ll be...

  36. Episode 4: Also Rans 1959

    This week we’ll look a little deeper under the charts, focusing on the year 1959, a time when teenage targeted music encouraged new dances, new forms of self-expression and a sound whose influence went beyond the sweetheart, white bread sounds of middle America. To say the least, older…

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  37. Episode 3: Dust On The Needle

    We’re going to be excavating the country archives, dusting off the 45s and 78s with abandon and making it a morning of deep tracks while the dust on the needle collects. Country music storytelling was often smeared with the tangled webs of cheatin’, drinkin’ and Sunday mornin’s blinding gleam of...

  38. Episode 2: Shake Your Hips

    Another free form musical delight is ready and waiting for your ears this coming Friday morning. We dig into some mid-century nuggets from the country genre with Red Foley and Ernest Tubb as well as Merle Haggard, Asleep at the Wheel and Joe Ely. That, of course, hardly covers the two hours....

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ABOUT THIS SHOW

A walk through the last century of America's roots music, the podcasts for Deeper Roots come to you from productions at Sonoma County's own community radio station, KOWS 92.5 FM, streaming at www.kowsfm.com.

HOSTED BY

Deeper Roots

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Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does Deeper Roots Radio have?

Deeper Roots Radio currently has 38 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.

What is Deeper Roots Radio about?

A walk through the last century of America's roots music, the podcasts for Deeper Roots come to you from productions at Sonoma County's own community radio station, KOWS 92.5 FM, streaming at www.kowsfm.com.

How often does Deeper Roots Radio release new episodes?

Deeper Roots Radio has 38 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.

Where can I listen to Deeper Roots Radio?

You can listen to Deeper Roots Radio on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.

Who hosts Deeper Roots Radio?

Deeper Roots Radio is created and hosted by Deeper Roots.
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