Deeper Roots Radio

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 wh...

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 t...

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...

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...

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...