Deeper Roots Radio

The history of coffee consumption in 20th century America takes hold in the small cafes, truck stops and coffeehouses which became venues and social spaces for the community. Like music, they helped with the congregation of like minds and served as hubs for intellectual exchange, artistic expression and social activism. And it was all because of the caffeine. Instant and decaf coff

Swing and jazz music of the late 1930s had just enough time to raise a small ruckus before the second World War broke out. After a celebratory wave swept the nation, there was a need for more of the same but with an upbeat but harder drive to it. It didn’t take long for pre-rock R&B to become popular across demographics as it would gain significant traction among urban youth,

Theme time and I’m going to break it to you slow…it’s all about the negative and those that refuse. If there’s something that’s more prevalent in our lives than saying that we ‘want to’…it’s when we don’t want to. The ‘desire not to’ seems to be winning over the ‘desire to’ in our show today. We’ve got a collection of songs that all begin with the phra

What a time it was. The surprise of Sputnik in the early fifties led to a space race, a technological competition that had a profound impact on popular music (not to mention popular culture), providing musicians (and would-be musicians) a rich source of inspiration and contributed to some of the most iconic, as well as comic and out of this world, songs of the era. Themes of space

There’s going to be a free form mix of sounds this week with some ‘scenes of devastation’ as well as some blues and tradition. We’ll set the tone with a song that inspired the title lines from The Pine Hill Project and then head into some tradition and some covers that speak in the language of the sacred and secular…from Saturday night at the juke to Sunday morning in the

Mining the archives we find that bad luck and trouble are not a concern as Spring peeks around the corner. Luck is our watchword on this March morning and we’ll try to keep our superstitions in check. We’ll be taking our chances with a themed show today that blends some vocals from past and present and with this being an election year…we need all the luck we can get. Tune in

There was some devastating new this past week…nothing new; and certainly, it seems, not in Mississippi. The Mississippi John Hurt Museum, a small sanctuary of tribute located on the Mississippi Blues Trail, burned down last week. While authorities in Carroll County try to determine the cause, we mourn the loss of John Hurt’s home, a small house that had just been given landmark

 We’ve got the family trees for you on Deeper Roots this week; proof positive that music can very well run in the family. Our show will share music from just a few of the families that have made their own way in a host of different genres. We’ll hear from the Nelsons (both of them), the family Marsalis, the Hiatts, the Wainwrights, the brothers Neville and a few others thi

The bouffant and the beehive…hairstyles with a tease and some backcombing, were all the rage in the sixties. Like pop music, it had a short life before the British wave. Unlike pop music, whose sound endured, the fashion was washed away at the salon in favor of the next big thing. Girl groups set the tone for the harmonious sounds of the time, and our nostalgia cruise will be too

Where else but the heart of Saturday night? We’ve got an eclectic collection of performances that take you ‘there and back’ this Friday morning on Deeper Roots. No theme. No tribute. No genre sweep. Just a collection of some great sounds from the past (and present). Little themes that reach deep and a few awesome covers that you may not be familiar with. We’re making our wa