Deep Roots Magazine

Deep Roots Magazine

Roots Music and Meaningful Matters

 
 

 

A New Opera for the 21st Century Canon, By Way of Willa Cather

WILLA CATHER'S short story 'Paul's Place' has been transformed into an opera event by GREGORY SPEARKS and KATHRYN WALAT. Our JOSPEH NEWSOME ranks it 'amongst the finest recorded opera performances of the 21st Century.'
by David McGee
 

 
 

To Ride an Avalanche in Yosemite

At the turn of the 20th Century, naturist JOHN MUIR, never one to shirk a chance for first-person experience in the wild, rode an avalanche down a mountain Yosemite National Park. And lived to tell about it, as he does here.
by David McGee
 

 

 

When Robert Mitchum Was Like So…

In 1957, while filming in Trinidad with director John Huston, ROBERT MITCHUM became obsessed with Calypso music, so much so that he made an entire album of it, for Capitol, with Johnny Mercer's blessing. It's good stuff. Let's ...
by David McGee
 

 
 

The Land Remembers

A new biography resurrects the enduring achievements of conservation writer BERNARD DEVOTO and his activist wife AVIS.
by David McGee
 

 

 

Evoking Afternoons in 17th Century Hereford

Composer Matthew Locke was born 400 years ago this year, and to mark this occasion the British viol consort FRETWORK are marking the happy occasion with an album featuring seven of Locke's suites that have hitherto barely made ...
by David McGee
 

 
 

Chronicling a Spiritual Exodus from Modern-Day Anxieties

One of the first great albums of 2019, GOSHEN, by DONALD LAWRENCE PRESENTS THE TRI-CITY SINGERS, is a concept album ranging from worship songs to topical numbers to rages against the machine--and the power of faith.
by David McGee
 

 

 

A Classic Animated Christmas

From the vaults, classics indeed: 1939's 'Peace on Earth,' the only cartoon ever nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize; from 1913, Ladislas Starevitch's pioneering and amazing stop-motion animated 'The Insects' Revenge' (plus a pr...
by David McGee
 

 
 

Remembering Raul Malo, Pt. 2

Interviews with RAUL MALO as his solo career unfolded, from 2001’s Today to 2010’s Sinners & Saints. Herewith the second part of the Deep Roots tribute to a generational artist, who passed away on December 8, 2025. 
by David McGee