Deep Roots Magazine

Deep Roots Magazine

Roots Music and Meaningful Matters

 
 

 

The Anti-Slavery Roots of ‘O Holy Night’

Attacked for his opposition to inequality, slavery, injustice and other kinds of oppression, French poet PLACIDE CAPPEAU insinuated his unpopular thoughts into an 1847 poem that became 'O Holy Night'
by David McGee
 

 
 

‘Dad, I Think We Got One’ : Eddie Cochran and Jerry Capehart Craft A Seasonal Classic

EDDIE COCHRAN's manager and co-writer JERRY CAPEHART remembers the day he and Eddie, in search of a hit, wrote a certified seasonal classic, 'Summertime Blues'
by David McGee
 

 

 

The Paris of Berlioz and Liszt

Writing in 1837, acclaimed German poet HEINRICH HEINE filed a report on 'the two most remarkable phenomena in the contemporary musical world,' i.e., BERLIOZ and LISZT.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Whale Breaches, Nearly Hits Kayakers, Film At 11

So you're kayaking along, and suddenly a humpback whale shoots up out of the water and breaches on top of you. The Whale Detective, aka TOM MUSTILL, lived it, made a film of it and has some insights into whale sensibility.
by David McGee
 

 

 

Ding Dong, Merrily On High, Indeed!

Returned to print by Real Gone Music, THE THREE SUNS' amazing 1959 seasonal effort, A DING DONG DANDY CHRISTMAS, is lounge exotica run amuck, a genuine Yuletide gem.
by David McGee
 

 
 

Salt of the Earth (1954)

In 1954 a group of blacklisted filmmakers made the first blacklisted film in American history, SALT OF THE EARTH. Centered on a strike by Mexican-American workers in New Mexico, it is ever more timely now.
by David McGee
 

 

 

Last Chants

Hardcore drummer/photographer JASON HAMACHER discusses a journey that took him on a years-long quest to find and record some of the world’s oldest yet least known liturgical music, in a country that eventually devolved into c...
by David McGee
 

 
 

45 Years Later, Still Right on Time

The tipoff is in the title: MERRY CHRISTMAS WITH MARTY ROBBINS. One of country's greatest singers is intimately involved in the thoughtful songs he shares with us for the Yuletide including two of his own.
by David McGee