Deep Roots Magazine — Roots Music and Meaningful Matters

Features / News

Updike at Easter, 2026 Edition

Pondering the meaning and purpose of Updike's iconic poem about Christianity's signal event, with musical interludes by REGINA VANDERJEICK, ELVIS, MAHALIA, THE SENSATIONAL NIGHTINGALES and ALBERTINA WALKER

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Classical Perspectives

‘How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place’: An Appreciation

Short, lyrical, and beautiful: JOHANNES BRAHMS's 'How Lovely is They Dwelling Place,' the fourth movement of his German Requiem, adapted from Psalm 84 and intended as a meditation on Heaven. JOHN RUTTER and ROBERT SHAW conduct exquisite versions herein.

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Spotlight Album

In Heavy Rotation: Blues & Resistance

Vintage blues with a modern twist from DUKE ROBILLARD and hIS ALL STAR BAND; messages socially conscious and comforting alike from ERIC BIBB;l and TODD CURRY's gospel message, 'kNOw Peace,' in Heavy Rotation

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Border Crossings

Of Synchronicity, Collaboration, and Mutual Support

'With Dal'Ouna I wanted to explore all my emotions, my daily life, my dreams, the oppression I have experienced and all the places that I have lived.'

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Sky Above, Earth Below

Growth: Sustainable Agriculture in New Jersey

A look at a flourishing sustainable agriculture project in New Jersey by Rutgers University student COLBY KOUTRAKOS

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Reviews

THE DEEP ROOTS ELITE HALF-HUNDRED, 2025

The Best of the Rest, the Deep Roots Elite Half-Hundred for 2025 is online! Blues, gospel, classical, folk, bluegrass, Christmas albums, classic soul, soundtracks...all present and accounted for in chronicling the music that meant the most to us last year.

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Spotlight Album

The Original Cat’s Missing Link

Recorded, and discarded, in 1990, the album titled Some Things Never Change, finally released in 2025, might well have changed CARL PERKINS's late-career trajectory, if anyone had ever heard it back then.

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Album Of The Year

Deep Roots Albums of the Year, 2025

REGINA VANDERJEIK's gospel masterpiece leads the way. Joining her at the top: BUDDY GUY, DANNY GATTON, THE TWANGTOWN PARAMOUS, DUDLEY TAFT, SIERRA HULL, CHRISTOPHER TIN, LANCE COWAN, ABBA via RAMEAU, and PARCHMAN PRISON inmates.

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Spotlight Album

‘There is no ‘best’ of anything’: Yes, there Is…

DANNY GATTON, hailed by his fellow virtuosos as mastering the guitar in ways beyond those of mere mortals, lives again on a new live album capturing him and his Funhouse band in a brunch concert in 1987 at a Virginia Holiday Inn.

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Spotlight Album

A ‘Joyful Rebellion’ for Our Times

India's Nobel Prize winning poet Rabindranath Tagore provies the inspiration for composer CHRISTOPHER TIN's 'Joyful rebellion' in addressing the temper of our times in his new work, SONG OFFERINGS and TRANSFIGURATIONS with the KANTOREI vocal ensemble.

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