Whether it’s the latest creation of an aspiring performer from around the block or across the globe on “It’s What’s New” (Wednesdays from 7 to 9 p.m.) or a jazz orchestra classic from the 1930s on “Make Believe Ballroom” (Mondays from 1 to 2 p.m.), we at KZSM 104.1 FM/ KZSM.org take pride in offering richest possible variety of music. We’ve recently expanded that variety even more with “Searching For The First Rock and Roll Song” now broadcasting Mondays from 8 to 9 p.m.
Hosted by Jamie Dell’Apa, the show celebrates the extensive roots of rock ‘n’ roll with “music and musicians you’ve never heard from the small regional record companies who pioneered rock and roll,” according to the host.
It’s “not a hits, oldies, or ‘history of ’ radio show,” Dell’Apa continued. “It’s all the songs that influenced our now-legendary musicians who are regularly featured in all those hits, oldies, and ‘history of ’ radio shows.”
Individual shows feature ingenious themes, such as “Cherokee Pretendian” songs, hobo songs, and songs about school and teenagers. Dell’Apa offers imaginative comments on the contexts of the songs. Describing lyrics about wine and tattoos, he mused that “the best area to search for the first rock and roll song might be at the bottom of a bottle of wine but just before the drunken trip to the tattoo parlor.” Yet another show featured hammer songs, from versions of “John Henry” through Jimmy Dean’s “Big John” and “other songs who enhanced and revisited John Henry by simply adding a new acoustic metaphor of a hammer hitting steel.”
The endless wealth of music featured on “Searching For The First Rock and Roll Song” comes primarily from the small regional record labels that flourished in the early days of rock. According to Dell’Apa, “regional labels acted as farm teams for major labels by recording local talent.” While the major labels were only interested in commercial potential, small labels could focus on genuine artistic merit. Their records are now coveted by collectors because they reveal the many and varied streams that became the mighty ocean of rock ‘n’ roll.
“We never find the first rock and roll song,” Dell’Apa admitted. “Just like our journey through life, the search is the joy. Finding the final destination in life or music is something to continually delay until after next week’s episode.”
Join the search every Monday night at 8 p.m. on KZSM 104.1 FM/ KZSM.org, your True Community Radio station.
