Today on American Song, I’ll introduce you to my friend, A.J. Deiboldt. A.J. is a singer-songwriter originally from upstate New York, now making his music in a small town in the woods of Tennessee just outside Nashville. American Song is a show that celebrates the history, breadth and richness of our country’s music in all its flavors. Writing memorable and sensitive songs in the style of Chris Whitley, and with historic connections to acoustic blues pioneers such as Ledbelly, Sonny Boy Williamson and Robert Johnson, A.J. is certainly no stranger to this legacy.  By the end of this interview, I think you’ll end up agreeing , he represents the music well!  A.J.'s songs are beautifully crafted, and his musicianship is finely nuanced and highly developed. I’m proud to have him on.

Music In This Episode

• Some Day's Gonna Come Some Day
• Diamond's In The Dust
• Steal Away
• The Old Ways
• Pretty Days

Look for A.J. Deiboldt at:

Substack: The High Notes

YouTube: AJDeiboldt

Connect with us online! American Song on Substack. 

New Wave was born in a New York dive bar, then it got on a plane. In England it picked up eyeliner and a synthesizer where its guitar used to be. But somewhere over the Atlantic, in a few very specific places, it also picked up something heavier: a government watching.

This is the final episode in our New Wave series, and it's the one where the genre stops being an aesthetic and starts being evidence. In Chile, three teenagers formed a band while Pinochet's regime was still making people disappear — and wrote songs about it anyway. In Argentina, a junta collapsed the same year its kids started plugging in synthesizers. In South Africa, artists built entire careers on saying things apartheid censors weren't fast enough to catch. None of these bands set out to be political. The regimes they lived under made that decision for them.

Germany, South Africa, Latin America, and back around to post-Franco Spain — the biggest songs from the boldest bands in each, made under governments that would've preferred they stayed quiet, played anyway.

This is Dancing Under Fire. Across different times, places, artists and eras, it's a now familiar story in hipper clothes and different accents. American music keeps leaving the country and coming back changed — recognizable, but not asking permission anymore.

Music In This Episode

Germany

• DAF - Der Mussolilni
• Spider Murphy Gang - Skandal Im Sperrbezirk
• Nina Hagen- Du Hast Den Farbfilm Vergessen 
• Ideal - Blaue Augen
• Ideal - Wir Stehn Auf Berlin
• Ideal - Monotonie
• Nena - 99 Luftballons
• Nena - Irgendwie Irgendwo Irgendwann
• Peter Schilling - Major Tom (Völlig Losgelöst)
• Peter Schilling - Die Wüste Lebt
• Falco - Ganz Wien
• Falco - Der Kommissar
• Falco - Rock Me Amadeus

South Africa

• éVoid - Shadows
• éVoid - Taximan
• éVoid - I Am a Fadget
• éVoid - Urban Warrior
• Brenda Fassie - Weekend Special
• Brenda Fassie - Black President
• Brenda Fassie - Memeza
• Paul Ndlovu - Khombo Ra Mina
• Solomon Linda - Mbube

Latin America

• Los Prisioneros - La Voz de los '80
• Los Prisioneros - El Baile do Los Que Sobran
• Los Prisioneros - Tren Al Sur
• Los Prisioneros - Eléctricas
• Soda Stereo - Por Qué No Puedo Ser del Jet Set
• Soda Stereo - Nada Personal
• Soda Stereo - Persiana Americana
• Soda Stereo - En la Ciudad de la Furia
• Soda Stereo - De Musica Ligera
• Caifanes - La Negra Tomasa
• Caifanes - La Célula Que Explota
• Caifanes - Nubes
• Caifanes - No Dejes Que
• Radio Futura - Enamorado De La Moda Juvenil
• Radio Futura - Escuela de Calor
• Radio Futura - Semilla Negra
• Radio Futura - 37 Grados

Come visit with us on Substack!

Britain just turned the lights fluorescent. The future arrives every Wednesday now, whether you're ready or not.

Picture 1979 England: factories closing, Thatcher cutting glass with every syllable, and a music press so brutal it could make or break a band before the tea went cold. Punk already burned down the house. Now a blond former schoolteacher from Newcastle who sounds like a cathedral trying to seduce you, a man dressed as three centuries of fashion history simultaneously, and a band that named itself after a hairstyle and a bomber are about to rebuild it — colder, sharper, and somehow more danceable.

This episode: The Police turn jazz chords into a global empire. The Clash and XTC ask exactly how much pop a protest song can survive. Siouxsie and the Banshees, Squeeze, and Tears for Fears each find a different way to make precision sound like feeling. Elvis Costello smuggles class warfare into a piano hook your kids could hum.

Then the screen turns on. MTV launches with nothing to play but the eccentrics nobody else wanted — and the eccentrics become the biggest stars on Earth. Until two artists the network never planned for, Michael Jackson and Prince, force the door open and rewrite who gets to be on television at all.

The future was never going to be warm. But it was going to be brilliant.

Songs In This Episode

• The Clash -  Career Opportunities
• XTC - This Is Pop
• The Police - Message In a Bottle (No Vocal)
• The Police - Roxanne
• The Police - Walking On the Moon
• Squeeze - Tempted
• Adam and the Ants - Kings of the Wild Frontier
• The Cure - A Forest
• Siouxsie and the Banshees - Cities in Dust
• OMD - Enola Gay
• Tears For Fears - The Hurting
• Tears For Fears - Mad World
• Tears For Fears - Shout
• Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants to Rule the World
• Elvis Costello - Pump it Up
• Elvis Costello - Watching the Detectives
• Elvis Costello - Oliver's Army
• Elvis Costello - Alison
• Elvis Costello - Radio, Radio
• The Monkees - (Theme From) The Monkees
• The Buggles - Video Killed the. Radio Star
• Michael Jackson - Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
• Prince - Controversy
• Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
• Prince - When You Were Mine
• Prince - 1999
• Prince - When Doves Cry
• Falco - Der Kommissar (German Version)

Interviews With

• Sting
• Adam Ant
• Elvis Costello
• Michael Nesmith
• Andy Summers

Join American Song on Social Media

Substack:  https://substack.com/@americansong

It was the late 1970s and early '80s. New York was bankrupt. Akron's tire factories were closing. Regular families were struggling with double-digit inflation. The AIDS epidemic was raging. The Soviets invaded Afghanistan and the US boycotted the Olympics in protest. John Lennon was assassinated.  And somewhere in the background, always, that low hum — nuclear warheads, patient at the edge of the light.

 Into that America walked Blondie, Talking Heads, Devo, the B-52s, the Cars, and Oingo Boingo. You Might Think you know what they were doing. Quirky! Fun! Great hair!

 Here's what they were actually doing: holding a mirror up to everything that was broken and making it danceable. Whether that was a fun house mirror or a regular one — you'll have to decide.

 This episode, we find out what New Wave was really made of. And who was really making it.

Continue the American Song journey on Substack!

 Music Featured In This Episode

• Blondie - X Offender
• Blondie - Rip Her to Shreds
• The Stillettos - Anti Disco
• Blondie - One Way or Another
• Blondie - Heart of Glass
• Blondie - Call Me
• Blondie - Rapture
• Blondie - Dreaming
• Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
• Talking Heads - Take Me to the River
• Talking Heads - Life During Wartime
• Talking Heads - I Zimbra
• Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime
• Talking Heads - Burning Down the House
• DEVO - Jocko Homo
• DEVO - Whip It
• DEVO - Wiggly World
• B-52s - Planet Claire
• B-52s - Rock Lobster
• The Cars - My Best Friend's Girl
• The Cars - Just What I Needed
• The Cars - You Might Think
• Oingo Boingo - Capitalism
• Oingo Boingo - Only A Lad
• Oingo Boingo - Private Life
• Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party
• Oingo Boingo - Goodbye, Goodbye
• Oingo Boingo - We Close Our Eyes

Interviews With

• Chris Stein 
• David Byrne
• Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerry Casale
• Cindy Wilson and Fred Schneider
• John Lennon
• Rick Ocasek and Benjamin Orr
• Brandon Flowers
• Danny Elfman

Continue the American Song journey on Substack!

Five hundred million years ago, ( approximately 1977), something extraordinary happened on the floor of an ancient sea. Life — which had spent billions of years as little more than a few unremarkable blobs drifting in the dark — suddenly exploded into every possible form simultaneously. Claws. Fins. Shells. Eyes. Creatures of impossible elegance and alien strangeness, emerging from the murk and becoming something the world had never seen before. Scientists call it the Cambrian Explosion. It was the moment life stopped playing it safe.

Rock music had its own Cambrian moment. And like the original, it happened in the dark, in conditions nobody would have designed on purpose, among creatures that looked like nothing that had come before.

This is the first episode of American Song: New Wave — a new series tracing the origins, explosions, and enduring legacy of the genre that turned anxiety into an art form, made nervousness a fashion statement, and somehow got America dancing to songs about the end of the world.

In this episode: Kraftwerk emerges from postwar Düsseldorf like something that evolved independently of everything else — precise, alien, and more perfectly adapted to the future than anything sharing its environment. The Ramones reduce rock to its purest possible form and discover that what's left is still everything. Television proves that minimalism and virtuosity are not opposites. And Patti Smith walks into a twelve-foot room on the Bowery and claims the entire territory of rock and poetry for herself, without asking anyone's permission, because it hadn't occurred to her that permission was required.

New Wave didn't descend from the mainstream. It crawled up from somewhere older and stranger and more alive — from musicians too weird, too restless, or too furious to stay in the shallows. This is where it started. This is the murk.

Music In This Episode

• Peter Gabriel: Intruder
• Kraftwerk: Autobahn
• Kraftwerk: Trans Europ Express
• Gary Numan: Cars
• The Feelies: The Boy With the Perpetual Nervousness
• Ramones: I Wanna Be Sedated
• Ramones: Beat on the Brat
• Ramones: I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
• Television: See No Evil
• Television: Marquee Moon
• Patti Smith: Gloria
• Blondie (Rhythm Only): One Way Or Another
• B-52's: Rock Lobster

Interviews

• Ralf Hutter (Kraftwerk)
• Hilly Krystal (CBGB's)
• Marky Ramone (Ramones)
• Tom Verlaine (Television)
• Patti Smith (Patti Smith)

Next episode: Blondie. Talking Heads. Devo. The B-52s. Oingo Boingo. New Wave goes national — and it turns out the whole country had been waiting.

Part 2

Happy New Year, Everybody! (Even if you're reading this in July....)

Across the last five seasons of American Song, we've traveled the arc of American music and listened to some of the greatest songs ever recorded, by some of the best loved artists over a century of thrilling music that changed the world. 

But what about all those artists whose music is as good, if not better, than those "giants", who (but for the fickle finger of fate) never got the massive acclaim that those rarified few received?  What is it within a songwriter that drives their art and compells them to write, even if they're not filling stadiums, or winning Grammy's (questionnable why some of the folks who do receive them deserved it!). 

I've been fortunate to share many road miles with one of these artists for most of my life, and in today's episode, I introduce him to you. 

In 1995, LA Time music critic, Mike Boehm, said this about Mark's first album: "The two albums I couldn’t stop listening to in ’95 were a tie for the number-one position in my Top Ten. [One of these was] Mark Davis, “You Came Screaming”. Davis’ first album is graced by superb melodies and hall-of-fame influences. His intensely realized subject is the embattled condition of idealism in a fallen world."  

Other music critics have said this:

"Getting at large truths with songs full of human-scale detail and unsentamentalized beauty.  - Los Angeles Times 

“Davis is truly a master of his craft… able to lift spirits even while supporting the weight of the world.” - Orange County Register 

I hope you'll listen closely to this two part episode. I have a special feeling that when you do, you just might come to love this music and appreciate this artistic soul as much as I do.

Learn more about Mark Davis and support his music through these links:

https://songrites.com/mark-davis-and-the-inklings

https://markdavisinklings.bandcamp.com

Part 1

Happy New Year, Everybody! (Even if you're reading this in July....)

Across the last five seasons of American Song, we've traveled the arc of American music and listened to some of the greatest songs ever recorded, by some of the best loved artists over a century of thrilling music that changed the world. 

But what about all those artists whose music is as good, if not better, than those "giants", who (but for the fickle finger of fate) never got the massive acclaim that those rarified few received?  What is it within a songwriter that drives their art and compells them to write, even if they're not filling stadiums, or winning Grammy's (questionnable why some of the folks who do receive them deserved it!). 

I've been fortunate to share many road miles with one of these artists for most of my life, and in today's episode, I introduce him to you. 

In 1995, LA Time music critic, Mike Boehm, said this about Mark's first album: "The two albums I couldn’t stop listening to in ’95 were a tie for the number-one position in my Top Ten. [One of these was] Mark Davis, “You Came Screaming”. Davis’ first album is graced by superb melodies and hall-of-fame influences. His intensely realized subject is the embattled condition of idealism in a fallen world."  

Other music critics have said this:

"Getting at large truths with songs full of human-scale detail and unsentamentalized beauty.  - Los Angeles Times 

“Davis is truly a master of his craft… able to lift spirits even while supporting the weight of the world.” - Orange County Register 

I hope you'll listen closely to this two part episode. I have a special feeling that when you do, you just might come to love this music and appreciate this artistic soul as much as I do.

Learn more about Mark Davis and support his music through these links:

https://songrites.com/mark-davis-and-the-inklings

https://markdavisinklings.bandcamp.com

Part Five starts with a funeral and a realization: when Bruce's friend and former Castile's band mate, George Theiss, dies, Bruce becomes the last man left from his teenage band. That shock pushes him into Springsteen on Broadway, Western Stars, and Letter to You—projects that ask what kind of ancestor, and what kind of citizen, you want to be when you’re running out of time. 

We follow him into those late-career marathon shows and finally to a 2025 European stage, where he calls out a "incompetent, corrupt, and treasonous administration" and then sings about hope, duty, and “we the people” anyway. 

This final chapter ties Bruce back to everyone we’ve studied in 2025 on American Song—including Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Cockburn, Randy Newman, Warren Zevon and Jackson Browne —and makes the subtext plain: if we want a better America, we’re going to have to live up to the American values embodied in the songs of the artists we say we admire.

Music In This Episode: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

• My City of Ruins
• Shackled and Drawn
• Rocky Ground
• Sundown
• Hello Sunshine
• Last Man Standing
• One Minute You're Here
• The Power of Prayer
• Long Walk Home
• We Shall Overcome

Archival Interviews

• Rick Rubin/ Malcolm Gladwell

Part Four is where the story cuts close to the bone. Bruce lets the E Street Band go, stares down his own failures on Tunnel of Love, and writes The Ghost of Tom Joad for the people that some Americans prefer not to see: migrants, the unemployed, the left-behind. 

The band reunites, “American Skin (41 Shots)” forces a conversation about race and fear, and The Rising and Wrecking Ball turn grief and economic anger into something like a shared civic ritual. We carry all of that forward into Trump’s first administration and Charlottesville, and we hold Bruce’s choices up as a different model of Americanness—one where loving your country means telling it the truth and standing with the people it’s hurting, even when that costs you.

Music in This Episode: Bruce Springsteen (With and Without) the E Street Band

• Tunnel of Love
• Human Touch
• Living Proof
• The Ghost of Tom Joad
• Theme from Ken Burns 'The Civil War'*
• The Price You Pay**
• American Skin (41 Shots)
• This Land Is Your Land

Archival Interviews

• Rick Rubin/ Malcolm Gladwell 
• Mark Maron 
• Howard Stern
• Bank Street Podcast

*As performed by my second cousin, Molly Hines of Wilmington, NC. A massively talented violinist, during our family reunion in Yellowstone National Park; Summer, 2025. Thank you, Molly! Visit https://www.mollyjhines.com/

** E Street Band backing track; no vocals. 

Factories closing, marriages cracking, the glitter of the ’80s hiding a lot of hurt—Part 3 lives right in that gap between the American dream and the American day-to-day. Bruce digs into Darkness, The River, and Nebraska, writing about people who rarely get a mic: laid-off workers, young couples in over their heads, neighbors hanging on by their fingernails. Then Born in the U.S.A. turns into a worldwide roar, and politicians try to strip the songs of their doubts and their compassion. We end in East Berlin, 1988, with Springsteen singing to a divided crowd about freedom and walls coming down, and we ask: what if this kind of complicated, honest patriotism was the version we measured ourselves against instead of the cheap, loud kind?

Music in this Episode: Bruce Spingsteen (With and Without) the E Street Band

• I Fought the Law - Live
• Badlands
• The Promised Land
• Prove it All Night - Live from Hammersmith Odeon. 1978
• The Ties That Bind
• The River album medley: Point Blank/ The River/ Hungry Heart/ Cadillac Ranch/ I'm a Rocker/ Drive All Night
• Atlantic City
• Johnny 99
• Born in the USA
• Born in the USA Nebraska era demo
• Downbound Train
• Dancing in the Dark
• Chimes of Freedom - Live in East Berlin 1988

Archival Interviews

• Letter to You era interview
• NPR/ Loren Anki - Born in the USA
• NPR/ Terry Gross

Part two picks up in the clubs and dives where Bruce and the band are trying to outrun obscurity. We walk with them through the struggle to get the first records heard, the critics who saw the spark, and the brutal work of making Born to Run: months of second-guessing, endless mixes, and the very real possibility that it might all collapse under its own ambition. We hear about Jon Landau’s famous “I saw rock and roll future” review, the Bottom Line breakthrough, the U.K. trip that almost derailed him, and the strange, exhausting new life of a band suddenly under the lights. This chapter closes with one of the great stories in the Springsteen mythos: the bomb scare in Milwaukee, the evacuated club, and a night that turns from chaos into a legendary, delayed show—a perfect snapshot of how fragile and how powerful this whole thing really was.

Music in this Episode: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

• Born to Run
• Thunder Road
• Jungleland
• Tenth Avenue Freeze Out
• Kitty's Back
• Mountain of Love
• I Fought the Law

Archival Interviews

Mark Maron Interview

Rick Rubin/ Malcolm  Gladwell Interview

We start the series in 2025, at Springsteen's show in Manchester, UK where he makes a landmark statement about America's "leadership" before we flash back to his formative years.

A cramped house in Freehold. A father smoking in the dark kitchen. A kid staring at the radio like it’s a way out and a way in. In Part one, we meet Bruce not as a legend, but as a working-class American kid learning early what struggle, pride, and community look like. As we follow him into those early Jersey bar gigs and up to the Cherry Hill shows, we start using his story as a counterexample to our current politics: a picture of American life rooted in responsibility, neighborliness, and the refusal to quit on your own town.

Music in This Episode: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

Land of Hopes and Dreams

Growin' Up

Baby I* 

It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City

Spirit in the Night

Rosalita

* Bruce's first teenage band, The Castiles. 

Archival Interviews

Mark Maron 

Howard Stern

Rick Rubin and Malcolm Gladwell

For over five decades, Jackson Browne has stood at the intersection of melody and message—crafting songs that speak not only to the heart, but also to the conscience. In an age of division and disinformation, his music feels like a lifeline to an older, more grounded sense of American democratic values—truth, empathy, accountability, and moral courage. This episode dives into Browne’s lifelong journey as both a master songwriter and a tireless activist, examining how his music has evolved into a public reckoning with the soul of the nation.

He grew up in Southern California, crossing the "Orange Curtain" from the sleepy bedroom towns of Orange County and making his way into Laurel Canyon, and from his earliest days playing shows at the Troubadour, Browne’s lyrics were already infused with a deep introspection and a search for authenticity. But as the political landscape shifted in the 1980s and beyond, so too did his writing—growing sharper, more explicit, and unapologetically political. With albums like Lives in the Balance and The Naked Ride Home, he began naming names, challenging war, corporate greed, and environmental neglect. Browne wasn’t content to merely reflect the times—he wanted to change them.

This episode traces the arc of his transformation—from a quiet observer to a clarion voice for peace, climate justice, and human rights. We explore his deep friendships with figures like David Crosby and Bonnie Raitt, his influence on the Eagles and the Southern California sound, and his early alliances with causes like MUSE and the anti-nuclear movement. But we also go deeper: into the heartbreak of Phyllis Major’s death, the personal toll of activism, and the spiritual core that drives his pursuit of justice.

Jackson Browne’s legacy is not one of stardom chased or fame inflated. It’s a body of work that demands we pay attention—not just to the world around us, but to the values we claim to stand for. In a moment where America seems to be asking itself who it really is, Jackson Browne has never stopped answering with clarity, humility, and song.

In This Episode

Songs by Jackson Browne, except where noted otherwise

• These Days
• Where I’m From
• These Days (Nico (From Chelsea Girl)
• To Ramona - Bob Dylan
• Doctor My Eyes
• Take It Easy (Jackson Browne/ The Eagles mash-up)
• Wooden Ships (Crosby, Stills & Nash)
• For Every Man
• Running on Empty
• Before the Deluge
• Lives in the Balance
• I Am a Patriot
• I’m Alive
• Which Side
• Downhill From Everywhere
• Standing in the Breach

Dig Deeper

To learn more about several of the topics discussed in this episode, I encouirage you to check out these other American Song episode.

Action: Reaction - American Bands and American Society Respond to the English Invasion

Punk - The Shot Heard Round the World

The Singer-Songwriters Part Two: Truth to Power

In this episode of American Song, we explore the life and legacy of Warren Zevon, one of America’s most fearless and darkly funny songwriters. Known for his biting wit and uncompromising honesty, Zevon built a career chronicling the messier sides of the human experience—addiction, regret, heartbreak, and mortality.

From his early days as a struggling songwriter in Los Angeles to the unexpected success of “Werewolves of London,” Zevon never stopped grappling with the contradictions of fame and self-destruction. We trace how his battles with alcoholism nearly cost him everything, and how sobriety led to some of his most poignant work, including “Detox Mansion” and “Reconsider Me.”

When faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis, Zevon responded the only way he knew how: with humor and unflinching clarity. His final message—“Enjoy every sandwich”—has become a lasting reminder to savor the ordinary moments, even when life feels overwhelming.

Drawing parallels between Zevon’s story and today’s America, we consider what his example has to offer in an era of division, anxiety, and distrust. In a time when many feel adrift, Zevon’s insistence on telling the truth—even when it was uncomfortable—feels more important than ever. His songs are proof that honesty and irony can coexist with tenderness and hope.

Through archival interviews, cultural commentary, and the music itself, this episode reflects on what it means to face your demons, make peace with impermanence, and still find something worth laughing about. Whether you’re a lifelong fan or just discovering his work, this is an invitation to see Warren Zevon not just as a songwriter, but as a guide to living—and dying—with your eyes wide open.

Warren Zevon's Songs In This Episode

• Desperadoes Under the Eaves
• Veracruz
• I'm Your Mutineer (Bob Dylan)
• French Inhaler
• Outside Chance (The Turtles)
• Follow Me (Lyme & Cybelle)
• Poor, Poor Pitiful Me
• Tenderness on the Block
• Werewolves of London
• Lawyers, Guns & Money
• Detox Mansion
• Sentimental Hygiene
• Raspberry Beret (Prince Cover)
• Run Straight Down
• Splendid Isolation
• I Was in the House Til the House Burned Down
• For My Next Trick, I'll Need a Volunteer
• Disorder in the House
• Keep Me in Your Heart For A While
• Mutineer
• Keep Me in Your Hear For A While (Eddie Vedder)
• Looking For the Next Best Thing

Archival Interviews

• Crystal Zevon
• Waddy Wachtel
• Jason Zevon
• Warren Zevon
• David Letterman

Related Episodes - Dig Deeper!

The Singer-Songwriters: Truth to Power/ Bruce Cockburn

God's Song and Other American Prayers: The Story of Randy Newman

The Singer-Songwriters: Part One/ Bob Dylan

The Masters of Funk

You could think of Randy Newman as a musical Mark Twain. 

His songs draw up from a range of curiously disconnected observations about life in this era’s America in some of the same ways that Twain’s pen spoke of the America he lived in. Twain’s Mississippi paddlewheels churned the dark waters of that rolling river mixing old and new, sacred and profane and In his songs, Newman is doing the same thing. He draws from American roots music, Tin Pan Alley, the blues, and orchestral pop. You’ll instantly recognize a Randy Newman song from his instantly hummable tunes mixed with wry humor, irony, and social commentary.  His songs are full of wry observations about slightly uncomfortable subjects.

Randy Newman knows America in all its contradictions—its kindness and cruelty, its promises and hypocrisies. His songs expose the voices we pretend not to hear, from backroom bigots to lonely losers, from crooked politicians to a God who’s tempted to give up on us. Listening to Randy is like reading between the lines of the American songbook—he doesn’t just entertain, he reveals. And maybe, by sitting with his uncomfortable truths, we can wake from our own fog, and see this country—its history, its people, its future—with clearer eyes. 

If ever there was a time when we needed clearer eyes, this is that time.

In This Episode

• Piano: You've Got a Friend in Me
• Randy Newman - Golden Gridiron Boy
• Soundtrack from The Grapes of Wrath
• Marilyn Monroe - Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend
• Soundtrack from Hello Dolly
• Three Dog Night - Mama Told Me Not to Come
• Randy Newman - Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear
• Randy Newman - I Think It's Going to Rain Today
• Randy Newman - Short People
• Randy Newman - How Great Our Lord
• Randy Newman - Shame
• Randy Newman - You Can Leave Your Hat On
• Joe Cocker - You Can Leave Your Hat On
• Randy Newman - Baltimore
• Randy Newman - God's Song
• Randy Newman - Sail Away
• Randy Newman - Political Science
• Randy Newman - Rednecks
• Randy Newman - The Girls In My Life (Part 1)
• Randy Newman - Old Kentucky Home
• Randy Newman - The Natural
• Randy Newman/ Billy Crystal/ John Goodman - If I Didn't Have You
• Randy Newman/ Sarah McLachlan - When She Loved Me
• Randy Newman -  A Few Words in Defense of Our Country
• Randy Newman - I'm Dreaming
• Randy Newman - I Love L.A.

In this haunting and deeply reflective episode, we explore the music of Bruce Cockburn—an artist who persistently challenges our indifference and urges us to reckon with the moral weight of being human. His songs are not just art; they are calls to awareness, rooted in compassion and fierce clarity.

We delve into the global injustices that course through his music: the devastation of climate change, and the brutal legacy of capitalism in the Global South, where lives are often sacrificed for profit. Later in the episode, Cockburn’s Postcards from Cambodia becomes a stark meditation on memory, violence, and the spiritual toll of silence.

The episode closes with a powerful capstone—an excerpt from Elie Wiesel’s 1999 White House address—offering a final, unforgettable reflection on the dangers of indifference, and the sacred responsibility to bear witness. This is not an episode about despair. It’s about the quiet courage of paying attention.

America is going through some troubling times today. I don't need to remind anyone of that. But I do hope that this warning about the dangers of being 'indifferent' stirs - at minimum - a time of deeper reflection. 

In This Episode

MUSIC

Bruce Cockburn

• Sunrise on the Mississippi
• Shining Mountain (live from Le Hibou, 1971)
• Call it Democracy
• Creation Dream
• False River
• Radium Rain
• Postcards From Cambodia

John Lennon: God

John Luther Adams: Become Ocean

SPOKEN

• Bruce Cockburn
• Douglas Cockburn
• Evan Hadfield/ Rare Earth 
• Frontline Interviews with Fossil Fuel Industry Representatives
• Elie Wiesel

In these days, when people play fast and loose with truth for the purpose of personal gain at the expense of important things like rights, and even survival, I hope this episode, and the next one help us all regain a little sanity and peace. 

Personal Truth takes you on a powerful journey through the birth of the singer-songwriter era, spotlighting artists who didn't just sing about the world—but cracked themselves wide open to show us their own. Starting in the fertile grounds of Greenwich Village’s folk revival, we trace Judy Collins’ leap from classical prodigy to folk icon, discover how her mentorship helped launch the poetic brilliance of Joni Mitchell, and explore how deeply personal songwriting reshaped the music landscape.

From the haunting honesty of Blue to the communal power of We Shall Overcome, and the electric turning points of Dylan and Elton at the Troubadour, this story is as much about music as it is about the courage to be vulnerable. These artists weren’t just performers—they were truth-tellers, risking emotional exposure to connect with something universal.

If you've ever been moved by a lyric that felt like it was written just for you, you’re already part of this legacy. Dive in and discover how raw truth, vulnerability, and fearless authenticity led American music in yet another bold direction.

In this Episode:

MUSIC

Jackson Brown: Lives in the Balance

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Concerto for Two Pianos

Judi Collins

• John Riley
• Barbara Allen
• Loch Lomond
• Both Sides Now

Joni Mitchell

• Both Sides Now
• The Circle Game
• Chelsea Morning
• Cactus (audience recording from The Troubadour)
• Car On a Hill
• Down to You
• River
• Lesson in Survival

Elton John - 60 Years On

INTERVIEWS

Judi Collins

Pete Seeger

Gordon Lightfoot

James Taylor

Elton John/ Joni Mitchell

Nigel Olsen

Links to Related Episodes

The Second Folk Revival: A Passing of the Torch.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1622638/episodes/10030031-the-second-folk-revival-a-passing-of-the-torch

1960’s Folk Music: How the Fire Spread

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1622638/episodes/10030131-1960-s-folk-music-how-the-fire-spread

The Other Side of Fusion: Jazz Rock

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1622638/episodes/12426684-the-other-side-of-fusion-jazz-rock

By the late 1960’s, folk was beginning to feel “scarred and battered”, so what came next in this tradition was less political, and much more personal. The world was changing politically, socially, and culturally. Some of the new generation of singers and songwriters felt that staying relevant meant they had to move away from folk, towards more personal themes. The ‘70s was the “Me” decade. Instead of drawing from what was happening in the outside world, one group of song-writers turned inward. Another group turned toward broader political issues, instead of the Hattie Carroll, situation-specific inspirations that had inspired writers in the early. ‘60s. 

There’s no better artist to start with than Bob Dylan, the single artist without whom, this whole series may not have even been possible, his impact is so huge. And yet, even Dylan owes his position as the Mount Everest of rock music to the people who came before him. One very important inspiration was the great Woody Guthrie.  And even Guthrie you have to put in context, amidst all of the other great artists we’ve been talking about since day one of the American Song podcast.  It’s like Pete Seeger, the great folk musician and a closer friend and collaborator of Guthrie’s, said, 

 "All songwriters are links in a chain."  

In This Episode

• Bruce Springsteen: Atlantic City
• Pete Seeger - This Land is Your Land
• Bob Dylan - The Times They are a Changing
• Jim Croce - Operator
• Bob Dylan - Song to Woody
• Bob Dylan - Big Yellow Taxi
• Buddy Holly and the Crickets - Not Fade Away
• Buddy Holly and the Crickets - Maybe Baby
• Bob Dylan - Mr. Tambourine Man
• Bob Dylan - Jokerman
• Bob Dylan - Foot of Pride
• Bob Dylan - House of the Rising Sun
• Bob Dylan - Rollin' and Tumblin'
• Bob Dylan - Arthur McBride
• Bob Dylan - Hurricane
• Bob Dylan/ Tom Petty - I've Forgot More than You'll Ever Know
• Bob Dylan - Blind Willie McTell
• Bob Dylan - Cantina Theme
• Bob Dylan - A Hard Rain's a Gonna Fall
• Bob Dylan - Sad Eyes Lady of the Lowlands
• Bob Dylan - Masters of War
• Bob Dylan - Every Grain of Sand
• Bob Dylan - I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
• Bob Dylan - High Water (for Charlie Patton)
• Bob Dylan - Meet Me in the Morning
• Bob Dylan - Sweetheart Like You
• Bob Dylan - Not Dark Yet
• Bob Dylan - False Prophet
• Bob Dylan - Murder Most Foul 

Interviews

• Pete Seeger (on Woody Guthrie)
• Bob Dylan (on 'the muse' and Hoagy Carmichael)
• Louie Kemp (Bob Dylan's childhood friend)
• Bob Dylan/ Ed Bradley (60 Minutes Interview)
• Bob Dylan (on receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature)
• Alan Ginsberg (on first hearing Bob Dylan)
• Penn Jillette (Bob Dylan is America's Shakespeare)

Links to earlier American Song Episodes

Allman Bros. - Southern Rock: Coming to Terms with a Complicated Past

Folk Revival in England - The Second Folk Revival: A Passing of the Torch

It seems like every ten years or so, society experiences a great reset.  The end of the ‘60s was like that.  The idealism and teen-culture of the ‘60’s was ten years older and moving into adult life.  Just like everything else in life that was questioned and re-invented, some musicians began pushing the boundaries of what rock music could become. 

Across the Atlantic, and as Ian Anderson, of Jethro Tull put it, English rockers “were trying to be originators and not simply relying on American music." Some of the most ground-breaking ‘60s albums led directly to the rise of prog, most prominently, The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band .  This album set a whole new expectation for what bands could do, and for what rock could become.

In this third and final part of our Progressive Rock episode, we're rocking out with some of the greats - including Jethro Tull, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer! Life is a long song, friends.  Come sing it with us!

Themes In this Episode: 

• Classical touches in progressive rock
• Early Jethro Tull
• Martin Barre joins the band
• Tull's themes - a more relatable sort of prog
• Ian Anderson - An Extraordinary Minstrel
• Why the flute?
• What made Tull so unique
• Early Emerson, Lake and Palmer
• ELP put their unique stamp on classical music
• A dystopian future: Tarkus
• Food For Thought or Thoughtful Food? Brain Salad Surgery

Tracks

• Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
• Genesis - Blood on the Rooftops
• Jethro Tull - Bouree
• The John Evan Smash - Blues for the 18th
• Jethro Tull - Locomotive Breath
• Jethro Tull - Wind Up
• Jethro Tull - Cup of Wonder
• Jethro Tull - Songs from the Wood
• Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick Part 1
• Jethro Tull - My Sunday Feeling
• Jethro Tull - Excerpt; Thick as a Brick Part 2
• The Nice - The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack
• The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - Fire
• ELP - The Nutcracker
• ELP - Still You Turn Me On
• ELP - From the Beginning
• ELP - The Barbarian
• ELP - Tarkus
• ELP - Still... You Turn Me On
• ELP - Karn Evil #9 (first impression)
• Genesis - Duke's Travels/ Duke's End

It seems like every ten years or so, society experiences a great reset.  The end of the ‘60s was like that.  The idealism and teen-culture of the ‘60’s was ten years older and moving into adult life.  Just like everything else in life that was questioned and re-invented.  Some musicians began pushing the boundaries of what rock music could become. 

Across the Atlantic, and as Ian Anderson, of Jethro Tull put it, English rockers “were trying to be originators and not simply relying on American music." Some of the most ground-breaking ‘60s albums led directly to the rise of prog, most prominently, The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.  This album set a whole new expectation for what bands could do, and for what rock could become.

In this second episode on Progressive Rock, we're going deep into 'prog rock'. So, "Welcome back, my friends to the show that never ends!"  Come explore progressive rock with me!

Themes In this Episode: 

• Some of the concepts in the biggest prog rock "Concept Albums"
• The roots of Yes
• Some of Yes' greatest work: Close to the Edge, Tales from Topographic Oceans
• Time and a Word: The lyrics in progressive rock songs
• Having dinner with the band: Genesis - Supper's Ready
• The classic Genesis line-up: Steve Hackett and Phil Collins join the band

Tracks

• Rush - 2112
• Yes - The Revealing Science of God
• The Beatles - Within You Without You
• Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks - True Messenger
• The Syn - Flowerman
• Yes - Giants Under the Sun
• David Bowie - Life on Mars
• Yes - Excerpts; Roundabout, South Side of the Sky
• Yes - Close to the Edge
• Yes - Ritual; Nous Sommes du Soleil
• The Beatles - Golden Slumbers
• Jethro Tull - My God
• Genesis - Excerpt; Watcher of the Skies
• Genesis - Supper's Ready 
• Genesis - Excerpt; Firth of Fifth
• Genesis - Los Endos
• Genesis - Phil Collins & Chester Thompson drum duet from Mama Tour (1984)

It seems like every ten years or so, society experiences a great reset.  The end of the ‘60s was like that.  The idealism and teen-culture of the ‘60’s was ten years older and moving into adult life.  Just like everything else in life that was questioned and re-invented, some musicians began pushing the boundaries of what rock music could become. 

 Across the Atlantic, and as Ian Anderson, of Jethro Tull put it, English rockers  "were trying to be originators and not simply relying on American music." Some of the most ground-breaking ‘60s albums led directly to the rise of prog, most prominently, The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.  This album set a whole new expectation for what bands could do, and for what rock could become.

In this first of a three-part episode on Progressive Rock, we'll take a deep dive into the fascinating world of 'prog rock'.  It's time to 'set your controls for the heart of the sun', everybody!  Come explore progressive rock with me!

Themes In this Episode: 

• Progressive rock in the context of the late 1960's and 1970's; flower power, and the counter-culture.
• Musical context - Classical music and Jazz as foundations
• Influenced by The Beatles and  Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
• The Beatles and The Beach Boys rivalry 
• Social unrest - Kent State, Bobby Kennedy, Martiin Luther King
• Concept albums
• Harnessing new technology

Tracks

• The Who - Underture
• The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows
• Jim Ladd/ KMET; Headsets
• The Beatles - A Day in the Life
• The Beach Boys - God Only Knows
• Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention - Invocation & Ritual Dance Of The Young Pumpkin
• Soft Machine - A Certain Kind
• Igor Stravinsky - The Firebird Suite
• Pink Floyd - Suite from Atom Heart Mother
• Genesis - The Revenge of the Giant Hogweed
• Rush - 2112
• The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
• The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever
• Switched On Bach
• The Who - Baba O'Riley
• Alan Holdsworth - Non-brewed Condiment
• The Giles Brothers - Boyfriends & Girlfriends
• King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man
• King Crimson - Epitaph
• Emerson Lake & Palmer - Pictures at an Exhibition
• The Beatles - Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
• Pink Floyd - The Trial

Dig deeper by checking out these reference episodes from previous American Song seasons:

• Electric Walls of Sound: Jazz Fusion Part 1
• Electric Walls of Sound: Jazz Fusion Part 2
• Musique Contrete: A Radical Rethinking of Sound and Performance
• Action: Reaction - American Bands and American Society Respond to the English Invasion

Punk may have been born in America, but it had many homes around the world.  In every place it went, punk became part of the struggle for social change.

Punk's roots are in the blues, music made for expressing struggles and refusing to accept things the way they are.  With heritage like this, it should be no surprise that it moved people and shook things up in the powerful ways it did!

Join us, as we see how punk expressed the real lives of the people making and listening to the music in far away places like the UK, the USSR, South Africa and East Germany.  Witness the remarkable impact the music had on the social fabric of the times - showing that music really can change the world!

This is an inspiring story of people pushed into a corner, and battling their way out, armed with guitars, drums, and a pen.

Warning:  This episode includes quotes of song lyrics, including some "f-bombs".  If you have young children around, you may want to choose an appropriate time to listen. 

In This Episode:

Robert Johnson
Iggy Pop

English Punk

• The Sex Pistols
• The Clash
• Malcolm McLaren
• Richard Hell and the Voidoids
• The Jam
• Bono
• Elvis Costello
• The Alarm

Punk from the USSR

• Grazhdanskaya Oborona 
• Avtomaticheskie Udovletvoriteli 

South African Punk

• Fokofpolisiekar 
• Kalahari Surfers
• National Wake

East German Punk

• Namenlos
• Schleim Keim
• Wutanfall

Related Episodes

The Duality of the Blues
R&B Was Born on the American Song River
Musique Concrete: A Radical Rethinking of Sound and Performance

America's Punk movement was started on both coasts.  Early proto-punks like the MC5 and the New York Dolls were followed by a number of other early iconic acts who played at several New York clubs, including CBGB's (Country Blue Grass and Blues), such as the The Ramones, the Talking Heads, Blondie, and Patti Smith.  Meanwhile, LA and San Francisco had a decidedly more political movement propelled by bands like X, The Dead Kennedy's, and Black Flag.  These bands had more in common musically with UK groups like the Sex Pistols and the Clash. 

In this episode, you'll see how the Punk Movement on both coasts continued to develop in the early 1980s, and you'll see what made these bands so utterly unique. 

You won't want to miss a minute!

In This Episode

• The Ramones – Beat on the Brat
• The Ramones – Rock and Roll High School
• U2 – The Miracle of Joey Ramone
• The Ramones Family – Grammy Awards
• The Talking Heads – Psycho Killer
• The Talking Heads – Once in a Lifetime
• The Talking Heads – Burning Down the House
• David Byrne Interview – David Letterman
• Blondie – Hanging on the Telephone
• Blondie – One Way or Another
• Patti Smith – Gloria
• Patti Smith – Interview
• Patti Smith – Piss Factory
• The Dead Kennedy’s – Holiday in Cambodia
• The Dead Kennedy’s – Kill the Poor
• Jello Biafra – PMRC Interview (Parent’s Music Resources Council)
• Black Flag – Rise Above
• Blag Flag – Depression
• X – Los Angeles
• X – Johnny Hit and Run Pauline
• The Violent Femmes – Gone Daddy Gone
• The Pogues – If I Should Fall From Grace with God
• Gogol Bordello – Immigradiada
• Green Day – American Idiot
• Flush the Orange Turd

Links to related show content from prior episodes
This episode refers back to a few topics covered in prior episodes.
We invite you to learn more about these ideas!
Use the links, below.

Minimalism
https://americansong.buzzsprout.com/1622638/9672982-the-celestial-pulse-of-minimalism

The Blues
https://americansong.buzzsprout.com/1622638/8276409-the-duality-of-the-blues-episode-7-of-american-song

 Call and Response
https://americansong.buzzsprout.com/1622638/8532047-the-rising-of-gospel-music-and-how-it-inspired-the-world

When the dreams and promises you’ve placed your hopes in end up being a mirage, its only human to feel angry.  In the mid 1970’s, a lot of teens and young adults found themselves in this camp.  The nation’s shift toward a decidedly more cynical era could be heard in anti-war statements such as "War is not healthy for children and other living things"  On the equal rights agenda, the demand for black civil rights encouraged a louder beating of the drum as seen in the rise of feminism.  At the same time, both movements continued receiving backlash from the country’s conservatives, especially The "Silent Majority" campaign, responding to the ‘liberal excesses’ of the counterculture.

Running through everything, there was a feeling that the social changes that the ‘60s had promised were as far away as ever.  America’s kids were caught in the cross-hairs.  America was experiencing an epidemic of frustration, anxiety and anger.  

With nothing to do, and a sense that the walls were closing in, teens living in places like New York, Detroit and Los Angeles, swam in an ocean of boredom and alienation that needed venting.  Punk’s rawness and DIY attitude made it easy for anyone who had the need to hit back, or at least spit into the audience, to become an anti-hero. 

 In this first of two episodes on the origins of American Punk, we draw a through line from early New York proto-punk bands like the Velvet Underground, the MC5 and the New York Dolls through to California bands like X, Black Flag and the Dead Kennedy's.  You'll come away understanding how the idealism of the 1960's gave way to the cynicism and anger of the 1970's punk movement.  And yet, through it all, America's kids were still demanding change and even in the cynicism, holding out for something better.

In This Episode

• John Lennon - Give Me Some Truth
• Scene from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
• the Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter
• TV News – End of Vietnam War
• Scene from “Network”
• Scene from the Godfather
• The Clash – Police on My Back
• Pink Floyd – Have a Cigar
• The MC5 – Kick Out the Jams
• The Stooges – I Wanna Be Your Dog
• Iggy Pop – Interview
• The Velvet Underground – Venus in Furs
• The New York Dolls – Jet Boy
• David Bowie – Suffragette
• David Bowie – Interview
• Davie Bowie – Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
• David Bowie – Rock and Roll Suicide
• The Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop
• The Ramones - Interview

Links to related show content from prior episodes
This episode refers back to a few topics covered in prior episodes.
We invite you to learn more about these ideas!
Use the links, below.

Minimalism
https://americansong.buzzsprout.com/1622638/9672982-the-celestial-pulse-of-minimalism

The Blues
https://americansong.buzzsprout.com/1622638/8276409-the-duality-of-the-blues-episode-7-of-american-song

 Call and Response
https://americansong.buzzsprout.com/1622638/8532047-the-rising-of-gospel-music-and-how-it-inspired-the-world

This is the second half of a two-part episode

In the late 1960's and early 1970's, Southern rock, a rebellious fusion of blues, rock and roll, and country music, emerged as the defiant cry from the heart of the South. Lynyrd Skynyrd's guitars wailed like banshees, their lyrics echoing the region's resistance to outside finger-pointing and strengthened a determination to preserve their own cultural identity.  Never mind the warts and blemishes.  The Allman Brothers Band played with improvisations like soaring eagles.  Their music captured the untamed spirit, passion and raw energy of the South.

The intensity of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Outlaws was a force of nature, their music was a raw and unfiltered expression of southern pride. Their guitars roared like thunder, their drums pounded like a heartbeat, and their lyrics spoke of rebellion, and the indomitable spirit of the South. 

John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival's showed that Southern music extended past Southern borders.  Their music, infused with idealism and earthiness, captured the hopes and dreams of ordinary people. Their melodies were catchy and memorable, their lyrics were simple yet profound, and their art spoke directly to the hearts of their listeners.  CCR offered a sense of hope and possibility in a world often filled with uncertainty.

Robbie Robertson and the Band's music was a tapestry of Americana, woven from the threads of blues, country, rock and roll, and folk. With songs written by a member of America’s first people, who crafted melodies that were both familiar and fresh, The Band captured the essence of the American experience.  All its triumphs and tragedies, from the pinnacle of joy to the depths of sorrow, Robertson helped reveal a nation in search of an identity.

All of this and more await you in this latest episode!  Hope you enjoy it!

Featured Artists
Alabama
The Allman Bros.
The Band
Black Oak Arkansas
Carl Perkins
The Charlie Daniels Band
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Graham Parker
Hank Williams
John Lee Hooker
Lonnie Mack
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Molly Hatchett
Muddy Waters
Neil Young
The Outlaws
Rossington Collins Band
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Links to Supporting Episodes

Season One Episode Four
Season One Episode Seven
Season One Episode Eight
Season Two Episode Eight

In the late 1960's and early 1970's, Southern rock, a rebellious fusion of blues, rock and roll, and country music, emerged as the defiant cry from the heart of the South. Lynyrd Skynyrd's guitars wailed like banshees, their lyrics echoing the region's resistance to outside fingerpointing and strengthened a determination to preserve their own cultural identity.  Never mind the warts and blemishes.  The Allman Brothers Band played with improvisations like soaring eagles.  Their music captured the untamed spirit, passion and raw energy of the South.

The intensity of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Outlaws was a force of nature, their music was a raw and unfiltered expression of southern pride. Their guitars roared like thunder, their drums pounded like a heartbeat, and their lyrics spoke of rebellion, and the indomitable spirit of the South. 

John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival's showed that Southern music extended past Southern borders.  Their music, infused with idealism and earthiness, captured the hopes and dreams of ordinary people. Their melodies were catchy and memorable, their lyrics were simple yet profound, and their art spoke directly to the hearts of their listeners.  CCR offered a sense of hope and possibility in a world often filled with uncertainty.

Robbie Robertson and the Band's music was a tapestry of Americana, woven from the threads of blues, country, rock and roll, and folk. With songs written by a member of America’s first people, who crafted melodies that were both familiar and fresh, The Band captured the essence of the American experience.  All its triumphs and tragedies, from the pinnacle of joy to the depths of sorrow, Robertson helped reveal a nation in search of an identity.

All of this and more await you in this latest episode!  Hope you enjoy it!

Featured Artists
Alabama
The Allman Bros.
The Band
Black Oak Arkansas
Carl Perkins
The Charlie Daniels Band
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Graham Parker
Hank Williams
John Lee Hooker
Lonnie Mack
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Molly Hatchett
Muddy Waters
Neil Young
The Outlaws
Rossington Collins Band
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Links to Supporting Episodes

Season One Episode Four
Season One Episode Seven
Season One Episode Eight
Season Two Episode Eight

This is part two of a two-part focus on Reggae music.

The heart of Reggae music has always been politics and spirituality.

In this two part episode, you'll learn about some of the musical and political forces in Jamaica's colorful past that all contributed to the music that we celebrate as reggae today.   From Marcus Garvey, the modern-day prophet who  had a vision for the black people living in the new world, and Ethiopia's Emperor Hailie Salassie, whose formal title included "Lord of Lord, King of Kings, and Conquering Lion of Judah", and claimed to be a direct descendant of King Solomon and the Queen of Shebah, to great early reggae musicians like Derrick Morgan, and Desmond Dekker, to the firey Peter Tosh, and the brilliant reggae, who brought reggae to the rest of the world, Bob Marley - they're all here and you'll learn their stories, hear their music, and understand the major forces that fused to create a brand new genre.

In this latest episode, learn the inside story of how Bob Marley came from crippling poverty in one of Jamaica's poorest neighborhoods to became reggae's greatest musical luminary, and how he then faced off against the brutality of systemic Jamaican racism to permanently change his country and the rest of the world. 

In This Episode

Bob Marley and the Wailers
1.  Trench Town Rock
2.  Simmer Down
3.  400 Years
4.  I Shot the Sheriff
5.  Rebel Music (3 0'Clock Road Block)
6.  War
7.  Exodus
8.  Is This Love
9.  Survival
10.  Could You Be Loved

Also in this episode:

Interview with Bunny Wailer, formerly with the Wailers
Interview with Marlon James, Jamaican author of A Brief History of Seven Killings

Continue the experience on line.
Visit American Song Podcast Facebook page.

This is part one of a two-part focus on Reggae music.

The heart of Reggae music has always been politics and spirituality. 

In this two part episode, you'll learn about some of the musical and political forces in Jamaica's colorful past that all contributed to the music that we celebrate as reggae today.   From Marcus Garvey, the modern-day prophet who  had a vision for the black people living in the new world, and Ethiopia's Emperor Hailie Salassie, whose formal title included "Lord of Lord, King of Kings, and Conquering Lion of Judah", and claimed to be a direct descendant of King Solomon and the Queen of Shebah, to great early reggae musicians like Derrick Morgan, and Desmond Dekker, to the firey Peter Tosh, and the brilliant reggae, who brought reggae to the rest of the world, Bob Marley - they're all here and you'll learn their stories, hear their music, and understand the major forces that fused to create a brand new genre.

In this latest episode of American Song, you'll see how a tiny Spanish colony developed to become Jamaica as we know it today, and how Reggae was instrumental in helping Jamaican culture 'conquer the world'!

In This Episode

Paul Simon - Mother and Child Reunion
The Flying Lizards - Money (That's What I Want)
Bob Marley  - Redemption Song
Bob Marley and the Walers - 400 Years
Burning Spear - Slavery Days
Sly Mongoose - Count Lasher
The Folkes Brothers - Oh Carolina
Toots and the Maytals - 54-46 Was My Number
Marcus Garvey (Political Speech)
Derek Morgan -  Forward March
Ernest Ranglin - Below the Bassline
Derrick Morgan - Tougher than Though (Rudie's in Court)
Desmond Dekker - 007 Shantytown
Desmond Dekker - Israelites
Stephen Marley (with Ziggy Marley) - Selassie is the Chapel
Peter Tosh - Let Jah be Praised
Culture - Behold
Sonjah Stanley - (Academic discussion)
Third World - 96 Degrees in the Shade
Peter Tosh - African
The Skatalites - The Guns of Navarrone
Mutabaruka - (Jamaican Poet; Dis Poem)
Bob Marley and the Wailers - No Woman, No Cry
Peter Tosh - Steppin' Razor
Burning Spear - Lion

Continue the experience online:
Visit the American Song Podcast facebook page. 

In today's episode, we’re going further up the musical family tree – into the funk.  Funk grew in the shade of jazz, soul, R&B, gospel and rock.  In time it’s going to give rise to other branches – for instance, disco, and hip-hop.  It will influence branches that have been growing for a while already, like rock, jazz, even classical music believe it or not.   Funk is growing in some difficult environments, like urban ghettoes.  It’s impacted by some heavy weather, like the Civil Rights movement, and the war in Vietnam.  There’s been a ton of cross-fertilization along the way.   Funk’s going to become another important branch in our tree.   

Funk has a direct lineage out the blues and plantation communities, jazz, Pentecostal gospel music, soul and R& B.   In a lot of ways, funk is a proud, positive re-telling of the African American social story.  Heavy with improvisation, and syncopation – just like its musical grandparents are.  Like the blues, jazz, R&B and soul, funks driving rhythms were the hardpan roadways that carried its soulful vocals.  Likewise, funk sprang out of rock and roll which also grew out of the blues and soul.  Funk and rock are first cousins in music’s family tree.  And like soul, funk is steeped in emotion and feeling.

In This Episode:
James Brown
The Meters
Sly and the Family Stone
Stevie Wonder
George Clinton/ Parliament-Funkadelic

In this second episode of our third season, we pick up the trail and continue our exploration of jazz rock - a journey we started in episode one.  In this episode, we'll take a close look at the amazing work done by three great bands in that genre; Steely Dan, Traffic, and Supertramp. 

Great songs, and interesting artist interviews abound!  Here's what you can look forward to:

INTERVIEWS WITH

Donald Fagen
Dave Matthews
Jim Capaldi
Dave Mason
Steve Winwood
Roger Hodgson
John Helliwell

FEATURED SONGS

Steely Dan
     My Old School
     Deacon Blues
     Bodhisatva
     Reelin' in the Years
     Aja
     Cousn Dupree

Traffic
     Mr. Fantasy
     John Barleycorn (Must Die)
     Medicated Goo
     The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys

Supertramp
     All Along the Watchtower
     Surely
     Your Poppa Don't Mind
     Dreamer
     School
     Hide in Your Shell
     Easy Does It
     The Meaning
     Fool's Overture
     Breakfast in America
     Goodbye Stranger
     Don't Leave Me Now

CURIOUSITIES
     Tom Lehrer - World War Three Blues
     Jay and the Americans - Capture the Moment
     The Joint - Freak
     Argosy - Mr. Boyd
     Argosy - Imagine
     

The first generation of jazz rock musicians had been heavily influenced by some of the pioneering jazz musicians who forged jazz fusion, beginning with Miles Davis.  Miles was the first of the great jazz artists to venture into the new, amplified and electronic sounds of 1960’s rock music, and in doing it he recruited a number of very young, incredibly talented, and mostly unknown musicians who became giants in their own right,

As a number of jazz musicians embraced elements of rock music, rock’s audience re-discovered jazz.  Music is a living, breathing part of our culture, it is changeable in the hands of both listeners and players.  We take it up and use it as it gives us pleasure.  Just as jazz musicians were blending rock music into their art, rock musicians were equally influenced by jazz players, and they also added jazz elements into their own music. 

This is the first of a two-part deep dive into the world of jazz rock.  In this episode, you'll see how some of rock's greatest musicians have been influenced by jazz.  We'll also spend some time on a deeper dive into a few of the great jazz rock bands of the past, including Blood Sweat and Tears, and Chicago.  In part two, we'll come back and explore the music of Steely Dan, Traffic and Supertramp.  I think you'll enjoy it!

Music In this episode:

Weather Report: Boogie Woogie Waltz
The Grateful Dead: Help On the Way
John Coltrane: A Love Supreme
Duke Ellington: Take the A Train
The Modern Jazz Quartet: Bluesology
David Bowie: Life On Mars
Keith Richards: Blues Jam
Nat King Cole Trio: Straighten Up and Fly Right
Ornette Coleman:
Jimi Hendrix: South Saturn Delta
John McLaughlin: Devotion
Charlie Watts: All or Nothing at All
Tim Ries: Miss You
Ginger Baker's Air Force: Da Da Man
Miles Davis: Guinnevere
David Crosby: Amelia
Bob Dylan: Like a Rolling Stone
Blood Sweat and Tears: I Love You More than You'll Ever Know
Blood Sweat and Tears: God Bless the Child
The Buckinghams: Kind of a Drag
Chicago: Questions 67 and 68
Chicago: Make Me Smile
Chicago: If You Leave Me Now
Chicago: It Better End Soon
Chicago: Alive Again

Interviews in This Episode
Al Kooper
David Crosby
James Pankow
Danny Serafine

This episode is dedicated to the memories of:
Charlie Watts
Wayne Shorter
David Crosby
Thank you for all the beautiful music!

In today's podcast episode, we pick up our exploration of jazz fusion by looking at the amazing careers and music produced by a number of genius musicians who came out of Miles Davis' bands.  We'll visit with Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin and his band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Joe Zawinul, Jaco Pastorious and the band Weather Report, Chick Corea and his bands Return to Forever and the Elektrik Band. 

The forces that Miles pioneered and set in motion continued to evolve in multiple directions. You'll discover in today's episode, and you'll be able to hear from the musicians themselves about what it was like to play in these bands and create this adventurous, beautiful new music!

IN TODAY'S EPISODE:

Interview;  Herbie Hancock from a lecture given at Harvard University
Herbie Hancock
       Chameleon
       Watermelon Man
Interview:  John McLaughlin talks about what it was like to play with Miles Davis.
Graham Bond Organisation:  Train Time
The Mahavishnu Orchestra
       Inner Mounting Flame
       One Word
       Eternity's Breath Pt. 1
Weather Report
       Birdland
       Nubian Sundance
       Tears
       Herandnu
Interview:  Jaco Pastorious talks about his collaboration with Joe Zawinul
Jaco Pastorious/ Weather Report
       Teen Town
Interview:  Pat Matheny
Interview:  Chick Corea talks about joining Miles Davis' band.
Return to Forever
       Return to Forever
Interview:  Chick Corea talks about forming his band,  Return to Forever
       Spain
The Elektrik Band:  Rumble
Steely Dan:  Aja

As jazz musicians started realizing that rock and electric bands were stealing their audiences, Miles Davis, who’s alternately been called most important musician in the history of jazz, the man who transformed jazz, and even the man who changed music itself, took the music in a new direction when he invented jazz fusion.  In fact, during his lifetime, Miles didn’t change music just once, he did it five times. 

Fusion started happening in the late 1960s and early 1970s.   Like trad jazz, it uses acoustic instruments like trumpet, trombone, saxophone, piano, guitar, bass, and drums, but to all that, fusion also adds heavy use of synthesizers, electric piano, drum machines, and effects-saturated electric guitars.

IN THIS EPISODE:

Santana:  Welcome
Interview:  Teo Macero; Miles Davis' legendary record producer.
The Free Spirits (featuring Larry Coryell) - Girl of the Mountain
Gary Burton 
             Norwegian Wood 
             I Want You
Steve Marcus
            Tomorrow Never Knows
Interview:  Larry Coryell talks about his early days in '60s New York City
Miles Davis
             So What
             Stuff
             Tout de Suite
             Mademoiselle Mabry
             In a Silent Way
Interview:  John McLaughlin talks about playing with Miles Davis
Interview:  Teo Macero
Jimi Hendrix
             Little Miss Lover
Miles Davis
             John McLaughlin
             Miles Runs the Voodoo Down
             Time After Time
Interview:  Miles Davis talks about Prince

First of all, Happy Independence Day everybody!  I'm so pleased to publish another episode of American Song on America's birthday!

Back in America, ever since the plane crash in the winter of 1959 that ended the lives of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, the Big Bopper, American rock and roll had been sort of losing steam.  By 1964, it very easily could have just petered out.   Certainly, the likes of Frankie Avalon, and post-army Elvis were not going anywhere exciting.  It was a new day, what was needed was music for a new generation.  The British Invasion shot a whole new attitude, excitement and energy right into the veins of American culture. 

Just like American culture changed England, the Brits changed American music.   You can see that play out in the competition between the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson and the Beatles.  The English band's changed American culture, too.  Sex was prolific.   Drugs were everywhere.   On the Merv Griffin show,  Timothy Leary told his audience he'd used LSD 311 times and predicted a coming age when kids would be educated through the use of psychedelic drugs, unlocking their internal Smithsonian Institutes or Libraries of Congress. 

The British Invasion also caused a chain reaction all across America when local musicians formed new bands, for instance Roger McGuinn and David Crosby who formed the Byrds.  It was a powerful response to the excitement, new sounds, perspectives, and inspiration that bands like the Beatles, the Stones, and the Who injected back into our rock scene.

All this, and lots more, in this month's episode of American Song!

IN THIS MONTH'S EPISODE:

The Who - My Generation
Bob Dylan - 4th Time Around
The Beatles - Norwegian Wood
The Beatles - You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
Bob Dylan - Got to Serve Someone
John Lennon - Serve Yourself
The Rolling Stones - Crackin' Up
The Beatles - Rain
The Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice
The Beatles - Sargeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band
The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
Brian Wilson - Our Prayer/ Gee
John Lennon - Promo for Tower Records
Elton John - Texan Love Song
Led Zepellin - Whole Lotta Love
John Lennon - Cold Turkey
Paul McCartney - Interview 1967
The Beatles - Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
The Rolling Stones - 2000 Light Years from Home
Dr. Timothy Leary - Interview 1967
Blind Faith - In the Presence of the Lord
John Lennon - God
John Lennon - Interview 1966
The Byrds - Eight Miles High
The Standells - Dirty Water
The Monkees - The Last Train to Clarksville
Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze
Bob Dylan - Mr. Tambourine Man
Paul Revere and the Raiders - Indian Reservation
The Turtles - Happy Together
The Lovin' Spoonful - Do You Believe in Magic
Simon & Garfunkel - Mrs. Robinson
The Young Rascals - Good Lovin'
The Mama's and the Papa's - California Dreaming
Tommy James and the Shondells - Hanky Panky
The Beatles - Revolution 9
The Doors - The End
Vedder/ Tierney/ Krieger/ Manzarek - Doors Induction to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Velvet Underground - Heroin
The Strokes - Walk on the Wild Side
Sonic Youth - European Son
U2 - Satellite of Love
REM - Femme Fatale
David Byrne - Candy Says
Bowie/ Reed - Waiting for the Man
Queen - God Save the Queen

With the big English interest in blues music, suddenly, America’s original bluesmen started hearing about the chance to reignite their careers with English, French and German audiences.  Unbelievably, they found themselves welcomed, even celebrated. American Bluesmen like Big Bill Broonzy, after living years in poverty, discovered they could actually have careers in Europe.   The Cunard Yanks, and the American Folk Blues Festival were the catalysts behind cultural and musical changes that revolutionized Britain in the years after World War 2.

The impact on young English musicians was epic.  The bands and musical brilliance of the period has been an inspiration for several generations that followed.   You know the names: The Beatles,  the Rolling Stones, the Who, The Kinks and many more.  Now, hear the music, and learn the history!

In this episode, you'll hear the stories, the music, and the artists who lived and created this formidable library of music that millions around the world are still listening to!

Inspired by American music, sculpted, painted, and built by the English, the music is in many ways, still with us today.  Enjoy this second installment in the story of the British Invasion!

England was caught between two cultures: the old order and whatever came after it.  The rigid class distinctions between upper and middle classes were disappearing, and government reforms had a lot to do with it.  The Conservative Party with their slogan, “Set the People Free,” won the 1951 election, and popular culture began to replace stuffy, upper crust stuff like classical music, opera, theatre, and fine art with mass-market media like radio, movies, and television.

The BBC believed they had a responsibility to the nation to uphold the pre-war idea of ‘respectability’, or, at least, not broadcast music that could threaten the morality of England’s youth.  It was a lot like the U.S. stations refused to broadcast black music in the U.S. in the ‘20s and ‘30s.  More than that, they believed they claimed a responsibility to inform and educate the public in what it perceived as ‘good music’.  

English kids were being seduced by the rhythm and forward thrust of American entertainment with movies like Blackboard Jungle (where Rock Around the Clock was heard for the first time), Elvis, and Bill Haley & the Comets.  Both these bands were MAJOR influences on those four guys from Liverpool, England.  The other musical influencers from America were the living legends of American Blues.

The timing was perfect for a musical revolution that would impact two continents!

Welcome to Episode Eight, Season Two in the American Song series:  American Song Ushers in a Changing of the British Guard.


Thanks to Mark Davis, for the new bumper music included in this episode.
You can learn more about Mark and his music at www.towakeyou.com!

Before the arrival of Colombus and the Spanish, Puerto Rico was peopled by the Taino tribe.  They’d called it home – and paradise – for over 1,000 years, having come either from the Amazon river basin, or maybe from the Colombian Andes before they arrived on the island.  In our March episode, we talked about the Jones Act – a law made during the Wilson presidency.  The chief goal of that act was to help the U.S. shipping industry recover after World War I.  It also annexed Puerto Rico, and gave citizenship to everyone living there.  

U.S. citizenship started major migration to the U.S. mainland.  At first, Puerto Ricans settled into East Coast cities like New York and later Miami where mostly they were stuck in the bottom end of the labor market, working as domestic workers, in manufacturing jobs (back in the old days when we still had those in America, and maintenance industries.  

Puerto Rican Americans, on both sides of the US coast, have contributed beautiful music to the American Song jukebox.  These songs echo the rich cultures that became Puerto Rico, their love for their island home, their struggles in the United States and their determination to succeed, despite the hardships.  

Today's episode builds on what I began in March, adding more current sounds to the mix.  I think you'll find it equal parts fascinating, and entertaining!

In This Episode:

Bomba street musicians in Old San Juan Puerto Rico
Fiel a La Vega
Field Recording of La Tierruca (old Puerto Rican woman)
Haciendo Punto en Otro Son
Hector Carrasquillo Sr.
Original Cast from West Side Story
Pablo Milanés 
Piri Thomas
Ricky Martin
Roy Brown
Steven Colbert
Taina Asli

In a country based on freedom, equal opportunity, and democracy, you’d think that lessons related to social justice would not need to be re-hashed so often.  But that does seem to be our fate.  And so, in every generation, we’ve witnessed one group after another struggle to claim their own share of the American dream.

Music has had a huge role in raising awareness, unifying people, inspiring empathy, and challenging the status quo in every major social wave of change.  Today, we’re looking at how American music was used, like the trumpets at Jericho, to knock down the walls that separated Hispanic Americans from the promises made to all Americans, beginning in 1776.  In many ways, this is a fight that continues today, and its as true about the Hispanic struggle for justice as it's been for every group in our history.  Hispanics have had a wide range of musical inspirations, including familiar faces such as Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, and Woody Guthrie, and musical heroes from their own communities.  

Music from the black civil rights struggle was also borrowed, early on.  But the most important parts of the cultural foundations that the Chicano community drew from came from their own Mexican heritage – especially the corrido, which we talked about last month in the Roots of Latin American music episode.  As the revolutionary tide of the 1960s began to swell in American culture, Chicanos started by resurrecting the corrido, and added to it a new, political consciousness, giving air to their grievances and struggles.   Soon, out of the streets, and in the rising youth movement, Chicano rock and roll bands from both sides of the border were filling the radio waves, and encouraging their own people to advance towards a better future.

Welcome to Episode 22, American Song and the Fight for Hispanic Equality.

In This Episode:
Agustin Lira
Azteca
Cannibal and the Head Hunters
Chan Romero
El Chicano
Carlos Santana
Chuy Negrete
Clarence Sonny Henry
The Village Callers
El Jarocho
Thee Midnighters
Freddy Fender
Trini Lopez
Jose Suarez
Los Shakers
Los Lobos
Los Teen Tops
Ozomatli
Richie Valens
Robert DeNiro
Son Jarocho Master Musicians

Latin music and 'American' music were once considered to be separate and unique. They had distinctly different properties and music labels managed them differently. But not anymore.

Danny Ocean is a singer-songwriter and native of Caracas, Venezuela, and has said “Music is something that transcends beyond any language or nationality…it’s all about being a global artist.”   Latin music has become mainstream - it's no longer a 'crossover' genre.  Today, Latin culture is American culture. Latins are now the largest minority in the United States, and the second largest ethnic group after whites.  

All across Latin America, the cultures that we talked about in episode 4 have combined to create distinct, regional music and dances that have each entertained and inspired the people in their home nations, while also making their way to our homes in the United States and entertaining people across the entire world! Salsa,  mambo, rumba, calpyso,  bomba, latin jazz, samba, batucada, samba de enredo, bossa nova, tango, festejo and lando.  These are the names of the inspired music that came out of the New World once the Spanish, Portuguese, Native Americans, and Africans blended their music and rhythm.  In this episode, we'll hear examples and learn about the artists, and cultures that devoted their lives to this fabulous art!

You're in for a treat!  Enjoy!

In Today's Episode

Tango - La Cumparsita
Ignacio Pineiro - Echale Salsita
El Orquesta Belisario Lopez - El Cimarron
Orquesta Arcano y sus Maravillas - Mambo
Perez Prado - Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White
Julian Whiterose - Iron Duke in the Land
 Hubert "Roaring Lion" Charles - Mary Anne
Hary Belafonte - Jump in the Line
BP Renegades Steel Orchestra - Like Ah Boss
Winston "Mighty Shadow" Bailey - Bass Man
Bomba Example
Ismael Rivera - Volare
Plena De Puerto Rico
Tito Puente
Machito _ Ni Chi, Ni Cha
Willy Colon y Ruben Blades - Buscando Guayaba
Rumba Examples:
1.  Yambu
2.  Guaguanco
3.  Columbia
Stan Getz / Luiz Bonfa - So Danco Samba
Candomble Example - Orixa Ossaim
Ernesto "Donga" Dos Santos - Pelo Telefone
Os Oito Batutas - Meu Passarinho
Noel Rossa- Com Que Roupa?
Batucada Bradileira
Ratos e Urubus - Larguem Minha Fantasia
Frank Sinatra / Antonio Carlos Jobim  - The Girl from Impanema
Jorge Ben - Mais Que Nada
Bola Sete - Baccara
Luis Correa - Siete Mujeres
Libertad Lamarque - Yo Soy La Morocha
Carlos Gardel - Mi Noche Triste
Anibal Troilo - Te Aconsejo Que Me Olvides
Pepe Vasquez - Ritmo de Negros
Oscar Aviles/ Arturo Cavero - El Alcatraz
Charango example - Sebastián Pérez
Cajon Example - Maestros del Cajon Peruano
Charagua Example - Son de los Diablos

In this episode, we shift focus to consider another important cultural vein, brought here by the Spanish, and rising out of the American west and Southwest as well as New York City – and obviously all of Central and South America,  Cuba and Puerto Rico. 

 A few things have struck me as I’ve been putting my thoughts together for these next few episodes.  Of course, the first thing is that – just like in earlier genres that we’ve talked about – the music we hear today has gone through a long journey of changes.  Second, like jazz and the blues, the music often gives voice to the frustrations and struggles Latin Americans have experienced while hacking and carving out their own rightful place in America.

 In this episodes, we’ll explore the origins of Latin music, – not just in the United States, but on a wider level, across most of the New World.  When the Spanish and Portuguese came to the New World, they brought European music traditions with them, including the influences from several hundred years of Moorish occupation of Southern Spain.  They were coming to a land that had already been hope to millions of Native Americans - stretching from the Bering Strait to the southern tip of Argentina - and the people that lived here had their own musical traditions that made their way into Latin music.  African slaves also brought their rhythms.  Like we've seen in American music, African traditions would have an enormous impact on music that would develop over centuries.

This is a fascinating musical journey -  I’m so excited to share it with you!

In Today's Episode:

Gypsy Kings - Una Amor
Ancient Consort Singers - Serenisima Una Noche
Spanish-Arabic Music of Andalucia
Flor De Un Dia
Djembe tribal drumming
Native American Flute with Tribal Drum
Jorge Reyes - Native American (Mexico) Music
Traditional Inca Music Being Played in Cuzco
Los Monjes del Monasterio de Silos - Gregorian Chant
Gloria Missa de Los Angeles - JUan Bautista Sancho - 18th Century California Mission Music
Zephyr -El Cantico del Alba - A Choir of Angels II:  Mission Music
Charles Lummis Wax Cylinder - Corrido de Leandro Rivera
Lydia Mendoza - Mal Hombre
El Vez - Rock and Roll Suicide/ If I Can Dream

In our July, 2021 episode on the first generation of folk music, “Folk Music Stood for America”, we talked about how the music was swept up in the major social movements of the day, especially the socialist/ American Communist party movements which gathered speed because of events like the Great Depression and the Dustbowl.  

The second revival of the 1960’s also had its own causes; the war in Vietnam, Civil Rights, and the Women’s  movement primarily.  The ‘60s was the era when all the WWII war babies grew up.  Highly idealistic, they wanted to seize the moment in history and change the world for the better.  Raised in the suburbs of the concensus-driven fifties, and living under the palatable fear of the Cold War, with Eishenhower’s warning about the military industrial complex ringing in their ears, seeing their classmates ship off to Vietnam, and shipped back home in body bags, they’d grown cynical about their parent’s generation and demanded change NOW.  

Folk music was the soundtrack to their rebellion; you could hear it played on college campuses all over America.  Many of the musicians matched that idealism note for note.   That’s the theme of today’s episode, Folk Music Played the Changes in American Society.

 Artists Featured in This Episode
Tom Paxton
Richie Havens
Peter, Paul & Mary
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Bob Dylan
Phil Ochs
Crosby, Stills & Nash

The 1960’s  were a period of massive social change and tension all over the country – all over North America in fact - because we have to include Canada, too.  The conditions were just right for a whole group of passionate, inspired, and gifted young singers and songwriters to lift their voices.    They came from many different American communities; Jewish immigrants, First Nations people, Americans, Canadians, African Americans, Hispanics, Caucasians, from the cities and from the heartland.  All of them had a message to share with their generation, and a desire to build a better world.

This episode is about a number of these artists, and the legacies they’ve left behind.  Many of them are still with us today, and a few of them still create new music.    Welcome to today’s episode, 1960’s Folk Music:  How the Fire Spread. 

Artists Featured in this Episode
Fred Neil
Dave Van Ronk
Karem Dalton
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Leonard Cohen
Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Brothers & Curry
Bob Dylan
Simon & Garfunkel
Paul Simon
Joni Mitchell

Happy New Year and welcome to season two in the American Song podcast series!  It's been a bit since we last got together.  I hope you all are doing well. 

In both the first and second folks waves, many of the musicians were heavily influenced by the times and events that lived in.  During the first folk revival, the most important social issues included the Great Depression, and the Oklahoma Dust Bowl.  In different ways, both of these catastrophes laid waste to the dreams and scrapped together  fortunes of the hard-working American people.  Overseas, political revolutions had overthrown ancient monarchies, the latest one being Russia’s Romanov dynasty where powerful winds of change had driven the half starved and long-neglected Russian peasants to revolt, and whose actions were spurred on by ideologues like Marx and Lenin. 

The second folk revival that started in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s was, again, another social movement bent on change, but this time, the causes were different.  The 1960’s have been romanticized in a lot of ways.  It’s difficult today to still feel the thrill, and electric charge of what Beatlemania must have been like, or to experience the ‘Us’ versus ‘Them’ pitched emotions that led to student riots and slain college students at Kent State, but they were very real.  Folk music was at the heart of it all.  Just like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie had demanded better treatment for workers, and economic assistance to America’s poor, the second folk revival rallied people behind Civil Rights, Equal Rights for women, and an end to the war in Vietnam war.   A chorus of new musicians, were inspired by, and in turn inspired social change.  Brave young kids, like Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Barry McGuire, and  Joan Baez – as well as a few old-timers from the first wave - gave voice to a new generation of Americans who dreamed of better things and better days.

Welcome to season two in  the American Song Podcast series; today’s episode, “The Second Folk Revival – A Passing of the Torch.”

Featured Artists in this Episode
Bob Dylan
Woody Guthrie
the Kingston Trio
Bill & Belle Reed
Joan Baez
Steve Allen and Jack Kerouac
Bonnie Dobson
Simon & Garfunkel
Max Yasgur

If there’s an over-riding theme across the last several episodes, it is that music can be whatever we say it is.  In this third and last episode on this theme, we’re talking about Musique Concrete. It’s the name applied to a one of the most radical descriptions of music ever imagined. 

Think of this music like you do when you think of abstract, visual art.  For instance, Picasso’s Guernica.  There aren’t too many people that think of that painting as traditionally beautiful, but there is a shocking, provocative, stirring power to it. The same holds true with this challenging music.

With musique concrète, (French: “concrete music”), natural and mechanical sounds were captured or created using new inventions, the tape recorder, and later the computer and the synthesizer.   Sounds can either be used in their natural forms, or they could be processed and changed and then combined with other sounds to create a montage.   Other traits that define musique concrete include randomness, and the discard of the traditional composer-performer roles.  Sounds can be looped, played backward, sped up, slowed down, cut short or extended.  Their natural pitches could be varied, echoes could be added and so on. 

As I did with episodes 14 and 15, I'm also going to show you how these really bizarre ideas eventually made their way into our current popular music scene.  Musique Concrete has made an impact in jazz and rock, too.   This is fun stuff!

In This Episode:
Pierre Schaeffer
Pierre Henry
John Cage
Harry Partch
Karlheinz Stockhausen
The Beatles
Pink Floyd
Industrial bands
Plunderphonics

In the world of American art music, Minimalism is another push away from traditional music.  It’s earliest beginnings are found in the 1950’s again, with two American composers;  Steve Reich (b.1936) and Philip Glass (b.1937).  Reich, Glass, and another minimalist, John Adams, were all heavily influenced by mid-century popular music.  Together, they’re known as the ‘big three’ in minimalist music.  The founders of minimalist music absorbed a wide range of sonic influences – African rhythms, Indian ragas, bebop, rock and roll to create something startlingly original.   It abounds in film scores, pop albums, jazz riffs, and other forms of more experimental music.

Jazz and rock were influenced by minimalism, too.  Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Pat Matheny all wrote music that show minimalism's influences.  So does the music of Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, David Bowie, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, and Radiohead - just to name a few!



In This Episode:
Steve Reich

Phillip Glass

John Adams

Miles Davis

John Cage

Pat Matheny and Lyle Mays

Brian Eno

David Bowie

Peter Gabriel

Kraftwerk

Tangerine Dream

Radiohead

The 20th century scientific explosion had been in the works since the Enlightenment, but the rate of change, which had been slow, and adaptable, now came in flashes – like a supernova - and repeatedly,  one major wave after another and in ways that dramatically changed our society; instead of having time to gradually adapt and fold these changes into our ordered lives, our lives were forced to conform instead.

I hope you’re ready for an adventure, because this episode, and actually the next two after this, are going to challenge you.  You see, the music we’ll discover together was written in complete rejection of the basic assumptions about western music.   What’s equally fascinating is what the rest of the music world did with these musical ideas!  

To understand what was happening in America, we have to start away from home, in Europe, in the late 1930’s.  There were a number of European musicians and composers who developed completely new ways of creating, performing, and sharing music that had an equally transformative influence on the music being made in America.

In This Episode
Arnold Schoenberg 
Milton Babbitt
Charles Wuorinen 
Jerrald Goldsmith 
Gerard Schurman 
Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind 
The Beatles
Primus
Dave Brubeck
Bill Evans
John Coltrane
Ornette Coleman

Newton’s Third Law of Motion;  For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction.   I mentioned that rock and music was equal parts music and social movement.  This was a totally new event for music.  In earlier episodes, we’ve seen how jazz was borrowed by the US Government for global PR purposes, and of course, music has always given a voice to the hopes, dreams, hurts, and fears of people everywhere.  But this was something totally different.  Ever since the ‘50s, we’ve never been sure whether art imitates life, or life imitates art.  The most dramatic examples were still in the future, but it started in the 1950’s, and I’ve wondered why then, and not some other time.   Let’s look at the 1950’s together for a few minutes and see if we can’t figure out why that might be.

IN THIS SPECIAL FEATURE

 Bobby Darin
Malvina Reynolds
The Crew Cuts
Charlie Ryan and the Timberline Riders
Chuck Berry
The Silhouettes
Bobby "Boris" Pickett
Sheb Wooley
Danny and the Juniors
Todd Rhodes and His Orchestra, Featuring Connie Allen
The Del Vikings

By the 1950’s, American Music had been on a fascinating journey.  Rolling out of the Appalachian Mountains and into southern cities; drifting out of the cotton plantations of the south, winding its way up from New Orleans, along the Mississippi Delta, carried along many musical creeks, tributaries, and rivers, rolling its way along mysterious trails past the crossroads, and chugging its way across railroad lines.   American Music had evolved, and grown, and changed, just like the culture that produced it.  We’ve seen the rise of jazz in its different forms, and heard the echoes of slavery in the blues – as it evolved from the country blues of Robert Johnson and Huddie Ledbedder to the electric blues of Muddy Waters and BB King – and the evolution of Country music as it grew out of English, Scottish, and Welsh ballads into the slick, urbanized sound of Nashville or the honky tonks and juke joints - the urban sounds of Hank Williams.  

In the few decades that led up to the mid-1950’s,  there were just a few more cobblestones that needed to be laid into the roadbed that ended with the birth of rock music.  Among these were Western Swing and Rockabilly.  

The rock and roll attitude – rebellion, sexuality, and freedom – is a rockabilly hand-me-down sweatshirt from rock’s big brother.  However, the true rockers that came later were true, dyed in the wool non-conformists and rebels.  There’s a world of difference between someone like, say, Jim Morrison, and Kung-Fu Elvis.  Morrison’s disgust for authority was the real thing.  Elvis, on the other hand, had his picture taken at the White House next to Richard "Tricky Dick" Nixon.   Compare that to many, very public apologies that aging rockabilly artists made later for their antics in younger years.  

Good Golly, Miss Molly…. Welcome to the latest edition of American Song; episode 13.  Hail Hail Rock and Roll!


IN THIS EPISODE
Tex Williams
Moon Mullican
Arthur Smith's Hot Quintet
Tennessee Ernie Ford
The Maddox Bros. and Rose
Elvis Presley
Jerry Lee Lewis
Buddy Holly
John Lennon
Paul McCartney
Ringo Starr
Jackie Brentson
Roy Brown
Big Mama Thornton
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Chuck Berry
Fat's Domino
Little Richard
Eddie Cochran
the Teen Queens
Bobby Freeman
Wanda Jackson
Pat Boone
Allen Freed
The Platters
The Dominoes
Thomas Hardin/ Moondog
The Who

This episode is dedicated to the memory of  Rolling Stones drummer, Charlie Watts,.  Charlie passed away while I was preparing this episode.  In a career that spanned more than sixty years,  he left us all a massive library of songs and memories that we all will treasure forever.  Thanks for everything, Charlie.  It was only Rock and Roll, but I liked it!

Episode Description

It was a new day in America.  The middle class was big and growing.  Businesses were flush with cash it had come by, which meant people were working and saving and getting ahead. Those returning war-heroes had gotten to work making money, and making babies and America was a young country, too.  So this young, expressive, exuberant, happy music was ideal for a nation that was feeling the same way. The fact that this new, young music became THE music of the day represented a sea change in what America was all about.

Even more, Rhythm’n Blues set the stage for the next big arrival – rock and roll….. like the great R&B singer, Ruth Brown said, “when the white kids started dancing to it, R&B turned into Rock and Roll.”  Hold that thought for a future episode!  

Welcome to American Song, Episode 12:  R&B Was Born on the Great American Music River.

Tracks

• Ike and Tina Turner - River Deep, Mountain High
• Barrett Strong - Money, That’s What I Want
• Nina Simone - Mississippi Goddam
• Erskine Hawkins - After Hours
• Ahmet Ertegün and Charlie Rose Interview Excerpt
• Bib Mama Thornton - Hound Dog
• James Jamerson (isolated bass) - What’s Goin’ On
• Louis Jordan - Is You Is, Or Is You Ain’t My Baby?
• Louis Jordan - Saturday Night Fish Fry
• Erskine Hawkins - Tuxedo Junction
• Harlem Hamfats - Weed Smokers Dream
• Cab Calloway - Minnie the Moocher
• Count Basie - One O’CLock Jump
• Bullmoose Jackson - Big Ten Inch
• King Curtis - Instant Groove
• Lionel Hampton - Flying Home
• Lionel Hampton - Hey!  Bop a Re Bop
• T Bone Walker - Stormy Monday
• BB King - Live at Sing Sing Prison
• Elvis Presley - That’s Alright Mama
• Hoss Allen Interview
• Ike & Tina Turner - Proud Mary
• Booker T and the MGs - Green Onions
• Martha and the Vandella’s - Dancing in the Street
• Stevie Wonder - Heaven Help Us All
• Funk Bros. - Aint No Mountain High Enough
• Funk Bros. - You Keep My Hangin’ On
• Funk Bros. - I Was Made to Love Her
• Marvin Gaye - What’s Goin’ On
• The New Moonglows - Twelve Months of the Year
• Marvin Gaye - How Sweet it Is
• Berry Gordy Talks about Marvin Gaye
• Ray Charles - Hit the Road Jack
• Ray Charles Interview on Dick Cavett
• Maxin Trio - Blues Before Sunrise
• Ray Charles - I Got a Woman
• Ray Charles - What’d I Say
• Ray Charles - Georgia on My Mind
• Ruth Brown - 5-10-15 Hours
• Ruth Brown - I’ll Wait For You
• Ruth Brown Interview with Terri Gross (NPR)
• Aretha Franklin - Do Right Woman, Do Right Man
• Aretha Franklin Interview with Terri Gross (NPR)
• Aretha Franklin - (You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman
• Aretha Franklin - Respect
• Aretha Franklin - I Say a Little Prayer For You
• Aretha Franklin - Chain of Fools
• Sam & Dave - Soul Man

Today’s episode is all about the first of the two 20th century waves in the folk music movement and how that movement rallied people behind some big themes to help them fight for social justice.

 As a people, Americans are inclined towards optimism and a belief that if things aren’t working, they can be fixed.  How improvement is defined, which issues get the focus, and how those improvements are managed comes down to party philosophy.  Practically speaking, America has been a two-party system with a number of other minor parties that represent the people that don’t line up with everyone else.  On the ‘left’, we’ve had three parties, progressives, socialists and communists.   

Woody Guthrie, and a number of ‘folkie’ musicians like Pete Seeger, Josh White, Burl Ives and others, did something that hadn’t been done before in American music; they used it as a weapon against the things they thought were wrong in the world.  For instance, Woody Guthrie’s guitar had the words “This machine kills fascists” on it.

They taught a nation to sing powerful songs about hope – Woody Guthrie did that – and when you do, you may sow the seeds of change in future generations, like the way Guthrie stood as  Bob Dylan’s musical mentor.  But music is just the drum beat that the rest of us have to march to.  If we don’t like how things are going, we’re still Americans.  We can still change it.  We need to act on it.  Ghandi said “Be the change you want to see in the world.” 

When we do, we’ll see that just like things improved in working conditions, and minimum wage laws, and many other ways, the world can become a better place.  Our country belongs to the people, not the tiny fraction on top.  And this is a country that promises equality, but that equality is something we have to continuously protect

Tracks

• Woody Guthrie:  This Land Is Your Land
• Pete Seeger - Talking Union Blues
• Burl Ives:  Wayfaring Stranger
• Josh White - Trouble
• This Train is Bound for Glory
• Woody Guthrie - Do Re Mi
• Woody Guthrie - 1913 Massacre
• The Almanac Singers - Which Side Are You On?
• Woody Guthrie - All You Fascists Bound to Lose
• The Almanac Singers - The Sinking of the Good Reuben James
• Pete Seeger - Deliver the Goods
• 60 Minutes with Charles Kuralt - Interview with Alan Lomax
• CBS Radio Network - Hootenany
• Alan Lomax Interviews Muddy Waters
• Muddy Waters - My Home is in the Delta
• Máire Ní Shúilleabháin, Ballylicky, Co. Cor - An Cailín Aerach (The Airy [Light-Hearted] Girl)
• Burl Ives - John Henry
• HUAC Hearings - The Hollywood 10 In Court
• Casablanca (Warner Bros.) - Play It Sam
• Victims of Hollywood Blacklist
• Earl Robinson - Keeping Score in ’44
• Rudy Giuliani - Trial By Combat
• Burl Ives/ Paul Newman - Mendacity Scene (From Cat On a Hot Tin Roof) 
• Burl Ives - Funny Way of Laughing
• Josh White - House of the Rising Sun
• Josh White - In My Time of Dying
• Josh White - There’s a Man Going ‘Round Taking Names
• Josh White - The House I Live In
• Josh White - Free and Equal Blues
• HUAC Hearings - Paul Robeson’s Testimony (Excerpt)
• Pete Seeger - Goodnight Irene
• Pete Seeger Interview - The Power of Music
• Pete Seeger - Way Over There
• Pete Seeger with the Almanac Singers - The Strange Death of John Doe
• Henry Wallace 1948 Campaign Song
• The Weavers - If I Had a Hammer
• The Weavers - So Long It’s Been Good to Know Yuh’
• Pete Seeger Interviewed about HUAC Hearings
• James Taylor - You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught
• Henry Fonda - Grapes of Wrath Monologue
• Bruce Springsteen - The Ghost of Tom Joad

America’s music, at least through 1955, was jazz.  In this episode, we’ll take a deep dive into the predominant forms jazz took on from 1930 through the 1950’s and into the 1960’s, including swing, bebop, hard bop and cool jazz.  In many ways during these years, Jazz gave voice to the difficult tensions and struggles confronting Americans in those years, and which tested our belief in our own convictions.   Welcome to American Song, episode ten; Jazz In Defense of Equality and Justice For All

Through its history, Jazz has played a very important social role in America and abroad.  It is the voice of democracy and freedom.  It represents our continuing desire for social justice and equality in America and has supported that role abroad.  In this episode, we see how jazz evolved through Swing to Bebop and how members of the same group who have been most historically oppressed have risen – both in the music world and out of it – to be the ones to defend the country, and inspire the effort needed to face our own demons.  Because they did, America has begun to live up to its promises of equality and justice for all.    I am certain that America’s music will continue to inspire us,  encourage us, and unite us.  Just as it always has.

In This Episode:

• In the Mood - Glenn Miller
• King Porter Stomp - Fletcher Henderson
• Fly Me to The Moon - Sinatra/ Basie
• Straighten Up and Fly Right - Nat King Cole
• Northwest Passage - Woody Herman and His Thundering Herd
• Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off - Astaire/ Rogers
• Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy - The Andrews Sisters
• Stomp Your Feet - Fred Elizalde and His Cambridge Undergraduates
• Minor Swing - Django Reinhart
• Adolf Hitler at Essen
• Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition - Kay Kiser
• GI Jive - Kay Kiser
• Making Whoopie - Charlie and His Orchestra
• The Man With the Big Cigar - Charlie and His Orchestra
• I Sustain the Wings/ Jam Don’t Shake Like That - Glenn Miller and the Army Airforce Band
• The Secret Broadcast - Music Fur Die Wermacht - Glenn Miller and “Ilse”
• Perfidia - Benny Goodman and Helen Forrest (V-Records)
• Koko - John Coltrane
• Mussolini’s Letter to Hitler - Carson Robison
• Der Fuehrer’s Face - Spike Jones and His City Slickers
• Body and Soul - Coleman Hawkins
• Straight No Chaser - Miles Davis
• (What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue - Louis Armstrong
• WE INSIST!  Freedom Now Suite! - Max Roach with Abbey Lincoln, Coleman Hawkins and Olatunji
• Fables of Faubus - Charles Mingus
• Alabama Governor George Wallace (1964 Campaign)
• Acknowledgement (From a Love Supreme) - John Coltrane
• Alabama - John Coltrane
• Klactovesedstene - Charlie Parker
• Just Friends - Charlie Parker
• Night in Tunisia - Dizzy Gillespie
• Round Midnight - Thelonious Monk
• Fifty-Second Street Theme - Thelonious Monk
• Nikita Kruschev at UN 1960
• Manteca - Dizzy Gillespie
• Duke Ellington on American Music
• Reprise: (What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue - Louis Armstrong
• President Dwight D Eisenhower Addresses Little Rock Crisis
• The Real Ambassador - Dave Brubeck/ Louis Armstrong
• Sing Sing Sing! - Benny Goodman in USSR
• Moaning’ - Charles Mingus
• U.S. Attorney General Derrick Garland on Voter Suppression Crisis 

As always, thanks for listening and downloading! 

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Imagine a people, passing through the crucible of slavery, for hundreds of years, until the first people in your new lineage are often lost in time – because slaves have no more families or histories any more than cattle or sheep do – and coming out the other side, proud, shining, and triumphant.  Imagine using that experience to lay the foundations of music that became the soundtrack within the lives of billions of people around the world.  In the wake of so much devastation, the sounds of faith, love, dignity and freedom were heard and shared until they echoed the world over.  Many times, they were there to drown out more modern pains, and were used to inspire other people to face new adversities.  It started with African Spirituals, and those Spirituals gradually became Gospel Music.  

This is a music that has given people a sense of holy urgency and righteousness all over the world.  The Christians that created this music believed with everything they had in them that it was ‘the holy spirit’ that gave them the authority.  This was not performance.  This was leadership.

PS.  My sincerest thanks to all of you repeat listeners out there in the following cities.  Your interests in what I'm doing makes this so rewarding!

·       As Sulaymānīyah, As Sulaymānīyah

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Included in this episode:

·        Excerpt from Amistad

·       Excerpt from Fountain Hughes interview; WPA and John Lomax

·       Work Holler

·       West Indies Slave Chant - Roger Gibbs (Earliest Recorded Slave Chant from 1775)

·       Roll Jordan Roll - From 12 Years a Slave

·       Title Unknown - The Singing and Praying Band

·       Title Unknown - The McIntosh County Shouters

·       Rock My Soul - The Spirit Chorale of Los Ang

During the first half of the 1900’s, Country music grew from a small group of naïve country musicians who shared their love of the old songs and the old ways with a country that was coming of age.  As even now, the players that created the music Americans loved came from colorful backgrounds, and gave all they had to the music.  Along the way, some of them gave too much – guys like Hank Williams who died so young and lived such a hard life – come to mind.  The stories they told and created and shared left deep impressions in the hearts of the country – almost like the wagon wheel ruts you can still see in some places out along the prairie.  At the same time, they forged a trail for newer sounds, first Honky Tonk, then Nashville that cleared a path for what was soon coming behind them – like Rockabilly and Rock and Roll.  By the early 1950’s, you began to hear the first chords ringing out. 

Tracks and Interviews In This Episode

• Can the Circle Be Unbroken - The Carter Family
• Wildwood Flower - The Carter Family
• Sitting On Top of the World - The Mississippi Sheiks
• Wabash Cannonball - Roy Acuff and His Smoky Mountain Boys
• Walking the Floor Over You - Ernest Tubb
• When Ernest Tubb Wrote Walking the Floor Over You - from A Celebration of Ernest Tubb
• (See the American Song Facebook page for the link to the full symposium)
• Hello Walls - Faron Young
• Jole Blon - Harry Choates
• Hank and Audrey Williams Radio Interview with Bob McKinnon; 1950
• I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - Hank Williams
• Jambalaya (On the Bayou) - Hank Williams
• If You've Got the Money, I've Got the Time - Lefty Frizzell
• Single Girl, Married Girl - The Carter Family
• My Big Iron Skillet - Wanda Jackson
• Stand By Your Man - Tammy Wynette
• Kiss An Angel Good Morning -   Charlie Pride
• How Charlie Broke Country's Color Barrier; Interview with Dan Rather
• God Bless the U.S.A. - Al Greenwood
• A Soldier's Last Letter - Ernest Tubb
• There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere - Elton Britt
• Atom Bomb Baby - Five Star
• Marty Robbins - El Paso
• The Jordanaire's Remember Recording with Patsy Cline - Interview
• She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain - The Skillet Lickers
• Crazy - Patsy Cline
• Root Hog or Die - June Carter Cash
• Cowboy, Harry Stephens, Talks About Writing "The Night Herding Song" - Library of Congress recording
• Tumbling Tumbleweeds - Sons of the Pioneers
• When the Work's All Done This Fall - Roy Rogers
• Blue Shadows on the Trail - Roy Rogers
• I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart - Patsy Montana
• Man of Constant Sorrows - Soggy Bottom Boys

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The Blues deals with very personal types of pain.  But it doesn’t wallow in self-pity.  The blues is about overcoming – like Martin Luther King Jr. used in his marches – “We Shall Overcome”.   Great blues is all about a catharsis – a purging – of the things that hurt us so that we can go on living better lives!   Nothing captures the Christian sense of death and redemption like the blues;  When you think of the blues, you think about misfortune, betrayal and regret. You lose your job, you get the blues. Your mate falls out of love with you, you get the blues. Your dog dies, you get the blues.

Appallingly, America seems to be back at 'the crossroads' again in 2021.  At the time that I'm publishing this, Georgia has just instituted voter suppression laws again, and there are bills in 43 of our states to follow suit.  I hope this episode of American Song serves as a reminder about the horrors we've already been through as a nation, and a strong statement that we MUST NEVER go there again.  I pray that the 'better angels' (to use a phrase from Abraham Lincoln)  of our natures and our nation gain control.  I hope that this entire podcast series is a reminder of how great our nation is and has been, and that we realize that it is BECAUSE and not despite of our diversity that we have been so.

Track List
Viola Davis - from Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Netflix)
Interview:  Leadbelly on the Origin of the Blues
The Burden of the Angel Beast - Bruce Cockburn, from Dart to the Heart
Homeless - Ladysmith Black Mambazo, from Paul Simon's Graceland 
Woke Up This Morning, With my Mind on Jesus - Mississippi Fred McDowell
Motherless Child - O.V. Wright
We Shall Overcome - Mahalia Jackson
Strange Fruit - Bessie Smith
Signifying Monkey - Oscar Brown
Cross Roads - Robert Johnson
Dust My Broom - B.B. King
W.C. Handy - St. Louis Blues
John Lee Hooker - Boom Boom
Midnight Special - Leadbelly
See That My Grave is Kept Clean - Blind Lemon Jefferson
Interview:  Steven Johnson (grandson of Robert Johnson)
Preaching Blues (Up Jumped the Devil) - Robert Johnson 
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - Ma Rainey
This Train - Sister Rosetta Tharpe
You Shook Me - Muddy Waters
Interview:  Buddy Guy (with Nick Harcourt and Guitar Center)
Jumpin' at the Woodside - Count Basie and his Orchestra
One O'Clock Jump - Lester Young
Mean Old World - T Bone Walker
Indian Tom Tom - Big Chief Henry's Indian String Band
Sibo Bangoura - Ted Talk from TedX Sydney
Hey Hey - Eric Clapton, Unplugged

For a listing of all sources, please visit our American Song Podcast page on Facebook or download this episode's script, posted on this website.

By the 1920's, jazz had grown too large for its humble origins in New Orleans and was impacting the musical world, including the greatest classical European musicians and composers, as well as American listeners and fellow jazz musicians.

What came next was an explosion of creativity among the musical who's who of the day.

The world's stage was filled to capacity with Europe's heavy-weights, like Toscanini, Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky and American classicists, like Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, not to mention the greats of the jazz world, like Louis Armstrong,  Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, and Duke Ellington, just to name a few.  All these mind-blowingly awesome artists were  active and collaborating among each other.  Could this have been the history's greatest musical period?

Find out what happened and how it happened, right here on American Song.

Tracks:

• The Rite of Spring - Igor Stravinsky
• Charleston - Sidney Bechet
• Fireworks - Louis Armstrong
• Golliwogg's Cakewalk - Claude Debussy; performed by Branford Marsalis
• Ragtime for 11 Instruments - Igor Stravinsky
• Central Park in the Dark - Charles Ives
• Tea For Two - Art Tatum
• Andre Previn and Oscar Peterson talk about Art Tatum
• Livery Stable Blues - Original Dixie Land Jass Band
• Ferde Grofe talks about working with George Gershwin 
• Rhapsody in Blue - Paul Williams Orchestra, pianist George Gershwin
• Ira Gershwin Talks About George Gershwin
• La Creation du Monde - Darius Milhaud; performed by Branford Marsalis
• Aaron Copland Talks About Himself
• Rodeo; I: Buckaroo Holiday - Aaron Copland
• Music for the Theater; Aaron Copland, performed by Leonard Bernstein & New York Philharmonic
• Four Piano Blues: 3 - Muted and Sensous - Aaron Copland; performed by Leo Smit
• Jazz Suite No. 2; 3:  Dance - Dmitri Shostakovich
• Ebony Concerto - Igor Stravinsky; performed by Woody Herman and His Thundering Herd
• Overture From Westside Story - Leonard Bernstein; Film Soundtrack, 1961
• Leonard Bernstein Talks About Himself
• Preludes, Fugues, and Riffs - Leonard Bernstein; performed by Leonard Bernstein, Benny Goodman and the Colombia Orchestra
• Creole Rhapsody - Duke Ellington
• Concerto for Cootie - Duke Ellington
• Dont' Get Around Much Anymore - Duke Ellington
• Black, Brown & Beige - Duke Ellington

Welcome to episode five in the American Song podcast.

The early days of jazz were full of exploration, invention, and creativity.  It was a time of fluid exchanges in the music world between blacks and whites, even if it was only seldom happening anywhere else.

Jazz rose up from Congo Square in New Orleans, which was a culturally rich gumbo of sounds, rhythms and movement produced by people whose origins were from far away places.  Spanish, French, English, African and Native Americans all contributed to this musical feast to create an art that could only have happened here.

In this episode, you'll learn about some of the earliest jazz musicians who made a lasting impact, influencing and shaping the music for many decades to come.  You'll also hear and experience some of those great early songs, as well as hear directly from a few of the musicians that made the music possible.  

As they say in New Orleans, ""Laissez les bon temps rouler!"  Let the good times roll!

Track List

Duke Ellington Remembers
Jelly Roll Morton Rembers
St. James Infirmary - Buddy Bolden 
Jelly Roll Morton & His Red Hot Peppers - Dr. Jazz
James P.  Bolden - You've Got to Be Modernistic
Archie Shepp Remembers Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet - Strange Fruit
Rockin' Chair - Bix Biederbecke
Louis Armstrong Remembers Bix Biederbecke
St.  Louis Blues - the Paul Whiteman Orchestra
Basin Street Blues - Louis Armstrong
When You're Young the Whole World Smiles With You - Louis Armstrong

A fusion of blues and mountain music, a reminder of better times for many people, and a host of memorable and gifted musicians.   In this episode, we'll discover the following musicians and their music:

Jimmie Rogers & Louis Armstrong - Blue Yodel Number Nine
DeFord Bailey - Pan American Blues
Cotton Eyed Joe - Fiddlin' John Carson
Show Intro for the Grand Ol' Opry - November 11, 1939
Jimmie Rogers - 
The Carter Family - Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow
(Medley):

• The Carter Family - When the World's On Fire
• The Carter Family - Little Darling Pal of Mine
• Woody Guthrie - This Land is Your Land
• Jake Tullock & Earl Scruggs - Little Darling Pal of Mine 

Lesley Riddle - Red River Blues
Maybelle Carter Interview from 1975
DeFord Bailey - The Fox Chase
Harry McClintock - The Big Rock Candy Mountain
Eck Robertson - Sally Gooden
Doc Watson - Going Down the Road Feeling Bad 

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America's original art contribution to the world - jazz.
So deep.  So rich.  But where did it come from?

There were at least four different sources; and yet one of these - the blues - is also much more than a contributing art form.  The blues is almost mythology itself.  
Sprung from the earth, like the plantation soil where so many slaves lived and died, the blues at once describes and also gives life to everything in its path.

I hope you enjoy this episode.  If you do, please tell me about it!  Leave a comment to let me know what you think of our podcast so far - what you like, and what you'd like to know more about!  I'll get back to you, and possibly even address any questions or suggestions in an upcoming episode!

Many recordings have been sourced to prepare this week's episode.  Here's a list of what I've included:

Grace and Beauty 
composed by James Scott
source: Jazz Piano History

Elite Syncopations
composed and performed by Scott Joplin 
source: Scott Joplin Piano Rolls

The Entertainer
composed and performed by Scott Joplin
source: Jazz Piano History

Wynton Marsalis interview
taken from Ken Burns "Jazz" documentary

Bleeding Hearted Blues
composed and performed by James P. Johnson
 source:  Library of Congress

Boogie Woogie Stomp
composed and performed by Pine Top Smith
source:  Jazz Piano History

Son House interview
source: YouTube video

Trouble of the World
performed by Mahalia Jackson
source:  Gospels, Spirituals & Hymns

Go Down Old Hannah
performed by Texas Prison Gang
source:  YouTube

Terraplane Blues
composed and performed by:  Robert Johnson
source:  The Ultimate Jazz Archive

Contact Joe Hines at joe.hines4@gmail.com

Hi All,

Episode two of “American Song” is an exploration of some of the early regional music from before the 20th century.  Like some of the things we listened to in episode one, many of these forms survive and continue to be popular today!

In this half-hour episode, we’ll listen to Appalachian and Mountain music, then travel down to Louisiana for a sampling of Cajun music!  No trip to Louisiana is complete without at least a short stop in New Orleans – we’ll be back to New Orleans again in episode three.  This week, however, we’re digging into the march music; early jazz music was, at least in part, played of ex- marching band members.  And I hope you’re leaving a little room on your plate for some Mexican food – or at least music!  Our neighbors to the south have contributed to our culture like everyone else.

Here’s a list of the music used in this episode: 

 West Virginia Gals
Recorded 11/26/66 in the family home of Glen Lyn; Giles County, Virginia.
Source:  Library of Congress

Barbara Allen
Sung by “Granny Porter”; Wade Ward, fiddle player.
Source: Ballads and Songs of the Blue Ridge Mountains; Persistence & Change

Camden Clog Dancing
Mike Adamson YouTube video

Darlin’ Cori
Cedric Watson on Gourd Banjo
Cedric Watson YouTube video

Wash Tub Bass
Demonstration by Mick Ralphs
YouTube video

Whiskey Before Breakfast
Performed by:  Stephen Seifert 
YouTube video

High On a Mountain
Performed by:  Ola Belle Reed
Classic Mountain Songs; Smithsonian Folkways

Cajun Comedian
Comedy by:  Kent Gonsoulin
YouTube video

La Danse du Mardi Gras
Performed by: The Balfa Brothers

Pomona Waltz
Emil Waldtleufel; composer
Recorded by E. Berliner Gramophone; 1897
Source; Library of Congress

Soldier’s March
Performed by Prince’s Military Band
Recording Date; 3-25-1909
Source:  Library of Congress

Panama Rag
Performed by:  Regimental Band of the Republic (instrumentalist)
Recorded By:  American Record Co.
Date:  1905

La Cucaracha
Performed by:  Cuco Sanchez

Volver, Volver
Performed by:  Vicente Fernandez

Welcome to American Song.

There are few things I love more than music, and America.
Both of these worlds have been my home since my earliest days.

I've been thinking about producing this podcast for many years now.   And now, this is episode one;   With this podcast, I want to tell a story about how many cultures have contributed to the music we listen to today, and how the people of the United States have a common and proud heritage.  We are a great people because of our diversity.  This diversity made it possible to create totally new ways of addressing challenges and opportunities.  It made it possible for our country to lead in science, the arts, business - nearly every endeavor.

I'm choosing to tell the story with something that I, and many people like me, love.  Music.
I'm going to tell the story about how every modern form of music we listen to today has it's roots in the cultures that brought their unique musical arts with them when they arrived on our shores.

The music I've included in this first episode mostly comes from the digital archives available through the Library of Congress.  

This podcast will be updated at least once a month.  I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you'll come back to listen every month.   I've got no sponsors; this is a labor of love.  So, if you like what I'm doing here, please encourage me by spreading the word!   

I look forward to hearing your ideas or experiences that you might like to share.  If you love America and music the way I do, I hope together we can build a community that celebrates both of those blessings together.  

God bless America!