Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast American Song
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meet Southern California Singer-Songwriter, Anson Corsair | 08 Sep 2026 | 01:13:05 | |
Today’s episode is an interview with the Southern California based singer-songwriter, Anson Corsair. His remarkably open interview reveals some of the highs and the lows he’s lived through and how he’s processed these events into a growing group of beautiful songs. While American Song generally covers some of the most well-known musicians throughout the canon of popular music, these artists are just the tip of the iceberg. Interviews with people like Anson help us appreciate just how rich the music world is. Writers like myself have an opportunity to shine a light on the immensity of what’s found below the waterline! With a sound that is reminiscent of Jack Johnson, John Mayer, and Ed Sheeran, Anson’s songwriting craft is elegant, and poetic. In this interview, he goes deep on the many life experiences that have shaped who he is and how he understands his world. I hope you’ll enjoy today’s show! Learn more about Anson Corsair: Website: https://www.ansoncorsair.com/ Instagram: AnsonCorsairMusic Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ansoncorsairmusic Follow American Song on Buzzsprout or your favorite streaming platform and connect with me on Substack! | |||
| Independent Artists: A.J. Deiboldt - Nashville, TN | 15 Aug 2026 | 01:18:52 | |
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
Look for A.J. Deiboldt at: Substack: The High Notes YouTube: AJDeiboldt Connect with us online! American Song on Substack. | |||
| Dancing Under Fire: Blood in the Groove — Los Prisioneros, Soda Stereo, D.A.F., and Brenda Fassie | 04 Aug 2026 | 02:05:45 | |
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
South Africa
Latin America
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| New Wave: The Conquerors - The Second British Invasion, and How Michael Jackson and Prince Broke Down the Walls at MTV | 19 Jun 2026 | 01:36:23 | |
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
Interviews With
Join American Song on Social Media Substack: https://substack.com/@americansong | |||
| The New Wave Fun House: Blondie, Talking Heads, DEVO, The Cars, Oingo Boingo | 01 May 2026 | 02:22:44 | |
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
Interviews With
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| New Wave — Up From the Ooze (How Kraftwerk, The Ramones, Television, Patti Smith and CBGB - a Twelve-Foot Room on the Bowery - Accidentally Invented the Future) | 19 Mar 2026 | 01:01:47 | |
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
Interviews
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. | |||
| The Greatest Music You've Never Heard: The Songs of Mark Davis (2) | 27 Jan 2026 | 01:06:47 | |
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 | |||
| The Greatest Music You've Never Heard: The Songs of Mark Davis (1) | 27 Jan 2026 | 01:05:43 | |
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 | |||
| Bruce Springsteen and the American Reckoning: Last Man Standing | 09 Nov 2025 | 00:45:52 | |
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
Archival Interviews
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| Bruce Springsteen and the American Reckoning: Breakups, Ghosts, and Trump’s America | 09 Nov 2025 | 00:51:21 | |
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
Archival Interviews
*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. | |||
| Bruce Springsteen and the American Reckoning: Darkness, The River, Nebraska, and Berlin ’88 | 09 Nov 2025 | 00:52:00 | |
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
Archival Interviews
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| Bruce Springsteen and the American Reckoning: Born to Run, Bomb Scares, and the Edge of Fame | 09 Nov 2025 | 00:41:23 | |
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
Archival Interviews Mark Maron Interview Rick Rubin/ Malcolm Gladwell Interview | |||
| Bruce Springsteen and the American Reckoning: Freehold to Cherry Hill | 09 Nov 2025 | 00:49:19 | |
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 | |||
| Lives in the Balance: Jackson Browne and the Fight for America’s Soul | 16 Aug 2025 | 01:47:39 | |
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
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 | |||
| Warren Zevon's Beautiful Wreckage | 18 Jul 2025 | 01:30:42 | |
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
Archival Interviews
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 | |||
| God’s Song and Other American Prayers: The Story of Randy Newman | 19 Jun 2025 | 01:21:29 | |
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
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| If a Tree Falls: Bruce Cockburn and the Angry, Necessary Songs Nobody Else Would Write | 29 Mar 2025 | 01:30:11 | |
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
John Lennon: God John Luther Adams: Become Ocean
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| Save Something for Yourself: Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell, and the Art of Radical Honesty | 29 Mar 2025 | 00:56:17 | |
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
Joni Mitchell
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
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| Bob Dylan - America’s Nobel Poet Laureate | 23 Feb 2025 | 01:50:17 | |
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
Interviews
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 | |||
| The Minstrel and the Symphony: Jethro Tull, ELP, and Progressive Rock's Wilder Shores | 16 Oct 2024 | 01:09:39 | |
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.
Tracks
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| Close to the Edge: How Yes and Genesis Took Progressive Rock to Its Furthest Reaches | 16 Oct 2024 | 01:08:17 | |
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.
Tracks
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| From Kent State to King Crimson: How the Counterculture Invented Progressive Rock | 16 Oct 2024 | 01:10:23 | |
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.
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| Punk - The Shot Heard Round the World | 07 Aug 2024 | 01:36:18 | |
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.
South African Punk
East German Punk
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| From CBGB to Dublin to Odessa: The Ramones, Blondie, The Pogues, and Punk's Unstoppable Global Spread | 13 May 2024 | 00:56:07 | |
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.
Call and Response | |||
| Coast to Coast Chaos: New York and LA Spark the American Punk Revolution! | 13 May 2024 | 00:57:08 | |
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. 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.
Call and Response | |||
| Sweet Home Alabama: Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Band, Charlie Daniels, and the Music of a South at War With Itself | 12 Dec 2023 | 01:00:06 | |
This is the second half of a two-part episode 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. | |||
| Southern Rock: Coming to Terms with a Complicated Past | 12 Dec 2023 | 01:02:25 | |
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. 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. | |||
| Redemption Song: The Life, Music, and Unstoppable Legacy of Bob Marley | 03 Aug 2023 | 00:35:07 | |
This is part two of a two-part focus on Reggae music. | |||
| From Slavery to Ska: The Jamaican History That Made Reggae Inevitable | 03 Aug 2023 | 01:04:12 | |
This is part one of a two-part focus on Reggae music. | |||
| The Masters of Funk: James Brown, the Meters, Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, George Clinton | 31 May 2023 | 01:24:31 | |
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. | |||
| Reelin' in the Years: Steely Dan, Traffic, and Supertramp's Blueprint for the Perfect Record | 09 Apr 2023 | 01:32:14 | |
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. | |||
| The Other Side of Fusion: Jazz Rock | 13 Mar 2023 | 01:14:48 | |
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, | |||
| After Miles: Herbie Hancock, Weather Report, and Jazz Fusion's Golden Generation | 02 Aug 2022 | 01:09:51 | |
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. | |||
| Bitches Brew: How Miles Davis Blew Up Jazz and Invented the Future | 02 Aug 2022 | 00:52:59 | |
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. | |||
| Action: Reaction - American Bands and American Society Respond to the English Invasion | 04 Jul 2022 | 01:22:51 | |
First of all, Happy Independence Day everybody! I'm so pleased to publish another episode of American Song on America's birthday! | |||
| America's Music Comes Home: The Beatles, the Stones, the Yardbirds, and How England Gave Us Back Our Rock and Roll | 31 May 2022 | 01:08:01 | |
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. | |||
| Before the Beatles: How American Blues Conquered England First | 31 May 2022 | 00:29:34 | |
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. | |||
| Puerto Ricans Sing Out for Justice. | 25 Apr 2022 | 00:36:19 | |
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. | |||
| American Song and the Fight for Hispanic Equality. | 25 Apr 2022 | 01:02:30 | |
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 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. | |||
| Land of A Thousand Dances - Latin American Music | 14 Mar 2022 | 01:07:38 | |
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! | |||
| The Roots of Latin Music in the New World | 14 Mar 2022 | 00:27:48 | |
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. | |||
| Folk Music Played the Changes in American Society. | 07 Feb 2022 | 00:20:22 | |
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. Artists Featured in This Episode | |||
| 1960’s Folk Music: How the Fire Spread | 07 Feb 2022 | 00:55:48 | |
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. | |||
| The Second Folk Revival – A Passing of the Torch. | 07 Feb 2022 | 00:37:42 | |
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. | |||
| The Celestial Pulse of Minimalism. | 06 Dec 2021 | 00:35:13 | |
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! Phillip Glass John Adams Miles Davis John Cage Pat Matheny and Lyle Mays Brian Eno David Bowie Peter Gabriel Kraftwerk Tangerine Dream Radiohead | |||
| Musique Concrete: A Radical Re-Thinking of Sound and Performance | 06 Dec 2021 | 00:38:05 | |
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. | |||
| When the World Was In Chaos, Music Became Atonal | 06 Dec 2021 | 00:42:07 | |
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.
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| Special Feature: 1950's American Culture; the Seedbed of Rock and Roll | 24 Oct 2021 | 00:26:30 | |
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. Bobby Darin | |||
| Hail Hail Rock and Roll | 24 Oct 2021 | 01:43:50 | |
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. Good Golly, Miss Molly…. Welcome to the latest edition of American Song; episode 13. Hail Hail Rock and Roll! | |||
| R&B Was Born on the American Song River | 06 Sep 2021 | 01:49:52 | |
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! 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.
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