American Songcatcher – Details, episodes & analysis

Today, I’m sharing a conversation I had with Grammy-nominated folk singer, storyteller, humanitarian, author and multi-virtuoso-instrumentalist John McCutcheon. During his five-decade career, John has released 44 albums spanning an eclectic catalog of ballads, historical songs, children's songs, love songs, topical satire, fiddle and hammer dulcimer instrumentals, and even symphonic works. He is regarded as a master of the hammered dulcimer, and is also proficient on many other instruments including guitar, banjo, autoharp, mountain dulcimer, fiddle, and jaw harp, and has received six Grammy Award nominations for his children’s songs. I got to know a bit of John’s story early on, his evolution as a preservationist and what its been like to be an ambassador for as long as he has, what he’s up to these days, and of course some geeking out on music history. Enjoy!

More on John:

Official Website

Facebook

Patreon

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Credits: 

Nicholas Edward Williams - Production, research, editing, recording and distribution

Today on the program, we present the story behind the Father of Soul, Sam Cooke. Growing up in the church, Sam knew he wanted to be a singer by the time he was five years old. There was a magnetic and infectious quality to this young Gospel singer, and he knew he was destined for bigger things than singing sacred music. The risk he took in becoming a pop singer was massive, but it produced the first records of what is now known as Soul music. Sam also was a pioneer when it came to being savvy about the music business, owning his own publishing company, negotiating contracts, and creating a container to nurture up and coming soul singers. At the height of the civil rights movement, and the pinnacle of his career, Sam’s life was cut short. Here is his story. 

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Credits: Jonah Nordeen - Research, Writing 

Teddy Chipouras - Editing

Nicholas Edward Williams - Production, Editing, Recording and Distribution

References:

Campbell, L. E. (2013, February 16). Jesus Gave Me Water. Archive. Today. 

DeCurtis, A., Henke, J., & George-Warren, H. (Eds.). (1992). The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll: The definitive history of the most important artists and their music (3rd ed). Random House.

Guralnick, P. (2005). Dream boogie: The triumph of Sam Cooke (1st ed). Little, Brown.

James, E., & Ritz, D. (2003). Rage to survive: The Etta James story (2. ed). Da Capo.

Ritz, D. (2022). Sam Cooke. In Encyclopedia Britannica. 

Robinson, L. (1964, December 31). Tragedy-Filled Life of Singer Sam Cooke. Jet, XXVII(13), 56–65.

Runtagh, J. (2021, January 21). Why Mystery Still Shrouds Singer Sam Cooke’s Shooting Death Nearly 60 Years Later. People. 

Documentaries:

Two Killings of Sam Cooke - Netflix

Who Murdered Soul?

The Sam Cooke Story. (2018, July 15). YouTube. 

Wharton, M. (Director). (1996). Legend [Documentary]. Amazon Prime.

Today, we proudly present the fifth installment of the LOCAL FOCAL series, where we’re collaborating with artists around the country to share unique and lesser-known musical history. Our narrator today is Dustin Dale Gaspard, a 9th generation cajun who comes from the deep, deep South, the Acadian region of Louisiana. Dustin shares the very unique history of the genre Swamp Pop, with detailed context of the cajun heritage it was born out of. Let’s head to the swamp.

Dustin Dale Gaspard

Swamp Pop Playlist

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Credits:

Nicholas Edward Williams - Editing, Recording and Distribution

Dustin Dale Gaspard - Narration, Research

Today, we proudly present the fourth installment of the LOCAL FOCAL series, where we’re collaborating with artists around the country to share unique and lesser-known musical history. Our storyteller is cowboy & poet Andy Hedges, who hails from Lubbock, TX and is doing his part to keep the old cowboy song traditions alive. Andy takes us back to the late 1800’s, in the vast Western plains to the first collector of cowboy songs, a roving Easterner by the name of Jack Thorp, who printed the first book of Folk Songs, titled Songs of the Cowboys in 1908, forever changing the scope and trajectory of western and cowboy music.

In March 1889, Jack Thorp, a born-to-privilege Easterner who had grown into a leather-tough, saddle-wise trail hand, decided to track down the words to songs about cowboy life from cowboys singing in cow camps, at chuck wagons and line camps, in saloons—anywhere he could find them, mostly in New Mexico and Texas. His course proved crucial to the evolution of cowboy culture and the publication of his Songs of the Cowboys, the first collection of folk songs in America in 1908. 

Andy Hedges Website

Andy’s Podcast “Cowboy Crossroads”

Roll On, Cowboys

Jack Thorpe

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Credits:

Nicholas Edward Williams - Editing, Recording and Distribution

Andy Hedges - Narration

For our third installment of the LOCAL FOCAL series, we present the following audio-rich piece - described as "sound painting" - brought to you by Muddy Boots Radio, a podcast that I only recently came into contact with by way of its creator, Tenali Hrenak. This particular episode honored a legend of radio from Grass Valley, CA - Mikail Graham. A composer, performer, producer, music promoter, advocate, consultant and beta tester for numerous pro-audio and MIDI companies. He was with the community radio station KVMR since its inception in the 1970s. For decades, he produced a radio show called The Other Side, and for many years he put on a yearly event called Night of Giving, which helped raise money for the Hospitality House, a shelter for the un-housed. He also produced the album Loafer's Glory for folk legend Utah Phillips. To say that he was influential to that region of California is an understatement. 

As Tenali put it:

"With Mikail’s passing on July 12th, 2022, several of us regular contributors to The Other Side were tasked with producing a series of final shows, a send-off episode, to our dear friend. Mikail and I both loved the 1960s anthology series The Twilight Zone. So with that in mind, I whipped up an episode - aptly titled See U On The Other Side - that cut-up some dialogue from the episode Kick the Can, which I felt captured Mikail’s carpe diem and playful spirit. And, of course, I decorated the playlist with an assortment of Tweeners and songs that I’m sure he’d love and that hopefully honor the legacy he leaves behind." 

Enjoy this experience of sound, titled “See U On The Other Side (Side A)” from the Muddy Boots Radio podcast.

Muddy Boots Website

Gathering Sounds - Tenali's New Book

Mikail Graham - The Other Side

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Credits:

Nicholas Edward Williams - Editing, Recording and Distribution

Tenali Hrenak - Production

Today, we proudly present the first installment of the LOCAL FOCAL series, where we’re collaborating with artists to share musical stories from different locations throughout America - in celebration of the parts that make up the whole fabric of American music history.

First up, we’re bringing you the works of Derek Piotr, a folklorist and musician who’s been deep in research about a particular family of tradition-bearers from Avery County, North Carolina that have a lineage to Frank Proffitt, a key figure in Appalachian old time preservation. I was taken with Derek's story not only because by comparison, he's rather young in the immersive world of musicology, but also because of his unique interest in what's called Auto-Ethnography, which goes beyond detailed field notes and recordings, by linking the fieldwork to your own emotional life.

A few years ago, Derek curated a compilation concerning this family, Last Wisps of the Old Ways, which intertwined field recordings he made with archival recordings of the family’s lineage from The Library of Congress. Before that, he was merely preserving the legacy of his grandmother with a flip phone. His winding path to field recordings and eventually creating the Fieldwork Archive is a humbling journey. 

Last Wisps of the Old Ways

Fieldwork Archive

Official

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Credits:

Nicholas Edward Williams - Production, Editing, Recording and Distribution

Derek Piotr - Writing, Recording, Research

ANNOUNCEMENTS!

1. Season 3 NEEDS your financial support! Can you commit to $1 a month via Patreon? - OR - Send a one-time donation through Venmo or PayPal

2. We're changing the format next season to SINGLE STORIES released every few weeks, so we can give each story full attention, and put out content more frequently.

3. CALLING ALL WRITERS! Do you love human stories? Love music history? Do you have any writing experience? If you'd like to be a volunteer writer on American Songcatcher, email us at [email protected]

4. The first installment of our off-season series, LOCAL FOCAL will air MARCH 26! These special episodes pay homage to the parts that make up the whole fabric of American music history, featuring different presenters from around the world sharing a hyper-localized story. 

5. Season 3 release date coming soon. 

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Credits:
Nicholas Edward Williams - Production, Editing, Recording and Distribution

This is our season finale, part two of a special audio-documentary series on Folkways Records founder Moses Asch, in collaboration with Smithsonian Folkways. Part one walked us through Moe’s childhood, teenage years, early career, the first two labels he created, bankruptcy, as well as the early years of Folkways Records. In part two, we traverse 40 years of iconic recordings with pioneering and lesser known artists, business hardships, milestones, the fledgling years of Folkways, and Moe’s death. We’ll also examine the acquisition of the massive Folkways catalog by Smithsonian, illustrate how Moe’s legacy has intertwined with the identity of American music, and highlight some of the incredible work that Smithsonian has done to preserve and expand on what Moe accomplished.

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Collaboration Credits:

Smithsonian Folkways

Full Moses Asch interview with Arhoolie Records’ founder Chris Strachwitz

Interviewees:

Richard Carlin - Worlds of Sound: The Story of Smithsonian Folkways

Michael Asch

Jeff Place (Smithsonian Folkways)

John Smith (Smithsonian Folkways)

Dom Flemons

Charlie Parr

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Media Credits:

Making people's music : Moe Asch and Folkways records - Peter D Goldsmith

Smithsonian | SF2 | NY Times | Redalyc | Arhoolie | Jstor.com | NPR | Routledge

Today, American Songcatcher is proud to present a special two-part collaboration with Smithsonian Folkways, going behind the curtain of Folkways Records founder Moses Asch, who was born 117 years ago on this date. This is the story of a ceaselessly stubborn Jewish immigrant with unstoppable ambition. A pioneer who had a great respect for creative artists, whether they were commercially viable or not. A provider whose work was selfless, though he was often quite difficult to work with. A visionary that would turn the record industry on its head without producing any major hits, which was just the way he wanted it. Folkways Records, “The little label that could,” changed the course of American roots music by preserving folk songs from all over the world and having a major hand influencing the folk and blues revival of the 50’s and 60’s. Moe's mission was to create an encyclopedia of sound from around the world, quite literally. Folkways released records of frog noises, poetry, train whistles, cat noises and many others in addition to covering nearly every genre of world music, spanning over 2,100 records. Learn how his collection was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution and how his legacy lives on today.

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In Collaboration with:

Smithsonian Folkways

Full Moses Asch interview with Arhoolie Records’ founder Chris Strachwitz

Interviewees:

Richard Carlin | Worlds of Sound: The Story of Smithsonian Folkways 

Michael Asch

American Songcatcher

Source Credits:

Smithsonian | Redalyc | Jstor.com | NPR | Routledge | AllPurposeGuru | Haaretz | Folkworks

Worlds of Sound: Ballad of Folkways | Documentary

Making People's Music | Book

Today I’m sharing a conversation I had with American roots singer and guitarist Seth Walker, who has spent the last 20 years putting out incredibly diverse records, inspired by early blues to jazz, folk, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, early country and anything else he’s been able to gobble up.

Recently mentored by the likes of Oliver Wood and the Wood Brothers, Seth just released his 11th studio record, titled I Hope I Know, a tasty, seasoned array of roots songs that navigate a host of emotions and comforts, a record I highly suggest listening to, courtesy of Royal Potato Family Records.

We talked about his unique childhood, raised among a community of Quakers, the constant evolution of self and artistry, his love for writing not just music but a recent book titled Your Van is on Fire, his newest record and the deep changes that surfaced before, during and after, and as usual, we geeked out on some music history. Enjoy!

More on Seth Walker:

Listen

Book

Socials : Instagram | Facebook

Watch

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