American Song
America was meant to be a light on the hill — a place others looked to when they needed to find their own way forward.
If America has ever truly been that light, it came from its music. From the people who suffered the most and somehow still found something worth singing about.
From colonial taverns to protest marches in the Eastern Bloc, from gospel churches to a ghetto in Soweto, American rhythms helped people band together, speak truth, and refuse to quit. Our songs became the world's songs — not because we exported them, but because people who needed hope reached out and claimed them as their own.
American Song tells the stories of the artists who made the music and the people who were moved by it. One era at a time. One genre, one band, one song at a time. Music that started by campfires, in cotton fields, in churches and juke joints — and moved out into the world to become something larger than any one nation could contain.
This is American Song.
American Song
The Early Days of Country Music
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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
Updates!
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