American Song

Get in touch! 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...

Get in touch! 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 growin...

Get in touch! 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...

Get in touch! 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 mu...

Get in touch! 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...

Get in touch! 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...

Get in touch! 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.   C...

Get in touch! 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 Cun...

Get in touch! 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,...

Get in touch! 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, i...

Get in touch! 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...

Get in touch! 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.”  ...

Get in touch! 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...

Get in touch! 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 p...

Get in touch! 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...

Get in touch! 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, a...

Get in touch! 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 min...

Get in touch! 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 Gu...

Get in touch! 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...

Get in touch! 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...

Get in touch! 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...

Get in touch! 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...

Get in touch! 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 imp...

Get in touch! 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 i...

Get in touch! 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 soundtrac...