Groundwater: The Blues Beneath American Music
Thomas StubbsIn 1927, the record industry split American music in two and sold it to separate audiences. We've believed the split ever since. Groundwater is a music history podcast that follows the current underneath — the blues, running from Congo Square to the South Bronx, from Robert Johnson to Aretha Franklin to hip-hop. Each episode traces a moment the industry tried to keep apart: the soul sessions at St... more
| Publishes | Twice monthly | Episodes | 13 | Founded | 6 months ago |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Listeners | Categories | Music HistoryHistoryMusic | |||
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Latest Episodes
Muscle Shoals, Alabama, January 1967. Jerry Wexler brings Aretha Franklin, the daughter of the most famous Black preacher in America, to FAME Studios to record with four white session men she has never met, in a region where the Klan is a functioning... more
July 5, 1954. A storefront studio on Union Avenue in Memphis, a nineteen-year-old Elvis failing for hours — until he started fooling with a blues during a break and the man behind the glass stuck his head out. This episode is about that room, and the... more
On a Friday night in Cleveland in March 1952, a crowd twice the size of the building broke down the doors of the Cleveland Arena to hear Black rhythm-and-blues bands play. The Moondog Coronation Ball — often called the first rock and roll concert — w... more
In the summer of 1927, a talent scout named Ralph Peer set up a temporary recording studio on the third floor of a hat company in Bristol, Tennessee, and built the two shelves — race records and hillbilly — that still separate blues from country a ce... more
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- Solid
Well written and well-researched. But delived like a conversation at a dinner party, rather than an academic lecturn. Could use a few more music references to illustrate the convergence of styles he’s discussing, but still an honest, accurate portayal of an extremely complex picture of influence, convergence, and attribution of musical styles and the different diaspora they came from. Good stuff.
Apple Podcasts5LNF in ATL
United States5 months ago - Great listen
This is terrific. Really interesting cross-section of American history and music history. So much I’ve never heard about before. And some great writing in there, too.
Apple Podcasts5Eppie333United States5 months ago
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Apple Podcasts | #199 | United States/Music/Music History |
Apple Podcasts | #19 |  Belgium/Music/Music History |
Apple Podcasts | #97 | Belgium/Music |
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Frequently Asked Questions About This Podcast
What is This Podcast about and what kind of topics does it cover?
Groundwater digs into the currents running beneath American music, tracing how the blues and related genres traveled from Congo Square to the South Bronx and beyond. Across episodes, it examines how industry practices, cultural exchange, and political pressures shaped credit, crossover collaborations, and audience segmentation — from Stax and Muscle Shoals sessions to Great Migration-driven sound shifts. The show stands out for weaving archival history, musicology, and cultural critique into a cohesive narrative about why American music sounds the way it does, often spotlighting pivotal figures and moments that bridged racial and stylistic divides.
Listeners can expect deeply researched history, thoughtful context for how genres were label... more
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this podcast launched 6 months ago and published 13 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.
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1. Rich Pettit
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