Let It Roll

This week author Peter Doggett returns to discuss his book “Electric Shock: 125 Years of Pop Music.” In this episode, Peter and Nate discuss the joyous music that dominated the years of World War II including Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra, Count Basie and more. Come back next week when author Jesse Jarnow joins us to discuss the Weaves vs the blacklist.Buy the book and support the podcast.Download this episode.Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter.Follow us on Facebook.Let It Roll is proud to be part of Pantheon Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week author Peter Doggett returns to discuss his book “Electric Shock: 125 Years of Pop Music.” In this episode, Peter and Nate discuss how the invention of electric recording, microphones and radio allowed singers like Bing Crosby and Rudy Vallee to "croon" to their audiences. Come back next week when author Peter Doggett returns to talk about the Swing Era.Buy the book and support the podcast.Download this episode.Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter.Follow us on Facebook.Let It Roll is proud to be part of Pantheon Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week author Dan Charnas joins Nate for a discussion of his book “The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip Hop.” In this episode, Dan and Nate talk about two of the legendary record companies from Hip Hop’s early years: Sugarhill Records and Def Jam. They discuss Sylvia and Joe Robinson’s background in the world of old school R&B and how those practices carried over into the 1980s. They also dive deep into the unlikely partnership between Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin and the glory days of Def Jam.Buy the book and support the podcast.Download this episode.Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter.Follow us on Facebook.Let It Roll is proud to be part of Pantheon Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Nate and author Jonathan Gould conclude their discussion of Otis Redding. They cover Redding's breakthrough with audiences urban, English and anglo and his tragic death.Buy the book and support the podcast.Download this episode.Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter.Follow us on Facebook.Let It Roll is proud to be part of Pantheon Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week author Jonathan Gould joins Nate for the first of two episodes discussing his book “Otis Redding: An Unfinished Life.” In this episode, Jonathan and Nate cover the youth of Otis Redding in segregation era Georgia, his beginnings in music, his discovery by Stax Records, his management and an early brush with crime.Buy the book and support the podcast.Download this episode.Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter.Follow us on Facebook.Let It Roll is proud to be part of Pantheon Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nate and author Robert Gordon finish their discussion of Robert's "Respect Yourself" with a focus on Al Bell's years at the helm of Stax. From the dizzying highs of Shaft and WattStax to the sad end of Memphis' greatest record company in the 1970s.Buy the book and support the podcast.Download this episode.Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter.Follow us on Facebook.Let It Roll is proud to be part of Pantheon Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Nate is joined by author Robert Gordon to discuss his book “Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion.” In this episode, Robert and Nate talk about the birth and rapid rise of Stax Records, the early hits of Booker T & the MGs, Otis Redding, and Carla Thomas, as well as the political, social and racial context of Memphis, Tennessee in the 1960s.Buy the book and support the podcast.Download this episode.Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter.Follow us on Facebook.Let It Roll is proud to be part of Pantheon Podcasts.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Nate is joined by Author, Joe Bonomo, to discuss his book, “Jerry Lee Lewis: Lost and Found.” In this episode, Joe and Nate discuss the rise, fall and comeback of rockabilly icon Jerry Lee Lewis with a particular focus on his album “Live at the Star-Club.” They’ll cover Jerry’s amazing early hits, his fall from grace, long years in the wilderness, how he came to record a live album at the German club the Beatles made famous, and the current debate about re-evaluating artists in light of the #metoo movement.Buy the book and support the podcast.Download this episode.Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter.Follow us on Facebook.Let It Roll is proud to be part of Pantheon Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Nate is joined by author Robert Gordon, to discuss his book "I Can't Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters". In this episode, Robert and Nate discuss the epic life story of perhaps the most iconic American bluesman of all, from Muddy's beginnings at the Stovall Plantation in the Mississippi Delta, his first recordings for the Library of Congress, his move to Chicago and role in pioneering electric blues, all the way to his influence on the British blues revival and later years as an elder statesman of American music.Buy the book and support the podcast.Download this episode.Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter.Follow us on Facebook.Let It Roll is proud to be part of Pantheon Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Nate is joined by Author, David Wondrich, to discuss his overlooked classic: “Stomp and Swerve: How American Music Got Hot 1843-1924.” In this episode, David takes Nate way way back into the history of American music, long before the invention of recording, to discuss how African-derived music in North America differs from its sister music in South America and the Caribbean, as well as America’s primordial pop phenomenon -- The Minstrel Show, and all the associated racist baggage that comes with it; country music’s surprising roots in African-American music and the black performers and songwriters who seized the opportunities presented to break the color barriers which had kept black performers off professional stages until nearly the turn of the 20th century.Buy the book and support the podcast.Download this episode.Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter.Follow us on Facebook.Let It Roll is proud to be part of Pantheon Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices