Let It Roll

In this episode, Peter continues the tale of the first format wars with radio’s sudden mass market emergence in the 1920s and discusses three of the early superstars of recorded music: Enrico Caruso, Bert Williams and Al Jolson.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

In this episode, Peter explains how he came to take on such an ambitious project, why he started with the advent of recorded music rather than the advent of sheet music, the first format wars between Thomas Edison’s phonograph and Emile Berliner’s gramophone, the first recorded music superstars, and one unfortunate early hitmaker who found himself having to do a new recording every time a copy of his hit record was made.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, Adam Caress, to discuss his book, “The Day Alternative Music Died: the Struggle between Art and Money for the Soul of Rock”. In this episode, Adam makes the case that the death of Kurt Cobain led to an instant revision of music history, and attempts to remind us of what the actual state of “alternative”* music was in the halcyon days of the early 1990s before “grunge”* was codified as a simple to copy formula that was relentlessly promoted by the music industry.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

In this episode, Elijah elaborates on the claim of his book of the same title and makes his best case for the role of the Beatles (and other leading musicians of their generation like Bob Dylan and the Beach Boys) inadvertently ending the process of synthesis and cross-pollination that led to the evolution of rock and roll.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 Elijah Wald for a discussion of his book “Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues” In this episode, Elijah explains his ground-breaking revisionist history of the blues, why Robert Johnson was virtually ignored by blues fans of his own era and how he emerged as a legend in the 1960's and beyond.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

In this episode, Robert tells Nate some of his favorite stories about the undersung musical legends of his home town of Memphis, including chewing tobacco with rockabilly legend Charlie Feathers, soul legend James Carr’s tragic tale of mental transubstantiation, the singer more frightening than Jerry Lee Lewis, the Lead Belly album that changed his life, and Jeff Buckley’s final days. Thanks for listening. Next time, Nate will be back with author Elijah Wald to discuss the real story of Robert Johnston, the blues legend in his proper context.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 Nick Patoski for the final of three episodes discussing his biography of Willie Nelson: An Epic Life In this episode, Joe Nick tells us about the years when Willie, Waylon and the boys became the biggest stars in American pop music, Willie’s triumphant 80’s doing duets with everyone from Merle Haggard and Ray Price to Julio Iglesias, his battles with the IRS, touring with the Highwaymen and playing at the wedding of Bill and Melinda Gates and Ray Charles’ funeral. Thanks for listening. Next week, Nate will be back with author Robert Gordon to discuss his new book: Memphis Rent Party.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

You can read all about this 3 part series in Joe Nick Patoski's "Willie Nelson: An Epic Life". In this episode, Joe Nick tells us why Willie wasn’t satisfied as one of Nashville’s top songwriters and about his long struggle with the country music establishment.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

You can read all about this 3 part series in Joe Nick Patoski's "Willie Nelson: An Epic Life". In this episode, Joe Nick tells us how a country boy from Abbott, Texas grew into a hard-core honky tonk hero, playing gigs from San Antonio to Portland, Oregon. Honing his skills as a singing radio DJ and selling everything from encyclopedias to classic songs for as little as $50 a pop.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 Paul Trynka returns to discuss his first book, “Portrait of the Blues” a classic that’s unfortunately out of print but widely available online for a slight premium. In this episode Nate chats with Paul about the time he spent connecting with legendary bluesmen like John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin and the stories they told about their lives and adventures playing the blues from Mississippi to Chicago and all over the world.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