Groundwater: The Blues Beneath American Music Transistor (https://transistor.fm) https://feeds.transistor.fm/groundwater-the-blues-beneath-everything In 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 Stax and Muscle Shoals that crossed every line; Louis Armstrong working race and commerce from New Orleans to Chicago; the Great Migration carrying Muddy Waters and the Delta sound up the Illinois Central to Memphis, Chicago, and Detroit; and the state's long campaign against the singers who got political, from Billie Holiday to the Dixie Chicks. If you want to understand why American music sounds the way it does, start here and follow the water. 2026 Thomas Stubbs ff059d28-2c74-5c0a-835a-5b722fc70434 no Groundwater Trailer: Why American Music's Genre Labels Are a Lie - A Music History Podcast en Sat, 27 Jun 2026 09:40:44 -0400 Sat, 27 Jun 2026 09:41:16 -0400 http://groundwater.fm https://img.transistorcdn.com/eO2moOimY-Ty6SdnGifeKnx9fb8w63_TaEqswwmGwqw/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:1400/h:1400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS82NTJh/MzU4ZDljNmI5ZmE4/MzUxMThkZjE3ZGE2/MDhlYi5wbmc.jpg Groundwater: The Blues Beneath American Music http://groundwater.fm episodic Thomas Stubbs In 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 Stax and Muscle Shoals that crossed every line; Louis Armstrong working race and commerce from New Orleans to Chicago; the Great Migration carrying Muddy Waters and the Delta sound up the Illinois Central to Memphis, Chicago, and Detroit; and the state's long campaign against the singers who got political, from Billie Holiday to the Dixie Chicks. If you want to understand why American music sounds the way it does, start here and follow the water. In 1927, the record industry split American music in two and sold it to separate audiences. music, blues, jazz, music history, history Thomas Stubbs No No The Blues Professor, Part 2: Muddy Waters, the Mardi Gras Indians, and Where to Start with the Blues The Blues Professor, Part 2: Muddy Waters, the Mardi Gras Indians, and Where to Start with the Blues bonus bca790c8-f347-4539-aa2d-4f61f6740054 https://groundwater.fm/episodes/the-blues-professor-part-2-muddy-waters-the-mardi-gras-indians-and-where-to-start-with-the-blues Muddy Waters, the Mardi Gras Indians, Blind Willie McTell, and the one record to start with: the second half of Thomas Stubbs's conversation with Rich Pettit, the man Atlanta knows as the Blues Professor.

In Part 1 we traced the blues out of West Africa and up the East Coast. This half starts back home in New Orleans — where Rich grew up — and the city's living traditions: the second line, the jazz funeral that walks to the cemetery on a dirge and home on a parade, and the Mardi Gras Indians, with Big Chief Jolly of the Wild Tchoupitoulas and the Neville Brothers and the Meters threaded through it.

Then the heart of it: Blind Willie McTell's "Dying Crapshooter's Blues" — a song a dying gambler dictated to a blind street singer, who carried it back to Atlanta and made it last. Rich calls it one of the cleverest pieces of writing in the blues, and it's hard to argue.

And at the end, the question you put to anyone who really knows: if you're starting from nothing, where do you go first? Rich's answer is Muddy Waters — which takes us to The Last Waltz, one camera on Muddy alone, doing "Mannish Boy," killing it.

Groundwater is the companion podcast to Thomas Stubbs's book Race Records: The Lie That Split American Music — and the Blues That Ran Underneath. More at groundwater.fm.

Music

  • Theme — "Guitar Rag," Sylvester Weaver (OKeh, 1923). Public domain.
  • "N.O. Bounce," Big Freedia. Excerpted as commentary under fair use.
  • "Dying Crapshooter's Blues," Blind Willie McTell — Library of Congress field recording, Atlanta, 1940 (John A. Lomax, Archive of American Folk Song). Excerpted as commentary under fair use.
  • "Mannish Boy," Muddy Waters with The Band, from The Last Waltz (Warner Bros., 1978). Excerpted as commentary under fair use.
]]> Muddy Waters, the Mardi Gras Indians, Blind Willie McTell, and the one record to start with: the second half of Thomas Stubbs's conversation with Rich Pettit, the man Atlanta knows as the Blues Professor.

In Part 1 we traced the blues out of West Africa and up the East Coast. This half starts back home in New Orleans — where Rich grew up — and the city's living traditions: the second line, the jazz funeral that walks to the cemetery on a dirge and home on a parade, and the Mardi Gras Indians, with Big Chief Jolly of the Wild Tchoupitoulas and the Neville Brothers and the Meters threaded through it.

Then the heart of it: Blind Willie McTell's "Dying Crapshooter's Blues" — a song a dying gambler dictated to a blind street singer, who carried it back to Atlanta and made it last. Rich calls it one of the cleverest pieces of writing in the blues, and it's hard to argue.

And at the end, the question you put to anyone who really knows: if you're starting from nothing, where do you go first? Rich's answer is Muddy Waters — which takes us to The Last Waltz, one camera on Muddy alone, doing "Mannish Boy," killing it.

Groundwater is the companion podcast to Thomas Stubbs's book Race Records: The Lie That Split American Music — and the Blues That Ran Underneath. More at groundwater.fm.

Music

  • Theme — "Guitar Rag," Sylvester Weaver (OKeh, 1923). Public domain.
  • "N.O. Bounce," Big Freedia. Excerpted as commentary under fair use.
  • "Dying Crapshooter's Blues," Blind Willie McTell — Library of Congress field recording, Atlanta, 1940 (John A. Lomax, Archive of American Folk Song). Excerpted as commentary under fair use.
  • "Mannish Boy," Muddy Waters with The Band, from The Last Waltz (Warner Bros., 1978). Excerpted as commentary under fair use.
]]> Thu, 25 Jun 2026 05:00:00 -0400 Thomas Stubbs Thomas Stubbs 1032 Muddy Waters, the Mardi Gras Indians, Blind Willie McTell, and the one record to start with: the second half of Thomas Stubbs's conversation with Rich Pettit, the man Atlanta knows as the Blues Professor.

In Part 1 we traced the blues out of West Africa and up the East Coast. This half starts back home in New Orleans — where Rich grew up — and the city's living traditions: the second line, the jazz funeral that walks to the cemetery on a dirge and home on a parade, and the Mardi Gras Indians, with Big Chief Jolly of the Wild Tchoupitoulas and the Neville Brothers and the Meters threaded through it.

Then the heart of it: Blind Willie McTell's "Dying Crapshooter's Blues" — a song a dying gambler dictated to a blind street singer, who carried it back to Atlanta and made it last. Rich calls it one of the cleverest pieces of writing in the blues, and it's hard to argue.

And at the end, the question you put to anyone who really knows: if you're starting from nothing, where do you go first? Rich's answer is Muddy Waters — which takes us to The Last Waltz, one camera on Muddy alone, doing "Mannish Boy," killing it.

Groundwater is the companion podcast to Thomas Stubbs's book Race Records: The Lie That Split American Music — and the Blues That Ran Underneath. More at groundwater.fm.

Music

  • Theme — "Guitar Rag," Sylvester Weaver (OKeh, 1923). Public domain.
  • "N.O. Bounce," Big Freedia. Excerpted as commentary under fair use.
  • "Dying Crapshooter's Blues," Blind Willie McTell — Library of Congress field recording, Atlanta, 1940 (John A. Lomax, Archive of American Folk Song). Excerpted as commentary under fair use.
  • "Mannish Boy," Muddy Waters with The Band, from The Last Waltz (Warner Bros., 1978). Excerpted as commentary under fair use.
]]> Rich Pettit, Blues Professor, WRFG, Muddy Waters, Blind Willie McTell, Dying Crapshooter's Blues, Mardi Gras Indians, second line, Wild Tchoupitoulas, Neville Brothers, The Meters, Dr. John, Professor Longhair, The Last Waltz, Mannish Boy, New Orleans jazz funeral, Chicago blues, where to start with the blues, blues history, music history podcast No The Blues Professor, Part 1: Piedmont Blues, the Allman Brothers, and Atlanta's Living Scene The Blues Professor, Part 1: Piedmont Blues, the Allman Brothers, and Atlanta's Living Scene bonus 1823e04f-50d2-412e-88c7-72ce85e8410c https://groundwater.fm/episodes/the-blues-professor-part-1-piedmont-blues-the-allman-brothers-and-atlantas-living-scene Piedmont blues, the Allman Brothers, Lonnie Holley, and the long road the blues took out of West Africa: Thomas Stubbs sits down with Rich Pettit, the man Atlanta knows as the Blues Professor — part one of two.

For forty years, Rich has hosted Good Morning Blues on WRFG 89.3, Atlanta's community radio station. He grew up in New Orleans and came to the blues backwards — through classic rock — until he started noticing how many of those songs were covers.

Part one is about where the blues comes from and where it went: West Africa and Congo Square, the banjo nobody remembers is African, Atlanta's living blues scene, and the Piedmont players who taught each other on back porches outside Covington — Savannah Weaver, Curly Weaver, Blind Willie McTell, Bar-B-Q Bob, Buddy Moss — before the music climbed the East Coast and rode the rail north.

Along the way: Lonnie Holley improvising the blues on a high wire, the night the Dirty Dozen Brass Band rolled in late and blew Michelle Shocked's horn section off the stage, and the $30 loophole that keeps a Grant Park living room packed.

Part two, we head to Chicago.

Groundwater is the companion podcast to Thomas Stubbs's book Race Records: The Lie That Split American Music — and the Blues That Ran Underneath. More at groundwater.fm.

Music
Theme — "Guitar Rag," Sylvester Weaver (OKeh, 1923). Public domain.
"Crazy Blues," Mamie Smith (OKeh, 1920). Public domain.
"Come On In My Kitchen," The Allman Brothers Band, from Shades of Two Worlds (Epic Records, ℗ 1991). Excerpted as commentary under fair use.

]]> Piedmont blues, the Allman Brothers, Lonnie Holley, and the long road the blues took out of West Africa: Thomas Stubbs sits down with Rich Pettit, the man Atlanta knows as the Blues Professor — part one of two.

For forty years, Rich has hosted Good Morning Blues on WRFG 89.3, Atlanta's community radio station. He grew up in New Orleans and came to the blues backwards — through classic rock — until he started noticing how many of those songs were covers.

Part one is about where the blues comes from and where it went: West Africa and Congo Square, the banjo nobody remembers is African, Atlanta's living blues scene, and the Piedmont players who taught each other on back porches outside Covington — Savannah Weaver, Curly Weaver, Blind Willie McTell, Bar-B-Q Bob, Buddy Moss — before the music climbed the East Coast and rode the rail north.

Along the way: Lonnie Holley improvising the blues on a high wire, the night the Dirty Dozen Brass Band rolled in late and blew Michelle Shocked's horn section off the stage, and the $30 loophole that keeps a Grant Park living room packed.

Part two, we head to Chicago.

Groundwater is the companion podcast to Thomas Stubbs's book Race Records: The Lie That Split American Music — and the Blues That Ran Underneath. More at groundwater.fm.

Music
Theme — "Guitar Rag," Sylvester Weaver (OKeh, 1923). Public domain.
"Crazy Blues," Mamie Smith (OKeh, 1920). Public domain.
"Come On In My Kitchen," The Allman Brothers Band, from Shades of Two Worlds (Epic Records, ℗ 1991). Excerpted as commentary under fair use.

]]> Tue, 23 Jun 2026 05:00:00 -0400 Thomas Stubbs Thomas Stubbs 1354 Piedmont blues, the Allman Brothers, Lonnie Holley, and the long road the blues took out of West Africa: Thomas Stubbs sits down with Rich Pettit, the man Atlanta knows as the Blues Professor — part one of two.

For forty years, Rich has hosted Good Morning Blues on WRFG 89.3, Atlanta's community radio station. He grew up in New Orleans and came to the blues backwards — through classic rock — until he started noticing how many of those songs were covers.

Part one is about where the blues comes from and where it went: West Africa and Congo Square, the banjo nobody remembers is African, Atlanta's living blues scene, and the Piedmont players who taught each other on back porches outside Covington — Savannah Weaver, Curly Weaver, Blind Willie McTell, Bar-B-Q Bob, Buddy Moss — before the music climbed the East Coast and rode the rail north.

Along the way: Lonnie Holley improvising the blues on a high wire, the night the Dirty Dozen Brass Band rolled in late and blew Michelle Shocked's horn section off the stage, and the $30 loophole that keeps a Grant Park living room packed.

Part two, we head to Chicago.

Groundwater is the companion podcast to Thomas Stubbs's book Race Records: The Lie That Split American Music — and the Blues That Ran Underneath. More at groundwater.fm.

Music
Theme — "Guitar Rag," Sylvester Weaver (OKeh, 1923). Public domain.
"Crazy Blues," Mamie Smith (OKeh, 1920). Public domain.
"Come On In My Kitchen," The Allman Brothers Band, from Shades of Two Worlds (Epic Records, ℗ 1991). Excerpted as commentary under fair use.

]]> Rich Pettit, Blues Professor, WRFG, Atlanta blues, Piedmont blues, Allman Brothers, Lonnie Holley, Blind Willie McTell, Curly Weaver, Buddy Moss, Bar-B-Q Bob, Savannah Weaver, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Congo Square, banjo, Great Migration, Good Morning Blues, New Orleans, blues history, music history podcast No Groundwater Trailer: Why American Music's Genre Labels Are a Lie - A Music History Podcast Groundwater Trailer: Why American Music's Genre Labels Are a Lie - A Music History Podcast trailer 5cc1c4bd-5c68-4ed4-9028-01e20aa77337 https://groundwater.fm/episodes/trailer-start-at-the-mouth-of-the-river A two-minute introduction to Groundwater — what the show is, why American music's genre labels are a lie, and where we're going. Start here, then follow the water.

]]> A two-minute introduction to Groundwater — what the show is, why American music's genre labels are a lie, and where we're going. Start here, then follow the water.

]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 19:23:19 -0400 Thomas Stubbs Thomas Stubbs 76 A two-minute introduction to Groundwater — what the show is, why American music's genre labels are a lie, and where we're going. Start here, then follow the water.

]]> music history podcast blues history American music history Muscle Shoals Aretha Franklin Louis Armstrong Muddy Waters Robert Johnson New Orleans music Chicago blues soul music history Great Migration music documentary music storytelling R&B history narrative podcast music culture No Twelfth Street Station: The Great Migration and How New Orleans Music Reached Chicago 4 4 Twelfth Street Station: The Great Migration and How New Orleans Music Reached Chicago full 4982bcd2-3719-4be5-8abb-5cfb902a98c0 https://groundwater.fm/s1/4 The music didn’t ride north on riverboats. It rode the Illinois Central Railroad — out of New Orleans, up through Memphis and the Mississippi Delta into Chicago — in the luggage cars and Jim Crow coaches of the Great Migration.

Episode 4 of Groundwater traces what the music became when it left the South: Louis Armstrong stepping off the train at Twelfth Street Station in 1922 with a cornet and a fish sandwich; King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band and Armstrong’s first recorded solo; the Hot Five’s “West End Blues” and the thirteen-second cadenza that changed what a trumpet could do; Muddy Waters electrifying his Delta guitar on the South Side for Chess Records; Count Basie’s Kansas City swing; and Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie inventing bebop as an act of self-defense. The pipeline begins at Congo Square. The northern terminus is Chess Records.

Music and sound, in order of appearance:

 • “Guitar Rag” — Sylvester Weaver — OKeh, 1923 (theme; public domain)
 • “2-8-2 No. 1534, Illinois Central” — Vinton Wight, Sounds of Steam Locomotives No. 1 — Folkways FX 6152, 1956
 • “Chimes Blues” — King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band — Gennett, 1923
 • “West End Blues” — Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five — OKeh, 1928
 • “Hoochie Coochie Man” — Muddy Waters — Chess, 1954 (written by Willie Dixon)
 • “One O’Clock Jump” — Count Basie and His Orchestra — Decca, 1937
 • “Ko-Ko” — Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie — Savoy, 1945

Excerpts used briefly for criticism and commentary; pre-1928 recordings are public domain.

]]> The music didn’t ride north on riverboats. It rode the Illinois Central Railroad — out of New Orleans, up through Memphis and the Mississippi Delta into Chicago — in the luggage cars and Jim Crow coaches of the Great Migration.

Episode 4 of Groundwater traces what the music became when it left the South: Louis Armstrong stepping off the train at Twelfth Street Station in 1922 with a cornet and a fish sandwich; King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band and Armstrong’s first recorded solo; the Hot Five’s “West End Blues” and the thirteen-second cadenza that changed what a trumpet could do; Muddy Waters electrifying his Delta guitar on the South Side for Chess Records; Count Basie’s Kansas City swing; and Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie inventing bebop as an act of self-defense. The pipeline begins at Congo Square. The northern terminus is Chess Records.

Music and sound, in order of appearance:

 • “Guitar Rag” — Sylvester Weaver — OKeh, 1923 (theme; public domain)
 • “2-8-2 No. 1534, Illinois Central” — Vinton Wight, Sounds of Steam Locomotives No. 1 — Folkways FX 6152, 1956
 • “Chimes Blues” — King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band — Gennett, 1923
 • “West End Blues” — Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five — OKeh, 1928
 • “Hoochie Coochie Man” — Muddy Waters — Chess, 1954 (written by Willie Dixon)
 • “One O’Clock Jump” — Count Basie and His Orchestra — Decca, 1937
 • “Ko-Ko” — Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie — Savoy, 1945

Excerpts used briefly for criticism and commentary; pre-1928 recordings are public domain.

]]> Tue, 09 Jun 2026 05:00:00 -0400 Thomas Stubbs Thomas Stubbs 820 The music didn’t ride north on riverboats. It rode the Illinois Central Railroad — out of New Orleans, up through Memphis and the Mississippi Delta into Chicago — in the luggage cars and Jim Crow coaches of the Great Migration.

Episode 4 of Groundwater traces what the music became when it left the South: Louis Armstrong stepping off the train at Twelfth Street Station in 1922 with a cornet and a fish sandwich; King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band and Armstrong’s first recorded solo; the Hot Five’s “West End Blues” and the thirteen-second cadenza that changed what a trumpet could do; Muddy Waters electrifying his Delta guitar on the South Side for Chess Records; Count Basie’s Kansas City swing; and Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie inventing bebop as an act of self-defense. The pipeline begins at Congo Square. The northern terminus is Chess Records.

Music and sound, in order of appearance:

 • “Guitar Rag” — Sylvester Weaver — OKeh, 1923 (theme; public domain)
 • “2-8-2 No. 1534, Illinois Central” — Vinton Wight, Sounds of Steam Locomotives No. 1 — Folkways FX 6152, 1956
 • “Chimes Blues” — King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band — Gennett, 1923
 • “West End Blues” — Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five — OKeh, 1928
 • “Hoochie Coochie Man” — Muddy Waters — Chess, 1954 (written by Willie Dixon)
 • “One O’Clock Jump” — Count Basie and His Orchestra — Decca, 1937
 • “Ko-Ko” — Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie — Savoy, 1945

Excerpts used briefly for criticism and commentary; pre-1928 recordings are public domain.

]]> Illinois Central Railroad, Great Migration, Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Creole Jazz Band, Chimes Blues, West End Blues, Hot Five, Chicago blues, Muddy Waters, Chess Records, Willie Dixon, Howlin’ Wolf, Count Basie, One O’Clock Jump, Kansas City jazz, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, bebop, Ko-Ko, W.C. Handy, Beale Street, Memphis blues, St. Louis Blues, Robert Johnson, boogie-woogie, Mahalia Jackson, Congo Square, jazz history, blues history, American music history, race records No The Drain: New Orleans Music From Professor Longhair to Katrina 3 3 The Drain: New Orleans Music From Professor Longhair to Katrina full 6a640852-2888-4902-a48d-a668ddb96684 https://groundwater.fm/s1/3 Professor Longhair kicked the bass of his piano to keep time. The Meters stripped the second line down to funk. Then the levees broke. New Orleans music from Longhair to Katrina

Armstrong left. Bechet left. Oliver left. Morton left. For thirty years, the romantic version of the story held that New Orleans jazz had migrated north and the city was living on memory. It was wrong. The city never stopped cooking.

This episode traces the music that stayed: Professor Longhair’s rumba-boogie on a piano with several keys missing; Fats Domino selling sixty-five million records without leaving the Ninth Ward; the Meters inventing funk on Valence Street; the second-line beat and the jazz funeral as direct descendants of Congo Square; bounce as the rhythmic line running from a Magnolia housing project in 1991 back to an enslaved man on a drum in 1819. On August 29, 2005, the levees broke, and the people displaced were precisely the people who carried the tradition. Some came back. Many came back. The second lines resumed.

The episode closes on Keith Richards on his knees at Chess Records — the drain running in reverse.

Adapted from *Race Records: The Lie That Split American Music — and the Blues That Ran Underneath* (forthcoming).

-----

**Music featured in this episode:**

“Go to the Mardi Gras” — Professor Longhair (Ron Records, 1959)

“Tipitina” — Professor Longhair (Atlantic, 1953)

“Blueberry Hill” — Fats Domino (Imperial, 1956)

“Cissy Strut” — The Meters (Josie Records, 1969)

“Brass Band Beat No. 1,” from *New Orleans Brass Band Beats: Second Line Season, Vol. 1*

“Just a Closer Walk With Thee” and “New Second Line” — Olympia Brass Band, from *New Orleans Funeral and Parade* (Folkways Records, 1962)

“Brother John” — The Wild Tchoupitoulas (Island/Antilles, 1976)

“Get It Ready Ready” — DJ Jubilee (Take Fo’ Records, 1993)

“Let Me Get That Outcha” — Big Freedia

“Walter’s Blues” (live) — Little Walter, with Hound Dog Taylor (guitar), Dillard Crume (bass), and Odie Payne (drums)

“I Can’t Be Satisfied” — Muddy Waters (Aristocrat, 1948)

Theme music: “Guitar Rag” — Sylvester Weaver (OKeh, 1923; public domain).

All excerpts used under fair-use claim for purposes of criticism and commentary.

]]> Professor Longhair kicked the bass of his piano to keep time. The Meters stripped the second line down to funk. Then the levees broke. New Orleans music from Longhair to Katrina

Armstrong left. Bechet left. Oliver left. Morton left. For thirty years, the romantic version of the story held that New Orleans jazz had migrated north and the city was living on memory. It was wrong. The city never stopped cooking.

This episode traces the music that stayed: Professor Longhair’s rumba-boogie on a piano with several keys missing; Fats Domino selling sixty-five million records without leaving the Ninth Ward; the Meters inventing funk on Valence Street; the second-line beat and the jazz funeral as direct descendants of Congo Square; bounce as the rhythmic line running from a Magnolia housing project in 1991 back to an enslaved man on a drum in 1819. On August 29, 2005, the levees broke, and the people displaced were precisely the people who carried the tradition. Some came back. Many came back. The second lines resumed.

The episode closes on Keith Richards on his knees at Chess Records — the drain running in reverse.

Adapted from *Race Records: The Lie That Split American Music — and the Blues That Ran Underneath* (forthcoming).

-----

**Music featured in this episode:**

“Go to the Mardi Gras” — Professor Longhair (Ron Records, 1959)

“Tipitina” — Professor Longhair (Atlantic, 1953)

“Blueberry Hill” — Fats Domino (Imperial, 1956)

“Cissy Strut” — The Meters (Josie Records, 1969)

“Brass Band Beat No. 1,” from *New Orleans Brass Band Beats: Second Line Season, Vol. 1*

“Just a Closer Walk With Thee” and “New Second Line” — Olympia Brass Band, from *New Orleans Funeral and Parade* (Folkways Records, 1962)

“Brother John” — The Wild Tchoupitoulas (Island/Antilles, 1976)

“Get It Ready Ready” — DJ Jubilee (Take Fo’ Records, 1993)

“Let Me Get That Outcha” — Big Freedia

“Walter’s Blues” (live) — Little Walter, with Hound Dog Taylor (guitar), Dillard Crume (bass), and Odie Payne (drums)

“I Can’t Be Satisfied” — Muddy Waters (Aristocrat, 1948)

Theme music: “Guitar Rag” — Sylvester Weaver (OKeh, 1923; public domain).

All excerpts used under fair-use claim for purposes of criticism and commentary.

]]> Tue, 26 May 2026 05:01:00 -0400 Thomas Stubbs Thomas Stubbs 1029 Professor Longhair kicked the bass of his piano to keep time. The Meters stripped the second line down to funk. Then the levees broke. New Orleans music from Longhair to Katrina

Armstrong left. Bechet left. Oliver left. Morton left. For thirty years, the romantic version of the story held that New Orleans jazz had migrated north and the city was living on memory. It was wrong. The city never stopped cooking.

This episode traces the music that stayed: Professor Longhair’s rumba-boogie on a piano with several keys missing; Fats Domino selling sixty-five million records without leaving the Ninth Ward; the Meters inventing funk on Valence Street; the second-line beat and the jazz funeral as direct descendants of Congo Square; bounce as the rhythmic line running from a Magnolia housing project in 1991 back to an enslaved man on a drum in 1819. On August 29, 2005, the levees broke, and the people displaced were precisely the people who carried the tradition. Some came back. Many came back. The second lines resumed.

The episode closes on Keith Richards on his knees at Chess Records — the drain running in reverse.

Adapted from *Race Records: The Lie That Split American Music — and the Blues That Ran Underneath* (forthcoming).

-----

**Music featured in this episode:**

“Go to the Mardi Gras” — Professor Longhair (Ron Records, 1959)

“Tipitina” — Professor Longhair (Atlantic, 1953)

“Blueberry Hill” — Fats Domino (Imperial, 1956)

“Cissy Strut” — The Meters (Josie Records, 1969)

“Brass Band Beat No. 1,” from *New Orleans Brass Band Beats: Second Line Season, Vol. 1*

“Just a Closer Walk With Thee” and “New Second Line” — Olympia Brass Band, from *New Orleans Funeral and Parade* (Folkways Records, 1962)

“Brother John” — The Wild Tchoupitoulas (Island/Antilles, 1976)

“Get It Ready Ready” — DJ Jubilee (Take Fo’ Records, 1993)

“Let Me Get That Outcha” — Big Freedia

“Walter’s Blues” (live) — Little Walter, with Hound Dog Taylor (guitar), Dillard Crume (bass), and Odie Payne (drums)

“I Can’t Be Satisfied” — Muddy Waters (Aristocrat, 1948)

Theme music: “Guitar Rag” — Sylvester Weaver (OKeh, 1923; public domain).

All excerpts used under fair-use claim for purposes of criticism and commentary.

]]> New Orleans music, Professor Longhair, Fats Domino, The Meters, second line, Mardi Gras Indians, bounce music, Hurricane Katrina, Congo Square, Big Freedia, Chess Records, race records, music history No Little Louis: Louis Armstrong and the Birth of Jazz 2 2 Little Louis: Louis Armstrong and the Birth of Jazz full 75870aed-c7a7-478e-a0a7-19879dc62ca9 https://groundwater.fm/s1/2 The first jazz musician is a ghost — no recording of Buddy Bolden survives. This is the story of the music from Bolden through Storyville to the kid who became Louis Armstrong.  What we know about him comes from the testimony of people who heard him play, filtered through decades of memory and myth. This episode traces the music from Bolden through the legalized vice district of Storyville to a kid from the Battlefield neighborhood who walked into a pawn shop with two dollars from a Lithuanian Jewish junk dealer and walked out with a five-dollar cornet. His name was Louis Armstrong. He would change what music was.

Groundwater is a music history podcast about American popular music — the blues, country, jazz, rock, hip-hop, and the artificial boundaries the recording industry built between them in 1927.

The show argues three things. First, that the blues-country split we inherited was manufactured by record labels at the Bristol Sessions — Ralph Peer building two shelves out of the same music. Second, that the blues is not a genre at all but the groundwater beneath all of American popular music, surfacing in country, rock, jazz, and hip-hop. Third, that when the music got political, the state did not ban the songs. It went after the singers — through drug charges, tax investigations, and loyalty tests, from Billie Holiday through the Dixie Chicks.

The show is hosted by Thomas Stubbs and adapted from his forthcoming book Race Records: The Lie That Split American Music — and the Blues That Ran Underneath. The first three episodes work through Chapter 1, The Mouth of the River, tracing the music from Congo Square through Storyville and Louis Armstrong to the second-line beat that runs through New Orleans today.

If you've read Robert Palmer's Deep Blues, Greil Marcus's Mystery Train, or Jeff Chang's Can't Stop Won't Stop — or if you'd like a podcast that takes pop music as seriously as those books did — this show is for you.

New episodes posted regularly. Listen anywhere you get podcasts.

]]> The first jazz musician is a ghost — no recording of Buddy Bolden survives. This is the story of the music from Bolden through Storyville to the kid who became Louis Armstrong.  What we know about him comes from the testimony of people who heard him play, filtered through decades of memory and myth. This episode traces the music from Bolden through the legalized vice district of Storyville to a kid from the Battlefield neighborhood who walked into a pawn shop with two dollars from a Lithuanian Jewish junk dealer and walked out with a five-dollar cornet. His name was Louis Armstrong. He would change what music was.

Groundwater is a music history podcast about American popular music — the blues, country, jazz, rock, hip-hop, and the artificial boundaries the recording industry built between them in 1927.

The show argues three things. First, that the blues-country split we inherited was manufactured by record labels at the Bristol Sessions — Ralph Peer building two shelves out of the same music. Second, that the blues is not a genre at all but the groundwater beneath all of American popular music, surfacing in country, rock, jazz, and hip-hop. Third, that when the music got political, the state did not ban the songs. It went after the singers — through drug charges, tax investigations, and loyalty tests, from Billie Holiday through the Dixie Chicks.

The show is hosted by Thomas Stubbs and adapted from his forthcoming book Race Records: The Lie That Split American Music — and the Blues That Ran Underneath. The first three episodes work through Chapter 1, The Mouth of the River, tracing the music from Congo Square through Storyville and Louis Armstrong to the second-line beat that runs through New Orleans today.

If you've read Robert Palmer's Deep Blues, Greil Marcus's Mystery Train, or Jeff Chang's Can't Stop Won't Stop — or if you'd like a podcast that takes pop music as seriously as those books did — this show is for you.

New episodes posted regularly. Listen anywhere you get podcasts.

]]> Thu, 07 May 2026 00:14:23 -0400 Thomas Stubbs Thomas Stubbs 933 The first jazz musician is a ghost — no recording of Buddy Bolden survives. This is the story of the music from Bolden through Storyville to the kid who became Louis Armstrong.  What we know about him comes from the testimony of people who heard him play, filtered through decades of memory and myth. This episode traces the music from Bolden through the legalized vice district of Storyville to a kid from the Battlefield neighborhood who walked into a pawn shop with two dollars from a Lithuanian Jewish junk dealer and walked out with a five-dollar cornet. His name was Louis Armstrong. He would change what music was.

Groundwater is a music history podcast about American popular music — the blues, country, jazz, rock, hip-hop, and the artificial boundaries the recording industry built between them in 1927.

The show argues three things. First, that the blues-country split we inherited was manufactured by record labels at the Bristol Sessions — Ralph Peer building two shelves out of the same music. Second, that the blues is not a genre at all but the groundwater beneath all of American popular music, surfacing in country, rock, jazz, and hip-hop. Third, that when the music got political, the state did not ban the songs. It went after the singers — through drug charges, tax investigations, and loyalty tests, from Billie Holiday through the Dixie Chicks.

The show is hosted by Thomas Stubbs and adapted from his forthcoming book Race Records: The Lie That Split American Music — and the Blues That Ran Underneath. The first three episodes work through Chapter 1, The Mouth of the River, tracing the music from Congo Square through Storyville and Louis Armstrong to the second-line beat that runs through New Orleans today.

If you've read Robert Palmer's Deep Blues, Greil Marcus's Mystery Train, or Jeff Chang's Can't Stop Won't Stop — or if you'd like a podcast that takes pop music as seriously as those books did — this show is for you.

New episodes posted regularly. Listen anywhere you get podcasts.

]]> Louis Armstong, Jazz, New Orleans, Music History No Below Sea Level: How New Orleans Built American Music 1 1 Below Sea Level: How New Orleans Built American Music full 08abeebd-260a-4559-bdfa-54cc8ddb4da0 https://groundwater.fm/s1/1 New Orleans should not exist — a city in a swamp, below sea level, at the mouth of a continent. It became the place that built American music: jazz, blues, R&B, funk, rock and roll. New Orleans was founded in 1718 in a swamp, below sea level, by people who needed someone standing at the mouth of the continent. Within a year, the first ship carrying enslaved people arrived. A century later, a French slave code with a Sunday loophole would create the only space in slave-holding North America where West African drumming survived openly. This episode traces how geography, French colonial law, the Haitian Revolution, and an accident of empire produced the foundation of every musical tradition the United States would invent — jazz, blues, country, rock and roll, R&B, funk, hip-hop. The city is still sinking. The music is still rising.

Groundwater is a music history podcast about American popular music — the blues, country, jazz, rock, hip-hop, and the artificial boundaries the recording industry built between them in 1927.

The show argues three things. First, that the blues-country split we inherited was manufactured by record labels at the Bristol Sessions — Ralph Peer building two shelves out of the same music. Second, that the blues is not a genre at all but the groundwater beneath all of American popular music, surfacing in country, rock, jazz, and hip-hop. Third, that when the music got political, the state did not ban the songs. It went after the singers — through drug charges, tax investigations, and loyalty tests, from Billie Holiday through the Dixie Chicks.

The show is hosted by Thomas Stubbs and adapted from his forthcoming book Race Records: The Lie That Split American Music — and the Blues That Ran Underneath. The first three episodes work through Chapter 1, The Mouth of the River, tracing the music from Congo Square through Storyville and Louis Armstrong to the second-line beat that runs through New Orleans today.

If you've read Robert Palmer's Deep Blues, Greil Marcus's Mystery Train, or Jeff Chang's Can't Stop Won't Stop — or if you'd like a podcast that takes pop music as seriously as those books did — this show is for you.

New episodes posted regularly. Listen anywhere you get podcasts.

]]> New Orleans should not exist — a city in a swamp, below sea level, at the mouth of a continent. It became the place that built American music: jazz, blues, R&B, funk, rock and roll. New Orleans was founded in 1718 in a swamp, below sea level, by people who needed someone standing at the mouth of the continent. Within a year, the first ship carrying enslaved people arrived. A century later, a French slave code with a Sunday loophole would create the only space in slave-holding North America where West African drumming survived openly. This episode traces how geography, French colonial law, the Haitian Revolution, and an accident of empire produced the foundation of every musical tradition the United States would invent — jazz, blues, country, rock and roll, R&B, funk, hip-hop. The city is still sinking. The music is still rising.

Groundwater is a music history podcast about American popular music — the blues, country, jazz, rock, hip-hop, and the artificial boundaries the recording industry built between them in 1927.

The show argues three things. First, that the blues-country split we inherited was manufactured by record labels at the Bristol Sessions — Ralph Peer building two shelves out of the same music. Second, that the blues is not a genre at all but the groundwater beneath all of American popular music, surfacing in country, rock, jazz, and hip-hop. Third, that when the music got political, the state did not ban the songs. It went after the singers — through drug charges, tax investigations, and loyalty tests, from Billie Holiday through the Dixie Chicks.

The show is hosted by Thomas Stubbs and adapted from his forthcoming book Race Records: The Lie That Split American Music — and the Blues That Ran Underneath. The first three episodes work through Chapter 1, The Mouth of the River, tracing the music from Congo Square through Storyville and Louis Armstrong to the second-line beat that runs through New Orleans today.

If you've read Robert Palmer's Deep Blues, Greil Marcus's Mystery Train, or Jeff Chang's Can't Stop Won't Stop — or if you'd like a podcast that takes pop music as seriously as those books did — this show is for you.

New episodes posted regularly. Listen anywhere you get podcasts.

]]> Wed, 06 May 2026 23:14:25 -0400 Thomas Stubbs Thomas Stubbs 985 New Orleans should not exist — a city in a swamp, below sea level, at the mouth of a continent. It became the place that built American music: jazz, blues, R&B, funk, rock and roll. New Orleans was founded in 1718 in a swamp, below sea level, by people who needed someone standing at the mouth of the continent. Within a year, the first ship carrying enslaved people arrived. A century later, a French slave code with a Sunday loophole would create the only space in slave-holding North America where West African drumming survived openly. This episode traces how geography, French colonial law, the Haitian Revolution, and an accident of empire produced the foundation of every musical tradition the United States would invent — jazz, blues, country, rock and roll, R&B, funk, hip-hop. The city is still sinking. The music is still rising.

Groundwater is a music history podcast about American popular music — the blues, country, jazz, rock, hip-hop, and the artificial boundaries the recording industry built between them in 1927.

The show argues three things. First, that the blues-country split we inherited was manufactured by record labels at the Bristol Sessions — Ralph Peer building two shelves out of the same music. Second, that the blues is not a genre at all but the groundwater beneath all of American popular music, surfacing in country, rock, jazz, and hip-hop. Third, that when the music got political, the state did not ban the songs. It went after the singers — through drug charges, tax investigations, and loyalty tests, from Billie Holiday through the Dixie Chicks.

The show is hosted by Thomas Stubbs and adapted from his forthcoming book Race Records: The Lie That Split American Music — and the Blues That Ran Underneath. The first three episodes work through Chapter 1, The Mouth of the River, tracing the music from Congo Square through Storyville and Louis Armstrong to the second-line beat that runs through New Orleans today.

If you've read Robert Palmer's Deep Blues, Greil Marcus's Mystery Train, or Jeff Chang's Can't Stop Won't Stop — or if you'd like a podcast that takes pop music as seriously as those books did — this show is for you.

New episodes posted regularly. Listen anywhere you get podcasts.

]]> music, history, slavery, New Orleans, blues, jazz No