{"podcast":{"title":"Groundwater: The Blues Beneath American Music","slug":"groundwater-the-blues-beneath-everything-7851197","podcast_index_feed_id":7851197,"rss_url":"https://feeds.transistor.fm/groundwater-the-blues-beneath-everything","website_url":"http://groundwater.fm","image_url":"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","author":"Thomas Stubbs","episode_count":12,"summary":"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.","last_synced_at":"2026-09-08T20:18:19.773007+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/groundwater-the-blues-beneath-everything-7851197"},"episode":{"title":"The Country's Memory: Jimi Hendrix, Strange Fruit, and American Music at 250","slug":"the-country-s-memory-jimi-hendrix-strange-fruit-and-american-music-at-250","published_at":"2026-07-02T09:01:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/groundwater-the-blues-beneath-everything-7851197/the-country-s-memory-jimi-hendrix-strange-fruit-and-american-music-at-250","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/groundwater-the-blues-beneath-everything-7851197","url":"https://groundwater.fm/episodes/the-countrys-memory-jimi-hendrix-strange-fruit-and-american-music-at-250","audio_url":"https://op3.dev/e/media.transistor.fm/0b66c986/19052478.mp3","summary":"Jimi Hendrix played \"The Star-Spangled Banner\" at Woodstock in 1969 and let the war in around the melody. This year the United States turns 250. This Groundwater special steps back from the map to ask what twentieth-century American music has been for: the country's memory, the part of the record that didn't get edited. At its center is Billie Holiday's \"Strange Fruit\" — the song that held a mirror up to lynching, and the song the state went after its singer over. Around it: the Fisk Jubilee Singers and the spirituals; Woody Guthrie's \"This Land Is Your Land\" and the verses America stopped teaching; Sam Cooke's \"A Change Is Gonna Come\"; Nina Simone's \"Mississippi Goddam\"; and Louis Armstrong refusing to carry the flag abroad after Little Rock. The dark and the joy are the same record. Music and sound, in order of appearance: - \"Guitar Rag\" — Sylvester Weaver — OKeh, 1923 (theme; public domain) - \"The Star-Spangled Banner\" — Jimi Hendrix — Woodstock, 1969 - \"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot\" — Fisk University Jubilee Quartet — Victor, 1909 (public domain) - \"This Land Is Your Land\" — Woody Guthrie — Asch, 1944 - \"Strange Fruit\" — Billie Holiday — Commodore, 1939 - \"A Change Is Gonna Come\" — Sam Cooke — RCA Victor, 1964 - \"Mississippi Goddam\" — Nina Simone — Philips, 1964 Excerpts used briefly for criticism and commentary.","meta_description":"Jimi Hendrix played \"The Star-Spangled Banner\" at Woodstock in 1969 and let the war in around the melody. This year the United States turns 250. This Grou…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":934,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/groundwater-the-blues-beneath-everything-7851197/episodes/the-country-s-memory-jimi-hendrix-strange-fruit-and-american-music-at-250/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/groundwater-the-blues-beneath-everything-7851197/the-country-s-memory-jimi-hendrix-strange-fruit-and-american-music-at-250.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}