The music listening public has come back full circle to that point over a century back when music existed only in the ether, evanescent and fleeting, or in the "cloud." Despite any resurgence of vinyl, most music is accessed in a streaming format without any tangible, physical, consumable object. The shift is catastrophic for working musicians, who must return to performance for any sustainable livelihood. For much of the last century, performance existed to emulate a recording, even our musical memories and imaginations are conditioned and limited by the recordings we have heard. In this episode, we converse with collector and musical archeologist John McFadden and go on a listening tour of the oldest available records for mass consumption .Tuning, timbre and vibrato all differ from what became the norm after recording triumphed over performance. These records are our last link to the days when the composing giants walked the earth. Please join us and do not forget to like and subscribe, any note of support is meaningful and cherished.

In this episode of "Music and Politics" we shine a light on Charleston, SC, a city in the Deep South once the largest and richest in Colonial America. Seen from this perspective, the history of America and its musics looks very different: at once dominated by the tyranny of slavery and also much more African. As a centre of Gullah culture, Charleston saw efforts to preserve the spiritual song of slavery and to construct stage art, from a play to an opera, based on the Black Experience. Gullah refers to, an American Creole, a language and a culture that preserved West African traditions, from music to cuisine to handicrafts like nowhere else in the country. In the first half of this episode we examine the meaning and form of the "Spiritual," a text of resistance and communication, denied the use of percussion. We interrogate the particularly perverse project of the descendants of slave owners to preserve and even perform spirituals themselves. In the second half of this episode we share a medley from this past summer's Gospel Gullah Fest and reflect on Gospel as a retrenchment of the sacred, as a response to secular and often erotic popular music. Both speak a similar language of love and ecstasy reflecting the complex layers and multidimensional tradition of America's most propounding and rich musical heritage.

In this episode, we discuss the Jewish politics of pop and punk with conversations about Lou Reed and Brian Epstein that ranges from fashion to the avant garde, drug addiction, the demimonde and gay sexuality in an era of erotic prohibition. We are glad to feature Steven Lee Beeber, the author of "The Heebie Jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret Jewish History of Punk," that argues for Punk as the most Jewish of pop musics. Reed, considered the godfather of punk by many, was guided throughout by a New York Jewish sensibility, an affinity for the margins and daring outsiders. We are then joined by Vivek Toward, author of the bestselling graphic novel "The Fifth Beatle," that convincingly argues for Brian Epstein as truly deserving of that moniker as it was he who masterminded the Beatles in the image and format that made them world famous. Epstein, embodied the Jewish experience of the musically minded mediating middle man, who fashioned for the wider world a perfectionist pop presentation of what was to become the biggest group of all time. Stay tuned and thanks for listening! Please don't forget, to rate, like and subscribe and support us on Patreon.