Let It Roll
"Let it Roll" is a podcast about the history of popular music from the 19th Century to the 21st. Proud part of Pantheon - the podcast network for music lovers.
Episodes
Hosts Nate Wilcox and James Porter kick off their discussion of Ken Burns' "Country Music" documentary series with a look at episode one, “The Rub.” They talk about the musical sources of country music, Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family. There’s also a little meta discussion about the series and their thoughts on Ken Burns.
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January 9, 2026 • 49 mins
Today special guest scholar and musician Yuri Campbell returns to review the key lessons we learned from Nate’s discussions with Ed Ward about his book “The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 2: 1964-1977 The Beatles, The Stones and the Rise of Classic Rock” and the Let It Roll series covering it. We talk about Ward's cultural scholarship and what lessons we can learn from his method of studying music history.
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January 7, 2026 • 49 mins
Nate Wilcox and guest Yuri Campbell look back on Ed Ward's book "History of Rock & Roll 1920-1963 " and the Let It Roll series covering it. We talk about Ward's cultural scholarship and what lessons we can learn from his method of studying music history.
GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE -- The final 15 minutes...
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January 5, 2026 • 43 mins
Ed Ward and Nate Wilcox continue their discussion of Ed's book "The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 2: 1964–1977: The Beatles, the Stones, and the Rise of Classic Rock" with a look at the bloating of the music biz in the early 70s and the feeling that everyone was waiting on something to happen, Bob Dylan vs David Geffen, the New York Dolls at the Mercer Arts Center and the collapse of Stax Records.
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January 2, 2026 • 47 mins
Ed Ward and Nate Wilcox continue their discussion of Ed's book "The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 2: 1964–1977: The Beatles, the Stones, and the Rise of Classic Rock" with a look at the splits between AM and FM, hard rock and soft rock and John, Paul, George and Ringo.
GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE -- The final 15...
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December 31, 2025 • 41 mins
Ed Ward and Nate Wilcox continue their discussion of Ed's book "The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 2: 1964–1977: The Beatles, the Stones, and the Rise of Classic Rock" with a look at the origins of reggae in Jamaica and a survey of the funk scene as it stood when James Brown was king and Sly Stone was emerging as his biggest rival.
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December 29, 2025 • 36 mins
Ed Ward and Nate Wilcox continue their discussion of Ed's book "The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 2: 1964–1977: The Beatles, the Stones, and the Rise of Classic Rock" with a look at 1969, Woodstock, and the invention of “the sixties.”
GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE -- The final 15 minutes of this episode are exclus...
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December 26, 2025 • 43 mins
Ed Ward and Nate Wilcox continue their discussion of Ed's book "The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 2: 1964–1977: The Beatles, the Stones, and the Rise of Classic Rock" with a look at 1968: the year of riots and revolution, the year of newcomers like Led Zeppelin and Sly & the Family Stone and The Band who led a musical counter-revolution.
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December 24, 2025 • 60 mins
Ed Ward and Nate Wilcox continue their discussion of Ed's book "The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 2: 1964–1977: The Beatles, the Stones, and the Rise of Classic Rock" with a look at 1967, the year of Monterey Pop, when the Beatles lost Brian Epstein and gained the Maharishi, Brian Wilson blew it and Otis Redding died.
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December 22, 2025 • 46 mins
Ed Ward and Nate Wilcox continue their discussion of Ed's book "The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 2: 1964–1977: The Beatles, the Stones, and the Rise of Classic Rock" with a look at rock & roll's second miracle year when America responded to the Beatles by blending folk and blues with rock & roll. They discuss how Michael Bloomfield electrified Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys making Pet Sounds, Stax hitting its stride, James Brown getti...
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December 19, 2025 • 39 mins
Ed Ward and Nate Wilcox kick off their discussion of Ed's book "The History of Rock & Roll, Volume 2: 1964–1977: The Beatles, the Stones, and the Rise of Classic Rock" with a look at The Beatles' conquest of America, the other British bands that followed in their wake and the American response headed up by Motown and James Brown.
GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE...
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December 17, 2025 • 36 mins
Ed Ward and host Nate Wilcox fill in a gap in our discussion of his epic History of Rock & Roll Part 1, 1920-1963, with a look at Bob Wills and Western Swing. We pick up the history of country music where we left off after the Carter Family & Jimmie Rodgers episode and carry on to the 1930s emergence of a distinctive genre in Texas: Western Swing and the man, Bob Wills, who led it to the top of the pop charts, packed dance halls, T...
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December 15, 2025 • 42 mins
Ed Ward and host Nate Wilcox fill in a gap in our discussion of his epic History of Rock & Roll Part 1, 1920-1963 with a look at how African-American pop music transformed itself thru the swing era, the rise & fall of the blues queens, the thin line between jazz and blues, the first guitar heroes and the greatest American musical superstar you’ve probably barely heard of, Louis Jordan.
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December 12, 2025 • 38 mins
Ed Ward and host Nate Wilcox fill in a gap in our discussion of his epic History of Rock & Roll Part 1, 1920-1963 by discussing the foundation of commercial country music and its first superstars, Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family.
GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE -- The final 15 minutes of this episode are exclusivel...
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December 10, 2025 • 45 mins
This episode is a prequel to recent episodes that covers the period from 1920 to 1945. It’s a fun one as Ed Ward and Nate Wilcox talk rock and roll’s prehistory in the era of Victrolas, live radio, and swing bands. We talk about the first hit blues record, the first superstars of country music, and much more.
Buy the book and support the podcast.
GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE...
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December 8, 2025 • 44 mins
Nate Wilcox and Ed Ward conclude their discussion of Ed's "History of Rock & Roll 1920-1963 " with part two of 1963.
We'll hear about about the Lebanese Restaurant that birthed surf music and saved Fender guitars, how Murray Wilson’s failed musical career laid the groundwork for his sons’ amazing success, how Columbia buried Bob Dylan’s first attempt to go rock, and the split between kids singing “My Boyfriend’...
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December 5, 2025 • 32 mins
Nate Wilcox and Ed Ward continue their discussion of Ed's "History of Rock & Roll 1920-1963 " with the first of two shows discussing 1963. This week we’ll be talking about how Berry Gordy perfected his Motown assembly line, Phil Spector and the wrecking crew, Roy Orbison’s operatic dramas, Patsy Cline’s final year, and how James Brown finally seized control of his career and became the Godfather of Soul.
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December 3, 2025 • 54 mins
Nate Wilcox and Ed Ward continue their discussion of Ed's "History of Rock & Roll 1920-1963 " with a look at 1961 and 1962, years that are often written off as “the dark ages” of the first rock and roll era. But, as Ed Ward points out, “any time you’re a teenager is the best time for rock and roll!”
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December 1, 2025 • 59 mins
Nate Wilcox and Ed Ward continue their discussion of Ed's "History of Rock & Roll 1920-1963 " with a look at 1960, a year when the American corporate brass thought they had tamed the rock and roll rebels of the 1950s.
GO TO THE LET IT ROLL SUBSTACK TO HEAR THE FULL EPISODE -- The final 15 minutes of this episode are exclusively for pa...
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November 28, 2025 • 57 mins
Nate Wilcox and Ed Ward continue their discussion of Ed's "History of Rock & Roll 1920-1963 " with a look at 1959, a year that started with tragedy for rock n’ roll and went on to see the first flowerings of soul music and the Brill Building pop that would dominate the early 60s.
It was also the year that the music business figured out how to package pretty faces with rocking beats and foisted Fabian and Frankie Avalon...
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