Talking Blues | Conversations & Oral History

Talking Blues explores the Blues condition—the human experience behind the expression. Hosted by broadcaster Matt Cooper, Talking Blues is a contemporary oral-history and documentary podcast built around original long-form conversations with Blues musicians, historians, writers, scholars, and others connected to the music. We look beyond songs, recordings, and familiar biographies to explore the conditions that shaped a person, the influence those conditions had upon them, and the Blues expression that emerged. One conversation might lead through family, place and culture; another through hardship, joy, musical influences, instruments, craft, or the peculiar turns of circumstance that eventually came out of the speakers. Some of the people here are widely known. Others are still being discovered. All are part of the lineage. These conversations also serve another purpose: oral history. Talking Blues preserves voices, experiences, and firsthand accounts while the people who lived them are still here to tell their stories—creating a permanent archive for listeners, musicians, researchers, and future generations. Underneath it all is the question that keeps sending us down the rabbit hole: Where did this person’s Blues come from? Matt Cooper Host & Archivist, Talking Blues