The NAMM Resource Center Launches The Music History Project Podcast

NAMM is pleased to announce the launch of the organization’s newest podcast, “The Music History Project.” The podcast is led by the NAMM Oral History Resource Center and features the people and products that define our audible experience. From music product innovators and creators to influential music store retailers and topline performing artists, the podcast connects listeners with luminaries across the musical spectrum.

“In the last seventeen years, we’ve captured over 3,000 fascinating stories from all parts of the industry,” shared Dan Del Fiorentino, NAMM Music Historian. “And the one thing that all the interviews have in common is that they articulate an undeniable passion for music. Through the format of the podcast, we’re able to showcase the stories of these living legends in their entirety and further preserve them for generations to come.”

The podcast taps the Resource Center’s vast interview archives of 3,000 and counting, as well as new interviews to create both thematic and long-format interviews which brings the vibrant history of music making and music products together for music fans to be inspired by the first-person stories from industry legends. The Project will feature a new podcast every two weeks on Thursday.

The Project’s first podcast episode tells the story of Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. The two-part series covers the efforts of Sun’s founder Sam Phillips to capture and record the “Memphis sound” with artists such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and more. Featured guests include Sun Records engineer, Matt Ross-Spang; Sun house drummer, J.M. VanEaton; Sun house guitarist, Roland James; drummer, W.S. Holland; lead sheet writer, Vernon Drane; Echoplex inventor, Mike Battle; and artists Sonny Burgess, Carl Mann, Scotty Moore and Ike Turner. Download here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-1-sun-records-part-1/id1243807880?i=1000386053553&mt=2

Upcoming podcasts will feature Les Paul and stories from those who worked closely beside him; a conversation with two-time Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame-inductee Graham Nash; and The History of the DJ, discussing the birth of turntablism featuring pioneering DJs including DJ Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Grand Wizzard Theodore, DJ Jazzy Joyce, DJ Grand Master Caz, and DJ Jazzy Jay.

The NAMM Oral History Program was started in 2000 and has sought to preserve the rich history of the music products industry through first-person accounts from the entire breadth of the industry including retailers, suppliers, sales representatives, publishers, instrument and product creators, innovators, founders and artists. The very first interview featured industry pioneer, Ted McCarty. McCarty served as the president of Gibson Guitars (1950-66) and while there, signed Les Paul, which eventually led to the creation of the Gibson SG electric guitar. Other notable interviews have included Henry Steinway, Sheila E, Henry Goldrich (Manny’s Music), BB King, Keith Emerson and Marilyn Bergman (songwriter).