On today's episode, Jason talks with Joanna Smolko about a Foster song entitled “Hard Times Come Again No More” that has enjoyed a unique afterlife. Joanna is an Instructor of Music at the University of Georgia and her areas of research include popular music, musical borrowing, American sacred music traditions like shape-note hymn singing, American folk music, and the intersections between American history and music. In our conversation we touch on Joanna’s previous research into the use of Foster’s music in twentieth century popular media as well as her current work that explores how covers of Foster’s songs by contemporary artists like Bruce Springsteen continue to shape our collective memory of him.

To learn more about the show and the book, visit our website at: www.StephenFosterAt200.com.

On today's episode, Jason talks with Cody Ebright-Jones about The Stephen Foster Story, a musical performed outdoors during the summer months in Bardstown, Kentucky. Cody is an independent scholar with a recent PhD in Musicology from the University of Michigan and studies the intersections of music, race, and history in the United States. As we discuss, The Stephen Foster Story is a complex, evolving mosaic that reflects contemporary attitudes about race in popular culture as much as it does the history of early American popular music.

To learn more about the show and the book, visit our website at: www.StephenFosterAt200.com.

On today's episode, Jennie talks with Renee Lapp Norris, Professor of Music at Lebanon Valley College. Renee researches blackface minstrelsy and performance. She defines and challenges the form and its working-class roots in today's conversation. In this episode, we consider the split between performance and composition in the 19th century, and how the fact that Stephen Foster composed rather than performed for the blackface stage might have enhanced his reputation in the 20th century. Of course, Foster the composer was linked through financial and artistic ties to Christy the performer. Renee also introduces us to the Christy song "Happy Are We" and the musical genre of the contrafact.

To learn more about the show and the book, visit our website at: www.StephenFosterAt200.com.