“What about the Black woman who does not care to save you?” asks Adia Victoria. “How about the Black woman who is trying to look after her own skin, because you're not looking out for her?” Adia’s forthcoming album, A Southern Gothic, is rich with these questions and the characters who ask them, moving between romanticizing the South and interrogating it, all while embracing the complexity of Adia’s Southern identity. On this week’s episode, Adia and Hanif dig into the widespread influence of Black Southern culture, and the legacy of the blues as an artistic gesture towards freedom—one that is still alive to this day, and remains as vital to American music as ever before. For the playlist of songs curated for this episode head over to https://bit.ly/southern-identity.

/ Music In This Week’s Episode: /

Adia Victoria, Magnolia Blues

Big Mama Thornton, Your Love Is Where It Ought To Be

Memphis Minnie, New Dirty Dozen

Shirley Brown, Woman to Woman

Shemekia Copeland, Salt In My Wounds

Ida Cox, Wild Women Don’t Have The Blues

Alberta Hunter, My Handy Man Ain’t Handy No More

Bessie Smith, Devil’s Gonna Git You