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Studs interviews blues singers Willie Dixon, Sunnyland Slim, and Willie Mae Big Mama Thornton about the blues. They discuss the blues festival in Chicago for which they are all in town for and name other musicians who will be performing. Sunnyland Slim talks about being on the road and the hard times. Thornton describes the blues as music made from life experiences.
Studs interviews Willie Dixon and Koko Taylor about the blues. They discuss their song "Insane Asylum" and their work together. Dixon uses his song "Little Red Rooster" to help explain how the blues are created from life experiences. Taylor reflects on singers like Willie Dixon, Memphis Minnie, and others who influenced her desire to sing the blues. Taylor also discusses European audiences and blues influence there. The musical numbers are removed from this edited version of the original recording.
Sweet Honey In The Rock, an African American female vocal group, discusses their music. They talk to Studs and play folk/blues/traditional music.
Son House discusses his life and career as a preacher and blues musician. He talks about his family, his religious background as a preacher, and his recent comeback after disappearing from music scene in 1943. He performs several songs during the interview, which have been removed due to copyright.
Shel Silverstein discusses his books and children's literature, and art. Shel Silverstein discusses his contemporaries, art, and life experiences.
Interviewing singer, guitarist, and civil rights activist Josh White and blues singer Sam Gary about their blues and folk music.
Music performance by Oscar Brown, Jr.
Studs interviews Phyl Garland about her book "Sound of Soul." They discuss various musicians that she mentions in her book and their influence on black music. Garland explains the music of young black artists and how commercialization of music gave blacks an opportunity that they would not have had otherwise. Garland talks about how Fannie Lou Hamer used music to express her message in the Civil Rights Movement and as a women's rights activist. Studs and Garland discuss various black female artists and their music.
The day before their concert performance at North Park College, the Shanghai Quartet was at the WFMT studios. Betty Bucchari explained her job was to search for great musicians that were not well-known. The Li brothers were destined to play the violins, as their parents were music teachers for 15 years.
Howard Levy, Stuart Rosenberg, and Johnny Frigo reminisce about their discovery of musical genres that inspired them and discuss the early roots of folk music.
Studs Terkel interviews Mary Lou Williams and her manager, Father Peter O'Brien. They discuss music, musicians, and instruments. Some clips of piano music playing at the end.
Interviewing American blues singer and guitarist, Mance Lipscomb, about his life, musical inspirations, and interest in blues music.
Studs Terkel interviews gospel vocalist Mahalia Jackson. Jackson discusses the freedom rally that will be taking place at McCormick's Place in Chicago, IL.
Mahalia Jackson talks about her discovery of the blues and what drew her to become a gospel singer. She also discusses her tours around Europe and the U.S.
Langston Hughes, John Sellers, James Cotton, and Otis Spann discuss their origins and blues music. The interview focuses heavily on Langston Hughes and how deeply he is influenced by the blues. Hughes also discusses his upcoming book "An African Treasury" at length. Hughes, Sellers, Spann, and Cotton perform a number of songs during the interview, they have been removed due to copyright.