Hi Dave: I saw that I had bookmarked Mrs. Anderson's YouTube video and checked to see what else was available, and this series came up. I only listened to the first one. I've been listening to RJ and reading about him over the last 50+ years, but he's only been one of many musicians and not my main focus. I certainly don't have a comprehensive knowledge of what has already been discussed and rehashed, etc. re: RJ, so I can't comment on that part of your question, but I found the interview and discussion interesting. Becoming visually impaired in my right eye has made reading stressful after a period of time, so listening to podcasts and the like is a welcome break when I have to put down a book or article.
There's some family background that I didn't know about and also a few details about RJ's wide musical interests, such as his interest in Hawaiian music and that he'd play Hawaiian tunes with the guitar on his lap. Elijah filled in some background on the widespread touring of Hawaiian musicians during the first part of the 20th century. John Troutman covers this in his book and earlier article in Southern Cultures. Mention was made that some of the Blues musicians referred to it as Hawaiian. Whether Hawaiian slack-key and slide playing was the source its Southern counterpart is questionable given that open tunings and sliding something on the strings doesn't exactly require privileged access to secret knowledge.
I didn't know that the reason the quality of RJ's reissues sounded better than most is because John Hammond Sr. was so taken with RJ that he retained the metal masters in Columbia's vaults and they were the source of the LP tracks as opposed to the "found" 78s of other musicians.
Was it any good? I'd say so. But at the risk of copping out and telling you to listen and judge for yourself, I'll simply say that if you have a spare hour with nothing better to do, give it a listen. I'm sure the podcasts aren't for everybody and you can always turn it off. After all, there are only 24 hours in a day and only so many days in a life. But of course you can say that about damn near anything.
