12-Bar Talk: A Blues Podcast
Welcome to 12-Bar Talk, a blues music and dance podcast that covers blues history, current artists and trends, dances done to blues music, and more. Join Dr. Chelsea Adams as she interviews musicians, dancers, scholars, and delves into the myriad of topics that deal with this uniquely black American art form.
Episodes

Friday May 23, 2025
Episode 21: Let's Talk Culture and Community with Damon Stone
Friday May 23, 2025
Friday May 23, 2025
Dr. Adams sits down with dance historian and blues dance practitioner Damon Stone to discuss what we call the blues dance community, cultural ambassadorship, the good and the bad of culture, the need to spend time in black spaces, and more.
Guest: Damon StoneWebsite: https://damonstone.dance/
Produced by Dr. Chelsea AdamsPost-Production by Jeremy Carberry
12-Bar Talk is brought to you from Ogden, Utah's "Junction City" full of blues and jazz history on Historic 25th Street. You can learn more about Ogden's rich black history at https://www.visitogden.com/blog/celebrating-black-history-month-in-ogden-utah/.
Podcast intro music is Chicago Shuffle Blues, courtesy of JuliusH. Song can be found at https://pixabay.com/users/juliush-3921568/.

Sunday Apr 27, 2025
Episode 20: Blues Musical Complexity, a Conversation with Stef Rosen
Sunday Apr 27, 2025
Sunday Apr 27, 2025
Stef Rosen and Dr. Adams sit down and talk about his love for blues music and what it is like to learn the culture as you learn to play the blues, how he encountered the blues dance community and his experiences playing music for them, and the differences in various styles of blues, and more.
Guest: Stef Rosen
Website: https://slidinwolf.com/
Bandcamp: https://stefrosen.bandcamp.com/album/soulify
Socials: IG, @stefrosenblues, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/stefanoronchi.blues/ , TikTok @stef.rosen
Produced by Dr. Chelsea Adams
Post-Production by Jeremy Carberry
12-Bar Talk is supported by Salt City Blues, LLC, a blues dance event and education organization committed to bringing education about black dances and blues to the Greater Salt Lake City area.
Podcast intro music is Chicago Shuffle Blues, courtesy of JuliusH. Song can be found at https://pixabay.com/users/juliush-3921568/.

Saturday Mar 29, 2025
Episode 19: Spotlight on Harrell "Young Rell" Davenport
Saturday Mar 29, 2025
Saturday Mar 29, 2025
Young Rell and Dr. Chelsea Adams sit down to talk music, the power of community and a crowd, and thoughts on college education. You can also take time to support Young Rell by following him on his social media pages, listed below, and by putting money to his GoFundMe campaign to help him get the money he needs to launch his first album.
Guest: Harrell "Young Rell" Davenport
Website: https://youngrell.com/
Fundraiser: https://www.gofundme.com/f/youngrellblues
Socials: IG, @young_rell_official; TikTok, @youngrellblues; Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/YOUNGRELLBLUES/
Produced by Dr. Chelsea Adams
Post-Production by Jeremy Carberry
12-Bar Talk is supported by Salt City Blues, LLC, a blues dance event and education organization committed to bringing education about black dances and blues to the Greater Salt Lake City area.
Podcast intro music is Chicago Shuffle Blues, courtesy of JuliusH. Song can be found at https://pixabay.com/users/juliush-3921568/.

Friday Feb 14, 2025
Friday Feb 14, 2025
Dr. Chelsea Adams sits down with Sarah Rucker to discuss the life and legacy of Clifford Antone--the legendary owner of Antone's in Austin, TX--in his later years. Rucker was Antone's personal assistant from 2004 until his death. They also discuss how Rucker is continuing his legacy of advocacy for musicians and folk music in Texas and throughout the USA.
Guest: Sarah Rucker
Sarah Rucker is an event producer and independent folklorist with specialties in traditional and popular American musical and dance genres. She holds a B.A. in Fine Arts with a focus in dance and a Certificate in Business Foundations from the University of Texas at Austin. Her expertise in American blues and early rock began as research and teaching assistant to Clifford Antone (founder of Antone’s Night Club, Records, and Record Shop) in 2004. Antone lectured on these topics at the University of Texas and Texas State University until his death in 2006. She then helped direct programming for Texas' folk arts agency, Texas Folklife, for 8 years where she directed Barbara Lynn & Friends at the Library of Congress and Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and the annual Accordion Kings & Queens concert and the Big Squeeze accordion contest. She founded Full Gallop in 2015 to help bridge cultures and connect communities through creative events and public programs.
Upcoming events include the 2nd Annual Louisiana in Texas on April 4 in Houston. More info at: http://fullgalloparts.com/events or http://facebook.com/fullgalloparts and instagram.com/fullgalloparts
Produced by Dr. Chelsea Adams
Post-Production by Jeremy Carberry
12-Bar Talk is supported by Salt City Blues, LLC, a blues dance event and education organization committed to bringing education about black dances and blues to the Greater Salt Lake City area.
Podcast intro music is Chicago Shuffle Blues, courtesy of JuliusH. Song can be found at https://pixabay.com/users/juliush-3921568/.

Monday Jan 20, 2025
Episode 17: Mapping the Diaspora, a Conversation with Deirdre Molloy
Monday Jan 20, 2025
Monday Jan 20, 2025
How do you map dances across space and time, especially when doing so requires dealing with forced migration and slavery? Dr. Chelsea Adams and Deirdre Molloy discuss dance, the African Diaspora, and Molloy's ambitious Doctoral project of mapping dance from Africa to the Caribbean and Americas in her interactive Unity Atlantic Map (link below).
Guest: Deirdre Molloy
Website to the Unity Atlantic Map: https://unityatlantic.org/
A Note on the Map from Deirdre Molloy: I designed the Map to be iterative – to grow deeper as a research notebook and public Afrofuturist digital heritage resource. The Map is a collective art-research work that touches many communities, and comments, feedback, and contributions are welcome!
Molloy's Research:
Molloy, D. C. (2024). Black Atlantic Space-Time Portfolio by Unity (V.1). Nakala (Huma-Num - CNRS). Available online https://doi.org/10.34847/NKL.FCF71S7D
Molloy, D. C. (2024). Black Atlantic Space-Time Teaser by Unity (V. 1). Nakala (Huma-Num - CNRS). Available online https://doi.org/10.34847/NKL.5C091TX1
Molloy, D. C. (2021/2024). From Blues Dance to African Diaspora Identity : Diaries, Dialogues, Dreams of Unity (V.1) Nakala (Huma-Num - CNRS). Available online https://doi.org/10.34847/NKL.EFB8NLDA
Produced by Dr. Chelsea Adams
Post-Production by Jeremy Carberry
12-Bar Talk is supported by Salt City Blues, LLC, a blues dance event and education organization committed to bringing education about black dances and blues to the Greater Salt Lake City area.
Podcast intro music is Chicago Shuffle Blues, courtesy of JuliusH. Song can be found at https://pixabay.com/users/juliush-3921568/.

Welcome to 12-Bar Talk
Blues: it's a feeling, a state of being, a genre of music and an umbrella term for many black social dances, all with a rich history and thriving and evolving culture in the present. Join Dr. Chelsea Adams as she interviews practitioners and scholars and delves into the myriad of topics that deal with this uniquely black American art form.
You can support the 12-Bar Talk Podcast by subscribing anywhere you get your podcasts and by sharing it with friends and enthusiasts.
If you would like to be a guest on the podcast or have topic requests you'd like to see featured on the show, please contact Dr. Adams through her university email: chelseaadams1@weber.edu.