Somebody once asked a gospel singer if he was an entertainer or a preacher.  He answered, “Yes.”

Michael Lasser in talks at museums, universities, performing arts centers, and libraries all over the country are, likewise, a mix of substance and entertainment, serious purpose and lighthearted irreverence.  After all, he says, “I’m talking about popular songs, not the future of the Republic.”

That doesn’t mean he isn’t serious about American songs and the men and women who wrote them. As he explains:

"I do think popular music has something valuable to tell us about ourselves if we stop and listen to it. It opens a revealing and entertaining window on American attitudes for the last 150 years. For the last 25 of those years, I've been talking about popular music as social history--about songs and the America they reflect."

Lasser’s subjects range from the beginnings of the minstrel show in the 1830s to the arrival of rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s.  In the last  years, he’s averaged more than two dozen talks and concerts per year in a total of 36 states and the District of Columbia – from Maine to California, Florida to Washington, Mississippi to Minnesota.

In addition to the talks, he also performs with singers Jessica Ann Best and Alan Jones. “Nobody in his right mind wants to hear me sing,” he says, “but Jessica and Alan have a gift for being able to perform the songs of two centuries with insight and delight, and my job is to give the songs context in an entertaining way.”

For more information about talks select the links below:
*Current Calendar for Scheduled Talks
*Talks and Concerts - a partial list of available programs
*Select comments from talk organizers
*Where Michael has given his talks