Drew Shortell
The collected worksIV / YouTube

YouTube.

Essays and Documentaries

The complete series / 10 videos

Drew’s Essay Show

Open the playlist ↗

Music, cinema & culture / 05 videos

Essays

Open the playlist ↗
Drew Shortell’s American flag painting

A special series / 21 episodes

The American
Adventure.

Part I

The stories behind the songs.
A journey through America’s musical history.

Watch the series
Browse all 21 episodes
  1. 01
    They Mocked Americans With This Song… Then It Became Their Anthem

    Uploaded

    4:12
  2. 02
    He Wrote A Humble Poem In 1772… It Became The World's Most Famous Hymn

    Uploaded

    3:38
  3. 03
    Nobody Knows Who Wrote This Song. Nobody Can Forget It.

    Uploaded

    4:02
  4. 04
    The British Detained Him On Their Ship… He Used The Time To Write This

    Uploaded

    4:04
  5. 05
    This Man Invented American Popular Music. You've Never Heard Of Him.

    Uploaded

    4:02
  6. 06
    A Northerner Wrote The South's Anthem… Then Watched It Betray Him

    Uploaded

    5:05
  7. 07
    John Brown Wrote This Note On The Way To His Execution… It Became The Battle Hymn of the Republic

    Uploaded

    4:32
  8. 08
    They Performed For Queens And Emperors… Their Songs Were Born In Slavery

    Uploaded

    4:26
  9. 09
    Two People Tried To Copyright Home on the Range… They Had No Idea What They'd Started

    Uploaded

    4:47
  10. 10
    She Climbed To The Top Of This Mountain… And Wrote America The Beautiful

    Uploaded

    4:59
  11. 11
    The Entertainer: Jazz Wouldn't Exist Without Him… Nobody Knew His Name

    Uploaded

    5:02
  12. 12
    They Recorded This Song Inside A Prison… It Became A Global Hit

    Uploaded

    3:56
  13. 13
    Cole Porter Hated This Song… Bing Crosby Sold A Million Copies Of It

    Uploaded

    6:36
  14. 14
    God Bless America: Written During One World War… It United America During Another

    Uploaded

    4:20
  15. 15
    This Land Is Your Land: Woody Guthrie Heard God Bless America… And Wrote This In Anger

    Uploaded

    4:34
  16. 16
    Blue Moon of Kentucky: Elvis Had No B-Side… What Happened Next Changed Music Forever

    Uploaded

    4:58
  17. 17
    Bob Dylan Said This Wasn't A Protest Song… History Disagreed

    Uploaded

    4:29
  18. 18
    The Times They Are A-Changin': JFK Was Assassinated… Dylan Opened His Next Show With This

    Uploaded

    4:53
  19. 19
    Two Assassinations Shook America In 1968… Elvis Responded With This

    Uploaded

    5:03
  20. 20
    250 Years Of American Music Comes Down To This Song

    Uploaded

    6:50
  21. 21
    Words of the Presidents: Every American President's Voice, United Into One Speech

    Uploaded

    28:58