Beginning with a melody carried in the heart of a man chained in the hold of a Sixteenth-Century slave ship, Down the Dirt Road Blues tells the story of one song's journey through American history and culture. Using era-appropriate instruments as accompaniment, the African melody travels from the cottonfields of Mississippi to urban Memphis, Tennessee, and on to the Appalachian mountains, the studios of Nashville, the genesis of the Rock 'n' Roll era, and the Folk Boom and English Invasion of the 1960s.

Performance of Down the Dirt Road Blues in schools, universities, and community concerts, both nationally and internationally, garnered Spencer the 2010 Keeping the Blues Alive award from the Blues Foundation in 2010.