Americana/Roots • Music
American Routes is a weekly two-hour public radio program produced in New Orleans, presenting a broad range of American music — blues and jazz, gospel and soul, old-time country and rockabilly, Cajun and zydeco, Tejano and Latin, roots rock and pop, avant-garde and classical. Now in our 15th year on the air, American Routes explores the shared musical and cultural threads in these American styles and genres of music — and how they are distinguished.
“In the history of American radio, no series has come close to Nick Spitzer’s American Routes in exploring the many streams of this nation’s music.”
— Nat Hentoff, Wall Street Journal
American Routes is a weekly two-hour public radio program produced in New Orleans, presenting a broad range of American music — blues and jazz, gospel and soul, old-time country and rockabilly, Cajun and zydeco, Tejano and Latin, roots rock and pop, avant-garde and classical. Now in our 15th year on the air, American Routes explores the shared musical and cultural threads in these American styles and genres of music — and how they are distinguished.
The program also presents documentary features and artist interviews. Our conversations include Willie Nelson, Tom Waits, B.B. King, Dr. John, Dave Brubeck, Abbey Lincoln, Elvis Costello, Ray Charles, Randy Newman, McCoy Tyner, Lucinda Williams, Rufus Thomas, Jerry Lee Lewis and many others. Join us as we ride legendary trains, or visit street parades, instrument-makers, roadside attractions and juke joints, and meet tap dancers, fishermen, fortunetellers and more.
The songs and stories on American Routes describe both the community origins of our music, musicians and cultures — the “roots”— and the many directions they take over time — the “routes.”
Rebroadcast of first hour every Saturday at 7:00am.
Upcoming Episodes
June 1, 2024 Americana/Roots, Music
American Routes – Horsepower: The Cowboy Rides into the Future, 5/29/2024
This week on American Routes we’re exploring the life of the cowboy. From the Nevada deserts to the swampy forests of Florida, the cowboy is an enduring symbol of American individualism and self-reliance. We’ll visit with several working cowboys, including a few who can sing a tune or two. Wylie Gustafson might be better known as the man behind the Yahoo yodel, but we’ll talk ranching and horses, as well as music. Then we’ll visit with Creole cowboy Geno Delafose to learn how he mixes zydeco with cattle raising. Plus a couple of Cracker cowboys share tales of cow-hunting, and lots of music to get you out on the trail.
Read MoreMay 25, 2024 Americana/Roots, Music
American Routes – Philadelphia Sounds 5/22/2024
Follow American Routes this week to the City of Brotherly Love, as we hang out on the musical street corners with some of Philadelphia’s finest, including the late bobby-soxer idol Bobby Rydell, hip-hop drummer and city champion ?uestlove of the Roots, and the city’s former mayor, Michael Nutter, who can also claim fame as a disco DJ. We’ll visit a famous operatic cafe and sit in with a neighborhood jazz organ trio. Plus catch a choir rehearsal at one of the city’s historic churches and a conversation with a mother-daughter klezmer duo. And musical postcards from artists who call Philly their hometown.
ListenMay 18, 2024 Americana/Roots, Music
American Routes – How Many Roads: Bob Dylan’s Back Pages Volume II
In this second edition of “How Many Roads?” Bob Dylan’s Back Pages, we’ll rejoin the great American wordsmith by listening to his work from the last 25 years. We won’t forget the historic and ancient roots of his modern sounds, from the Old Testament to the Civil Rights movement. We’ll hear from collaborators and friends, Mavis Staples and Joan Baez, and from Kris Kristofferson who overheard Dylan’s recording sessions while working as a custodian in Nashville. We’ll go to our archives for the late producer Jerry Wexler on Dylan’s spiritual transformation and hear songs that address outlaws and lovers, memories and mortality.
ListenMay 11, 2024 Americana/Roots, Music
American Routes – Mother’s Day, 5/8/2024
American Routes celebrates Mother’s Day with Marty Stuart and his mom, Hilda. We’ll talk about their shared love of photography and a certain girl singer, Connie Smith. Then we’ll hear stories about mothers from Fontella Bass, Sonny Rollins, Bo Diddley, and Geno Delafose, among others. Plus songs from blues to bluegrass about and for dear old mom.
Read MoreMay 4, 2024 Americana/Roots, Music
American Routes – “How Many Roads…?” Bob Dylan’s Back Pages
Bob Dylan’s songs are part of American consciousness, with sources and symbols drawing from old-time country and folk, blues and ballads, ancient and modern poetry, the beauties and absurdities of life, love and loss. His contributions to the big river of songs have grown and been recognized worldwide. The young man from Hibbing, Minnesota, is now an elder… a Nobel Laureate; but his listeners didn’t need that or any such weathervane to prize Bob Dylan. It was, and is, always in his words and voice, music and memory where fans and friends found inspiration. Bob’s songs ask questions and seek action. We hear Dylan’s early, classic, rare and more recent recordings along with comments from Joan Baez and filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker (“Don’t Look Back”). Also Dylan’s music as played by the Byrds and the Band, Stevie Wonder and Nina Simone, Doug Sahm and Sandy Denny. We hope you enjoy listening to this program as much as we did making it.
Read MoreApril 27, 2024 Americana/Roots, Music
American Routes – New Orleans Tunes and Talk with Wendell Brunious & Comedy and Critique from Susan Werner
We go where the music leads us, first live at home with trumpeter Wendell Brunious and his New Orleans All Stars. Wendell is from a famed New Orleans Creole jazz family and is now the music director of Preservation Hall. Then we visit with the eccentric and witty songmaker and multi-instrumentalist Susan Werner with roots in rural Iowa. Susan’s stories in song are comedic and serious takes on religion, queerness, climate change and social responsibility. Plus words and music from Big Mama Thornton, Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Cash and the Five Satins.
Read MoreApril 20, 2024 Americana/Roots, Music
American Routes – Music, Comics & Collecting Records: R. Crumb & Jerry Zolten
This week on American Routes we spin some shellac and wax nostalgic with the iconic cartoonist, musician and record collector Robert Crumb, who’ll share with us his love of musical times gone by. Then we talk to educator and vinyl aficionado Jerry Zolten about the story of Paramount Records, started by a furniture manufacturer, whose recorded legacy is now contained in two swank suitcases.
Read MoreApril 13, 2024 Americana/Roots, Music
American Routes – Black & White Crossover in Country Music and Beyond… Plus Blues from Baton Rouge
This week on American Routes, we dip into crossover currents of country music sung by Black American performers, including Ray Charles, Ike and Tina Turner, and Fats Domino. We’ll also hear white musicians influenced by Black music: Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, Jimmie Rodgers and Bob Dylan. Then, it’s the Baton Rouge Blues legacy, with recordings from Buddy Guy, Slim Harpo, Silas Hogan, Tabby Thomas and the late harmonica man Raful Neal. Plus a live performance from Raful Neal’s son, Kenny Neal, a mouth harp and guitar player, now the senior statesman and artist from the Baton Rouge Blues scene.
Read MoreApril 6, 2024 Americana/Roots, Music
American Routes – New Orleans Jazz Clarinet, Mande Songs & Louisiana Zydeco Live
It’s New Orleans jazz clarinet in street parades and clubs. We’ll hear clarinet in the hands of past and present legends: George Lewis, Sidney Bechet, Dr. Michael White and Aurora Nealand, plus a conversation with a sometime New Orleans clarinet virtuoso, Evan Christopher. Then, a live cultural exchange between French Louisiana and West Africa with singer, percussionist and dancer Sidiki Conde from Guinea and zydeco accordionist, cultural historian and sometime alligator wrangler, Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes.
Read MoreMarch 30, 2024 Americana/Roots, Music
American Routes – Easter with Donald Harrison, Jr. and Holmes Brothers
Easter weekend is a time for reflection and family, and our guests certainly fit the bill. Donald Harrison, Jr. is a saxophone player and New Orleans native. Harrison’s ties to New Orleans run deep, musically and culturally. Wendell and Sherman Holmes, plus longtime friend Popsy Dixon made up the Holmes Brothers, a vocal group best known for putting their personal stamp on blues, gospel, country, pop and more. We revisit our conversation with the brothers about the transition from Christ Church, Virginia to New York and back again to home and family.
Read MoreMarch 23, 2024 Americana/Roots, Music
American Routes – Dr. Lonnie Smith and Terrance Simien: Keys and Squeeze
From the heart of French Louisiana to the streets of New York, American Routes is mixing it up this week with two giants of their genres. We visit with the late jazz great Dr. Lonnie Smith, whose mastery of the music is synonymous with his ever-present Hammond B3 organ. We drop down deep in the pocket with Lonnie, and get keyed in to the past and present of soul and jazz. And out on the Cajun and Creole prairies we drop in on Zydeco accordionist and Grammy award winner Terrance Simien. Plus jazz, blues and country tunes from keyboard masters of all kinds.
Read More