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Aurelio Martinez grew up in the Garifuna village of Plaplaya on the Caribbean coast of Honduras. He’s a percussionist, singer and guitarist who’s played in noted musical groups of Honduras, and now maintains connections to his Garifuna roots while living in the Bronx, NY, where his parents also reside. Aurelio is a native speaker of Garifuna and Spanish and a member of the Honduran Congress. We began our conversation talking about his first instrument.

Today on Louisiana Considered, it’s all about bikes and books! We hear why the New Orleans City Council is ordering the removal of some protected bike lanes in Algiers, and we learn about all the exciting benefits of signing up for a NOLA public library card. Plus, the Advocate’s Stephanie Grace gives us an update on the week’s top political stories.

Reginald "Reggio the Hoofer" McLaughlin grew up on Chicago’s south side, where he began his career dancing in the streets and subways. He learned to tap dance using homemade shoes and went on to receive training from prominent dancers Jimmy Payne, Sr. and Ernest "Brownie" Brown. Reggio has taught at the old town school of folk music, where he produces a tap version of The Nutcracker, called The Nut Tapper. He also worked with ragtime pianist Reginald Robinson and the Carolina Chocolate Drops for Keep a Song in Your Soul: the Black Roots of Vaudeville. Here's Reggio.

This is American Routes, celebrating the music and musicians of Arhoolie Records. The Berkeley-based record company is devoted to roots music, blues and jazz, Mexican and Cajun, gospel and country. Arhoolie Records was founded in 1960 by producer Chris Strachwitz. He recently celebrated his 91st birthday. “Arhoolie” is a word for an African American field holler in the South. Young Chris Strachwitz arrived in America from Germany after the war. The first thing he loved was jump jazz on the radio and on jukeboxes. In school Chris discovered hillbilly and mariachi music on border radio. He skipped class to hear Kid Ory, George Lewis, Big Jay McNeely and Muddy Waters. That's a good education for his future life as a record producer. I visited Chris in back of his record store in El Cerrito, California and asked how Arhoolie Records began.

This is American Routes, where we’re about to meet one of our heroes. The late Ellas McDaniel was born not too far from New Orleans in McComb, MS and as a child moved with his family to Chicago, where he earned the nickname Bo Diddley. Bo wrote and recorded a stream of classic songs for Chess Records in the 1950s. He was one of the inventors of rock and roll. I spoke with Bo Diddley on a 2002 tour stop in New Orleans. I asked Bo how childhood had shaped his approach to 50 years in music.

This is American Routes Live with New Orleans trombonist Corey Henry and his Treme Funktet at Marigny Studios, at the edge of the French Quarter. As the name of the band suggests, the Faubourg Tremé is an important part of Corey’s family history and his development as a musician. I asked him about the origins of the group.

I've known pianist, songmaker, and performer Heath Allen for over fifty years. We met at Penn in Philadelphia where Heath studied under composer George Crumb. Heath Allen is originally from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, but stayed on in West Philly, building a career as a cabaret band leader, in musical theater, and creator of the Popera, Andy, an opera about Andy Warhol, among many other activities. Over the years, Heath has worked with performers ranging from singer-songwriter Susan Werner to a legendary troupe called the Bearded Ladies. Today, at home in the large light filled piano room of his stately West Philadelphia row house, surrounded by electronic keyboards, books, and paintings, Heath Allen sits barefoot at his Steinway Grand Model A, looking out over Japanese maple and Juneberry trees.

Lonnie Holley from Birmingham, Alabama is a self-taught artist and musician who uses everyday objects as sculpture that tells stories. Lonnie had a rough childhood, living with an abusive foster family who ran honky-tonk, where he was nicknamed “Tonky” McElroy. Lonnie tried to escape, hopping a train to New Orleans at nine. He was arrested at eleven and taken to the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children, where Lonnie was made to pick one hundred pounds of cotton. His grandmother rescued him from the school and told him his name wasn’t Tonky McElroy but Lonnie Bradley Holley. For the last forty years, Holley has constructed artworks that have been seen at the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum, New York’s American Folk Art Museum, the High Museum in Atlanta, and the White House. After making home recordings for more than two decades on a keyboard Lonnie bought at a pawnshop, he released his first album at age sixty-two. His sound is experimental with lyrics improvised on the spot. Lonnie Holley explained how his artistic appreciation and ability stemmed from life at home with a large family.

Aurora Nealand was recently praised as one of the top ten soprano saxophonists in America by Downbeat Magazine. She grew up in an eccentric family on the California coast and then Colorado, listening to Stravinsky, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Joan Baez and the Pixies. Her mom was a gardener who played classical piano, her dad an archivist who went to rock band practice between jobs. She received musical training at Oberlin College and Jacques Lecoq School of Physical Theatre in Paris, all before embarking on a bike trip across the US to chronicle the dreams of rural America. In 2004 Aurora ended up in New Orleans, where she learned to play traditional jazz in the streets. Now she leads her band, the Royal Roses, and sometimes has the persona of Rory Danger. Aurora attributes the interest in a broad range of styles to her travels and nontraditional upbringing.

Alice Gerrard has been a musician, researcher, publisher, and advocate for old-time music for much of her life. She's best known for performing and recording bluegrass and country with West Virginian, Hazel Dickens. Alice produced Sprout Wings and Fly, a film about North Carolina fiddler Tommy Jarrell. Her introduction to old-time music happened at Antioch College in the 1950s with husband Jeremy Foster and friends. The couple soon moved to the D.C.-Baltimore area for work and found a community of traditional musicians and their followers. Alice Gerrard recalled those days.