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The drummer Ahmir Thompson, is known as Questlove, from the hip-hop band, the Roots. Questlove loves his hometown. He studied at Philadelphia’s High School for Creative and Performing Arts and took his sound to the streets in the late ‘80s. Since then, the Roots have found worldwide success and are the house band on NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Back in 2010, I asked Questlove what it’s like to be a musician from Philadelphia.

Wylie Gustafson grew up in Conrad, Montana, where his father raised quarter horses and rode rodeo. The family also had a cattle ranch up on the Blackfoot Reservation by the Canadian border. While raising fine horses, Wylie built a music career with his band, the Wild West. After playing music in Southern California and training horses in Washington State, Wylie resettled on a ranch back in Montana, where his love of cowboy music had started out with his father.

This is American Routes for St. Patrick's, with singers, fiddlers and pickers from Ireland to Appalachia live in this hour. Sharing Irish, bluegrass and country tunes with one another at the 80th National Folk Festival. Beginning with brothers Rob and Ronnie McCoury playing banjo and mandolin on stage in Salisbury, Maryland, 2021 with Ronnie's tune, " Quicksburg Rondevouz."

This is American Routes, about to go into the studio with Creole jazz and soul singer John Boutté. You may know him for singing his theme for the TV series Tremé. John comes from an African, French, Spanish, Native, and Irish family background that begins in the mid-18th century New Orleans. His immediate family numbered ten kids; singing was a household and street corner pastime. John counts the influence of jazz elders, like Paul Barbarin, Louis “Big Eye” Nelson, and Danny Barker, as well as New Orleans piano and vocal heroes like Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, and James Booker. The quality of his voice has been recognized by Stevie Wonder. He's been paired in shows with Lou Rawls and Herbie Hancock. A New Orleans vocal icon who was raised in a storied, musical neighborhood. I asked John about it.

We don't associate the music of rural French Louisiana so much with the guitar–it tends to play second fiddle to the accordion and to the fiddle. But the late Buck Sinegal made a name for himself as a rhythm & lead guitarist for zydeco, blues, and rhythm & blues music in his hometown of Lafayette. As a high school student in the 50s, Buck played in a series of R & B bands before reconnecting to his French roots with zydeco king Clifton Chenier. Buck told us about growing up in a French Creole household.

Trudy Lynn, born Lee Audrey Nelms, grew up surrounded by music in Houston. Duke and Peacock Records, two Black-owned labels were blocks from her home. She saw legends like Joe Hinton and Bobby "Blue" Bland by the Club Matinee on her way to school. Her parents loved blues, and Trudy sang while her father tap-danced and played harmonica on the porch. She also sang in church, started a girl group, the Chromatics, with her school friends, became a vocalist with Clarence Green, and opened for Ike and Tina Turner. In 1989, she went solo on a recording called Trudy Sings the Blues. I spoke to her in Houston, where she still sings the blues.

We’re exploring the sonic hues of the blues in jazz, R & B, country, Cajun and pop. We crash a blues house party and workshop at the 2018 National Folk Festival in Salisbury, Maryland, where we speak with St. Louis guitarist Marquise Knox.

Jon Cleary may have been born in Kent, England but his musical upbringing was all New Orleans. He came to the city after college in 1980 and began his real education in the clubs, where he put in time as a sideman with heroes like Ernie K-Doe, Walter “Wolfman” Washington, and Snooks Eaglin. Cleary became a world-renowned hired gun, playing with Eric Clapton, BB King, Dr. John and Bonnie Raitt. On the home scene, Jon takes center stage playing solo shows as well as fronting his own band, the Absolute Monster Gentlemen. A while back, I sat down with Jon Cleary at the piano in his 9th Ward home, an old hardware store, and asked him how an English kid in the 1970s was introduced to the music of the Crescent City.

This summer, more than ever, the challenge is to be and stay cool. So we’re all about songs and sounds as ways to chill out. We asked musicians, critics and producers just what it means to be cool. Chicago pianist Ramsey Lewis had a huge hit with a song about cool people, “The ‘In’ Crowd," back in 1965. He's also known for adapting tunes like "A Hard Day's Night” and "Dancing in the Street" into hip jazz instrumentals. Now also a radio host, Ramsey Lewis told us he made his own brand of jazz by blending the blues he heard on the Chicago streets with gospel music from home.

WWNO, in collaboration with The Lens, presents candidate forums for the upcoming Orleans Parish School Board election on November 6. The interviews aired…