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Singer Allison Russell is a native of Montreal with what she calls “Grenadian Canadian” roots of Afro-Caribbean and Scottish ancestry. You may know her recordings with Our Native Daughters and the Birds of Chicago, or back when with Po’ Girl. In her first solo recording, Outside Child, Russell addressed family abuse in her youth, followed by escape to the road: Vancouver, San Francisco, Chicago. Those early life experiences led Allison years later to make new, compelling songs, expressing freedom from trauma, to love and hope for better times. She lives now with fellow musician JT Nero and their young daughter in Nashville, but Allison Russell began the journey’s narrative in her beloved Montreal.

Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers co-founder Chris Hillman is a musician, singer, songwriter, and author. A third generation Californian, Hillman grew up hearing Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, all on his parents’ hi-fi. He discovered bluegrass and picked up mandolin by way of Bill Monroe and the New Lost City Ramblers. At seventeen, Hillman joined his first band, the Scottsville Squirrel Barkers, a bluegrass group that included Eagles’ guitarist Bernie Leadon. He later played with the Golden State Boys, the resident bluegrass band for Los Angeles television’s Cal’s Corral, which became the Hillmen. I spoke to Chris Hillman over Zoom, where he told me how he was recruited to play bass for the Byrds at a studio rehearsal in L.A.

Two years ago, we investigated the Liquified Natural Gas export build out on the Gulf Coast. We followed those exports around the world from Louisiana to Germany to Japan to unravel the story of LNG.But that story isn’t over. Today, host Carlyle Calhoun returns to LNG with Gulf States Newsroom reporter Drew Hawkins. They talk about how people in Southwest Louisiana are still being impacted by this build out, how LNG exports are affecting your electricity bills and what the war in Iran means for this industry.

Hospitals have been ordered stop sending COVID-19 data to the CDC. Major Twitter accounts were hacked last night. And, Mary Trump discusses her new memoir.

This is American Routes, twenty years after the storm and flood that left 80% of New Orleans underwater. We’re still rebuilding. Many New Orleanians haven’t come back; areas of the city remain empty, and musical leaders and recovery advocates like Dr. John and Allen Toussaint have passed. Some things have changed for the better, but we still remember what it was like before the storm. New Orleans soul singer Irma Thomas was among many who lost everything to Katrina: her home and her beloved nightclub, the Lion’s Den. Irma set up a temporary home in Gonzales, LA, about forty miles upriver. When Irma returned to her New Orleans house for the first time, the muck was deep. Seven feet of floodwater ruined everything inside except for a few posters on the wall. Two years after the storm, she was back living in New Orleans East and working on the house. We caught up with her in that year, while her front fence was being spray-painted.

The Angola 3 refers to three men convicted of murdering a prison guard at the Louisiana State Penitentiary more than 40 years ago, in 1972. Robert King,…

Making a home in Southeastern Louisiana has always meant risk of flooding. While some families in low lying coastal parishes elevated their homes in the…

Noted writer, historian and former This American Life contributor Sarah Vowell will be in town to speak at Tulane’s Freeman Auditorium on Wednesday, April…

For Black residents from the South, during the Great Migration North in the 1940's and 50's, gospel music defined the sacred side of life. In Chicago, churches served as places of community, musical joy, and healing. A tradition of quartet singing grew with groups like the Clefs of Cavalry, Holy Wonders, and the Highway Q.C.’s. These groups toured on gospel circuits nationwide, had record deals and radio shows. Group members often changed; Sam Cooke, Lou Rawls, and Johnnie Taylor had all been in the Highway Q.C.’s before each turned to secular music. Spencer Taylor Jr. was a member of the Holy Wonders when the Q.C.’s came calling in the 1950s. I sat down with Mr. Taylor and his son, Spencer Taylor III, of the Highway Q.C.’s, to talk about his long life leading the ensemble.

In the nation’s capital, there’s a homegrown beat you can hear all over town, from clubs to street corners to booming car stereos. The man who started it is our guest, the late Chuck Brown. He was the Godfather of Go-Go, that combination of Latin percussion, soulful horns, and guitar funk. Chuck blended it all to create his groove, with good helpings of jazz and gospel inspiration, what he called “a sound for the town.” And fronting that sound was his distinctive voice. I asked Chuck how he found his voice and his way to music.