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Charley Pride was the first great African American star of country music. Born in Sledge, MS in 1938, Pride left farm life behind and had a budding baseball career in the Negro and minor leagues. He worked by day in a Montana steel mill and sang country music at night. That got the attention of Nashville producers in the mid-‘60s, and he went on to a career that included 29 number one country hits and induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Charley Pride passed away in 2020, and his story remains a special one that begins back down home on the Mississippi tenant farm he came to own.

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.

This is American Routes Live with Don Vappie and friends. Don is from a New Orleans Creole family and is a studied purveyor of jazz banjo. He knows much about the history of the music and the instrument, going back to origins in West Africa. I asked Don about New Orleans banjo players.

At 14, she stood out for her cool and "mature" demeanor. But at the heart of that persona was a youth lost too soon.

Former President Donald Trump needs voters who may have misgivings about him or some of his behavior but who have deep loyalty to the Republican Party or deep aversion to the Democrats.

When the North American Free Trade Agreement was being negotiated, supporters promised it would increase the income of Mexicans. And the middle class did grow over the past two decades. But it's clear that the country's ultrarich are its big winners.

The sharing economy is already changing several sectors: housing, transportation, retail. In some cities, it's changing the way we work. As more people start their own enterprises, they're shunning traditional offices and choosing to share space instead.

Bewildered in the wine aisle or staring at a wine menu? A cheeky chart offers solid advice on getting the most bang for your buck, whether you're looking for wines to cook, date or get drunk with.

Snapchat and Facebook's early fundraising efforts have nothing on presidential campaigns, a new report finds.

Lots of houses in Nigeria have no numbers, so deliveries are often late. But two techies have devised a solution. And they're creating new jobs in the process.