Search results for

Carla Bley is one of the jazz world's most prolific writers. She grew up in a religious family in California but set her sights on the New York City jazz scene of the 1950s. In her music, Carla Bley often explores the American landscape with a sharp sense of humor. Somehow this journey began by going in circles on roller skates.

Each week, American Routes brings you Shortcuts, a sneak peek at the upcoming show. This week, we celebrate the National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellows. 2022 fellow Shaka Zulu shares about his experience as a drummer, Black masking Indian, and stilt dancer in New Orleans.

Each week, American Routes brings you Shortcuts, a sneak peek at the upcoming show. 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.

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, I’m Nick Spitzer. We’ll be traveling to southern France to meet that most American of cartoonists: the often beloved and sometimes reviled Robert Crumb, with his social criticism, politically incorrect and sexually explicit characters: Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural, Flakey Foont and Angelfood McSpade–drawings and earthy dramas that made him the comic book king of the high hippie era. But R. Crumb is also deeply drawn to the nostalgia of old America heard on 78 RPM records. He’s collected over seven thousand of the platters.

Carlos Santana began playing mariachi on violin in the streets of Tijuana, but he was soon drawn to blues musicians: BB King, Jimmy Reed, and John Lee Hooker. At age 8, he switched to guitar and began developing his own sound, incorporating blues, rock, jazz, with Latin and African percussion. His father José Santana, a mariachi violinist, was not pleased, but allowed Carlos to follow his passions.

Woody Guthrie is remembered as much for his politics as his music. During the Depression and World War II, Guthrie was deeply affected by the plight of American workers and the Labor Movement, and his music reflects that sympathy. But Guthrie’s art was also shaped by his family and personal life, by the travails of his parents, by his own struggles as a husband and father, and ultimately by his own declining health. In this Labor Day edition of American Routes, we’ll examine the life and music of Woody Guthrie, in the words of family, friends and fellow travelers.

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 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.

Shemekia Copeland's dad, Texas guitarist Johnny Copeland, moved his family to Harlem, where Shemekia was born and grew up surrounded by hip-hop, but dedicated to the blues. She's been in the blues scene since she was a little girl singing at her dad's shows. We began back in those early days, on stage, with her father.