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The Gullah Geechee people are descendants of those enslaved in the Sea Islands of Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina. Because of the remoteness of the plantations, the Gullah Geechee were able to retain some of their African traditions, including the ring shout. It’s a ritual in which participants move counterclockwise in a circle while shuffling and stomping their feet and clapping their hands, in call and response fashion. The tradition is rooted in West African culture, mixed with elements of Christianity. The Gullah Geechee Ring Shouters from Darien, Georgia have preserved this ancestral heritage through performance and education since 1980. They joined us on stage at the New Orleans Jazz Museum where they started with a song you will probably recognize, that came from the Gullah Geechee culture.

Yvette Landry wears many hats: musician, songwriter, educator, author, and record producer. Hailing from Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, Yvette grew up listening to music but wasn’t interested in playing music until later in life. After her dad was diagnosed with cancer, Yvette bought a bass for Cajun jam sessions with the Lafayette Rhythm Devils. She went on to join the female-led Cajun band Bonsoir, Catin, and now fronts the Yvette Landry Band. Though she’s performed internationally, Yvette has stayed close to home, teaching American Sign Language and songwriting at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette.

The late Aurelio Martínez grew up in the Garifuna village of Plaplaya on the Caribbean coast of Honduras. He was a percussionist, singer and guitarist who played in noted musical groups of Honduras and maintained connections to his Garifuna roots while living in the Bronx, NY. Aurelio was a native speaker of Garifuna and Spanish and a member of the Honduran Congress. We began our conversation talking about his first instrument.

West Texas troubadour Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Southern California roots-rocker Dave Alvin were born worlds apart. Gilmore in Lubbock, where he co-founded the Flatlanders. He left music to join an ashram, and played Smokey in the Coen Brothers’ The Big Lebowski. Dave Alvin was raised in Downey, California, and once of age took off for Los Angeles to play guitar in rock and punk bands. Over the years, Alvin and Gilmore criss-crossed paths and admired each other from afar. I spoke to them in 2018 when they first joined forces on the road and recorded their album From Downey to Lubbock.

Who was Harry Smith? The short answer about the 20th century polymath and hustler might be divined in his legendary Anthology of American Folk Music from 1952, an LP collection of mostly Southern US folk music on 78rpm records. The Anthology established a cult of listening and influenced popular and folk revival artists from John Sebastian and the New Lost City Ramblers to rockers like Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead and Beck. In addition to music recording and wide ranging research into tribal and other cultures, Harry Smith was a painter on canvas and on film. He was a profound thinker and worker in the American vernacular.

After Aretha Franklin signed with Atlantic Records in 1967, producer Jerry Wexler brought her to record in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Known for its local recording studios, including FAME and Muscle Shoals Sound, the Tennessee River town produced many hits and allowed the Black and white music worlds to coalesce. In 1967, Aretha recorded her first big hit, “I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)” at FAME studios, but all did not go smoothly. Studio guitarist Jimmy Johnson tells the story.

Los Lobos are a truly Mexican and American band. A sonic feast of Mexican acoustic musical traditions, blended later with large helpings of R&B, rock, and soul. Los Lobos have been writing and performing together for over fifty years, a partnership that began back at Garfield High, in East L.A. I spoke to longtime Lobos songwriter, Louie Pérez, about the band’s neighborhood roots.

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.

Sure, you can flip up a short stack of syrupy pancakes and bacon and delight everyone at the dinner table. But why stop there? Why not serve, say, eggs baked in a seasoned sauce, with crusty bread for dipping? Or use a waffle iron to press perfectly crisp hash browns.

New audio recordings of Rep. Kevin McCarthy call into question his honesty and integrity, as well as his ambitions to become House speaker should Republicans win control of the chamber in November.