Search results for

We’ve got jazz trumpeter from Preservation Hall, Wendell Brunious with his New Orleans All Stars. Wendell Brunious is from a famed New Orleans Creole jazz family. He is the son of Nazimova Santiago and John Brunious, Sr., a trumpeter who played with Onward Brass and Young Tuxedo Brass Bands, and Paul Barbarin. Wendell Brunious’ brother was the late John Brunious, Jr., also a trumpeter who lead the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Over the years, Wendell Brunious sang with Chief John and the Mahogany Hall Stompers in the 1960s. He studied at Southern University, worked with Danny Barker in the ‘70s, and later played on Bourbon Street and with Kid Thomas Valentine, Eureka Brass, Lionel Hampton, Linda Hopkins, Sammy Rimington and Louis Nelson. Right now it’s Wendell Brunious and band on American Routes Live.

Our guest is singer, pianist and octogenarian Tommy McClain, one of the last standing Louisiana swamp pop singers. He told us how much he enjoyed being on the road, singing for new audiences. Tommy is known in Louisiana for his hit 1966 cover of “Sweet Dreams” and his contributions to swamp pop. He’s also recorded gospel music, wrote songs for Freddy Fender and toured with the Dick Clark Road Shows in the 1960s. Tommy’s now back in the studio with Elvis Costello and producer C.C. Adcock and recorded a 2022 album I Ran Down Every Dream. Entertaining has been a constant for him since his early days in Pineville, LA singing for his family and listening to the Grand Ole Opry. But his whole path changed when he went to a concert nearby in Alexandria.

New Orleans guitar and banjo player Detroit Brooks got a start touring with his musical family, including father George Brooks Sr. of the gospel group Masonic Kings, and his sister, gospel singer Juanita Brooks. Detroit grew up downriver, living four blocks from Fats Domino, and was greatly influenced by the late Creole banjo and guitar player, Danny Barker. He created a festival in his memory. In addition to his career in music, Detroit worked as a barber and for Amtrak. He's well versed in traditional jazz, R&B, soul, and funk. He's here as bandleader of the Syncopated Percolators at the New Orleans Jazz Museum, playing “Hindustan,” on American Routes Live.

Don Bryant was the fifth of ten children, grew up listening to his father’s gospel group, and started singing in church at age five. Don began harmonizing with his family and neighbors and went on to form the Four Kings with his brothers singing on Dick “Cane” Cole’s popular WLOK radio show. The group joined up with Willie Mitchell’s band; Don Bryant was lead singer. Bryant later pursued a solo career, but mostly focused on writing material for other artists at Hi Records and continued singing in church. Don returned to singing secular music in his 70s after an invitation from Memphis soul band the Bo-Keys. He released an album in 2017, called “Don’t Give Up on Love,” his first secular album in 48 years. Don’s latest record, You Make Me Feel, came out in 2020.

Our guest, Lil Ray Neal, has been referred to by his fans as the “Gentle Giant of the Blues.” You may know his father, who he is named after, Baton Rouge blues giant, Raful Neal. Or you may have heard his brother Kenny Neal on a previous American Routes show. Born in Erwinville, LA, now based in Baton Rouge, Lil Ray Neal has been working as a blues guitarist and vocalist for over 40 years, playing with artists John Lee Hooker, Big Mama Thornton, Muddy Waters, James Cotton, Little Milton, Bobby Rush, Bobby “Blue” Bland, and B.B. King. Here on American Routes live, he’s taking the stage solo for a rare intimate performance at the The West Baton Rouge Museum, beginning with “Darlin’ You Know I Love You.”

The shop sells mousse with brightly colored jelly toppings. A different topping for each vaccine available there: yellow for AstraZeneca and green for Pfizer. Each has a decorative syringe on top.

We love shrimp in the United States. As a country, we eat over 2 billion pounds a year, making it the most consumed seafood in the country. So times should be really good for shrimpers, right? But shrimpers say things have never been worse and that their whole industry here in the United States is on the brink of extinction.

As natural disasters worsen and extreme weather grows more frequent, it’s led to more people being displaced across the planet. On this episode of Sea Change, we explore what it means to recover after disaster.

TV Weather Gets Heated. In a world where weather is getting more extreme, the role of meteorologists is becoming more important—and controversial—than ever.

As part of our series about students and teachers, musicologist Bruce Nemerov describes the way that one song is recorded by several different musicians in different decades of the 20th century. The older musicians are teaching the younger musicians through the song "Sitting on Top of the World." We hear the song as recorded by Al Jolson, The Mississippi Sheiks, Howlin' Wolf, Eric Clapton, Bill Monroe and The Grateful Dead.