It's Thanksgiving weekend, and we've got some family harmonies. Coming up, we are going to revisit a conversation with the late bassist, Charlie Haden. Haden is known to many for his early work in the late ‘50s with free jazz sax player, Ornette Coleman. A decade later, he founded the Liberation Music Orchestra with arranger and pianist Carla Bley, a group dedicated to political activism. Over the years, Haden collaborated with pianists Keith Jarrett, Kenny Barron, Hank Jones, and his most enduring partnership was with fellow Missourian, guitarist Pat Metheny. Although Charlie Haden’s homeland for many years was Los Angeles, he grew up mostly near Springfield, Missouri. When I spoke to the consummate jazz bassist in 2008, he was drawing attention for a country music record made in Nashville, Rambling Boy, where he was joined by his musical family and several guests. For Haden, country music was a homecoming. His career really began at age two, singing–yodeling–on his parent's live radio show.

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.

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.

The Quebe Sisters grew up in Burleson, Texas near Dallas-Fort Worth. Grace, Sophia, and Hulda were homeschooled and largely sheltered from the outside world. At a young age, their attention moved from violin lessons to fiddle contests, immersing themselves in traditional Texas swing. While the 1940s fiddle music was little known to their peers, it was the Quebe Sisters’ ticket to ride. They have since shared the stage with country legends Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Ricky Skaggs. Here’s Sophia Quebe:

In honor of the harvest and hallows, we travel down the bayou in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, to visit wood carver and Houma Indian Ivy Billiot. Ivy learned the Houma tradition of basket weaving from his father, and although the wood is scarce these days, Ivy still crafts hunting blow guns, violins, and painted carvings of animals. He tells host Nick Spitzer about his relationship to the natural and supernatural worlds.

Jimmy C. Newman grew up in French Louisiana, hearing Cajun music as well as Gene Autry and other country musicians. He began playing with Chuck Guillory’s Rhythm Boys. Later he played on the Louisiana Hayride, and in 1956, he joined the Grand Ole Opry. Even with commercial success as a country music star, Newman recalled his roots, introducing a wider audience to Cajun sounds. After his passing in 2014, producer and musician Joel Savoy teamed up with Jimmy’s son Gary Newman, to record a tribute, Farewell, Alligator Man, released on Valcour Records in 2017. Here’s Gary:

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.

This is American Routes, about to go live at the New Orleans Jazz Museum with keyboard wizard Davell Crawford on piano. In addition to being the Prince of New Orleans piano, Davell is a fine singer and wily raconteur who grew up in French Louisiana’s “hub city” of Lafayette and also in New Orleans. We’ll learn about his large musical career and interests, but first here’s his tribute tune to one of his greatest heroes, the late James Booker. It’s a “Song for James” on American Routes Live.

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.

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.