This is American Routes here with Halloween aficionados Shannon & the Clams. After meeting in the Bay Area, Shannon Shaw and Cody Blanchard began brewing up the doo-wop meets punk sound of Shannon & the Clams. Their love of pulpy horror and sci-fi books, John Waters movies and teenage torch songs of the ’60s folds into a musical persona that is visually and sonically rich. Shannon tells of growing up Mormon in rural California and finding an escape in music.

New Orleans guitar and banjo player Detroit Brooks got a start touring with his musical family, including his father, George Brooks Sr., of the gospel group Masonic Kings, and his sister, gospel singer Juanita Brooks.

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.”

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.

Record maven Don Was developed an ear for music in the Motor City. He made his way into studio recording with his band, Was Not Was, teaching himself how to pick and mix music. After striking out for LA in pursuit of his destiny, Don began racking up Grammys as a producer. He’s worked alongside Bryan Wilson, the Rolling Stones and Randy Newman, among others. In 2012, Don became president of Blue Note Records, the label that introduced him to his love of music.

Although Neville Brothers singer Aaron Neville is famed for his updating of the old inmates song “Angola Bound,” it was his brother, the late saxophonist Charles Neville, who actually did time at Angola Prison. He was among many great musicians who were sent to the penitentiary for drug offenses. One of his great contributions as an inmate was helping to racially and musically integrate prison life. Charles begins the tale with his arrest in New Orleans.

Max Baca grew up in New Mexico, playing in his dad’s band from age eight. After mastering bass and accordion, he picked up the bajo sexto, a Mexican twelve-string instrument featured in Tejano music. Max Baca Sr. took regular trips to Texas to introduce his sons to the conjunto scene, pioneered by his favorite accordion player, Narciso Martínez. Brothers Max Jr. and Jimmy channeled the San Antonio sound in forming their own band, Los Hermanos Baca. The Bacas were playing cantinas around New Mexico when Max got the call inviting him to tour with the Texas Tornados. He joined the ranks of his musical idol, Flaco Jiménez, and reconnected with the Texas tradition his father instilled. After Doug Sahm’s death in 1999, Max turned full attention to his own group, Los Texmaniacs. The band’s record Borders y Bailes won the Grammy for best Tejano album in 2010.

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.

This is American Routes live for Labor Day weekend with some favorite performances from our series of concerts created with the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park. To kick it off, we asked the Pine Leaf Boys to make a big journey across the Atchafalaya swamp from Lafayette and their South Louisiana Cajun prairie homeland down the Mississippi River to New Orleans to play on a live stream as the pandemic closed the dancehalls of French Louisiana. It’s “Pine Leaf Boy Two-Step” on American Routes.

This is American Routes digging into the archive for one of my all-time favorite interviews with the late Dolly Parton in 2000. Dolly passed away on August 25, 2026.