american routes shortcuts

Charley Pride was the first great African American star of country music. Born in Sledge, MS in 1938, Pride left farm life behind and had a budding baseball career in the Negro and minor leagues. He worked by day in a Montana steel mill and sang country music at night. That got the attention of Nashville producers in the mid-‘60s, and he went on to a career that included 29 number one country hits and induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Charley Pride passed away in 2020, and his story remains a special one that begins back down home on the Mississippi tenant farm he came to own.

The late guitarist and singer Richie Havens was raised in the Bed–Stuy section of Brooklyn, home to many West Indians, a kind of urban village where his grandmother from Barbados presided. Havens’ Native American grandfather had ridden horses in Buffalo Bill shows and lived on the Shinnecock reservation on Long Island. Growing up, Richie Havens played in the neighborhood with friends from all over the world. He sang doo-wop on the corner and gospel in the church. But he credited his father, a factory worker, as the primary influence in art and music.

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.

This is American Routes, celebrating the National Endowment for the Arts 2024 Heritage Fellows. Rosie Flores originally from San Antonio, Texas is a well-traveled singer, guitarist, and songwriter known for playing country, rockabilly, and a mix with punk rock called “cowpunk.” She’s performed with groups including her alt-country band Rosie and the Screamers in San Diego, a female cowpunk band the Screamin' Sirens in Hollywood, and the all-women Tex-Mex supergroup, Las Super Tejanas. She notably helped revive the careers of rockabilly legends Wanda Jackson and Janis Martin with her album, Rockabilly Filly. In 1987, she became the first Latina on Billboard’s country music chart for her single, "Crying Over You.” Her musical career has taken her to San Diego, Los Angeles, and Nashville, but her journey began at home in San Antonio, listening to Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, and Elvis on the kitchen radio.

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.

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.

Trudy Lynn, born Lee Audrey Nelms, grew up surrounded by music in Houston. Duke and Peacock Records, two Black-owned labels were blocks from her home. She saw legends like Joe Hinton and Bobby "Blue" Bland by the Club Matinee on her way to school. Her parents loved blues, and Trudy sang while her father tap-danced and played harmonica on the porch. She also sang in church, started a girl group, the Chromatics with her school friends, became a vocalist with Clarence Green, and opened for Ike and Tina Turner. In 1989, she went solo on a recording called Trudy Sings the Blues. I spoke to her in Houston, where she still sings the blues.

This is American Routes from New Orleans, a city of music and songs, many of which have been written about it, often by outsiders. “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans"–music by John Turner Layton and lyrics from Henry Creamer–was published in 1922. “Way Down Yonder” was advertised as "A Southern Song, without A Mammy, A Mule, Or A Moon.” That was a rightful dig at some of the Tin Pan Alley clichés of the day. “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans" has been performed by many: Benny Goodman, the Andrews Sisters, Freddy Cannon, Jan and Dean, and Dean Martin. And now let’s go “Way Down Yonder” and beyond, starting with a fresh version of the old song from New Orleans Jazz Vipers on American Routes.

The Winnsboro Easter Rock Ensemble carries on a women-led African American spiritual ritual, originally performed by enslaved Africans in the Northeast Louisiana Delta region of Franklin Parish before the Civil War. It combines Christian worship and the West African ring shout tradition. The Easter Rock is held the day before Easter, with call and response vocals and foot-stomping, honoring Jesus as they circulate with a train of swaying ribbon streamers on a large heavy banner representing the burden of the cross to commemorate the death and resurrection of Christ. The Winnsboro Easter Rock Ensemble are the last known practitioners of the ritual, moving counter-clockwise around a white table representing Christ’s tomb. Leader, the elder Hattie Addison spoke with me and led the group in song and steps.

Our guest this hour was an American band leader, a piano player and arranger, but she would have liked you to know her as someone who wrote music. The late Carla Bley was one of the jazz world’s most prolific writers. She grew up in a religious family in California, but set her sites on the New York City jazz scene of the 1950s. In her music, Carla Bley often explored the American landscape, with a sharp sense of humor. Somehow this journey began by going in circles, on roller skates.