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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.

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.

The late Jesse Colin Young’s career began in Greenwich Village during the 60’s folk revival. After releasing solo albums, Jesse teamed up with guitarist Jerry Corbitt, keyboardist and guitarist Lowell "Banana" Levinger, and drummer Joe Bauer to form the Youngbloods. Their iconic 1967 hit “Get Together,” originally by Dino Valenti, called for peace and unity. Young moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1969, but relocated to Hawaii after he lost his house in a fire in 1995. He used music to get through those hard times and suffering from Lyme disease. His music also increasingly dealt with political disaster, raising concern about the environment and war. Born Perry Miller, Jesse’s dreams of a free life began in Queens with his father and music at home. Jesse Colin Young passed March 16, 2025.

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.

This is American Routes, I'm Nick Spitzer. It’s no secret, here and worldwide, we’re in a time of turmoil, in government, political attacks, secrecy and war. We asked you, our listeners, to help pick music and musicians that deal with the troubles, and we added a few songs and singers that fit the mood as best we could. They include the Staple Singers, Allen Toussaint, Johnny Cash, Woody Guthrie, Toots and the Maytals, Son Volt, Carole King and John Coltrane. ***Content warning: This episode contains the word “Goddamn” at 1:29. It is not bleeped.”

Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers co-founder Chris Hillman is a musician, singer, songwriter, and author. A third generation Californian, Hillman grew up hearing Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, all on his parents’ hi-fi. He discovered bluegrass and picked up mandolin by way of Bill Monroe and the New Lost City Ramblers. At seventeen, Hillman joined his first band, the Scottsville Squirrel Barkers, a bluegrass group that included Eagles’ guitarist Bernie Leadon. He later played with the Golden State Boys, the resident bluegrass band for Los Angeles television’s Cal’s Corral, which became the Hillmen. I spoke to Chris Hillman over Zoom, where he told me how he was recruited to play bass for the Byrds at a studio rehearsal in L.A.