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.

The Historic New Orleans Collection spotlights Windell Curole, general manager of the South Lafourche Levee District for over 40 years.

Singer Allison Russell is a native of Montreal with what she calls “Grenadian Canadian” roots of Afro-Caribbean and Scottish ancestry. You may know her recordings with Our Native Daughters and the Birds of Chicago, or back when with Po’ Girl. In her first solo recording, Outside Child, Russell addressed family abuse in her youth, followed by escape to the road: Vancouver, San Francisco, Chicago. Those early life experiences led Allison years later to make new, compelling songs, expressing freedom from trauma, to love and hope for better times. She lives now with fellow musician JT Nero and their young daughter in Nashville, but Allison Russell began the journey’s narrative in her beloved Montreal.

Eddie Cotton grew up in the Church of God in Christ in Clinton, Mississippi near Jackson. He heard guitar-playing deacons and preachers. His father was a preacher who bought Eddie his first guitar when he was six with plans for him to play for the congregation. After leading the church band, Eddie went on to study music theory at Jackson State University, where he realized that gospel and blues shared the same form, and developed a sound that incorporated blues, gospel, and soul. He continued playing music in church, but pursued a career in blues, opening for Ike Turner and B.B. King, while sticking with fellow musicians in Mississippi and his family.

This is American Routes for St. Patrick's, with singers, fiddlers and pickers from Ireland to Appalachia live in this hour, sharing Irish, bluegrass and country tunes with one another at the 80th National Folk Festival. Beginning with brothers Rob and Ronnie McCoury playing banjo and mandolin on stage in Salisbury, Maryland, 2021, with Ronnie's tune, " Quicksburg Rondevouz."