
SUPPORT GREAT STORYTELLING
We rely on your support to remain on air and online. Your contribution helps us bring you interviews with great American artists and the carefully curated music mix that you’ve enjoyed over the years.
Donate
AMERICAN ROUTES ON INSTAGRAM
SMALL TOWN BLUES: JEFF TWEEDY & JIMMY DUCK HOLMES
Wilco frontman, Jeff Tweedy tells of the impact on his songs of growing up in the blue collar town, Belleville, Illinois. Music became his creative outlet in high school and lead to founding the seminal Americana band, Uncle Tupelo. We hear from Jeff in his Chicago studio “The Loft” about the emergence of Wilco and the place that making music has in his life, including work with Woody Guthrie’s lyrics and producing records with Mavis Staples. In Bentonia, Mississippi, playing blues and running the Blue Front Cafe, has been a lifetime role for guitarist Jimmy “Duck” Holmes. Duck talks about juke joints and moonshine in the Jim Crow South til now— and how he got the name Duck. We’ll also hear music of jukes, honky-tonks and nightclubs from Hank Williams and George Jones to Bessie Smith and Mary Lou Williams.
HOUR ONE
- Open Bed: That's Not the Issue Wilco
Wilco A.M., Reprise - No Depression Uncle Tupelo
No Depression, Rockville Records - Screen Door Uncle Tupelo
No Depression, Rockville Records - Someday Soon Wilco
Being There, Reprise - Sandusky Uncle Tupelo
March 16-20, 1992, Rockville Records - SEGMENT: Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett
Listen - Instrumental: Airline to Heaven Billy Bragg and Wilco
Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions, Nonesuch - SEGMENT: Jeff Tweedy 2
Listen - Do Re Mi Woody Guthrie
Folkways: The Original Vision, Smithsonian Folkways - California Stars Wilco and Billy Bragg
Mermaid Avenue, Nonesuch - Instrumental: Train Breakdown Woody Guthrie
My Dusty Road, Rounder - SEGMENT: Jeff Tweedy 3
Listen - Wilco (The Song) Wilco
Wilco [The Album], Nonesuch - SEGMENT: Jeff Tweedy 4
Listen - Normal American Kids Wilco
Schmilco, dBpm Records - War on War Wilco
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Nonesuch - Country Disappear Wilco
Wilco [The Album], Nonesuch - Closing Bed: Sandusky Uncle Tupelo
March 16-20, 1992, Rockville Records
HOUR two
- Open Bed: Back at the Chicken Shack Jimmy Smith
Back at the Chicken Shack, Blue Note - Chicken Shack Boogie Amos Milburn
Blues, Barrelhouse & Boogie Woogie: 1946-1955, Capitol - God's Own Jukebox Jessie Winchester
Third Down and 110 to Go, Bearsville - Honky Tonkin' Hank Williams
The Original Singles Collection... Plus, Polygram - Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On Big Maybelle
The Complete OKeh Sessions 1953-'55, OKeh/Epic - Froggy Bottom Jimmy Witherspoon
Goin' to Kansas City Blues, RCA - Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer Bessie Smith
The Essential Bessie Smith, Sony Legacy - Instrumental: Froggy Bottom Mary Lou Williams
Mary Lou Williams Trio 1944 Roll 'Em, Solo Art - White Lightning George Jones
The Hits, Mercury - Moonshiner Uncle Tupelo
89/93: An Anthology, Columbia/Legacy - Cherry Ball Blues Skip James
The Complete Early Recordings, Yazoo - Hard Time Killing Floor Chris Thomas King
O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Mercury - Instrumental: Juke Little Walter
The Essential Little Walter, MCA - SEGMENT: Jimmy "Duck" Holmes
Listen - Susie Que Dale Hawkins
Guitar Player Presents Legends of Guitar- Rock: the '50s, Vol. 1, Rhino - Sister's Coming Home Willie Nelson
The Complete Atlantic Sessions, Rhino - Small Town Talk Bobby Charles
Bobby Charles , Rhino - Closing Bed: Rock House Parts I and II Ray Charles
What'd I Say, Atlantic