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
KEEP A COOL YULE
This Christmas, we’re serving up holiday platters for the many moods and sonic flavors of the season. We get down to some very merry Chicano rockabilly from Los Straitjackets; gather around the fire with French fiddlers in snowy Maine; imbibe “Sugar Rum Cherry” concocted by Duke Ellington; dream of a white Christmas a la Booker T. & the MGs, and hear the tale of Miles Davis‘ “Blue X-mas” from jazz composer Bob Dorough. Plus, cool Yuletide exotica from Esquivel, joyous free jazz from Rahsaan Roland Kirk and ring shouting for a New Year from the Georgia Sea Island Singers.
HOUR ONE
- Open Bed: Santa Claus is Coming to Town Jimmy McGriff
Christmas with McGriff, Sue Records - Jingle Bells (Greetings from Esquivel!) Esquivel
Merry Xmas from the Space-Age Bachelor Pad, Bar/None - What Will Santa Say When He Finds Everybody Swingin'? Kermit Ruffins
Have a Crazy Cool Christmas, Basin Street - Cool Yule Louis Armstrong
'Zat You, Santa Claus?/Cool Yule, Decca - Papa Ain't No Santa Claus (Mama Ain't No Christmas Tree) Butterbeans and Susie
Screening the Blues, CBS - Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy Buck Owens
Christmas with Buck Owens and his Buckaroos, Capitol - Run Run Rudolph Chuck Berry
The Chess Box, Chess - Instrumental: Christmas in the City Marvin Gaye
Christmas in the City, Motown Master Series - California Dreaming Bobby Womack
Why Do Fools Fall in Love Soundtrack, Rhino - River Joni Mitchell
Blue, Reprise - Winterlude Joe Ely
To: Kate- A Benefit for Kate's Sake, Western Beat Records - Footprints in the Snow Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys
Winning Combinations, MCA Special Products - Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning Mississippi Fred McDowell
Fred McDowell: The Alan Lomax Recordings, Domino Sound - We Free Kings Rahsaan Roland Kirk
We Free Kings, Mercury - Instrumental: White Christmas Tuts Washington
New Orleans Piano Professor, Rounder - SEGMENT: Maine French Fiddlers
Listen - Christmas Must Be Tonight Amy Helm and the Wood Brothers
Amy Helm and the Wood Brothers, Spotify Single - Go Tell It On the Mountain The McCrary Sisters
Go Tell It on the Mountain/No Room at the Inn, Rounder - Closing Bed: White Christmas Booker T. & the MGs
In the Christmas Spirit, Atlantic
HOUR two
- Open Bed: Christmas Blues Ramsey Lewis
The Joy of Christmas Past, GNP - Faraway Christmas Blues Johnny Otis
The Johnny Otis R&B Caravan/Complete Savoy Recordings, Savoy - Baltimore Oriole Bob Dorough
Devil May Care, Bethlehem Archives - CLIP: Bob Dorough
Listen - Blue Christmas Lumineers
Blue Christmas- Single, Lumineers - Merry Christmas Baby Charles Brown
Blue Yule: Christmas Blues and R&B Classics , Rhino - Instrumental: Greensleeves Jimmy Smith
Christmas Cookin' , Verve - Christmas in Vietnam Johnny & Jon
Merry Christmas Baby, Ronn - SEGMENT: Chuck Siler
Listen - Santa Claus is Ska-ing to Town Granville Williams Orchestra
Natty and Nice: A Reggae Christmas, Rhino - Christmas is a Coming Leadbelly
Leadbelly Sings for Children, Smithsonian Folkways - J'ai Vu le Loup, Le Renard et la Belette Balfa Brothers
Balfa Brothers Play More Traditional Music, Swallow - Bachata en Navidad La Sonora Matancera featuring Celia Cruz
Celebremos Nochebuena con Sonora Matancera, Codigo Music - Feliz Navidad Los Straightjackets
'Tis the Season for Los Straightjackets, Yep Roc - Instrumental: Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy) Duke Ellington
Three Suites, Columbia - Sherburne (While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night) Sacred Harp Singers
Songs of Christmas from the Alan Lomax Collection, Rounder - Cherry Tree Carol Pentangle
Solomon's Seal, Reprise - Greensleeves John Coltrane
The Best of John Coltrane: His Greatest Years, Vol. 2, Impulse - O Day Bessie Jones/Georgia Sea Island Singers
Songs of Christmas from the Alan Lomax Collection, Rounder - End Bed: Auld Lang Syne John Fahey
John Fahey Christmas Soli, Fantasy
