


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
LABOR DAY
Relax and celebrate work and the music it has inspired on this Labor Day edition of American Routes. Worldly blues man and one-time farmhand Taj Mahal joins us to talk about tilling the soil as well as plowing through musical boundaries. Oral historian and radio man Studs Terkel discusses work in America and his own labors over the decades. And hear about balancing two careers from New Orleans tinsmith and trumpeter Lionel Ferbos You’ll also hear a work-related music mix including Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Nina Simone, Roy Orbison and many more.
HOUR ONE
- Open Bed: Blue Monday Fats Domino
Out of New Orleans, Bear Family - Workin' Man Blues Jerry Lee Lewis
Killer Country, Mercury - Cakewalk into Town Taj Mahal
Recycling the Blues and Other Related Stuff, CBS - Got Me A New Love Thing James Andrews
Satchmo of the Ghetto, NYNO - Labor Day Lord Invader
Calypso in New York, Folkways - Instrumental: Things Are Gonna Work Out Fine Taj Mahal
Natch'l Blues, Columbia - INTERVIEW: Taj Mahal
Listen - Je Suis en Recolteur (I'm A Farmer) Clifton Chenier
Bogalusa Boogie, Arhoolie - Sixteen Tons Johnnie Taylor
Lifetime, Stax - Instrumental: Can't Be Still Booker T & the MGs
The Complete Stax/Volt Singles 1959-1968, Atlantic - Lining Track Leadbelly
Sings Folk Songs, Folkways - Temp 'Em Up Solid Ry Cooder
Paradise and Lunch, Warner - INTERVIEW: Lionel Ferbos
Listen - Nice Work If You Can Get It Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Sings Gershwin, Decca - Work Song Grant Green
2 By 5: Guitar Jazz, 32 Jazz
HOUR two
- Five O'Clock Whistle Duke Ellington
Centennial Edition: Complete RCA Victor Recordings 1927-1973, RCA - I'm Not Going To Work Today Clyde McPhatter
A Shot of Rhythm and Blues, Sundazed - Bertha Roosevelt Charles, Rev. Rogers and Big Louisiana
Louisiana Prison Worksongs, Arhoolie - Chain Gang The Persuasions
We Came To Play, Capitol - Work Song Nina Simone
Anthology: The Colpix Years, Rhino - The Peanut Vendor Billie and De De Pierce
Gulf Coast Blues, Arhoolie - Okra Olu Dara
In The World: From Natchez To New York, Atlantic - Instrumental: The Work Song Arthur Lyman
Sonic Sixties, Ryko - Mule Skinner Blues (Blue Yodel No.8) Jimmie Rodgers
The Singing Brakeman, Bear Family - Erie Canal Dan Zanes & Friends, featuring Suzanne Vega
Freedom: Songs from the Hearts of America, Columbia - Factory Girl Rolling Stones
Beggar's Banquet, ABKCO - I've Been Working Van Morrison
His Band And The Street Choir, Warner - Workin' for the Man Roy Orbison
For the Lonely: 18 Greatest Hits, Rhino - Instrumental: Nice Work If You Can Get It Art Tatum
The Definitive Art Tatum, Blue Note - INTERVIEW: Studs Terkel
Listen - Hallelujah, I'm a Bum Fats Waller
Fine Arabian Stuff, High Note - Blues for Everybody Champion Jack Dupree
Blues for Everybody, Charly - I Can't Wait to Get Off Work (and See My Baby on Montgomery Avenue) Tom Waits
Small Change, Asylum - End Bed: Work Song Charles Mingus
The Complete Debut Recordings Vol.3, Debut