American Routes is blues and jazz, gospel and soul, rockabilly and country, Cajun and swamp pop, Tejano, Latin… and beyond. Songs and stories from musicians describe a deep and diverse nation with sounds and styles shared by all Americans. From the bayous to the beltways, from crossroads to crosstown, on interstates and city streets, turn up your radio for the sonic journey!
American Routes—produced in New Orleans since 1998
How Many Roads: Bob Dylan’s Back Pages Volume II
May 15, 2024
In this second edition of “How Many Roads?” Bob Dylan’s Back Pages, we’ll rejoin the great American wordsmith by listening to his work from the last 25 years. We won’t forget the historic and ancient roots of his modern sounds, from the Old Testament to the Civil Rights movement. We’ll hear from collaborators and friends, Mavis Staples and Joan Baez, and from Kris Kristofferson who overheard Dylan’s recording sessions while working as a custodian in Nashville. We’ll go to our archives for the late producer Jerry Wexler on Dylan’s spiritual transformation and hear songs that address outlaws and lovers, memories and mortality.
NEXT WEEK
Philadelphia Sounds
Follow American Routes this week to the City of Brotherly Love, as we hang out on the musical street corners with some of Philadelphia’s finest, including the late bobby-soxer idol Bobby Rydell, hip-hop drummer and city champion ?uestlove of the Roots, and the city’s former mayor, Michael Nutter, who can also claim fame as a disco DJ. We’ll visit a famous operatic cafe and sit in with a neighborhood jazz organ trio. Plus catch a choir rehearsal at one of the city’s historic churches and a conversation with a mother-daughter klezmer duo. And musical postcards from artists who call Philly their hometown.
LAST WEEK
Mother’s Day
American Routes celebrates Mother’s Day with Marty Stuart and his mom, Hilda. We’ll talk about their shared love of photography and a certain girl singer, Connie Smith. Then we’ll hear stories about mothers from Fontella Bass, Sonny Rollins, Bo Diddley, and Geno Delafose, among others. Plus songs from blues to bluegrass about and for dear old mom.
THE STORIES OF OUR HERITAGE FILM PREMIERE FEATURING AMERICAN ROUTES HOST NICK SPITZER
Celebrate the extraordinary artists who shape America’s cultural heritage. The National Endowment for the Arts’ (NEA) new collection of beautifully crafted vignettes takes viewers on a journey of discovery into the lives and communities of the nine 2023 recipients of the nation's highest honor in folk and traditional arts.