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WHILE I'M LIVING: TANYA TUCKER & WARREN STORM

Singer Tanya Tucker got her start as a very young singer in Nashville. At age 13, she had her first hit with “Delta Dawn.” Since then, she’s seen a lot of the world of Country Music but still kept her landmark sound. We’ll talk about her recent Grammy-winning record and her love of cutting horses in the Desert West. Then the late King of Swamp Pop, Warren Storm brings us back to Louisiana where he took the world by storm with a new recording of classic songs.

SWEET INSPIRATION: DAN PENN & TRUDY LYNN

Singer Songwriter Dan Penn is the master behind so many well loved R&B songs, from James and Bobby Purify’s “I’m Your Puppet” to Aretha Franklin’s “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man” and Alex Chilton and the Box Tops “Cry Like a Baby,” and many more. We’ll talk with him about his prolific catalog of songs, plus stories behind the scenes at Fame Records in Muscle Shoals and American Recordings in Memphis, and scoring his very first with a rockabilly Conway Twitty. Then, from Houston’s Fifth Ward, it’s Blues singer Trudy Lynn who got her start as a high schooler singing with Albert Collins and Archie Bell and the Drells before going on to her own career in blues and R&B.

WORDS & MUSIC IN THE SPIRIT OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

American Routes reflects on the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. in words and music. Join us as we speak with those who knew Dr. King, from the late music scholar Albert Murray and late historian Julian Bond to singers Mavis Staples, Harry Belafonte and Mable John. Also, Mississippi riverboat captain Doc Hawley shares a unique memory of Memphis. Plus songs of freedom, deliverance and hope to commemorate this holiday weekend.

WHO WAS HARRY SMITH?: THE GREAT DELINEATOR AND HIS ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC

Who was Harry Smith? The short answer about the 20th century polymath and hustler might be divined in his legendary 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music, an LP collection of mostly Southern US folk songs from 78rpm records. “The Anthology“ established a cult of listening and influenced popular and folk revival artists from John Sebastian and the New Lost City Ramblers to rockers like Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead and Beck. We’ll talk with Smith biographer John Szwed about Harry’s life as an artist, record collector and 1950’s bohemian. Then, old and new covers of the Anthology and its B-sides from Gillian Welch, Bob Dylan, Gatemouth Brown and Amythyst Kiah.