We take a deep dive into the vaults of Blue Note Records, the independent label that helped put artists like  Thelonious Monk , Art Blakey and Jimmy Smith on the map. Flagbearer of trad jazz, beb...

YouTube video by Professor Longhair - Topic

This Memorial Day weekend, we hear from the 2025 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellows. As our country gears up to celebrate its 250th birthday, we meet the great traditional music...

The great Texas river city is a mix of Mexican, German, Anglo and African American cultures, among others. Home to the Texas Conjunto Festival and the International Accordion Festival, San Antonio is ...

We’re digging into the Piedmont blues, a rich style that mixes ragtime, old-time country music, jazz, gospel, hollers, and historic popular songs. A conversation and music with two younger players in ...

Jackson, Mississippi blues guitarist Eddie Cotton, Jr. takes time out from his performance at the 2019 National Folk Festival to talk to us about his gospel roots and his mission to bring Mississipp...

Blues…it’s a universal solvent in music. There’s blues in jazz, R & B, roots rock and soul, country, Cajun, Latin, funk, hip-hop, rock and pop… It’s everywhere! We’ll hear from all corners of the ...

We get sonically aloft with musical memories of the Byrds and the Flying Burritos Brothers . The Byrds, the fabled folk-rock band known for their vocal harmonies and jangly guitar sound, gained hug...

We asked our listeners to help pick music and musicians that deal with the troubles we’re facing, and we added a few songs and singers that fit the mood as best we could, including the Staple Singers,...

We’ll go up the Mississippi to another great river city of music: Memphis. Known for rhythm & blues, gospel, soul and roots, rock n roll-- and landmark record labels: Sun, Stax and Hi Records. On ...

As temperatures begin to dip and the leaves turn color, we celebrate the Autumnal Equinox with a soundtrack for the changing season. We hope for crisp air in Fall with Nina Simone’s plea, “Chilly Wi...

#americanroutes 💞 https://www.amroutes.org/september-2025/2537

YouTube video by Alberto Garey

For Juneteenth, it’s music from the Staple Singers, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone and Bob Dylan, plus classic jazz, reggae and a new generation of singers: the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Norah Jones and...

It’s time to give the drummer some, with late New Orleans native Earl Palmer talking about his creative percussion for Fats Domino and Little Richard sessions; and conversation with Memphis rockabil...

We asked our listeners to help pick music and musicians that deal with the troubles we’re facing, and we added a few songs and singers that fit the mood as best we could, including the Staple Singers,...

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