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
Remembering Dolly Parton
August 26, 2026
We remember the late Dolly Parton, who joined us in this archival interview from 2000, to talk about her musical and family roots in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, where she first broke into song, performed on the radio, and admired the fashion of the local trollop. There's music from across the American spectrum, including Parton's "Coat of Many Colors." Also, we'll talk with the late historian Charles Wolfe about the ballads and songs of the Appalachian South.
NEXT WEEK
For Labor Day Weekend: The Best of American Routes Live
This Labor Day weekend, it's the best of American Routes Live--studio concerts and conversation in collaboration with the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park--including the Pine Leaf Boys with Cajun tunes and dances, Haitian-American singer songwriter Leyla McCalla and her band, Creole banjoist and songman Don Vappie, New Orleans's king of the trumpet Kermit Ruffins, jazz saxophone modernist Donald Harrison and an acoustic set by Rickie Lee Jones.
LAST WEEK
American Routes Staycations, Destinations and Summertime Variations
This summer season, American Routes is riding the airwaves to exotic destinations, swinging and surfing to all manner of beachside rhythms from the Beach Boys, Toots and the Maytals, Wilco, and the Kinks. We also stay home to bask in the sultry heat of “Summertime,” composed by George Gershwin and novelist Dubose Heyward in 1934 for the opera Porgy and Bess. It’s one of the most covered tunes in the American songbook with over thirty thousand renditions. We’ll hear takes from Janis Joplin, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Sam Cooke, and the Zombies.
