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
For Labor Day Weekend: The Best of American Routes Live
September 2, 2026
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.
NEXT WEEK
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.
LAST WEEK
Remembering Dolly Parton
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.
