Relax and celebrate work and the music it has inspired on this Labor Day edition of American Routes. Worldly blues man and one-time farmhand Taj Mahal joins us to talk about tilling the soil as well as plowing through musical boundaries. Oral historian and radio man Studs Terkel discusses work in America and his own labors over the decades. And hear about balancing two careers from New Orleans tinsmith and trumpeter Lionel Ferbos. You’ll also hear a work-related music mix including Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Nina Simone, Roy Orbison and many more.

What comes to mind when you hear the word Diva? We’ll explore the meaning – and the sound – of that feminine term through our music mix, and through interviews with some high-minded women who give the word a good name: Bonnie Raitt, Abbey Lincoln and young chanteuse Norah Jones. Plus songs with men and women weighing in on the topic from Louis Jordan, Memphis Minnie, Bob Dylan, Nina Simone and more.