Texas singer-songwriter Billy Joe Shaver is a prolific composer who draws inspiration from his life experiences: turning horses to working in a sawmill; his relationship with religion and his family. All raw material for honing classic country songs, many of which are anthemic in the Outlaw Country music scene of yore. Then, the former Crawfish Queen of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, Yvette Landry, shares stories of coming to music and song-making later in life, and her work with the “Godfather of Swamp Pop,” Warren Storm. Plus words and music from Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Marcia Ball and Fats Domino.

American Routes celebrates this Thanksgiving weekend with words and music from the National Heritage Fellows Concert in Washington DC. Since 1982, the National Endowment for the Arts has presented the fellowships. It’s America’s highest honor in Folk & Traditional Arts. This year’s fellows include Texas ranchera elders Las Tesoros de San Antonio, Basque accordionist Dan Ansotegui, Malian balafon player Balla Kouyate, African American storyteller Linda Goss, Wyoming leatherworker James F. Jackson, Spanish colcha embroiderer Josephine Lobato, decoy carver Rich Smoker, Crow storyteller Grant Bulltail and Tennessee folklorist and state parks manager Bob Fulcher. Plus fellows from years gone by: Mavis Staples, Doc Watson, Wanda Jackson and the Holmes Brothers.

We peer into the minds of musical dreamers of the past and present, exploring dreams of love, immigration, and a more perfect union. Singer-song maker Jesse Colin Young of the Youngbloods speaks of the 60’s folk revival in Greenwich Village and his dreams realized in the anthemic 1967 song “Get Together.” Then, Haitian American cellist and singer Leyla McCalla describes her journey from New York to New Orleans, connecting the cultural histories she’d long dreamed of along the way. Plus dreamscapes from Rhiannon Giddens, Los Cenzontles, Mahalia Jackson and John Prine.