It’s Blueswomen, Jazzmen, African roots and branches. Chicago blues singer Shemekia Copeland‘s father, the late blues guitarist Johnny Copeland, brought her into his music as a child. As an adult, she found new ways to use blues to express her perspective. We’ll hear from some of Shemekia’s heroes including Etta James, Ruth Brown, Alberta Hunter and Big Mama Thornton. Then a conversation and performance by Boston-based Mandinka balafon player Balla Kouyaté and music inspired by and from the continent of Africa from Randy Weston, Miriam Makeba and the Modern Jazz Quartet.

We celebrate the 2024 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellows. Each year since 1982, the program has recognized artistic excellence, lifetime achievement, and contributions to the nation's traditional arts heritage. The 2024 fellows include rockabilly country musician, Rosie Flores; carousel restorationist, Todd Goings; Cambodian dancer and costume maker, Sochietah Ung; Chicago tap dancer, Bril Barrett; Arkansas community activist, Pat Johnson; Navajo/Diné quilter, Susan Hudson; Gwich’in fiddler, Trimble Gilbert; Zuni dancers and singers, the Zuni Olla Maidens; Chicano muralist from Los Angeles, Fabian Debora; and koto player, June Kuramoto. Plus, music from past fellows, including live sets from New Orleans’ clarinetist, Dr. Michael White, Cajun fiddler Michael Doucet and his band, BeauSoleil, and sacred steel masters, the Campbell Brothers.

The late Texas singer-songwriter Billy Joe Shaver was a prolific composer who drew 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.

Exploring the musical ties that bind, we spin platters from our favorite harmonizing pairs and family affairs. We map the careers of West Texas-troubadour Jimmie Dale Gilmore of the Flatlanders and So-Cal rocker Dave Alvin of the Blasters and trace the events that led to their cosmic collaboration. And we follow the journey of funk singer Syl Johnson and blues guitarist Jimmy Johnson from Mississippi to Chicago, and the different paths the late sibling rivals carved out in the Windy City’s electric soundscape. Plus, country duets and family bands. Soul sisters and blues brothers. Lovers, kindred spirits, and lots of others.