It’s our curated mix of trad and modern jazz, blues, soul and country from Cannonball Adderley and Betty Carter, Guitar Slim and Slim Harpo. We’ll come in out of the blues pouring down like rain and get to the sunny side of the street with Peggy Lee and Benny Goodman, party with Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald; and walk on with Waylon Jennings and Nancy Sinatra. Then, a live genre blending, but not bending, set with New Orleans’ trombonist Corey Henry and the Treme Funktet.

This Memorial Day weekend, we hear from the 2025 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellows. As our country gears up to celebrate its 250th birthday, we meet the great traditional musicians, storytellers, artisans, and cultural advocates who have received our nation’s highest honor in the folk arts. We’ll visit with the honorees, including Creole French musician, Edward Poullard; Haitian dancer and drummer, Peniel Guerrier; Japanese folk dancer, Adrienne Reiko Iwanaga; bit and spur maker, Ernie Marsh; Sicangu Lakota artist and educator, Steve Tamayo; Mexican Folk costume maker and dancer, Carmen Baron; and men's choral and bandura ensemble, the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus of North America. We’ll also hear music and conversation from some of our favorite fellows from years past: bluegrass hero Del McCoury, dancer and drummer from the West African Congo, Sidiki Conde, and New Orleans jazz clarinetist Dr. Michael White, plus a glimpse into an historic Clifton Chenier box set, released in early 2026 for the late Louisiana Creole French King of Zydeco’s 100th birthday.

This week, we look back on a live concert celebrating the music of the legendary Cajun band BeauSoleil, led by fiddler Michael Doucet, with family and friends in their 50th year of playing Louisiana French folk and popular music locally and globally, all in front of a packed hometown house in Lafayette, Louisiana. 

We go where the music leads us, first live at home with trumpeter Wendell Brunious and his New Orleans All Stars. Wendell is from a famed New Orleans Creole jazz family and is now the music director of Preservation Hall. Then, we visit with the eccentric and witty songmaker and multi-instrumentalist Susan Werner with roots in rural Iowa. Susan’s stories in song are comedic and serious takes on religion, queerness, climate change and social responsibility. Plus words and music from Big Mama Thornton, Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Cash and the Five Satins.