Join us around the piano for a good helping of family harmonies, led by the Haden Triplets and their father, the late jazz bassist Charlie Haden. Then, get down to the sounds of Tupelo, Mississippi’s Homemade Jamz Blues Band, featuring the Perry brothers and their sister Taya on drums. Plus, music from famous family bands and songs about grandmas, cousins and long lost relatives — all of whom we expect to hear from at Thanksgiving dinner.

We’ll go up the Mississippi to another great river city of music: Memphis. Known for rhythm & blues, gospel, soul and roots, rock n roll-- and landmark record labels: Sun, Stax and Hi Records. On this visit, we’ll listen to the work of Hi Records producer/arranger/trumpeter Willie Mitchell and talk to members of the Hi Rhythm section: Rev. Charles Hodges and Archie “Hubbie” Turner, plus an archival conversation with the man with the most hits for Hi Records, Al Green. Then more memories of those days with old school singer and prolific songwriter Don Bryant, who got his start with Willie Mitchell and, in his ‘70s, returned to the studio, cutting records with lots of soul.

It’s American Routes Live in concert and conversation with musicians from southwest Louisiana Cajun and New Orleans Creole life. Singer Songwriter Zachary Richard has been called the most American of French songwriters and the most French of American songwriters. We’ll visit with Zachary and his band live at Dockside Studios in Maurice, Louisiana for a walk through his nearly 50 year catalog of songs. Then Creole jazz banjoman Don Vappie updates musical history while keeping the New Orleans traditional sound alive, live from Marigny Studios near the French Quarter.

We hit up Preservation Hall in the French Quarter for a potent dose of trad jazz, as bandleader and fourth-generation Creole musician Charlie Gabriel tells of his Caribbean roots, jazz funerals, and New Orleans’ hybrid rhythms. Then we head to the Lonestar state to hear the reworking of jazz into Texas swing, as played by the Quebe Sisters. The fiddling siblings tell of their sheltered upbringing outside Ft. Worth and their fiery baptism into western swing. Plus, we spin other pioneering Creoles — Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, Fats Domino — and country & western greats from Bob Wills to Willie Nelson.