

SUPPORT GREAT STORYTELLING
We rely on your support to remain on air and online. Your contribution helps us bring you interviews with great American artists and the carefully curated music mix that you’ve enjoyed over the years.
Donate
AMERICAN ROUTES ON INSTAGRAM
STORIES FROM THE ROAD WITH BRANDI CARLILE & MESCHIYA LAKE
We hit the open road to hear tales of adventure and woe from honky-tonkers and hobos, train-hoppers and busking bohemians. En route we talk with Washington folk singer Brandi Carlile, who dropped out of high school to cut it as a touring musician, and New Orleans’ Meschiya Lake, about her journey from circus performer to jazz chanteuse. Driving on in search of mythic America, we hear the voices of its discontents: Woody Guthrie, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Wilco and Pops Staples. Plus, we “Ramble On” with Lucinda Williams before coming down with a case of “Travelin’ Blues” from Jimmie Rodgers. By planes, trains and automobiles, we journey across our country’s musical landscape with stories from the road.
HOUR ONE
- Open Bed: Somewhere Bill Frissell
Big Sur, Okeh - I'm a Honky Tonk Girl Loretta Lynn
Gold, MCA Nashville - Paper Wings Gillian Welch
Boots No. 1: The Official Revival Bootleg, Acony - Settin' the Woods on Fire Hank Williams
40 Greatest Hits, Mercury - Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way Waylon Jennings
Dreaming My Dreams, RCA Victor - The Golden Age of Radio Josh Ritter
Josh Ritter, self-released - Instrumental: Last Date Floyd Cramer
Here's the Answer, RCA Victor - SEGMENT: Brandi Carlile
Listen - The Sound of Silence Brandi Carlile with the Hanseroth Twins
Live at Benaroya Hall, Columbia - America Simon & Garfunkel
Bookends/Simon & Garfunkel, Columbia - Instrumental: Anji Simon & Garfunkel
Sounds of Silence, Columbia - Normal American Kids Wilco
Schmilco, Anti- - Sin City Flying Burrito Brothers
Gilded Palace of Sin, A&M Records - Dixie Flyer Randy Newman
The Randy Newman Songbook, Nonesuch - Down in Mississippi Pops Staples
Peace to the Neighborhood, Virgin - Mother Earth Tracy Nelson
Mother Earth, Reprise - Closing Bed: Last Date Willie Mitchell
Robbin's Nest, Hi Records
HOUR two
- Open Bed: Swipsey Cakewalk Tom McDermott and Evan Christopher
Danza, STR Digital - I'm Going to Live the Life I Sing About in My Song Mahalia Jackson
The World's Greatest Gospel Singer, Columbia - Gimme a Pigfoot Bessie Smith
The Bessie Smith Story- Volume 2, Columbia - Backwater Blues Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns
Lucky Devil, self-released - Travelin' Blues Jimmie Rodgers
Travelin' Blues, RCA Victor - Rapid City, South Dakota Kinky Friedman
From One Good American to Another, Fruit of the Tune - Instrumental: Parlor for the Crawlers Leroy Jones
Back to My Roots, LJ Records - SEGMENT: Meschiya Lake
Listen - Railroad Lady- Live at the Dance Hall, Luckenbach, TX/1977 Jerry Jeff Walker
A Man Must Carry On, UMG - Starlight on the Rails Utah Phillips
Good Though, Philo - Instrumental: Dixie Flyer Blues DeFord Bailey
Pan American Blues, Suncoast Music - Railroadin' Some Henry "Ragtime Texas" Thomas
Going Away Blues, Shanachie - Goin' Up the Country Canned Heat
Under My Wheels, Hip-O - Ramblin' On My Mind Lucinda Williams
Ramblin', Smithsonian Folkways - Going Down the Road Feeling Bad Woody Guthrie
The Asch Recordings, Smithsonian Folkways - Closing Bed: Going Down the Road Feelin' Bad Grateful Dead
Ladies and Gentlemen: The Grateful Dead Live in NYC April 1971, Grateful Dead Records