AMERICAN ROUTES
Blues and Jazz, African Roots and Branches with Shemekia Copeland and Balla Koutaté Blues and Jazz, African Roots and Branches with Shemekia Copeland and Balla Koutaté June 7th, 2023 (Hour 1)
Blues and Jazz, African Roots and Branches with Shemekia Copeland and Balla Koutaté

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.

Shemekia Copeland photo by Mike White

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SPRING AWAKENING: A CORONA GLOBAL COMPANION

April 8th, 2020

It’s a Spring Awakening and we’ve got songs about bunny hops, rockin’ robins, and fragrant flowers but also lonely hours, gospel prayers and sad losses. In hopes that the real and surreal can commingle with joy and hope in our Corona Global Companion for your consideration and pleasure, including music from Gillian Welch, Stevie Wonder, Bob Wills and Fats Waller… as well as our recently passed musical heroes and friends, the late John Prine and Ellis Marsalis.

Mural and image by Ranna Zahra McSwain

  • Listen to Hour One
  • Listen to Hour Two

HOUR ONE

  • Open Bed: Echo of Spring Willie "The Lion" Smith
    The Spirit of Ragtime, ASV
  • Spring Cleaning Fats Waller
    The Centennial Collection, BMG
  • (Me And My Baby) Doin' The Bunny Hop Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
    Boot Heel Drag: The MGM Years, Mercury
  • Bunny Bread Sunpie Barnes
    American Routes Original Recording from French Quarter Fest 2019,
  • Bunny Hop Dance Mary Ann Meanus and Verbena Green
    Heartbeat - Voices Of First Nations Women, Smithsonian Folkways
  • Rockin' Robin Bobby Day
    Rockin’ Robin Bobby Day, Class Records
  • Instrumental: One Dime Blues Etta Baker
    Blues Routes, Smithsonian Folkways
  • Acony Bell Gillian Welch
    Revival, Acony
  • Hello in There John Prine
    John Prine, Atlantic
  • Give Me the Roses While I Live Ralph Stanley
    Old Country Church , Rebel
  • Sally Go Round the Roses Pentangle
    Basket of Light , Transatlantic
  • Green Garden Laura Mvula
    Sing to the Moon, Sony
  • Light Blue Ellis Marsalis
    Open Letter to Thelonious Deluxe Edition, Nu Jazz
  • Instrumental: Old Time Spiritual Mary Lou Williams
    Mary Lou’s Mass, Smithsonian Folkways
  • Highlands Bob Dylan
    Time Out of Mind, Columbia
  • Closing Bed: Appalachia Waltz Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer & Mark O'Connor
    Appalachia Waltz, Sony

HOUR two

  • Open Bed: Birdsong in Coastal Alabama American Routes original recording
  • One of These Days Neil Young
    Harvest Moon, Reprise
  • Blowin' in the Wind Stevie Wonder
    Uptight, Tamla
  • Down By the Riverside Mahalia Jackson
    The Essential Mahalia Jackson, Sony
  • Why Me Kris Kristofferson
    Jesus Was a Capricorn, Monument
  • Old Ship of Zion James Cleveland
    The Soul of James Cleveland, Savoy
  • Instrumental: Blues Walk Lou Donaldson
    The Complete Blue Note Lou Donaldson Sessions 1957-60, Blue Note
  • I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry Al Green
    Al Green--Call Me, Hi
  • Those Lonely Nights Dr. John
    Gumbo, Atlantic
  • In My Room The Beach Boys
    Surfer Girl, Capitol
  • Isolation John Lennon
    Plastic Ono Band, EMI
  • 21st Century USA Drive-By Truckers
    The Unraveling, ATO Records
  • Wooden Ships David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash
    Crosby, Still and Nash, Atlantic
  • All My Trials Charles Lloyd and the Marvels
    I Long to See You--Charles Lloyd and the Marvels, Blue Note
  • Instrumental: Do You Know What it Means Ellis Marsalis
    Heart of Gold, Sony
  • Times Like These Jack Johnson
    On and On, Universal
  • Hard Times Come Again No More Emmylou Harris
    At the Ryman, Warner
  • Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans Louis Armstrong
    "Sugar"-The Best of the Complete RCA Recordings, RCA
  • Closing Bed: "We Shall Walk Thru the Streets of the City" Joe Lastie Jr. and The Lastie Family Gospel Singers
    Joe Lastie Jr. and The Lastie Family Gospel Singers, Preservation Hall Recordings

THE LATEST STREAMS

  • June 7th, 2023

    BLUES AND JAZZ, AFRICAN ROOTS AND BRANCHES WITH SHEMEKIA COPELAND AND BALLA KOUTATé

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  • May 31st, 2023

    PIANO PEOPLE AND MORE: JASON MORAN & HEATH ALLEN

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  • May 24th, 2023

    MEMORIAL DAY WITH THE 2022 NATIONAL HERITAGE FELLOWS

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