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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AMERICAN ROUTES ON INSTAGRAM

ROCKABILLY RASCAL CHUCK MEAD & HERALDING THE FOLK WITH ALICE GERRARD

December 14th, 2022

Chuck Mead, co-founder of the legendary Nashville country rock band, BR549 tells tales of being born into a Kansas family of musicians with their own radio show and infiltrating his way into a whole new Nashville underground music, bar and dance scene. Then, conversation with Alice Gerrard, musician, advocate for old time music and known for her collaboration with West Virginia native Hazel Dickens as a rare female bluegrass duo in the 1960s. Plus music from Bob Dylan, Wanda Jackson, The Balfa Brothers and Johnny Shines.

  • Listen to Hour One
  • Listen to Hour Two

HOUR ONE

  • Open Bed: Even If It's Wrong BR459
    BR459, Sony
  • Hillbilly Rock Marty Stuart
    Hillbilly Rock, MCA
  • Rock Your Baby Wanda Jackson
    Rockin' With Wanda, Capitol
  • Hip Shakin' Baby Roy Brown
    Roy Brown: The Complete Imperial Recordings, Capitol
  • Baby Let's Play House John Prine
    Pink Cadillac, Elektra
  • Don't Say It Margo Price
    All American Made, Third Man Records
  • Honky Tonkin' Hank Williams
    Honky Tonkin': Hank Williams, UMG
  • Tootsie's Orchid Lounge Hank Cochran
    Sally Was a Good Girl, Bear Family
  • Instrumental: Honky Tonk The Ventures
    Walk Don't Run, Capitol
  • SEGMENT: Chuck Mead

    Listen
  • One Long Saturday Night Chuck Mead and the Grassy Knoll Boys
    Live at the 2022 Montana Folk Festival in Butte, MT,
  • 7 Night to Rock Chuck Mead and the Grassy Knoll Boys
    Live at the 2022 Montana Folk Festival in Butte, MT,
  • Instrumental: Sleep Walk The Ventures
    Walk Don't Run, Capitol
  • This Cat's in the Doghouse Rosie Flores
    Girl of the Century, Bloodshot Records
  • Waymore's Blues Waylon Jennings
    Dreaming My Dreams, Sony
  • Rockabilly Funeral Bill Kirchen
    The Proper Years, Last Music
  • Sunday Morning Coming Down Kris Kristofferson
    The Essential Kris Kristofferson, Sony
  • End Bed: Bandera Willie Nelson
    Red Headed Stranger, Sony

HOUR two

  • Open Bed: Banjo Picking Girl Hazel and Alice
    Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard, Rounder
  • Ain't Gonna Work Tomorrow Lily May Ledford & the Coon Creek Girls
    Legends of Old Time Music-50 Years of County Records, County
  • Dynaflow Blues Johnny Shines
    Chicago-The Blues Today, Vanguard
  • Lay My Burden Down James "Sparky" Rucker
    James "Sparky" Rucker, L&R Records
  • In the Pines Strange Creek Singers
    The Strange Creek Singers, Smithsonian Folkways
  • Les Veuves de la Coulée Balfa Brothers
    J' Ai Vu Le Loup, Le Renard Et La Belette, Rounder
  • Instrumental: Little Sadie Bill Keith and Jim Rooney
    Folk Music at Newport Part 1, Vanguard
  • SEGMENT: Alice Gerrard

    Listen
  • Apple Brandy Joseph Decosimo and Alice Gerrard
    While You Were Slumbering, Sleepy Cat Records
  • The River St. Johns Jake Xerxes Fussell
    Out of Sight, Paradise of Bachelors
  • Instrumental: Cannonball Rag Bill Frisell
    Guitar in the Space Age, Okeh
  • The Man in Me Bob Dylan
    New Morning, Columbia
  • Space and Time S.G. Goodman
    Old Time Feeling, Verve Forecast
  • I'm Leaving You This Lonesome Song Maybelle Carter and Sara Carter Bayes
    Classic Old Time Music from Smithsonian Folkways, Smithsonian Folkways
  • Dusty Old Dust (So Long It's Been Good to Know Yuh) Woody Guthrie
    Dust Bowl Ballads, Buddha Records
  • End Bed: Wellington Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves
    Hurricane Clarice, Free Dirt Records

THE LATEST STREAMS

  • June 7th, 2023

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

    Listen
  • May 31st, 2023

    PIANO PEOPLE AND MORE: JASON MORAN & HEATH ALLEN

    Listen
  • May 24th, 2023

    MEMORIAL DAY WITH THE 2022 NATIONAL HERITAGE FELLOWS

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