American Routes Upcoming Shows

August 20 - August 26, 2008
After the Storm X: Dog Days of August
It's hurricane season on the Gulf Coast. To commemorate it we gather songs made post-Katrina and Rita... as well as some enduring classics. Dr. John makes a soapbox of his piano and speaks out in song against the governmental missteps following our country's greatest unnatural disaster. New Orleans jazz clarinetist Dr. Michael White joins us to talk about his new songs in traditional style made following the loss of his home and musical instruments to the flood. Plus the huge influx of talented outsiders is revealed in interviews with New Yorkers who have, post-storm, become New Orleanians--what brought them to and keeps them in the Crescent City.

August 27 - September 2, 2008
Labor Day
Lay back and take it easy while American Routes totes that barge for you with songs and stories of work on this holiday weekend. We remember Robert Young, better known as Washboard Slim, and learn how a work implement becomes a musical instrument. Plus words and music of French Louisiana from the recent documentary I Always Do My Collars First. And meet some local five o'clock heroes...the drivers and mechanics that keep the New Orleans streetcars rolling, as well as the men and women that ride them.

September 3 - September 9, 2008
Nursery Rhyme Blues: Music By, For and About...Kids
Rock the cradle, with music by, for and about kids--but hip enough for children of all ages. Swing Mother Goose in jazz, blues and country; plus animal tales in rock and funk. Join us for a visit to the Louis Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp and hear the next generation of New Orleans musicians. The Imagination Movers drop by to talk about going from a birthday party conversation to the next big sensation in kids' music.

September 10 - September 16, 2008
Get Rhythm: A Tribute to Johnny Cash
It's a two-hour tribute in song and story to the Man in Black. We'll hear from his family, friends and associates on the contradictions--preacher, outlaw, loving family man, rockabilly rebel--that made the man. Voices include Rosanne Cash; son John Carter Cash; sister Joanne Yates; bassist and original member of the Tennessee Two Marshall Grant; guitarist Johnny Western; producer Rick Rubin; long time manager Lou Robin; writer and critic Michael Streissguth; and of course Johnny Cash.

September 17 - September 23, 2008
Musical Travelers Tales: Shelby Lynne and Michael Hurley
Conversation with the eclectic song stylist Shelby Lynne --formerly of rural Alabama, now of Palm Springs to hear about the vicissitudes of her musical and emotional journey from country to pop--including a recent embrace of Dusty Springfield. Elusive singer-songwriter Michael Hurley talks about a family devoted to opera and his sometimes dark often humorous disaffected songs about the mysteries of modernity and werewolves. Plus a visit to an Alabama cemetery for revered coondogs. We surround it all with Southern soul, hard country, deep blues, traditional jazz and respect for what is still significantly unknowable and magical in American culture.

September 24 - September 30, 2008
Guitar Bosses: Les Paul & Honeyboy Edwards
Tune in and pay witness to over 150 years of guitar experience between this week's nonagenarian guests. Les Paul, the Wizard of Waukesha, talks about his leap from taking up the instrument to inventing the guitar heard 'round the world that bears his name. And Delta guitarist and walking blues encyclopedia Honeyboy Edwards comes by our studio and remembers Robert Johnson, the 1927 flood and recording for Alan Lomax along the way.







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