American Routes

September 24, 2003 12:53 PM

American Routes with Nick Spitzer is one of the best radio shows ever. It's a "... two-hour public radio program produced in New Orleans, presenting a broad range of American music -- blues and jazz, gospel and soul, old-time country and rockabilly, Cajun and zydeco, Tejano and Latin, roots rock and pop, avant-garde and classical. Plus stories and conversations with musicians and everyday people, known and unknown." There are great archived interviews with people like Dick Dale, Calvin Cooke, Sleepy LeBeef, Koko Taylor, Bob Moog, Nick Hornby, Ahmet Ertegun, John Hammond Jr., Keely Smith, Jim Jarmusch and everyone in between. Playlists back to April 1998. Photos. The shows usually have a theme--"Cool", "Arabs and Jews in Jazz & Blues and Beyond", "East Texas / West Louisiana"--and are always interesting. Get even more info. at Deep Routes .
posted by lobakgo (7 comments total)

And all this time I thought it was "roots."
posted by ~rschram at 1:34 PM on September 24, 2003

Wow, what a treasure trove! Thanks, lobakgo.
posted by timeistight at 4:02 PM on September 24, 2003

Yeah, thanks! (A totally dumb comment, this, but heartfelt!)
posted by hairyeyeball at 4:53 PM on September 24, 2003

Nice post, lobakgo. One of my favorite radio shows, for sure. And the best thing is, even though he has all the academic credentials, Nick is a completely cool guy. I just met him at the National Folk Festival in Bangor, after my friend Sara (who does her own fine show on Maine public radio) gave me an introduction. He's been MC of the main stage for the two years the festival has been up here. He was very very nice. And he knows his stuff.
posted by LeLiLo at 6:28 PM on September 24, 2003

wow, truly excellent....thank you lobakgo!
posted by madamjujujive at 5:24 AM on September 25, 2003

lelilo--Neat you got to meet him. Nick reminds me of Ray Suarez (when he did Talk of the Nation), in that he is interested in a huge range of things and makes every topic interesting, in particular, things/people/music I'd think I wasn't interested in.
posted by lobakgo at 9:12 AM on September 25, 2003

he is interested in a huge range of things

That's always been my goal in life, lobakgo, to have a wide range of shallow knowledge. That’s the main reason I love MetaFilter. (“MeFi: a wide range of shallow knowledge”)
posted by LeLiLo at 10:34 AM on September 25, 2003