AMERICAN ROUTES
Blues and Jazz, African Roots and Branches with Shemekia Copeland & Balla Kouyaté Blues and Jazz, African Roots and Branches with Shemekia Copeland & Balla Kouyaté May 18th, 2022 (Hour 1)
Blues and Jazz, African Roots and Branches with Shemekia Copeland & Balla Kouyaté

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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THANKSGIVING WITH THE NATIONAL HERITAGE FELLOWS

November 25th, 2015

Each year, American Routes celebrates the long Thanksgiving weekend with a sonic cornucopia from the National Heritage Fellows. Since 1982, the National Endowment for the Arts has presented the fellowships – America’s most prestigious award for folk & traditional arts. We’ll hear music and conversation from Fellows in years gone by, like Doc Watson, Staple Singers, Clifton Chenier, Ralph Stanley, B.B. King, Flaco Jimenez and New Orleans’ own Treme Brass Band. Then we present the 2015 Fellows, many performing live from the stage at George Washington University, including the Gee’s Bend quilters, a circus aerialist, Piedmont bluesman, klezmer musicians, mariachis and more.

  • Listen to Hour One
  • Listen to Hour Two

HOUR ONE

  • Open Bed: "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" Dr. Michael White
    Blue Crescent, Basin Street Records
  • "Christian's Automobile" The Dixie Hummingbirds
    Thank You For One More Day, Peacock
  • "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad" Doc Watson
    Elementary Dr. Watson, Vanguard
  • CLIP: Ralph Stanley
  • "Rank Stranger" Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys
    Classic Bluegrass, Rebel Records
  • "I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water" Brownie Ford
    Stories from Mountains, Swamps & Honky-Tonks, Flying Fish
  • "(Going to) Kansas City" Claude Williams
    Claude Williams Live at J's Volume 1, Arhoolie
  • Instrumental: "Viva Seguin" Santiago Jimenez
    Tex Mex Fiesta, Arhoolie
  • "La Porte Dans Arriere (The Back Door)" Dewey Balfa, Marc Savoy & DL Menard
    En Bas Du Chene Vert, Arhoolie
  • "Eh, 'Tite Fille" Clifton Chenier
    Louisiana Blues & Zydeco, Arhoolie
  • "Ay Te Dejo in San Antonio" Flaco Jimenez
    Ay Te Dejo in San Antonio, Arhoolie
  • "Descarga Cachao" Israel "Cachao" Lopez
    Cachao, Epic
  • "Silkene Pajamas" Dave Tarras and the Musiker Brothers
    Tanz!, Epic
  • Instrumental: "Slidin' and Glidin'" B.B. King
    Spotlight on Lucille, Virgin
  • CLIP: B.B. King
  • "Why I Sing the Blues" B.B. King
    Do the Boogie! B.B. King's Early 50s Classics , Flair
  • "Jump for Joy" The Campbell Brothers
    Pass Me Not, Arhoolie
  • "Sing On" Treme Brass Band
    New Orleans Music! , Mardi Gras
  • "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" Staples Singers
    Freedom Highway, Columbia/Legacy
  • Closing Bed: "Spiritual" Charlie Haden and Hank Jones
    Steal Away: Spirituals, Hymns and Folk Songs, Verve

HOUR two

  • Open Bed: "Instrumental" Rahim AlHaj - Iraqi oud player, Albuquerque NM
    recorded live from the 2015 National Heritage Fellowship Concert,
  • SEGMENT: Dan Sheehy - ethnomusicologist Bess Lomax Hawes award, with Latin music, and Mariachi Los Amigos, Washington DC
  • SEGMENT: Drink Small - Piedmont blues guitarist, Columbia SC
  • SEGMENT: Mary Lee Bendolph, Lucy Mingo, and Loretta Pettway - African-American Quilts of Gee's Bend, AL
  • Instrumental: "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" Charlie Haden and Hank Jones
    Steal Away: Spirtuals, Hymns, and Folk Songs, Verve
  • SEGMENT: Yari Livan - Cambodian ceramicist, Lowell MA
  • SEGMENT: Gertrude "Yukie" Tsutsumi - Japanese classical dancer, Honolulu HI
  • SEGMENT: Dolly Jacobs - circus aerialist, Sarasota, FL
  • Instrumental: Rahim AlHaj
    recorded live from the 2015 National Heritage Fellowship Concert,
  • SEGMENT: Rahim AlHaj - Iraqi-American oud player, Albuquerque NM
  • SEGMENT: Sidonka Wadina - Slovak straw artist/egg decorator, Lyons WI
  • SEGMENT: Michael Alpert and Brave Old World - Yiddish music, New York NY
    recorded live from the 2015 National Heritage Fellowship Concert,
  • End Bed: "Musical Finale" 2015 National Heritage Fellows jam, featuring Mariachi Los Amigos, Brave Old World, Rahim AlHaj, and Drink Small
    recorded live from the 2015 National Heritage Fellowship Concert,

THE LATEST STREAMS

  • May 18th, 2022

    BLUES AND JAZZ, AFRICAN ROOTS AND BRANCHES WITH SHEMEKIA COPELAND & BALLA KOUYATé

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  • May 11th, 2022

    BREAKING OUT: BRITISH BLUES TO NEW ORLEANS BOUNCE

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  • May 4th, 2022

    KINGPINS OF THE GULF COAST: RODNEY CROWELL & DR. JOHN

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