AMERICAN ROUTES
Blues and Jazz, African Roots and Branches with Shemekia Copeland and Balla Kouyaté Blues and Jazz, African Roots and Branches with Shemekia Copeland and Balla Kouyaté June 7th, 2023 (Hour 1)
Blues and Jazz, African Roots and Branches with Shemekia Copeland and 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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GUITAR BOSSES: LES PAUL & HONEYBOY EDWARDS

May 9th, 2007

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.

  • Listen to Hour One
  • Listen to Hour Two

HOUR ONE

  • Open Bed: Wabash Blues Les Paul
    Bye Bye Blues / Les and Mary, Collectables
  • Boss Guitar Duane Eddy
    Twang Thing: The Duane Eddy Anthology, Rhino
  • Guitar Boogie Shuffle The Virtues
    Guitar Player Presents Legends of Guitar - Rock: The ‘50s, Vol. 1, Rhino
  • No Particular Place to Go Chuck Berry
    His Best, Volume 2, MCA/Chess
  • Sugarfoot Rag Junior Brown
    Junior High, Curb
  • Instrumental: Spanish Fandango Mississippi John Hurt
    Avalon Blues 1963, Rounder
  • My Creole Belle Mississippi John Hurt
    Avalon Blues 1963, Rounder
  • Shake it, Baby Jessie Mae Hemphill
    Feelin' Good, HMG/High Water
  • Shake, Rattle and Roll Elvis Presley
    The King of Rock ‘n' Roll: The Complete 50's Masters, RCA
  • My Babe Bo Diddley
    Chess Blues Guitar: Two Decades of Killer Fretwork, MCA/Chess
  • Vida Lee T-Bone Walker
    The Complete Imperial Recordings, 1950-1954, EMI
  • Instrumental: Nola Les Paul
    Les Paul and Mary Ford, Collectibles
  • INTERVIEW: Les Paul

    Listen
  • Haunted House Lonnie Johnson with Elmer Snowden
    Blues & Ballads, Bluesville
  • Strange Things Happening Every Day Fern Jones
    The Glory Road, Numero Group
  • Don't Let the Devil Ride Sonny Treadway
    Sacred Steel, Arhoolie
  • Right Off Miles Davis
    A Tribute to Jack Johnson, Columbia

HOUR two

  • Open Bed: Apron Strings Honeyboy Edwards, Floyd Jones, Kansas City Red, Sunnyland Slim, Big Walter Horton
    Old Friends, Earwig
  • You and My Old Guitar Jimmie Rodgers
    The Early Years, 1928-1929, Rounder
  • Second Fiddle (To an Old Guitar) Jean Shepard
    Only Country, 1960-1964, JCI
  • Sugar Magnolia Grateful Dead
    Europe '72, Warner Bros
  • Chuco's Cumbia Los Lobos
    The Town and the City, Hollywood
  • Guitar Rumba Earl Hooker
    Chess Blues Guitar: Two Decades of Killer Fretwork, MCA/Chess
  • Baby You Can Get Your Gun Earl King
    Earl's Pearls, West Side
  • Instrumental: Funk-Shun Albert King
    King of the Blues Guitar, Atlantic
  • INTERVIEW: Honeyboy Edwards

    Listen
  • Someday Baby Bob Dylan
    Modern Times, Columbia
  • She's Gone Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers
    Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers, Alligator
  • Instrumental: Windy & Warm Doc Watson
    Foundation: Doc Watson Guitar Instrumental Collection, 1964-1998, Sugar Hill
  • Worried Man Blues The Carter Family
    Worried Man Blues, Rounder
  • Balfa Waltz David Doucet
    Quand J'ai Parti, Rounder
  • Confessin Django Reinhardt
    Reinhardt & Christian: Members Edition, TKO
  • Basin Street The Mills Brothers
    The Best of the Early Mills Brothers: 1931-1942, Allegro
  • End Bed: Radio Hula Led Kaapana & Friends
    Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Masters Collection Volume 2, Dancing Cat

THE LATEST STREAMS

  • June 7th, 2023

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

    Listen
  • May 31st, 2023

    PIANO PEOPLE AND MORE: JASON MORAN & HEATH ALLEN

    Listen
  • May 24th, 2023

    MEMORIAL DAY WITH THE 2022 NATIONAL HERITAGE FELLOWS

    Listen
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