"In the history of American radio, no series has come close to Nick Spitzer's American Routes in exploring the many streams of this nation's music."
-- Nat Hentoff, Wall Street Journal

American Routes is a weekly 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. Now celebrating in our 9th year on the air, American Routes explores the shared musicall and cultural threads in these American styles and genresof music -- and how they are distinguished.

The program also presents documentary features and artist interviews. Our conversations include Willie Nelson, Tom Waits, B.B. King, Dr. John, Dave Brubeck, Abbey Lincoln, Elvis Costello, Ray Charles, Randy Newman, McCoy Tyner, Lucinda Williams, Rufus Thomas, Jerry Lee Lewis and many others. Join us as we ride legendary trains, or visit street parades, instrument-makers, roadside attractions, and juke joints, and meet tap dancers, fishermen, fortunetellers and more.

The songs and stories on American Routes describe both the community origins of our music, musicians and cultures -- the "roots"-- and the many directions they take over time -- the "routes."

There are stops along the way from rural crossroads to crosstown, from coast-to-coast, departing each week from our studio at Basin Street Station, a historic, renovated railroad station. Programs sometimes examine a topic, such as Mardi Gras, Musical Families, or Jews and Blues--the later in which we plumb the historic relationships between Jewish music makers and African-Americans in popular and sacred music. We pay tribute to historic heroes like Johnny Cash, Ray Charles and George Gershwin through a special "Routes to Genius" series. It's a musical romp and road map to the cultures, people, places and sounds of America. Visit our audio archive to stream features and interviews, and take a look at what's playing this week on American Routes. Then check out Deep Routes to find out even more.

American Routes has been hailed in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Billboard, and on ABC's Nightline and In Search of America with Peter Jennings. See our online press pack for more. Since its beginning in April 1998 on seven stations, the program has grown to reach nearly a million listeners on over 225 outlets from New York to Seattle; from Honolulu, Hawaii to Homer, Alaska; Mississippi to Michigan. The program additionally broadcasts on XM Satellite Radio. American Routes is distributed nationwide by American Public Media.

Nick Spitzer, creator and host of American Routes, is an internationally recognized folklorist. Nick has served as host and producer of the award winning Folk Masters and American Roots 4th of July concert series; documentary, record, film and festival producer for the Smithsonian Institution and PBS; and independent cultural producer for NPR's All Things Considered. He is currently on faculty at Tulane University. Executive Producer is Mary Beth Kirchner, winner of over 50 awards for music series and documentaries for public radio. Check out the rest of our staff here.

Special thanks to our underwriters: National Endowment for the Humanities, and National Endowment for the Arts; and America's Wetland.

Web hosting by the department of American Studies at Emory University.