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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WORDS & MUSIC V

August 19th, 2015

Do the words make the song or the notes? What does it take to tell a good tale in music or about music? We put those questions to a few writers of both songs and stories. Singer-songwriter and memoirist Rosanne Cash sits down before a live audience to tell us about her authorial journey, then we chat with novelist Cyril Vetter on translating a musician’s life into fiction. And New Orleans bluesman Little Freddie King spins a few tall tales from the juke joint.

  • Listen to Hour One
  • Listen to Hour Two

HOUR ONE

  • Open Bed: That's Alright Mama Bill Frisell
    Disfarmer, Nonesuch
  • You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover Bo Diddley
    Willie Dixon: The Chess Box, Chess
  • Paper Back Writer The Beatles
    The Beatles 1962-1966, Apple
  • Write Me a Few of Your Lines Mississippi Fred McDowell
    The Best of Fred McDowell, Arhoolie
  • Write Me a Few of Your Lines Bonnie Raitt
    Takin' My Time, Warner Brothers
  • Almost Persuaded Etta James
    The Essential Etta James, MCA Chess
  • The Way We Make a Broken Heart John Hiatt w/ Rosanne Cash
    The Best of John Hiatt, Capitol
  • Instrumental: Death Letter Cassandra Wilson
    New Moon Daughter, Blue Note
  • I Walk the Line Johnny Cash
    The Legend, Columbia/Legacy
  • SEGMENT: Rosanne Cash

    Listen
  • Tennessee Flat Top Box Rosanne Cash
    Kings Record Shop, Columbia
  • I Still Miss Someone Johnny Cash
    The Legend, Columbia/Legacy
  • Instrumental: Real Life Stories Donald Harrison
    Real Life Stories, Nagel Heyer 2022
  • Dark End of the Street James Carr
    The Essential James Carr, Razor and Tie
  • The Same Old Story Billie Holiday
    Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia, Columbia
  • Summertime Herbie Hancock w/ Joni Mitchell & Stevie Wonder
    Gershwin's World, Verve
  • Dixie Flyer Randy Newman
    The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 2, Nonesuch
  • End Bed: One Sweet Letter From You Coleman Hawkins & Lionel Hampton Orchestra
    Jazz Tribune No. 52: The Indispensible Coleman Hawkins, RCA

HOUR two

  • Open Bed: Driftin' Christian McBride, Nicholas Payton, Mark Whitfield
    Fingerpainting: The Music of Herbie Hancock, Verve
  • Nirvana Tom Waits
    Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, ANTI-
  • Bus to Baton Rouge Lucinda Williams
    Essence, Lost Highway
  • SEGMENT: Cyril Vetter

    Listen
  • Instrumental: Chicken Reel Bill Monroe and Doc Watson
    Live Duet Recordings 1963-1980: Off the Record Volume 2, Smithsonian Folkways
  • Barnyard Dance Martin, Bogan and Armstrong
    Barnyard Dance, Rounder
  • Uncle Bud Boozoo Chavis
    Who Stole My Monkey?, Rounder
  • CLIP: Little Freddie King
  • Chicken Dance Little Freddie King
    You Don't Know What I Know, Fat Possum
  • Whol Lotta Shakin' Carl Perkins
    The Classics, Bear Family
  • Instrumental: This Is the Pig Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile
    Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile, Nonesuch
  • May I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight, Mister Charlie Poole
    You Ain't Talkin' to Me: Charlie Poole and the Roots of Country Music, Columbia/Legacy
  • Motorpsycho Nitemare Bob Dylan
    Another Side of Bob Dylan, Columbia
  • The Weight The Band
    Music From Big Pink, Capital
  • I Can't Help From Cryin' Sometime The Staple Singers
    The Staple Singers/Great Day, Milestone
  • Wrote a Song for Everyone Marvis Staples
    You Are Not Alone, ANTI-
  • End Bed: Pop's Instrumental The Staple Singers
    The Staple Singers/Great Day, Milestone

THE LATEST STREAMS

  • May 18th, 2022

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

    Listen
  • May 11th, 2022

    BREAKING OUT: BRITISH BLUES TO NEW ORLEANS BOUNCE

    Listen
  • May 4th, 2022

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

    Listen
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