It’s time for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, a rite of spring that began over three decades ago and now draws worldwide attention. We’ll play music from Jazzfest and take a look at Louis Armstrong’s legacy in his centennial year.

Our Easter/Passover show, as Nick Spitzer talks to the one-and-only Rev. Al Green about growing up in rural Arkansas and how soul music leads to saving souls—including his own. Plus Passover music from downtown trumpeter Steven Bernstein.

The world of Randy Newman — from Beethoven to Gershwin, rednecks and short people, L.A. to LA — as we speak with him at his home studio in Pacific Palisades. Plus music by Cassandra Wilson, Buck Owens, Slim Harpo, and Art Blakey.

Dolly Parton talks about her musical and family roots in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee where she first broke into song, performed on the radio, and admired the fashion of the local trollop. With Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors” and hear music from across the American spectrum.