Ring in the new year with some of our favorite live music from 2007. We’ll have a set from New Orleans’ trumpet player Kermit Ruffins, joined by an all-star Crescent City band featuring vocalist Thais Clark. Lafayette, Louisiana’s Pine Leaf Boys bring rock and roll energy to their own version of traditional Cajun music. Step into a holiday soiree of reels, jigs and waltzes by French fiddlers in Westbrook, Maine. And pull up a seat for a club set from singer and banjo player Don Vappie and the Creole Jazz Serenaders. It’s a festive set of live music that will keep you swinging well into 2008.

There’s no place like home for the holidays. Our guests for this holiday version of American Routes wax nostalgically in words and music. Jazz pianist and singer Diana Krall recalls her childhood on Vancouver Island and how those traditions are being carried on in her own home today. Jimmy and Tootie Heath of the Heath Brothers reminisce about a life in jazz and their late brother Percy. Baby, it’s cold outside. Stay in, snuggle up and enjoy.