American Routes celebrates Memorial Day weekend with a sonic feast from National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellows—recipients of America’s most prestigious folk & traditional arts award. We’ll hear music and conversation from past Fellows: bluegrass picker Del McCoury, rockabilly Wanda Jackson, sacred steel guitarists, The Campbell Brothers, and late blues singer Koko Taylor. The 2016 Fellows included: Mardi Gras Indian Chief Monk Boudreaux, Irish accordionist Billy McComiskey, and Mexican-American singer Artemio Posadas. Other awardees range from basket makers in Kentucky and the Penobscot tribe in Maine to traditional wind instrumentalists from South Dakota and Laos.

This week on American Routes, we’re celebrating the 47th annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival with songs and interviews from the performers who make the festival happen. We hear from longtime local favorites, like chanteuse Topsy Chapman and funk drummer Herlin Riley… as well as perennial visitors and jazz titans, McCoy Tyner and Sonny Rollins. We’ll delve into the archives to remember the late Cuban songstress Celia Cruz… and revisit our interview with saxophonist Lee Konitz, who is making his Jazz Fest premier in 2017.