Thanksgiving with the National Heritage Fellows
Each year, American Routes celebrates the long Thanksgiving weekend with a sonic cornucopia from the National Heritage Fellows. Since 1982, the National Endowment for the Arts has presented the fellowships – America’s most prestigious award for folk & traditional arts. We’ll hear music and conversation from Fellows in years gone by, like Doc Watson, Staple Singers, Clifton Chenier, Ralph Stanley, B.B. King, Flaco Jimenez and New Orleans’ own Treme Brass Band. Then we present the 2015 Fellows, many performing live from the stage at George Washington University, including the Gee’s Bend quilters, a circus aerialist, Piedmont bluesman, klezmer musicians, mariachis and more.
HOUR ONE
Open Bed: "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" Dr. Michael White
Blue Crescent, Basin Street Records
"Christian's Automobile" The Dixie Hummingbirds
Thank You For One More Day, Peacock
"Going Down the Road Feeling Bad" Doc Watson
Elementary Dr. Watson, Vanguard
CLIP: Ralph Stanley
"Rank Stranger" Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys
Classic Bluegrass, Rebel Records
"I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water" Brownie Ford
Stories from Mountains, Swamps & Honky-Tonks, Flying Fish
"(Going to) Kansas City" Claude Williams
Claude Williams Live at J's Volume 1, Arhoolie
Instrumental: "Viva Seguin" Santiago Jimenez
Tex Mex Fiesta, Arhoolie
"La Porte Dans Arriere (The Back Door)" Dewey Balfa, Marc Savoy & DL Menard
En Bas Du Chene Vert, Arhoolie
"Eh, 'Tite Fille" Clifton Chenier
Louisiana Blues & Zydeco, Arhoolie
"Ay Te Dejo in San Antonio" Flaco Jimenez
Ay Te Dejo in San Antonio, Arhoolie
"Descarga Cachao" Israel "Cachao" Lopez
Cachao, Epic
"Silkene Pajamas" Dave Tarras and the Musiker Brothers
Tanz!, Epic
Instrumental: "Slidin' and Glidin'" B.B. King
Spotlight on Lucille, Virgin
CLIP: B.B. King
"Why I Sing the Blues" B.B. King
Do the Boogie! B.B. King's Early 50s Classics , Flair
"Jump for Joy" The Campbell Brothers
Pass Me Not, Arhoolie
"Sing On" Treme Brass Band
New Orleans Music! , Mardi Gras
"Will the Circle Be Unbroken" Staples Singers
Freedom Highway, Columbia/Legacy
Closing Bed: "Spiritual" Charlie Haden and Hank Jones
Steal Away: Spirituals, Hymns and Folk Songs, Verve
HOUR TWO
Open Bed: "Instrumental" Rahim AlHaj - Iraqi oud player, Albuquerque NM
recorded live from the 2015 National Heritage Fellowship Concert,
SEGMENT: Dan Sheehy - ethnomusicologist Bess Lomax Hawes award, with Latin music, and Mariachi Los Amigos, Washington DC
SEGMENT: Drink Small - Piedmont blues guitarist, Columbia SC
SEGMENT: Mary Lee Bendolph, Lucy Mingo, and Loretta Pettway - African-American Quilts of Gee's Bend, AL
Instrumental: "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" Charlie Haden and Hank Jones
Steal Away: Spirtuals, Hymns, and Folk Songs, Verve
SEGMENT: Yari Livan - Cambodian ceramicist, Lowell MA
SEGMENT: Gertrude "Yukie" Tsutsumi - Japanese classical dancer, Honolulu HI
SEGMENT: Dolly Jacobs - circus aerialist, Sarasota, FL
Instrumental: Rahim AlHaj
recorded live from the 2015 National Heritage Fellowship Concert,
SEGMENT: Rahim AlHaj - Iraqi-American oud player, Albuquerque NM
SEGMENT: Sidonka Wadina - Slovak straw artist/egg decorator, Lyons WI
SEGMENT: Michael Alpert and Brave Old World - Yiddish music, New York NY
recorded live from the 2015 National Heritage Fellowship Concert,
End Bed: "Musical Finale" 2015 National Heritage Fellows jam, featuring Mariachi Los Amigos, Brave Old
World, Rahim AlHaj, and Drink Small
recorded live from the 2015 National Heritage Fellowship Concert,