Nick Spitzer

American Routes | Radio Program PRX, 2022

American Routes is a weekly, two-hour public radio music and culture program produced at Tulane University. Hosted by the Anthroplogy Department’s Nick Spitzer, the show features blues and jazz, roots rock and soul, R&B and gospel, rockabilly/country/cowboy, Cajun/zydeco, conjunto, Latin, Caribbean and beyond—all framed by a New Orleans Gulf South by Southwest aesthetic. The program’s 800+ interviews over the quarter century have included Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Nina Simone, Sonny Rollins, B.B. King, Santana, Celia Cruz, Jimmy Cliff, Tito Puente, Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard, Jerry Lee Louis, Dewey Balfa, Queen Ida, Tom Waits, Bonnie Raitt, Allen Toussaint, Dr. John and Fats Domino. The late Wall Street Journal culture critic Nat Hentoff wrote, “In the history of American radio, no series has ever come close to Nick Spitzer’s American Routes in exploring the many streams of this nation’s music.”