American Routes

I get kind of ticked when I have to work on Saturday nights. Then I remember that I get to listen to Prairie Home Companion, and American Routes. Prairie Home Companion you ask? You are only 24, not 45. Well kiddies I used to listen to this little gem of an old school radio show when I was but a whee lad. I went out on errands with my father on Sunday afternoons and we'd listen to jazz on the radio and on the way home, we'd listen to PHC. At first I didn't get it. At first I didn't listen. Then good old Garrison Keillor wiled his way into my brain as did most of the folk and country music.

As I turned to adolescence we moved and didn't do errands on Sunday anymore. I grew up, got irresponsible, and generally didn't care about anything but Delltron and the sort. Then some responsibility started to creep back as I started checking out some of the IC folk scene. Mike and Amy Finders, Ben Schmidt, that awesome old school fiddle player whose name eludes me. Edit: His name is Al Murphy. Do yourself a favor and check him out.

Well anyways I was working one Saturday and was looking for a little more out of the typical classic American rock that inundates Iowa radio. I landed on a familiar voice and fell backwards through time into that little blue Honda, cruising down Dodge Street towards I-80 towards our little farm home in Springdale. We didn't farm per se but rented the old house from our neighbors.

It was enough to make me sit down next to the radio and just listen for at least a half an hour. Guy Noir always got me piqued when I was a kid. The show ended and I just kind of hung out and tuned some skis. After doing some base grinds and edging (both loud activities) I started waxing. I don't know if you've ever waxed skis and just been listening to some tunes, but it is about as close as you get to getting high without doing anything illegal. It is pretty darn relaxing.

I start listening to some good soul that transitions to some down down blues. I was taken back again. This time not to my childhood, this time to the present. It took me out of the groove of scraping and sat me down again. American Routes is probably one of the best histories of recorded American music from the past century and some change I have ever heard. It covers a spectrum covered only found in text books and old record collectors homes.

To my local NPR carrier 91.7FM, Bring me back my American Routes. You see they reformatted and took my lone Saturday nights of relaxing music away from me. You did well and replaced it with 4 hours of jazz, but it just doesn't have that flavor. It doesn't have the same soul especially following up Prairie Home Companion. It has that old radio show feel that is dead. And due to these two shows, not dead at all.

Cheers American Routes, and cheers to you Prairie Home Companion. Now for the hazing.