A plug for American Routes

On SDPRadio, every Saturday at 6pm MT, you can listen to two hours of Nick Spitzer's American Routes. I do when I can.

But whenever I'm at my worldwide-acclaimed work of persuading the persuadable, I am either listening to SDPR's broadcast or to American Routes archives. If you happen to follow the link, I will tell you that I haven't been able to retrieve some programs, about 1-in-20. I started three years ago listening to the archived programs from 1998 to 2009, where I am now. Two hours per week, 104 hours per year for for 13 years; 1352 hours archived so far.

I just heard Ray Charles say, "My mother let me stay up late on Saturday nights to listen to WSM and the "Grand Ole Opry. I didn't know it was country. I just thought it was good." That interview clip is followed by Ray Charles rendition of "It Makes no Difference Now."


Now, you might want to listen to what Ray Charles heard before he decided to improve on it. Tommy Duncan is the vocalist, backed by a briefly-seen seen band, with a Hee-Haw chorus and dancers behind him.



And then you might want to listen to a clip, with Tommy Duncan soloing on "No News is Good News," which must have got him laid about 500 times.