Music is a universal language, and New Orleans has been fluent for centuries. Over the last two decades, Nick Spitzer has used New Orleans as a host and backdrop for his weekly public radio show “American Routes,” which highlights and celebrates all genres of music and the cultures that produced them. In September, Spitzer was honored at the Library of Congress as one of nine National Heritage Fellows by the National Endowment of the Arts for his aid in preserving cultural heritage. Spitzer talks about the road to “American Routes,” plus some of his favorite interviews and stories.
Q. What do you think makes the show click so well with listeners? I like to think that a lot of people are looking for entertainment, if you give them enough that they recognize they like it. And if you play something that sounds near it, it keeps the right mood. It’s not like we’re pointing a finger and saying, “You like Western swing music, you should like jazz,” or “You like jazz, you should like country jazz or bluesy jazz.” So, we’re not telling people what to do. We’re just trying to hold them with the greatness of the sound and the song. And to me, that’s more persuasive than arguing with people about things. I feel like you only persuade people by reaching them through aspects to their hearts. I think there’s a lot of great music we have in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Gulf South. I call our format, “Gulf South by Southwest.” It allows for out migration to California; you can argue to the north of Detroit and Chicago. We’re reaching the country and there is no other public media that I know of, on the air, and I mean television and radio weekly, from Austin to at least Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Cultural performance music radio, we’re really one of the only two or three in the country. And in that zone, we are the only service of any kind that’s a weekly service. I’m proud of what we built. And yes, I do think the diversity draws people, but I also think that all the years in radio, I’ve gotten used to helping people by programming as much by mood, as by genre. Mood keeps people attuned and entertained. I think giving people something to listen to, in the foreground and background. That’s sort of the entertaining magic of radio.
Q. What’s your favorite part of hosting the show? Radio, you can have it in your car, and there’s no screen to look at. It functions in the visual imagination, even though it has no visual, and I love that. It’s really an older medium that we’ve been able to bring back to life. Particularly, in that period in the ‘60s and ‘70s, when you had all this new music, but even now, in the era of podcasts. I think radio is subtle, and reaches people in all kinds of places. I always feel like I’m in a kind of a conversation with that huge number of listeners out there that I rarely get to see unless I go do an event somewhere. It makes me feel good to deliver things that people enjoy. I’m an anthropologist, I admit, in folklore. I teach at Tulane; it fits my sense of what people with scholarly research background should do, which is find ways to communicate with more people about what they value in society, and what can help people live together in a complicated social order. In a sense, I think it helps people feel like they’re part of a larger cultural realm. That doesn’t threaten them, it entertains them first. And then if they’re entertained, like I say then follow your heart to the next level.
Q. What do you think has been the lasting impact of New Orleans on the culture of music outside of the city? Well, I mean, there are debates about its power to beginnings with jazz. In jazz itself, many elders always say, you could have gospel, you could have some blues, you could have a Sousa march, you could have a pop song, and we jazz it up. I think jazz begins in a mingling of dominantly, African, Caribbean and European instrumentation and some influences. It just becomes more and more inclusive of more people. It gets on the radio, it gets heard. Armstrong goes first to Chicago and then to New York. Jelly Roll Morton goes out to California; eventually it spreads to the major metropoles. And then finally, it becomes a global music, and it remains a global music. After jazz does come the brass bands and the continuing tradition of the second lines, and in turn it folds, soul and R&B, and now hip hop and some rap. And so I think New Orleans remains relevant. I think New Orleans remains a city where people come to hear not just traditional jazz, but brass bands and all kinds of music. I think it’s a place people have moved to, because they like the idea of music, not just in going to some huge concert hall or expensive nightclub, but they can walk down the street and buy a beer for $3. And listen to jazz for four hours for free. That has an enormous liberating effect on people. There’s really no place in America quite like that. The people love the city. Musicians and our audiences have created something that has staying power. Yeah, that’s admirable in the modern world for culture.
Q. Is there an interview or moment over the last few years that sticks out as a favorite?
I have so many favorite interviews. I’ve done 1,200 of them. Among the favorites are certainly Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton. Santana. And Jerry Lee Lewis. He was my first interview in college radio. But there’s so many great ones. I’m lucky to interview current artists of all kinds. I’m blessed. I’d love to interview Bob Dylan. He never does interviews. I’m hopeful that it’ll happen one day.
Lagniappe:
What area of the city do you like to go to listen to music in the city? Frenchman Street.
Is there a local artist you’re watching now or is a favorite? Aurora Nealand
Favorite artist of all time? Jerry Lee Lewis
