"American Routes" finally gets website overhaul

"American Routes" is a fantastic weekly public radio program that is something of an audio history of American music. For two hours each week, the show serves up styles ranging from "blues and jazz, gospel and soul, old-time country and rockabilly, Cajun and zydeco, Tejano and Latin, roots rock and pop, avant-garde and classical."

That mix is indeed wild mashup of American roots, and host Nick Spitzer comes up with themes each week that tie the music and interviews together. Check out the playlist from this week's show for a sample.

I've been listening to "American Routes" via XM Public Radio, downloading it onto my Inno every Saturday night and listening it to it throughout the week. But if I missed a show, I was out of luck because the show had no online streaming or archives.

Now, however, Americna Public Media has launched a long-overdue overhaul of the "American Routes" website, and the results are pretty impressive. A 10-year archive allows you to listen to every show, view each playlist or search by artist.

The one big downside remains an inability to download shows, as you can do with National Public Radio programs. But it's great to know that I can dig through a deep history of fantastic roots music and discover new songs and artists.