If you're unfamiliar with the NPR roots music show American Routes, hosted by Nick Spitzer, this complaint won't make any sense.
I like the music Nick Spitzer plays, mostly. I'll never enjoy bluegrass or Cajun music (the boring kind) like he seems to, but mostly he plays a lot of good music on his show. It's just that "seal of approval" I can't stand. Getting played on American Routes is like being told "Nick Spitzer, and the powers that be at NPR, approve of your music". I always picture him patting his knee along to, I don't know, Slim Harpo, or Lowell Fulson, and thinking, "I can really make these guys' posthumous careers, by featuring them on my show about what I think it means to be truly American." His approval makes me like music I like LESS.
The thing is, he does play good music. I just don't care for the framing.
Rant concluded. Here's a roots music artist, Mayf Nutter, a man who went on to narrate many fake Disney animal "documentaries", doing some music I approve of, that will not be played on NPR or American Routes anytime soon (and if it is, it's because they saw this blog post and decided to get ahead of it). Please enjoy.