Mid-Term Break

It’s mid term here in Glasgow. We’ve all been up to my favourite East -Coast haunt, St Andrews. It’s glorious there in winter.The sky is as clear as can be with the only interruption to the view the small dots of fighter planes taking off and landing in Leuchars. I felt glad to be alive.

I tell you all of this as the title alludes to the Seamus Heaney poem  of the same where he is brought home from school to discover the sudden death of a younger brother killed in a traffic accident. I thought of this poem last night when I re read the episode in Johnny Cash’s autobiography where his father picks him up unexpectedly to tell him the news of his brother’s accident. In Cash’s case it was an older brother, but the memory and the sentiment is as powerful. Why do I tell you this? Because next week would have been Johnny Cash’s 78th birthday and we will be celebrating that as we welcome the new release of American VI – Aint No Grave.

Perhaps you’d like to suggest some Cash songs you wouldn’t normally hear for our JC special on Friday 26th? We’d love to hear from you about your choices.

Last week I said, on air, that there was no such thing as a great double album. I wasn’t deluged with corrections but I did get one from Vanessa saying…3 words – “Blonde on Blonde.” Good point, but at 14 songs and running shorter than a lot of single albums it’s hard not to conclude it’s not really a doubler. I stand firm. But hey, it was recorded in Nashville so let’s celebrate it anyway.

Also on the show will be that session and interview with Sara Watkins where she talks about her new life outside Nickel Creek and the making of her new album under the watchful eye of John Paul Jones. All the usual stuff too with new songs from Local Natives, Darden Smith and The Acorn plus one or two old ones too.