How has it taken me 20 years to get round to watching In Brugge? We watched it last weekend on a Saturday evening and enjoyed everything about it. If, like me, you’ve missed out, indulge yourself. It really is a great movie.

It was watching Colin Farrell in that film that reminded me of his rather more supportive role in Crazy Heart, one of many great films about country music which may have been the springboard to our long lost country movie club we used to have via the AC. In the film, Jeff Bridges plays a travelling singer songwriter who has clearly made a mark with his songs but whose life is slowly unravelling until it reaches a crisis point which impacts on the people he loves best.

There is something about the loneliness of the journeys, the motels and the gigs which rings true and also carries with it the romance of the road. Dismal and unforgiving as some of the scenes are, there is something alluring about the life of the troubadour which still whispers to you to come away and join the circus.

This all crossed my mind as I thought about this week’s AC special guest Michaela Anne. I first met her a few years back when she accompanied Sam Outlaw on tour and, as well as open for him, performed great harmony and second guitar on his own sets. Over lunch in Finnieston that time Michaela gave me an early CD or two and since that time we’ve followed her career with interest. Michaela epitomises the troubadour perfectly. Out on her own, thousands of miles from home, she is armed with a guitar and a repertoire of songs which will hook you in and probably make your life roll on a little better than before the show started. I admire solo artists so much because it is that vulnrability which makes their art so potent and so vital. On Wednesday this week she’ll bring these songs to the Hug and Pint in Glasgow, and there’s probably somewhere not far from your you can catch her too. Failing that you need to tune to this week’s Another Country where you will hear her play songs from her excellent current album, ‘Oh To Be That Free,’ as well as pick some fave country tracks of other artists. As ever it will be a special night with a very special  guest.

Oh…but that’s not all. We have new records from Bella White, Roseanne Reid and Margo Cilker as well as some magic moments from Mavis Staples and Emmylou Harris. As ever it’s an 8 p.m. kick off on Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland. You’ll find us there at that time and after on BBC Sounds too. Join me if you can.

A few months ago, thanks to a good pointer from my good friend, Hannah White, I tuned into a live concert/documentary on Netflix. The documentary told the story of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s first ever tour in Europe. It was 1970 and the CCR were arguably the biggest act in the world. They were so successful that they’d edited themselves out of the Woodstock Movie as they really weren’t that sure about the whole escapade. They’d had a run of hits but still not enjoyed their biggest world wide record. They were, in a word, hot.

The first part of the Netflix film tells the story of that first European tour and chronicles the reaction of each member of the band as they encounter the old capital cities. When they get to London they are booked to play at the iconic Royal Albert Hall where, they are aware, all the major bands of the day have performed. The entire show was filmed and the audio and footage has been brilliantly remastered for what is, by any standards a remarkable performance. There is no big light show, no special effects….there may well be no effects pedals…..but there is a four-piece band doing what they do brilliantly. The playing and singing are out of this world and the whole thing captures the glory of the talent that is John Fogerty. It’s his guitar, his voice and of course, his songs which make the performance so mesmerising.

A couple of weeks ago I got to spend a good time with John Fogerty talking about how those songs and that sound still resonates so many years on. We talked about what a huge influence his songs and sound are on contemporary country and Americana acts and how he too was hugely influenced by the country music he heard. It’s in the lyric of Lookin Out My Back Door that John sings:

There’s a giant doin’ cartwheels, a statue wearin’ high heels
Look at all the happy creatures dancin’ on the lawn
Dinosaur Victrola, listenin’ to Buck Owens

On this week’s AC we talk to John about that gig, that sound , these songs and the influence of Bakersfield on CCR and his songs. It’s a fascinating conversation with an artist whi is due in the UK this month and whose voice remains as strong as ever.

We’ll also have an hour of new records from some AC favourites including Brandy Blark, Brandi Carlile and Hank Snow. We’ll introduce you to some fine new cuts from Parker Millsap, Jenny Lewis and Morgan Wade whose gig last week sounded like a triumph. All of this in the two hours we’re on air on BBC Radio Scotland. It all kicks off at five past eight and you can catch us live or later and anywhere in the world on BBC Sounds. Do join me if you can.

I promise you that I shall add no more to the drivel that has been broadcast in and around the Eurovision Song Contest.  When Eurovision is the headline news, you know something is amiss in British broadcasting. I did however find myself reflecting on the fact that there were two big telly nights as we were growing up. Both seemed to be of equal importance to the TV schedules of the time, so we as kids also made sure we recognised each as unmissable events. One was Eurovision and the other was Miss World. My only surprise at Eurovision was that unlike the Miss World night, when a tearful goddess would teeter down the runway with crown and gown in place to salute her adoring fans, the Eurovison winners popped up from the crowd. It wasn’t, in the old days, the bewigged, tattooed, under dressed singers that were deified. ‘No,’ my Mum pointed out to me as two blokes in sports jackets jumped up to make a short speech, ‘it was the songwriters.

I’ll be in my old home city later this week. Dundee is the home town of the late Michael Marra who wisely declared, ‘ I don’t want my name in lights, I want my name in brackets.’ Maybe it was The Beatles who cemented the idea in my head with their names in parenthesis just behind the song title on each 45, or maybe it was that Eurovision chat with my Mum, or perhaps it was the idea that grew with me year on year that the coolest thing to be was not the star, but the creator behind the art. Whatever reason, I have never wanted to be anything more than a songwriter. It’s the best job in the world. The idea that you can access people’s attention and therefore their hearts too, within a minute of a song and keep them their long enough for them to fall in love with that song for the rest of the day/week/month…lifetime……makes the magic of song such a potent art.

On this week’s AC we’re going to start a little thread that will end around the 20th anniversary of the passing of Johnny Cash. We are going to play songs from that List he gave to his daughter Roseanne of one hundred country songs she needed to know. We’ll play one a week until the date when we will again celebrate the great man himself. On a similar theme we have received a new single by the great Lori McKenna who has teamed up with Hillary Lindsey another fine country writer on her new song. We’ll take that as an excuse to showcase a little more of their great repertoire of songs for other people.

Finally I’ve been enjoying the new album by Bruce Cockburn which he has recorded in Nashville with some telling contributions from Twang Town luminaries. We’ll play some of Bruce’s new album and some selections from his guests. As ever it all starts at eight o’clock on BBC Radio Scotland this Tuesday evening and you can find us on BBC Sounds in any place in the world you might be listening. Do join me if you can.

Here’s a few bêtes noire: Religions are the cause of war or  I hate musicals and the one that perhaps annoys more than any, I hate country music.

When I hear this last one I’m inclined to respond in a similar way when my 16 year old son declared he didn’t believe in God. ‘That’s interesting,’ I found myself replying. ‘Which version of God is it you don’t believe in?’ Country Music has always been quite a wide catch-all for what was once known as hillbilly music, honky tonk, folk, western swing and bluegrass. Indeed if we allow the term Americana to enter this discussion the term gets so wide as to become meaningless. What usually happens is the person trying to tell you they hate Country Music is  fixating on an idea of country that passed sometime before 1973. They might well hate country music but even they would admit that some of the current crop of country artists – Kane Brown, Kelsea Ballerini bare very little relation to the stuff they think they hate.

There’s a lot of country music I hate too and I avoid playing most of it on the AC on a weekly basis. There’s also a lot of rock music, pop music and jazz I hate too – but there’s also enough to love to make spending any time on the stuff I dislike feel like an exercise in time wasting.

All of this was going through my head as I looked up to a poster I’ve kept in my house for the last ten years or so. It was a gift from Diana Jones of a Hatch Print poster of her EP Sparrow. We’ve always loved the print and it was good to be able to tell her again how much we’d treasured the gift. Sparrow was the name of the EP and also the name Diana gave to her 100 year old , 4 string Harmony Martin guitar which she used exclusively on the recording. Diana might well fall into that wide classification of country music or even folk music but what part of her repertoire bears any relation to Wanda Jackson or for that matter, Peter, Paul and Mary is anyone’s guess. Diana is a troubadour in the great tradition of Woody Guthrie, Odessa and Johnny Cash and if some of that feels like country music that’s fine by me.

She was in Glasgow recently to play a show at The Glad cafe which I heard was very good indeed. During the day she stopped by the AC to record some live tracks for us from her reimagined Better Times Will Come album and spent a bit of me talking about the project and the current state of play in her home country. Growing up as an adopted child in New York Diana felt a seemingly inexplicable attraction to rural southern music. It began to make sense when, at 23, she discovered her birth family in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. It’s this great tradition she has tapped into over her recording career. Her last but one album , Song To A Refugee, is a great collection of protest songs based around the experience of exile and asylum and is a powerful record in the great folk tradition.

You’ll enjoy hearing Diana as our special guest on this week’s AC. Listen too for some great new music from Roseanne Reid, Riders of The Canyon, Natalie Merchant and some George Jones. It’s country music – our way and it all starts at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland this Tuesday evening or BBC Sounds whenever it suits. Join me if you can.

Dear Willie,

You don’t know me, but somehow, thinking back on things I feel as if I might know you a little. I certainly feel as if I know your voice as well as any voice I know. I’ve been listening to that voice a long time now too. If I remember correctly I heard your voice properly around forty seven years ago on a cassette tape. In our church there was a visiting student called John Fitzpatrick who was one of the loveliest fellows that came round our way. One day he couldn’t contain his delight that you had recorded an album of hymns we all knew from growing up. The Troublemaker was the name of that album and it made me rediscover the hymns my grandparents and parents knew as well as that I came to know and love your voice. I especially loved your treatment of ‘In The Garden,’ a hymn my grandmother sang often, and one night, on a whim I even sang it myself at the Royal Albert Hall during a gig.

However I need to go back to your voice. What was it that connected so much with me? Was it the vulnerabality, the colloquial stylings or the gentle vibrato or was it simply that you always told the story so simply? My friend, Beth Nielson Chapman says it’s the fact you sang as you spoke and she’s so right. Perhaps that’s why it sounds as great today as it did in the fifties but also allows us, the listeners to follow the song. Now, that is something you have always done so well.

You were a radio guy first Willie, and it’s through the radio you first let people hear your own songs. These songs! How could it be that someone could write songs which would become standards but have the confidence to make records which contained none of your own material? Why is it we associate you with songs like Blue Eyes Cryin’ In The Rain, Georgia or Always on My Mind as much as we do, Crazy,  Me and Paul or a late classics such as It Gets Easier? I think it’s because you are the rarest of people; the original artist. You write, you play that beautiful guitar, ‘Trigger’ you act and you keep singing. It’s the singing that has made you a fixture in the lives of so many music lovers. We love the stories of being the country outlaw who left Nashville and went back to Texas, we love that you’ve never followed a prescribed route and that has occasionally found you a little wide of the law but most of all we love the music you’ve given us.

I have a lot of albums on my shelves. I like to think I have some great ones, but I have to admit that I may have more of your records than anyone else’s. If I can share one problem, Willie, it’s this: In trying  to condense your career into our two hour celebration for your 90th birthday I fear I really didn’t know how to do justice to the volume of material you’ve produced. You’ve paid tribute to all your great friends, Waylon, Bob, Johnny, Kris, Lefty and so many more. So, this Tuesday we are going to celebrate your records.  You probably don’t have time to listen, but if you did, you’d feel a lot of love from Scotland. If you are interested it’s on BBC Radio Scotland from five past eight this Tuesday and you can hear it in Abbott, Texas anytime you like on BBC Sounds. If anyone else is reading this, you are welcome too.

There.            I’ve written the headline so you don’t have to.

What is Nashville like? It’s a question I’ve been asked many a time. The follow up question is often, ‘Is it worth a visit, as I’ve always been keen to see it.’ Even now my answer would always be, ‘Yes.’ However I’d have to confess it’s a place which, in so many ways, has changed beyond recognition. Perhaps it was always changing and perhaps too the changes seemed to go unnoticed to the casual tourist. What is certain now however, is that Music City is going through a period of civic turmoil.

I’m sure some of this is familiar to you, but in case you hadn’t noticed here’s a recap: Three weeks ago a lone shooter killed six people including three elementary school children. In the wake of the tragedy locals assembled in and around the State Capitol to protest about the lack of gun control. In a fevered atmosphere, three democratic representatives cheered on the demonstrators. In a strange twist of events the majority Republican House representatives tried to label the protest an insurrection and sought to expel the three Democrats. They, in turn became known as the Tennessee Three, and in the way all politics seems to go these days, the country took sides. What was clear however was that Nashville parents and children were concerned enough about the lack of any meaningful gun control to attend protest over a considerable number of days. Inevitably I came across the story in more detail through Margo Price’s twitter feed.

in the background to all this has been the State’s recent draconian legislation which outlaws drag artists. It’s not hard to imagine this has been seen as a hostile act towards the LGBTQ+ community. Such was the outrage on this particular subject that the there was a benefit/solidarity concert featuring some big country names including Maren Morris, Allison Russell, Amanda Shires, Brittany Howard, Brothers Osborne, Hozier, Jake Wesley Rogers, Jason Isbell, Joy Oladokun, Julien Baker, Mya Byrne, Sheryl Crow, The Rainbow Coalition Band, and YOLA. During the gig at The Bridgestone Arena Maren even dared Tennessee authorities to ‘arrest me’ for introducing her son to some of the drag queens. So don’t even wonder what any of this has to do with country music!

So there is and has been over some time a growing gap between the liberal artistic ‘Americana’ community and the more conservative culture of ‘the south.’ In amongst all of this is the ever present issue of race, which in America, underscores every political twist and turn. The most popular country artist (and perhaps even simply ‘artist’ of any genre) in the U.S. just now is Morgan Wallen. You won’t hear his music on the AC as we, like many others have been put off by his racist tag, which he never seems to have tried hard enough to disown. On one notorious night his career hung in the balance and the outcry that surrounded the late night out burst threatened to end his nascent fame. After that things took a strange turn and it seemed despite (or was it because) of the incident his career took off into the stratosphere.  Is this another sign that all is not well in America’s Music City?

To get behind some of this and see how it is changing and moulding the music from Nashville we’ll be talking to our own correspondent, Bill DeMain this week and trying to learn a little more about how America’s Music City can return once more to being best known for making music.

We will be bringing you lots of music along the way with tracks from Ruston Kelly, Caitlin Rose, Sierra Ferrell and Tanya Tucker featuring in two hours of country music…our way. Join me on BBC Radio Scotland or on BBC Sounds from five past eight this Tuesday evening. I’d suggest you might not want to miss this one.

In what seems the first time in a long time this week’s Another Country is brought to you from Studio 6 at the BBC in Glasgow. We’ve been on the road, at C2C and eased off air for a triumphant Scotland night at Hampden  (I managed to get tickets, so had no argument) over the last few weeks.  So a return to a pile of records and two hours to play them seems about the happiest scenario I could imagine this Tuesday evening.

A dear friend and previous producer rather despaired of me during my Sunday Morning shifts a few years back when I admitted I’d be quite happy just shutting up and playing a bit more music. She had to gently point out this wasn’t the reason we had been commissioned to be on air. But really, is there anything better? I say this as we can all be DJ’s so easily these days. Any fool can hit a couple if buttons and music will spew out of your smart phone for days on end. No repeat guaranteed? Oh yes, it can do all of that and no ads, news, weather or traffic announcements. So why believe in the radio? I happen to think the clue is in that great song by Mark Germino about the mythical DJ Rex Bob Lowenstein:

And his name is Rex Bob Lowenstein
He’s forty-seven, goin’ on sixteen
His request line’s open but he makes no bones
About why he plays Madonna after George Jones

No algorithm will suggest that, no matter how hard you try. The joy of playing artists from different age groups, decades, ethnic groups and sexes is what makes curation such a joy. I’m still indebted to some of the great radio people from the seventies and eighties who shaped my musical taste. In times when (if you missed the back announcement) you might wait years to find out what you’d just heard there were moments and nights on the radio when songs would explode my world. The next day you might well walk in a completely different direction because of what you’d just heard on the wireless, and, if you were a songwriter, your emphasis and artistic arrow might point in a whole new direction. I was reminded of this again a few days ago when I enjoyed a quiet holiday breakfast leafing through the brilliant Paul McCartney song book, The Lyrics, where he talks about how he imagined being different artists as he wrote particular songs. I was so glad it was not just me! Yes, I loved Jackson Browne but then I heard The Only Ones and I just wanted to be Peter Perrett.

On this week’s AC you can do a little imagining yourselves. Do you want to be Jimmie Rodgers, Caitlyn Smith, Bob Dylan, Trisha Yearwood or even Brandy Clark? In another dream you may fancy being in a bluegrass band called Mighty Poplar or singing cowboy songs like Andy Hedges.

You decide. You can listen in live on BBC Radio Scotland FM this Tuesday evening from eight or at a time and place of your own choosing on BBC Sounds. Either way do join me if you can.

As spring arrives I’m minded to think back three years and take stock a little. We were driving out to a theatre workshop with which my wife and I are both involved (in different ways) last week. As we were hurriedly getting into the car and anticipating the week before us we both recalled how fortunate we were to be going to a room where we would wear no masks, greet our friends properly and get to speak and sing together. Sometimes it catches you unawares, but we’ve all been on quite a journey.

In my happy place I’m always on a family holiday when the kids were young. We still enjoy going away together, but now there are more of us with husbands and partners in tow and even a grandchild too. Then we would have a mix tape, or a holiday CD burned to accompany us on long road trips or even short spins along the coast to a night out in the south of France, or Fife or wherever we went. It would be eclectic. I’d sneak a few favourites in and there would be enough songs we loved together for a sing a long. This could range from The Sound of Music to Stevie Wonder’s Misstra Know It All and all points in between. Coldplay’s The Scientist got heavy rotation on one Spanish adventure I seem to recall. There was one song, which even now, brought universal adoration and repeat plays. It was a tune from my own boyhood which appeared regularly on Saturday morning radio: Alan Sherman’s Hello Mother, Hello Father. An American kid’s letter home from summer camp. It was the final verse which came to mind this week as the sun shone and life looked a little more ‘normal.’

Wait a minute, it’s stopped hailing
Guys are swimming, guys are sailing
Playing baseball, gee that’s better
Mother, father, kindly disregard this letter

In my vernal reverie it was that last part of the song which hit home. Gee, it really is better. There’s much that isn’t right about the world but the ability to interact, socialise, perform, applaud together has again become central to everyday life – and I’m still grateful. As it happens the trigger for all of this was thinking about our very special show this week. It’s a recording of Nickel Creek‘s Celtic Connections performance in January at Glasgow’s City Halls. It was an exceptional night of virtuoso playing and singing which will amaze, fascinate  and delight. In between sets you’ll hear a conversation I recorded upstairs with Sara Watkins and Chris Thile from the band which spans the seventeen years since their last visit to the city.

As ever we kick off at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland and also BBC Sounds where you can listen again any time you wish. Do join me on this week’s Another Country In Concert special.

When Jordan Davis appeared in the BBC foyer for his performance and chat on Saturday afternoon he was dressed in the winter clothes he’d beeen sporting on his recent Canadian tour. Who can blame him? Spring in Glasgow is mid-winter in Tennessee and Jordan wasn’t taking any chances with the temperature.

Jordan Davis / BBC Scotland Country 2 Country 2023 – © Julie Broadfoot

Jordan was the first of six visitors to the foyer over a weekend of conversation, acoustic performances and full on rock-outs in the BBC and Glasgow’s Hydro. it was, for Scotland, the best attended C2C so far, and judging by the reaction of the audience, a complete success. On this week’s show we’re going to bring you a more reflective edition of the festival that you won’t have experienced in the noisier Hydro. Instead we have acoustic performances and chat from Midland, Jordan Davis, Matt Stell and Morgan Evans with some fascinating conversation from Lainey Wilson and Thomas Rhett thrown into the mix. It was a hectic few days for me between hosting the mainstage over the river each evening and welcoming these great guests to the BBC each afternoon. I am truly indebted too to the AC audience for coming over in the afternoon and making a whole day of their C2C visit. You were all so patient as we went through the many angles and pick-ups that are part of a TV recording.

Lainey Wilson /BBC Scotland Country 2 Country 2023 – © Julie Broadfoot

if you are keen to see this as well as listen in you can watch the first show this Saturday night at 10 p.m. on the BBC Scotland channel and you can also see that via the iPlayer if you don’t live in Scotland.

My head is spinning a little but I thought it would be fun to reflect a little on some of my big takeaways from the weekend. I’m sure this is more of a discussion starter and (I have to be honest) there were times when it was just impossible to see an entire set as I often had to be two places at once. We didn’t have any guest from Friday but I enjoyed getting to know the audience and having time to take in the live sets. Lindsay Ell and Mitchell Tenpenny certainly went down well though I have to confess I found both sets a little more rock than country….though in Lindsay’s case brilliantly executed. She’s an amazing guitarist and great performer. I was really taken by Old Crow Medicine Show’s set however. It really had everything: fiddle, banjo, madolin, washboard, free step-dancing and gospel harmonies. It was a triumph which won the band a whole new audience.

I really enjoyed meeting Zac Brown up in his dressing room and I told him how great Caroline Jones was earlier. Caroline is the newest ZBB member and plays almost everything. She performed a great solo set on the spotlight stage earlier in the evening and we will be playing some of her music over the next few weeks. Unfortunately I found the ZBB sound a little tricky and I know they had experienced technical issues on the night which didn’t really allow me to fully engage. I gather, however, that the audience really loved the show.

Saturday was a better evening all round for me. I just couldn’t stop listening to Jordan Davis and thought he put in one of the best shows of the weekend. I knew Lainey Wilson would be good but was a little thrown by her slightly over-eager opening. She then settled into letting her songs do the work and the show became a sheer delight. She sang and played brilliantly and delivered a beautifully curated performance. Thomas Rhett’s only problem on Saturday was what to leave out. There were so many hits to cram in he could have played beyond the curfew. I thought TR too had one of the best sounds of the weekend.

Thomas Rhett/ BBC Scotland Country 2 Country 2023 – © Julie Broadfoot

Matt Stell‘s set was certainly well received though I only caught the last part. Morgan Evans was the pleasant surprise of the weekend for me. he’d picked up a kilt earlier in the day and sported it for the entire set! The reaction he got for his performance was one usually reserved for headliners and I suspect his might be the performance everyone remembers a year from now. Midland brought country harmony and some interesting covers. I loved their Wichita Lineman version – no easy song to get right – and finishing the set with Wicked Game was a lovely surprise. Lady A closed out the weekend and the hits were all present and correct with all three singers in great voice. Hilary Scott’s decision to make the Glasgow audience the background chorus for American Honey was a perfect moment.

 With Morgan Evans /BBC Scotland Country 2 Country 2023 – © Julie Broadfoot

It seems C2C is winning new friends each year and I look forward to bringing you our highlights over the next couple of weeks on the TV and the wireless. Join me from five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland or BBC Sounds this Tuesday evening, and on BBC Scotland or iPlayer over the next few Saturday evenings. Join me if you can.

It’s March, it kinda feels like Spring and on the second weekend of the month there’s really only one place you want to be. If you’re in or around Glasgow I suggest you might want to get yourself down to the river and beg, steal or borrow a ticket for Country 2 Country, the three day festival of all that’s best from Nashville.

I’m still celebrating the fact that we can all gather again. We missed two years of this great event and I’m delighted to tell you this year will have more people in attendance each evening than it had on its biggest night ever in 2022. That night, with Luke Combs headlining, was one of the best atmospheres I remember at the festival and there was a real sense of celebration in the room. This year I’ll be in my usual spot on stage welcoming some great guests including, Old Crow Medicine Show, Zac Brown Band, Lainey Wilson, Jordan Davis, Thomas Rhett, Midland and Lady A. If you’re there for the weekend then so am I and we’ll all hope to still be on our feet come Sunday night.

If this isn’t exciting enough we are hosting two very special afternoons over at Pacific Quay (BBC Scotland’s HQ) across the river, which is three minute’s walk from the Hydro’s front door. On Saturday and Sunday the stars of C2C will be performing acoustically and chatting with me as well as answering some questions from your good selves. We’ll be filming all of this for BBC Scotland TV and making a two hour special radio show for broadcast on Tuesday March 14th. You will certainly want to be there if you can and we’d love to have a packed house of AC listeners and country music fans. If you’d like to be in the audience you will need to listen LIVE to Another Country this Tuesday evening as we’ll be announcing ticket details on the show. So do tune in.

Here’s little montage of some of some great times in the PQ foyer over the last few years:

On the show we’ll also be playing you tracks by the artists you’re going to see over the weekend as well as playing some great new cuts by Tenille Townes, the fab Wood Brothers and Ashley McBryde. With a little help from Jackson Browne we will also pay tribute to the late David Lindley after the sad news of his death last weekend. There are, I’m glad to say, always so many fantastic new records to play. So do join us live this week as it will be your chance to get up very close and personal to some of the biggest country stars on the planet. It will also be your chance to hear them perform their songs the way they sounded when they were first written.

So many people tell me they would love to go to Nashville and experience country music in its natural home. Let me suggest to you that on C2C weekend you can simply, and very easily, let Nashville come to you. Tune in this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland or on BBC Sounds from five past eight and find out how to be part of the gathering. I look forward to seeing you there.