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general musings

Record Shop Days

August 9, 2022 by ricky No Comments

I spent last Saturday in a record shop. It’s not so often I find myself in record shops these days, so it was something of a novelty to have access to this one after hours. The shop in question was in trendy Shoreditch where my publishers had picked for my book launch in London. The upside of this was I found two vinyl offerings (one of which) I will be spinning on this week’s AC and a fine record it is too.

As I flicked through the racks and spent the following few hours talking with my good friend, journalist Paul Sexton about the book as well as every other musical thing, I found myself laughing, thinking how little had changed in record shops over the years. Here we were to launch my book, to my audience with no other customers in the store yet being assaulted by the most esoteric, obscure and frankly inappropriate playlist which was being spun out by one of the staff. None of us wanted to hear it, but hey, why would that matter, if the staff were happy?

In the seventies this was the norm. Going into a record shop was to take your pride in your hands and be grateful that no one hit you on the way out. It’s 1975 and I’m in Bruce’s Records on Reform St. I find myself telling the assistant that I’m interested in reggae because I’ve just discovered Bob Marley. He smiles condescendingly and tells me I’m a sucker to commercial reggae and really I need to go much deeper if I really want some roots music. That was the end of that conversation. If you did hear something you half liked you might pluck up the courage to ask what was playing and hope the guy (it was usually a bloke) didn’t laugh at your ignorance. Worse still was the moment you took your choices up to the counter only for some smartass creep with green hair and nose rings to smirk their way through the purchase and pass your record bag over to you as if handling toxic waste. ‘Thanks,’ you would offer before fastening up your duffel coat and heading back to the rain soaked street.

Ah…the old days. How it all returned to me last Saturday. However my record shop adventures have led to us deciding to make vinyl front and centre on this week’s AC. You will hear great new records by Margo Cilker, Amanda Shires, Joe Pug, Bill Monroe, Carson McHone and those Leeds childhood friends Amy and Lily, Sunflower Thieves. As ever we’ll be on at five past eight this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland FM (there’s football on digital) and of course any time and place you like after that on BBC Sounds. Join me if you can.

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general musings

How The Women of Country Became The Success They Were Never Supposed To Be

August 1, 2022 by ricky No Comments

One of the things I’ve enjoyed about C2C over the years is they have attempted to address the gender balance which has been such a problematic area for country music over the years. If you think this is a new issue then it really isn’t. On this week’s AC we’ll play you the first ever female No 1 country song. It’s a great track by Kitty Wells but was possibly deemed a suitable contender for radio play as it answered (and borrowed from) Hank Thompson’s ‘The Wild Side of Life.’ In Kitty’s ‘It Wasn’t God Who made Honky Tonk Angels’ she sets out the plight of women who are married to men who ‘think they’re still single.’ That the next seventy years or so would do little to change the gender dialogue says something about country music that really needs to be addressed: Women are getting a bad deal.

Let’s return to my C2C point for a moment. I’ve been lucky enough to be at most of the festivals since its inception and have seen so many great women artists. From the top of my head I’m remembering great sets by Lady A, Little Big Town, Reba McEntire, Kacey Musgraves, Ashley McBryde, Cam and Miranda Lambert. I’ve missed out a few too, but essentially there is an attempt to make sure that on any given evening the audience will get to see almost as many women as men. (though it’s not totally balanced ….yet ….and there is a real need to embrace African American acts in the coming years). If I’m being kind to the promoters here however, it’s because they have made a far greater effort than the programmers of country radio stations who, in 2021, allowed female artists to take up 10% of airtime. Just hold that thought for a second.

All of this comes with the understanding that the more imaginative contributions to the genre have come from female writers and artists. It is also they who have managed to cross over into mainstream popular music more often and with much greater success. It is also sobering to reflect that this crossover has often been propelled by the wholesale snub they have received from the denizens of Music Row. Think of Kacey Musgraves, Taylor Swift, Maren Morris or Shania Twain and of course the great Dolly Parton and try to come up with names (in the last 40 years) from male artists who have managed similar mainstream success. I’m afraid I can’t.

On this week’s Another Country we will reflect on all of this with our good friend Marissa Moss, author of Her Country – How The Women of Country Became The Success They Were Never Supposed To Be. Marissa’s book is making waves since its release a few weeks ago and it is as good a testament to the state of country music over the last ten to twelve years as I know. We’ll be talking through why women have been airbrushed from airplay and also looking at why LGBTQ+ artists and writers are making their voices heard. Marissa’s book brilliantly sets out what happens when a great talent like Mickey Guyton attempts to break into country radio as an African American female artist. Spoiler alert: it took a while and there is still no happy ending.

I recorded the conversation with Marissa last week, so I can tell you, this is a great listen which is interspersed with many of the artists whose names come up in her book. As well as the ones we’ve mentioned you’ll hear The Highwomen, The Chicks, Suzy Bogguss, Brandy Clark, Margo Price and Tanya Tucker. It all starts at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland FM this Tuesday evening and at the time and place of your choosing on BBC Sounds thereafter. Join me if you can.

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general musings

Wild Summer Swimming

July 26, 2022 by ricky 1 Comment

I went swimming last week. We hadn’t really planned it, but somehow the weather got better and better and by Thursday afternoon my son and I decided the best way to celebrate the summer was to head to the loch.

One of the great things about Glasgow is how close it is to some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. On this particular day we jumped in the car, threw in a couple of towels and packed the dog in with us and drove west across the Erskine Bridge towards Rowardennan and a small beach round the corner from the busyness of high summer in Balmaha. The water was warm and I found myself recounting to my son how we’d once had a summer barbecue near the spot we now stood and how, more than thirty years ago, I’d surprised myself by swimming in the cold loch water then loved the afterglow. On our day out it wasn’t hard to persuade my son back in, so warm was the water and so blue was the sky. Our dog, recently described by our vet as an ‘elderly gentleman’ was showing no signs of his years as he jumped and swam, fetching anything we threw in.

I’m still celebrating the freedom to do all of this again. Two years ago we were bound in to our council areas and even as late as April last year we were not allowed far beyond our own local patch here in Glasgow. Maybe it’s these small mercies we should celebrate more? I know I’ve given up on being too ambitious about travel further afield though I’m psyching myself up for the next few weeks when I’m off around the UK and even venturing into mainland Europe on work related adventures.

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I had another memory of driving up the same Loch Lomond route a few months before we experienced that awful lock down of 2020. I was being sent mixes for our latest album and decided it would be good to download and listen as I travelled. I’m not sure how closely I listened as, suddenly, everything started to sound brilliant.

I’m conscious that many of you will hear Another Country as you travel and some might even turn on the radio as you enjoy a holiday. I hope wherever you are you’ll relish what we bring you over this summer. On this week’s show you’ll hear some cowgirls, the occasional fantastic cat and some distant thunder. All courtesy of Kacey, Miranda, Kelsea and our old friend and Nashville correspondent Bill Demain. We open our doors at five past eight and you can find us on BBC Radio Scotland airwaves or on BBC Sounds if you’re listening beyond our borders. Whichever way it will be great to have you along for the ride.

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general musings

Hooray for The Rolling Stones

July 19, 2022 by ricky No Comments

With the arrival of the recent documentaries on the four remaining Stones available now on the iplayer, we thought it might be a good time to explore the country connections of The Rolling Stones.

There are so many varied Stones country moments that we had to prune a little and bring you the ones we liked best. Some of you may find this a little strange and perhaps wonder if we aren’t making something up here. However let me set a scene I enjoyed watching.

My memory goes back to a documentary made about Mick Jagger writing and recording one of his recent solo albums. At one point the film spends time with him in the studio of Lenny Kratvitz. Lenny leaves the room for some reason or other and the camera stays on Mick who is seated at the piano and proceeds to sing and play a heartfelt version of Hickory Wind, the great Byrds song written by Gram Parsons and Bob Buchanan. At that moment I knew that Mick’s love was real and deep. He sang and played the song as if it was his favourite party turn and it was a fine moment on the screen.

The other glimmer twin, Keith Richards of course had a deep friendship with Gram and they were close up to the point of Gram’s untimely death in 1973. Both the Stones and The Flying Burrito Brothers recorded Wild Horses, a song which Gram was certainly involved with at the early stages though never credited as a co writer. That song, more than anything else explains the magical bridge bringing these two branches of roots music together. Recorded in Alabama by the Stones in the legendary Muscle Shoals Studios it illustrates how much country, r’n’b, blues, rock and gospel intertwine in what we now accept as pop music.

The Stones songs have been covered by Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kathy Mattea and Don Williams. Not all of them have been as successfully executed as The Burritos mind you. You can make up your own mind when we play out a few of these this week. Safe to say we have included some gems for you.

That Stones/ Country crossover theme will form a great spine to this week’s AC. Listen out too for some great new records from Bonnie Light Horseman, Amanda Shires and Beth Nielson Chapman. We will be your musical accompaniment to a warm summer evening and you can hear us on BBC Radio Scotland FM from five past eight this Tuesday evening or at a convenient place and time on BBC Sounds. Do join me if you can.

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general musings

The Singing Postie and Mr Jukebox

July 12, 2022 by ricky No Comments

After a week of emotional and physical extremes, I wound down on Monday morning by cutting the grass. Lawn care, for anyone interested, during the spring and summer months, is, I find, the best place to sift through all the ideas going through your head. Songs, to-do lists, set-lists, radio sequences and family affairs are often much improved over the course of a proper grass cut.

On the first day of this week when I was rejoicing in the fact I could be outside on such a fine July morning and midway through the last patch of front lawn, I was aware of our postie coming up the path. She’s been our regular deliverer of mail for the last wee while now and she always passes the time of day with me and seems to delight in doing her job, which I have to add, she does very well. It was she who made me reflect that it wasn’t just free-lancers like myself who could be outdoors on such a summer morning, but that the world was full of folks who will be happy to spend their working days in whatever the weather throws at them.

It was then I remembered another postie. Last year the great John Prine was immortalised in a lovely song by Todd Snider called, Honest John, in which he pays tribute to ‘The singing mailman from Maywood Illinois.’ It was on his mailroute that John Prine developed his early, great songs such as “Hello In There.” I wondered, as I saw my post woman skip her way down the path, what stories she might be collecting as she went about her work. I’ve been fascinated by the postal service for a while. I was so taken with the inscription of the New York City Central Post office that it became a song on an album a few years back. Real mail, snail mail as we used to call it when email first emerged, is still such a vital thing for so many. On my return home from some concerts at the weekend I opened a letter from an old friend who corresponds regularly. I’d sent him a postcard and in return he wrote recommending I visit a touring circus coming my way. Unlikely as it may seem, I’ll probably go ahead and do that, not least so I can write back and tell him all about it.

Sometimes writing this blog feels like the kind of letters I’d write to my Mum or Dad when I was far from home. My dad was a good letter writer and would often counsel that first-class letters would be with the recipient the next day, all ideas clearly laid out. Much better, he’d suggest than a rambling phone call. He may well have been correct, but we need all kinds of connections do we not? That’s why I love this prologue but enjoy also the full encounter live on the radio when all these things come together in songs that have wormed their way into my affections over the last seven days.

Not only that, but I have a special bonus of a conversation with Joshua Hedley, Nashville’s own Mr Jukebox, which I recorded a few weeks back when he visited Glasgow. Joshua’s story is, a bit like my week of extremes, a wild old ride. He was brutally honest about his own shortcomings and why, sober again, he feels inspired to write and perform his best work. If you are aware of either of his albums you’ll know this to be true.

Join me this coming Tuesday evening for all of that as well as some fine country favourites. We’re on BBC Radio Scotland from five past eight or on BBC Sounds whenever, wherever.

 

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general musings

Oh Boy!

July 5, 2022 by ricky No Comments

It’s the first Monday of July as I write this on, what would have always been, the first day of our children’s school holidays. As I thought over this towards the end of the last week of June I experienced a strange nostalgia for summers past. There was a frisson of excitement as the last weeks of summer term passed. Children would return with drawings and folders of a year’s work, plays and sports days would be attended by an excited family and as the calendar clicked through those final days of June an anticipation of the holidays began.

Tasks like packing, boarding cats and dogs and leaving instructions for neighbours to water a flower basket or two all seemed hugely worthwhile in lieu of the approaching summer vacation. The roof box would be secured onto our big old shooting brake and we’d wind our way south to warmer weather and the lure of the Mediterranean sea. Two of my daughters still have lingering resentments about how often I played the new Rufus Wainwright album over their S Club 7 CD on the long stretch from Calais to Lyon, before we made our overnight stop. On the best days we all fell in love with the same songs and I still have a lingering fondness for Reach by the S Club as it reminds me of happy times. Our youngest, the boy, was only pacified on one Spanish break by repeated plays of Coldplay’s The Scientist which (aged 3) he liked to call ‘Going Back to The Stars.’ I’m not sure that isn’t a title worth exploring in another song.

So it was these memories drifted through my head as our train wound its way back to Glasgow this weekend after a visit to see the same son, now 21 years old, in his London base. This weekend found none of our offspring near home at all and I found myself feeling glad that the first week of school holiday weather wasn’t going to affect any of their immediate plans.

The upside of all of this is I get to spend the early part of summer each Tuesday in the AC studios. As life moves forward we have managed to record some significant sessions and conversations which we will be broadcasting over the next few weeks. First up is the round we recorded with three of the recent OH BOY Records artist. On this week’s show you can hear songs from Emily Scott Robinson, Kelsey Waldon and Arlo McKinley as they showcase songs from their current albums in the round in our very own Studio One. It’s a magical space in which we’ve recorded some great sessions over the many years we’ve been on air and for the first time in a long while we welcomed four musicians to play, sing and talk. You’ll hear their songs and stories, why John Prine signed them to his label and their own tribute to the man himself. It’s a fascinating hour which will fill the second part of this week’s show. In the first hour we’ll share some great new records by Hannah Read and Michael Starkey, Angel Olsen and Joe Pug. We do this in two hours on BBC Radio Scotland from five past eight this Tuesday evening . Join me if you can.

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general musings

Only Music Can Do This

June 28, 2022 by ricky 3 Comments

It had been a good day. We’d travelled along the south facing coast towards Cardigan Bay from an hour or so further along the coastline. We’d had long catch up conversations with our family and ended up trekking along a gorgeous coastal path as the sea and sky skirted with every weather mood it could imagine. We dodged the rain, braced ourselves against the wind and occasionally caught the sun as we took in the panorama. By late evening we’d felt the day, and most of the weekend we’d planned, was all but over.

I’d intended to catch some of the Glastonbury highlights and hoped to see as much of the Paul McCartney performance as I could. Little did I realise how late I’d stay up. At 1:30 I collapsed into bed having witnessed one of the most life affirming concerts I’ve ever been lucky enough to watch. If music on TV has seemed to follow a predictable trajectory over the last thirty odd years then I suggest to you that Paul McCartney may well have re written the rule book. I don’t think any exception or clarification should be given for age…if you can’t do the gig, you can’t do it…but this? This was a gig that 25 years olds would have found exhausting. In fact, it was exhausting just watching it.

Everything was there. The Beatles, solo, Wings and Wings B sides. Then  there was Springsteen…you know all this of course. So why am still talking about it? Simply put, I think Saturday night and early Sunday morning proved once again how important music is. It showed once more that music can make you think you’re walking one way then pick you up and point you in the opposite direction. Reader: it changes everything.

Crowds at Pyramid stage

It was also a great contrast to one of the more disappointing live events I’d witnessed a few days earlier. I had been intrigued to see Little Big Town supporting the Eagles. I was also interested in hearing Vince Gill replacing the late Glenn Frey. Vince was great, LBT were on a little early but I did catch a spirited Girl Crush through a rather muted PA which miraculously came alive for the headliners. They (The Eagles) sounded great, but there was no sense of a gig which any of the people on stage seemed to be enjoying. There was little musical camaraderie and the distinct impression lingered that money was the driving force. In contrast I felt Paul might have happily played all night for nothing.

So it is with some surprise and a little humility I have to confess that, this week, TV has won the day. There are lots of Glastonbury moments to check out but from what I saw I recommend Jack White, Self Esteem and Kacey Musgraves. Do tell me your own favourite bits too.

On this week’s AC I’ll try to keep that positivity going as we celebrate 2022 so far. We’ll play some of our favourite things as well as bringing you great new tracks from Loudon Wainwright, Eric Paslay, Tre Burt, Brandi Carlile and Courtney Marie Andrews.

We’re on from five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland this Tuesday evening and at a time and place of your own choosing on BBC Sounds. Join me if you can.

 

 

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general musings

Darden’s Western Skies

June 21, 2022 by ricky No Comments

Like one in thirty of my fellow Scots I succumbed to the old Covids last week. I was lucky enough to test negative in time for the big Deacon Blue show we had at the weekend at Blenheim Palace (thanks if you were there), but wasn’t able to be on-air last week for the AC. I’m fine now and feel slightly relieved that I managed to catch the virus without having to cancel any more live gigs.

So it’s meant we have lots and lots of new music to play you this week as well as welcoming back an old friend. Darden Smith returns for the first time since he last visited us in 2013. Darden comes to play songs and talk about his new album Western Skies, which is really a fascinating listen. It’s accessible but has such great layers and wise insights from a song writer who has always been a vital listen. Having spent a tour with Darden I know how great his company can be, but I also enjoy his company when I hear his songs. There’s a deep truth in this record celebrating his own home state of Texas as well as throwing a light on the business of getting older. I love songwriters who grow old with you and reflect that narrative in their output. If you do then the second hour of this week’s AC is for you.

 

Darden Smith

We have lots to play you before then including new tracks from future guest Arlo McKinley, old friend Courtney Marie Andrews and the ever green Carrie Underwood. We’ll celebrate Steve Earle’s tribute to Jerry Jeff Walker by playing a track from the new album, a great Jerry Jeff cover and a song from the man himself. We do all of this in a two hour show and you can hear it all on BBC Radio Scotland from five past eight this Tuesday evening or at a time and place of your choosing on BBC Sounds. Live or later, join me if you can.

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general musings

Introducing, Leif Vollebekk

June 7, 2022 by ricky No Comments

A few years ago we came across a press release by the excellent Nadia Reid for her song ‘Oh Canada.’ In it she mentioned many of the reasons why she loved Canadian music. Nadia herself is from New Zealand and she was sending love across the Pacific to many of the Canadian artists who had been a big influence on her. I can’t remember the exact list but suspect there was a sprinkling of familiar artists including Joni Mitchell, The Band and Ron Sexsmith before I stumbled on a name I’d never encountered before: Leif Vollebekk.

I decided we needed to know more and, having listened to a couple of streams I got hold of the only albums I could find, ‘Twin Solitude’ and the more recent ‘New Ways.’ I was hooked. I loved the fact there was no simple categorisation for Leif’s music, but given the obvious influence of Van Morrison I felt it easily slotted into the term, ’Americana’ we use to wrap around all those glorious things we often champion on the AC but don’t quite fit in elsewhere.

I seem to have played the album in and around the house enough for my daughters to have fallen in love too. Earlier this year one of them suggested I take up the spare ticket for Leif’s King Tuts show. One thing led to another and before I knew it Richard Murdoch, my esteemed producer, had also booked Leif to come in to studio One at the BBC here in Scotland to perform a session and answer all the questions I’d been storing up since I first encountered his music. There was so much to talk about and Leif was as intriguing and entertaining in the interview as he was on the piano stool or behind the mic singing with his guitar. We talked influences, key moments and discussed the business of nailing down that essential take which makes the final recording. That feel is really at the heart of Leif’s music. You’ll love the influences and hearing him talk about the importance of Ray Charles’ ‘Modern Sounds In Country and Western Music’ is a real joy. As for his take on the Prince solo piano show…well you’ll need to tune in this week. Oh, and the show at King Tuts? It was excellent and the spirit of it has lingered with me for these last few weeks.

Elsewhere on the show we have the wonderful new title track to Mary Gauthier’s equally fine new album, ‘Dark Enough To See The Stars,’ new things from Anais Mitchell as well as someone fabulous new recordings from Josh Rouse and Midland. We do it all in two hours of Another Country from five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland or on BBC Sounds whenever or wherever you choose. Join me if you can.

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general musings

The Many Americas

May 31, 2022 by ricky 2 Comments

Over the last few weeks, in my live absence from the show, I’ve been on a long holiday on the west coast of the USA. We travelled quite a few miles starting off staying with my daughter in the Bay Area and taking in the California Coast, Nevada and Arizona. It’s only three states but even within that small sample it wasn’t difficult to conclude that there are many Americas.

As a kid I dreamed of visiting the US. I was too busy saving up for instruments during my college years to engage in long travel adventures so I never visited the US until I was thirty years old. Since my first visit I have gone back nearly thirty times and, am excited to meet my first grandchild who will be born in California this summer. It’s a country that always reveals new characteristics on each successive visit and these last few weeks proved no exception to the rule. As much as I love America the division of the last few years seems to loom larger (even to the casual tourist) than it has ever done on any previous visit.

That our holiday was bookended by two atrocious gun massacres cast a long shadow. I’ve been in America when mass shootings have taken place. Ironically I was on holiday there when the children of Dunblane were killed in the worst (non terrorist) mass killing to have ever occurred in the UK. That the name of that town still resonates with all those who remember that event illustrates the contrast in responses of our two countries. In the US however, there are simply too many towns to have suffered similar events for their names to become synonymous with gun violence. What has become more apparent to me in recent years is our outrage at gun ownership is also matched in many parts of the US. Equally there is a large percentage of the population there for whom the only answer to the growing violence is to encourage more people to get armed.

Flags to be flown at half-staff Thursday in Honor of Senator Harry Reid - Local News 8

What has interested me is the righteous anger, sorrow and naked outrage by many of the regular artists we support on the AC. You may remember also that last week’s special guest, Eric Church, tried to suggest some gun law reform after the biggest mass shooting ever, which directly affected the country community. That Eric was quickly shut down and spent the next year or so refusing all interviews explains some of the problem reformers are facing. It’s not a great career move in country music to support gun ownership reform.

There are many good voices within the wider country community however. It’s noticeable too how the sense seems to come from women. In all the hand wringing and emotion I witnessed on TV press conferences it was overwhelmingly men who defended the status quo while women…and particularly mothers who wept and called for change. It’s been good to see so many of the women we play regularly on the AC show courage and leadership on gun reform. Let’s make sure we amplify their voices over all the noise that currently fills the airwaves.

We’ll play many of these voices this week as we catch up on the great stories and songs country music tells so well. Join me this Tuesday evening at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland for two hours of great music. It’s country music…our way.

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About Me

All year round I present a weekly program called Another Country which goes out every Tuesday evening at 8 p.m. You can find the show on BBC Radio Scotland.

Occasionally you'll find me on BBC Radio 2 with my New Tradition.

I also make special programs about artists whose music has inspired me; Ricky Ross Meets... is on BBC Radio Scotland.

You can listen to previous versions of all these shows via BBC Sounds.

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