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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 2 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 No 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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We Started So We’ll Finish

May 3, 2022 by ricky No Comments

On one of those Monday mornings when I give thanks that I don’t have a real job, I find myself listening (again) to The Judds. It was only a couple of weeks ago that I reflected on that moment in the depths of the forests of Oregon where I stumbled upon their music.

Today it’s with a heavier heart that I spin again that wonderful debut album, Wynnona and Naomi as the news of Naomi’s passing is taken in by their wider audience. On Sunday The Judds were due to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and, as we reported on the show a few weeks back, the duo were to perform a farewell tour this coming September. On this week’s show we’ll pay our respects to a remarkable country singer and groundbreaking artist. I’m pleased to say that our Nashville correspondent, Bill DeMain will be joining us to reflect on Naomi’s country legacy as well as telling us what is happening on the streets of America’s Music City.

Walkin' Nashville (@WalkinNashville) / Twitter

Bill Demain in action!

This will be the last blog for a month or so as I’m taking an overdue break. I shall be leaving you with some fine shows in my live absence from the airwaves. As spring arrived, so did the lifting of most of the Covid restrictions and I’m getting ready to go out on the road and make some music myself. It seems everyone has the same idea and over the next few weeks we’ll welcome some great troubadours who have been visiting Scotland over the last while. I’m particularly glad that Teddy Thompson is paying us a visit to talk Country music and play some of his own songs on a day off from his current solo tour. Look out for that very special Family Night on May 17th. Next week we’ll play out the session and conversation we recorded with Russell Dickerson and in a few weeks time you can hear again our Eric Church night including a fascinating insight into Eric’s songwriting experience for his current album Heart And Soul.

Meanwhile I hope you all get a chance to enjoy some live music as outdoor shows open up for the summer and a variety of live acts come through our way. For my part the normally quotidian duties of placing guitars into flight cases and making sure everything was ready to be picked up by the ever faithful DB crew had a certain spring in its step. That we can play again after having to stop for that last sting in the Covid tail brings such satisfaction. We started out in November, and heck we’ll finish.

I hope I’ll see some of you out on the road at one of our gigs or perhaps at a gig where we’re both enjoying one of our favourite artists. In the meantime the radio is there for all of us every Tuesday on BBC Radio Scotland or on BBC Sounds at any time or place of your choosing.

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general musings

Jerry Reed and Radio Joy

April 26, 2022 by ricky 1 Comment

It’s a beautiful spring evening and I’m thinking back to nights passed on the wireless. It was springtime in 2007 when someone (the great, late Stuart Cruikshank) allowed me to get my hands on the radio faders. The advice I’d got from a good pal was ‘drive the desk yourself.’ And that’s what I did for the first 30 seconds until my mind froze and dead air was broadcast to the waiting nation. If I’m honest. I’m really not sure there were many listening. My family tuned in, bless them, but they know better than to listen too regularly these days!

I have a deep love of radio, as many of you will know. I love the idea that a conversation, annotated by some killer songs, can happen across the airwaves. I loved radio at an early age and on a lonely family holiday when my sister had gone on to more exotic vacations with friends, I took a small transistor radio to my little hotel room along the corridor from where my folks were staying. The comfort of the familiar DJs got me through a few awkward, slightly nervous teenage nights. Reading a book of ghosts stories hadn’t really been the ideal pre bed preparation, but somehow the voice coming through the ether made me feel that all was well in the world.

Jerry Reed - Wikipedia

The great, Jerry Reed
Sometimes I wonder where and how people listen to our AC shows. Tweeting about our visit to Sarajevo three years ago I received a lovely note from a young woman who’d taken comfort from our records during the (nearly) four-year siege of the city.  Sometimes it’s more than news we need to get us through. I reflect how often during the lockdowns of the last two years, I couldn’t face listening to or watching any more news bulletins and opted instead for music or sometimes, blessed silence.

More than anything however I am grateful for the freedom to drive into our car park at the BBC, go up to our little studio on the fourth floor and play some music for two hours that may just get us all through whatever it is we’re experiencing on any given week. On this week’s AC we’ll take you on a little Jerry Reed journey, share some fabulous new music from Luke Combs, Tenille Townes and Lyle Lovett. We’ll introduce you to the songs of Natalia M King and Florist. We are in the usual time slot of five past eight, this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland and available where and whenever on BBC Sounds. Tune in, if you possibly can.

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general musings

Driving Through Oregon

April 19, 2022 by ricky No Comments

Let me take you to Oregon. It’s the autumn of 1989 and Lorraine and I have rented a car to take us out to the countryside. I can’t remember much other than enjoying the landscape and making a promise to ourselves that we’d come back and spend more time on the west coast. There were pines and far off hills and pulling away from the tour for a day felt like a small holiday in itself. We stopped at what our U.S. friends call a Mom and Pop store which was an extended log cabin in the woods. We were buying soft drinks and snacks when I noticed a tired looking shelf of less than current cassette albums. We’d tired of the radio and it seemed a good chance to get some new music. The trouble was there wasn’t a great choice of anything very new. It was then I spied The Judds compilation.

I’d heard of the Judds as they’d caught the ear of a few opinion formers back in the UK and had been featured on The Whistle Test. So it was we pushed the cassette into the car and set off to go deeper into the woods accompanied by the voices of Naomi and Wynonna. It turned out to be one of the best investments we ever made. The Judds and The Oregon landscape somehow went together like candyfloss and carnivals and the tape stayed in the car as long as the rental lasted.

country music wallpaper,musician,music,string instrument,guitar,string instrument,entertainment,guitarist,performance,musical instrument,music artist, #2491296 - Wallpaperkiss

Years later I saw Wynonna Judd appear at Marty Stuart’s Late Night Jam and I reflected that any artist who ditches their surname seems to lose a little of their soul. A Naomi-less Judds was not the beautiful sound I’d discovered all those years before.

So it was the other day while running my eyes over the CD collection I saw again a favourite album of the duo. Known as Heartland in the US and as Give A Little Love here, it’s a perfect showcase of what made The Judds so great. On this week’s AC I’ll give you some reasons for revisiting this lost classic.

Erin Kinsey (@ErinKinseyTX) / Twitter

Our main event this week is a session and conversation we recorded with Erin Kinsey during her fleeting visit to Glasgow for C2C last month. Erin’s music had caught my attention via my daughter flagging up Hate This Hometown a few months back. Erin told me the story about that one, how she became a TikTok star and how Dolly Parton covered her song at The Opry.

It’s a packed show this week and it all starts at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland or any time you fancy on BBC Sounds. Join me if you can.

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Peace In The Valley

April 12, 2022 by ricky No Comments

I grew up with Gospel music. It was everywhere around me. Our church, a Brethren assembly, sang from two hymn books. The Sunday morning one was called The Believer’s Hymn Book and on Sunday evenings we all sang from Redemption Songs. It was the evening version I loved more. It was a treasure trove containing big, joyful choruses and catchy refrains all designed to affirm faith and/or drive the seeking soul towards salvation. There would be Hymns asking questions, “Will your anchor hold in the storms of life?,” hymns of encouragement ‘Trust and obey,” or the gory but affirmative, “fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins.”

As we grew up and the modern ways set in the young people of the church rather turned their nose up at some of these old hymns which had found favour with the revival meetings of the early part of the century. Some of these had been brought over by American Evangelists who also wrote the lyrics and music. The most famous team had been Sankey and Moody whose combination of preaching and singing left a lasting repertoire which formed a good deal of the hymnal in mission halls and tent meetings for the best part of the next century.

Elvis's Forgotten Gospel Masterpiece

It was in this context I first heard Willie Nelson’s ‘The Troublemaker,’ an album of hymns and sacred songs arranged by Willie and the family which brought a new energy to the old chestnuts I’d heard since I was knee high. Looking back now, Willie was only following a great country tradition of recording Christmas albums and sacred albums where the artists would put their own spin on a familiar repertoire. That the tradition still exists would be a mild understatement. Only in the last year there have been more Gospel albums added to the groaning pile already in the vaults. Brent Cobb and Carrie Underwood have recently cut their own sacred recordings and in recent years Alan Jackson has brought out two volumes of faith filled songs. All of which is a delight to me, as the repertoire rarely goes too far beyond the classic hymns I learned to sing as a lad.

As it’s Holy Week we thought we’d celebrate this great tradition once more. We’ve cast our net a little wider and we will bring you some fine interpretations from George Jones, Breland, Flatt & Scruggs and Dolly Parton. We’ll also disappear down a couple of interesting rabbit holes in our desire to update you with all that is good in current country music. It all starts at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland this Tuesday evening or any time or place of your choosing from that time onwards on BBC Sounds. Do join me if you can.

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Sixty Years and Counting

April 5, 2022 by ricky 1 Comment

They say, and Hailey Whitters sings, that Nashville is a ten year town. The reference is usually made to describe the long apprenticeship undertaken by young artists as they set out to become country stars. It can also prove to be true of some country careers too. There is a thirst in all commercial music to discover and break the next big thing and nurturing something beyond a ten-year-career often proves to be beyond Music Row.

In fairness, country music is a genre which is more accommodating of older artists than many other branches of popular entertainment. There’s many a breakthrough artist I’ve encountered who are getting wider recognition for the first time when they are somewhere north of thirty years old. That, I would suggest, is refreshing. The difficult trick, for any artist, is building a career which will last. How does any singer or group ensure that their audience will stick around as long as they have? I may be biased here, but I think it’s got a lot to do with the songs.

 

Willie Nelson Announces New Album The Willie Nelson Family | PitchforkThis week we’re going to mark the beginning of one of the most successful country careers ever. That this artist is still alive, making music that matters when so many of his contemporaries have passed on is a tribute to his voice, his energy and his repertoire. And what a repertoire there has been for Willie Nelson. He’s been a soldier, a disc jockey, a song writer, singer, actor and a country outlaw and, in the sixty five years since he first released a record, he has proved to be one of the world’s most popular entertainers, whose appeal and fame goes well beyond the boundaries of country music. It took Willie five years to have a hit single and on this week’s AC we’re going to remind you of the moment the world first fell in love with Willie. We’ll also play you something from the new album he’s about to release at the grand old age of eighty nine. I suspect this is a sentence I will repeat, with a slight edit to the numbers, over the next few years.

Elsewhere we have some Grammy news and a significant anniversary for the man who first gave us the Blue Suede Shoes, the great Carl Perkins. A regular traveller with the Johnny Cash live entourage we’ll play you some early Carl as well as a great Johnny and Carl duet.

It’s also a week we’ll play you plenty of new, young acts too. Listen out for AC debutantes The Whitmore Sisters,  Kaitlin Butts and John Craigie. It all starts at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland this Tuesday evening or on BBC Sounds at a time and a place of your own choosing.

 

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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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