I hope you had a good Christmas and have, so far, had a happy new year. Despite a family Covid outbreak I’m pleased to say that (as I write) I’m still defying the odds and looking forward to returning to our regular studio to present Another Country this Tuesday.

Spending time in a slight remove from country music has, if anything, increased my appetite to get back into listening mode. If there is one thing I have gleaned over the last fourteen years of the AC it is that a good song is, still, a good song. Listening to a wider range of music over the last few months has only confirmed what I have suspected over a long time: country music is still vital, creative and most importantly, constantly evolving.

Like so many of you, the musical experience which has dominated the festive season was The Beatles, Get Back movie by Peter Jackson. Spending a few hours with the Fab Four is never going to be a waste of time and it occurred to me again how many conversations I’d had in Nashville with songwriters and singers who told me how much their lives had been turned around by The Beatles. Listening too to the Sodajerker podcast with Miami Steve Van Zandt the other day I was reminded too of the long apprenticeship the boys served before these eight, fab years. From 1957 until 1962 The Beatles listened, copied, played and then finally triumphed by putting everything they’d absorbed into some brilliant recordings and performances which, literally, changed the world.

The other great Christmas gift, for me, was the No Nukes Springsteen gig which has been restored and is now available to watch in all its glory. The thirty year old Springsteen is a joy to behold, as are that late seventies E Street players. After a great, slightly time restricted hour’s set, the band come back to celebrate the songs they got to know growing up. Devil In the Blue Dress, Good Golly Miss Molly/ CC Rider/ Jenny Take A Ride then a pause to catch some breath before Quarter to Three and finally Buddy Holly’s Rave On.

So, on our first show back we’re going to take a little of the inspiration from these two seminal rock ‘n’ roll films to show, as ever, that the roots of so much of the music are based in and around Music City Tennessee.

As well as all of that we’ll pay tribute to Peter Bogdanovich who died last week. As well as more famous films and cameo acting performances he was the man who made one of the great country music movies of all time. If you haven’t seen ‘The Last Picture Show‘ or it’s a while since you last watched, I recommend it to you. We’ll play one of the many great cuts on this week’s show.

And finally…some things don’t change. Black lives still matter even though The Grand Ole Opry hosted Morgan Wallen this weekend. You can read more about it by following Jason Isbell’s twitter feed or see the back story here. If you join us this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland you’ll find out once more how much we believe African Americans should be front and centre to all discussions about country music. Find us on FM, Digital or BBC Sounds any time after the show is finished. It all starts on BBC Radio Scotland this Tuesday evening at 8 p.m.

It was sad to read of the death of Paddy Moloney last week. There has been some great tributes paid from across the Irish sea and it’s little wonder. Paddy was as close to a front man as The Chieftains ever got. He was the one who told the stories and through him we got to know more about the music. The music of Paddy and of The Chieftains was great. On Another Country we love collaborations; singers singing songs of other writers, duetting, guest playing or producing and generally creating musical harmony. The Chieftains made all of that a lifetime’s work.

I’m delighted to note the good Iain Anderson paid his own tribute earlier this week, but in general there hasn’t been enough mention of a man who opened up traditional music to millions of people and highlighted other musical forms to the trad audience. I knew of Paddy and The Chieftains because the late John Peel would regularly record sessions as well as play album tracks from the band. They were mixed in there with the reggae, punk and eventually techno tracks that became the Peel soundscape. On this week’s show we’ll play you some wonderful collaborations from The Chieftains who, more than a few times, made music with country and Americana voices. We’ll also remind you about the brilliant collaboration they made with Van the man which, I can testify, even had Van dancing in front of the audience some thirty odd years back in Govan Town Hall.

This will be my final blog for this year. I have left some fine things in the store for you on the wireless over the next few weeks. There’s a show I’ve wanted to curate for a while now which plays some of my favourite songs and obscurities from thirteen years of Another Country. We also have a two-hour Natalie Hemby special which includes a long conversation with her about her new album, Pins and Needles as well as retrospective chat about the great songs she has written for others. You may not know Natalie, but you will certainly know the songs.

From mid November until Christmas BBC Radio Scotland are bringing you a new show for a few weeks while I go off around the country with my fellow Deacon Blue chums to complete a tour which is a year over due. I’m excited to be getting the chance to do this and I hope (from a distance) I might be closer than usual to a few folks who read the blog.

So, this final live show on Tuesday will feature Natalie Hemby on vinyl, that Paddy Moloney tribute and music from Anais Mitchell, Noah Gundersen and Phoebe Bridgers and Hayes Carll. It will be as eclectic as ever and I hope you can join me on BBC Radio Scotland or BBC Sounds. Either way it all starts this Tuesday evening from five past eight. See you on the road or back on the wireless in 2022.

In actual fact, I would like to thank my agent. The good Paul Fenn, my own live agent, sent me a stream of the Americana Awards night from The Ryman Theatre. As you well know, the Ryman is the mother church of country music, and you could not imagine a more hallowed hall in which to host The Americana’s big night of the year. It’s the original home of the Opry, they had a galaxy of stars ready to perform and a wheen of ‘suits’ who seemed to have something to do and say about with the genre.

I’ll be honest here. I didn’t make my way through the whole two and a bit hours…but there were some lovely moments. I really enjoyed The Highwomen with added Yola and a very spirited performance by The Fisk Jubilee Singers. However…and here there is a deep however, I really had to sigh when I heard the outcome of the winners. In truth none of the nominations for album of the year could be described as great records. There are some good moments in all of them and I have a few tracks I could happily enjoy on each. But the winner: ‘Cuttin’ Grass – Vol. 1 (Butcher Shoppe Sessions),’ Sturgill Simpson, isn’t even a new record. Sturgill’s album is a remake of his back catalogue and, as much as it is a pleasant surprise after ‘Sound and Fury’ there are other fresher records out there. So my hopes were pinned on people having the good sense to reward Allison Russell (Emerging artist) or Amythyst Kiah (song of the year for Black Myself) but.. no. Instead we got Charley Crockett who is twelve years into a career and on his tenth (count em’ people) album. Emerging eh? Worse than that is an award which John Prine himself would probably, happily forfeit. ‘I Remember Everything’ was favoured over ‘Black Myself’ which, apart from being brilliant and cut twice is surely a song that’s asking the right questions. I love John Prine, but he was rightly and royally lauded in last year’s awards and this was a lost opportunity to honour new artists who have ensured African American voices and stories are being brought to a wider audience.

Having said all of that I’m pretty sure no one takes these things too seriously (least of all the winners) and the Americana Festival is a great showcase for music. We’ll have our Nashville Correspondent on the line during this week’s show to give us his take on all the events of the festival. Bill DeMain will also bring us news and musical tips which, in case you need reminded, have often resulted in us first hearing acts which have become the household names on the AC.

As well as Bill we will hear new music from Hayes Carll, Brandy Carlile, Diana Jones and Nathan Bell. If that’s not enough we’ll have the most surprising version of Jolene from the least likely artist to have tackled the Dolly Parton classic so far. We do all this in two hours, starting at 8 pm this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland FM or any time then or after on BBC Sounds. Join me if you can.

It’s feeling a little autumnal. As I write this the skies are darkening a little overhead and the possibility of lighting the fire tonight and staying in gets more and more attractive. The soundtrack is Dorothy Love Coates and assorted Gospel gems and I’m inclined not to move too far from this sofa for a few hours.

I’m never sure what my father would have made of great African American or Country Gospel music, but I have a feeling he would have enjoyed it for bringing together his love of music and his desire to spread the word whenever he could. Fathers and sons eh? Even years of separation don’t seem to break the bonds of growing up. I got a call from my own son this afternoon and immediately we fell back into familiar themes of conversation that have marked our life together. Though we are hundreds of miles apart it felt as if we were still riding in the car together, going up to the game or up to the hills above the city for a long walk.

We have a bit of a father/son theme going on in this week’s Another Country. Our very special guest is The Wallflowers’ very own Jakob Dylan, whose the son of Bob. I really enjoyed talking to Jakob a few weeks back, but felt acutely aware that there was an elephant in the virtual room and I wasn’t going to be the one who’d mention it first. It’s hard enough making a name for yourself in this musical world without worrying that every time you release a song it gets compared to the ultimate pop/rock catalogue. I’m therefore delighted to tell you that with or without the knowledge of Jakob’s lineage The Wallflowers new record, Exit Wounds is a fine piece of work. There’s much to enjoy in the interplay of the current lineup whose album is the first under that name for eight years. It’s interesting too to understand Jakob’s rules of what defines a band project against the records he’s brought out in his own name.

While we’re on this theme we will remind you of the talent that was Justin Townes Earle who, sadly, died far too young last year with a reminder of the potency of his father’s songwriting thrown in for good measure. There’s a new record too from the third generation of Williams as we introduce you to new Nashville star, Sam Williams, grandson of Hank. Will you hear a Hank classic? I suspect you know the answer to that one.

Elsewhere in two hours of country we will bring you some great new collaborations from Adia Victoria and Matt Berninger, David Ferguson and Margo Price as well as Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde. It will be a packed two hours which all kicks off at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland FM this Tuesday evening, or BBC Sounds wherever, whenever you fancy. Join me if you can.

I was chatting to my cousin on Friday night. We were doing some texting and as an afterthought she added she had been mesmerised by the BBC4 documentary on The Everly Brothers.  She made the very valid point that when she was a teenager in the 60’s she paid so little attention to them as they were deemed a little ‘uncool.’ I have to say I concurred with her. So many people were passed over by kids of my generation because they didn’t fit into our idea of what a pop star should look like. Inversely too, there were those who deserved far less attention but stayed on our radar as we expected them to be as good as they looked. It wasn’t until we reached a respectable age that we all realised the complete folly of our teenage prejudices.

Mrs R and I watched The Every Brothers doc on the iPlayer on Sunday night and I can only implore you to do the same if you haven’t yet seen it. It’s beautifully produced and includes some very telling interviews with some people who really know what they’re on about. Particular praise should go to British trio Teddy Thompson, Dave Edmunds and Albert Lee.  I loved seeing the enigmatic Will Oldham who, of course, made a very good Everly Bros tribute album a few years back with Dawn McCarthy.

As you now know, Don Everly died towards the end of last month and this week we are finally get a chance to pay a proper tribute. The Everlys’ legacy will live on as will another great country artist and songwriter who died around the same time. Tom T Hall’s songs were often better known than he was, and it was only many years later that I realised how many of his songs I knew. We’ll give you a taste of the catalogue and the man himself on this week’s show.

Listen out for some fine new records from Sturgill Simpson, Kacey Musgraves and Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. We also have new names to share with you and we think you’ll really like Emily Scott Robinson, Watchhouse and Elijah Ocean. 

This week’s show is all records. We have recent releases and country classics that, (if you don’t already own them) may send you scrambling for your bank card. As ever we will be live from five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland and on the BBCSounds from the same time and for the next while after. If you’re in the Sounds app you may want to check out my Ricky Ross Meets series which now contains interviews with fourteen different artists including Del Bryant whose parents, Boudleaux and Felice wrote the biggest hits for The Everly Brothers. Do join me in any of these radio adventures live or any time you’d like to listen.

Somedays you write the song and some days the song writes you. It’s the saddest thing, but that Guy Clark aphorism seems more truthful about sitting down to write the Blog on this sorrow filled day.

Last Friday the news came in via a kind fellow music lover on twitter that Nanci Griffith‘s death had been announced. In some ways the news didn’t surprise me as much as it would of one or two artists who are more senior in years. From what I understood, Nanci’s health had not been good and there has been a prolonged absence from any kind of involvement with public life or performance for a number of years.

Nevertheless, in an age when we have just celebrated a new album by the great Connie Smith on her 80th birthday, it does seem to be tragic to be bidding farewell to such a talent as Nanci, who is twelve years her junior.

I only got to know Nanci a little in the last few years of her creative life, which came to an end after her final studio album, Intersection, in 2012. I had made a bad start. In 1986, my late colleague and first mate, Graeme Kelling and I were asked to review recent single releases for the List magazine by the music editor. So desperate must we have been to promote our own music that we accepted the challenge without giving any thought to how it might look to pass opinion so glibly on a fellow musicians’s output. I’ve run a mile from ever doing such tawdry tasks ever since. Then there was a pile of 45’s and we came across a song called, From A Distance by Nanci Griffith. We both disliked the record but I felt a particular dislike for the song. The central idea of a God who is distant and watches in judgement didn’t really sit well with my own faith experience. I was pleased to learn that this artist, who I’d begun to hear more and more about, wasn’t responsible for writing it.

A couple of years passed before I heard Nanci properly, her own songs, on her own albums and realised I’d been guilty of dismissing her for a crime she never committed. As penance for my sins I went over to my nearest record shop and bought all the Nanci Griffith albums they had in stock. I still have the vinyl to this day. They were: There’s A Light beyond These Woods, Once In A Very Blue Moon, The Last Of The True Believers and Little Love Affairs. I enjoyed them all and fell head over boots in love with her voice and her songs.

Then a funny thing happened. Many of my friends kept me updated on Nanci’s career and especially her live performances which, for reasons that probably involved being on the road myself, I never managed to experience at first hand. So years passed, Nanci’s popularity grew and equally, as it tailed off a little, it came to pass I was set to visit Nashville for the first time in 2007. I was searching around for anyone I knew who could point me to songwriters with whom I should collaborate. A dear friend called Edwina Hayes, a fine songwriter from Yorkshire, had spent some time there and I asked her if she could recommend anyone who might spare a day for me. She supplied a great list and then left an intriguing hanging sentence at the end of her email which, as I recall, went a little bit like….’and, of course, there’s always Nanci?’

Was she serious, I asked? That Nanci? Might she be open to the idea? It turned out she was. And so it passed that we spent a day working on a new song, Nanci came over to my house on her return to come on tour that summer to record a demo and the song, to my delight, made her next album.

Since that time I’ve interviewed her for Another Country three times and finally experienced what it was so many friends had told me about; her compelling live presence.

I’ve also witnessed her deteriorating health at first hand and like many other fans, have come to the conclusion that we were no longer going to experience the joy of new material any time soon. Instead, I’ve done what I am doing right now; I’ve gone back to enjoying her great back catalogue of albums from the eighties and onwards. It’s a body of work which deserves to be celebrated properly. So on this week’s Another Country we will do just that. We’ve assembled a show which will reflect the stories you’ve shared on Twitter and Facebook over these last few days. We loved hearing your stories of where you encountered Nanci’s music and which songs you associate most with the memory. This Tuesday evening we’ll put the memories to music on BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Sounds from five past eight . Join me if you can.

The Blog is taking a little holiday. It shall return mid September.

It’s Monday evening. The rain has gone off for a little while and there’s even a trace of blue in the sky over the park from my studio window. Before we pulled down some rather ugly old conifers summer evenings would bring a local bat out of his daytime hang and he’d perform some excellent loops around the small square of grass in front of my window. These days the view is clearer and I’m a little more able to enjoy the late light summer brings.

Today on my weekly shop in my fave supermarket they were peeling away the 2metre distancing signs which had been on the floor of the aisles for the last eighteen months or so. There was an interesting discussion which ensued on twitter when I shared this yesterday, but in all honesty, I couldn’t contain my delight that, at last, we seemed to be moving away from the life we’ve been forced to live.

Last Saturday, again, I was on stage in front of an audience of thousands playing music and embracing the freedom. A couple of hours before we went on stage I made it through the mud to see Nick Lowe making everyone very happy with a set which finished off with ‘I Knew The Bride.’ It was a joy to behold. It’s these moments we’ve waited for, and should I be a little early to my celebration, then forgive me, but allow at least this smile to stay on my lips for a short while. After all, it’s been a long old winter.

Having said all that, I’m having a wonderful night to myself listening to a little Ray Price and thinking about a photograph I saw over the weekend which made me (almost) as happy as doing the gig. It was a shot from the rear of the Opry stage with this week’s star turn performing to a packed house. Connie Smith was back at the Opry. I love Connie. When we first went to Nashville to pick up and record stories for the show it was Connie that took us into RCA Studio B and told us about her first ever recording session back in 1964. Next Saturday Connie will be eighty years old just before she releases her new album. She’s been busy too, recording with her husband, Marty Stuart and co writing for the Wandering Hearts. We will pay our own tribute to this worthy country legend on this week’s show.

We have two hours of records to share and we’ll go from Webb Pierce, who was born 100 years ago this month, to another Pearce…Carly! As well as that you’ll hear Adia Victoria, Watchhouse (formerly Mandolin Orange) and Natalie Hemby. Carly Pearce has been thinking about Loretta so you can probably guess there will be a Loretta Lynn moment in there too. It’s two hours of country music our way and you can hear it all from five past eight this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland FM or on BBC Sounds at your own choice of place and time. Either way, join me if you can.

I feel it my duty to bring you this week’s report from the front line. On Saturday past, along with my musical brothers and sister, I played my first notes of music in front of an audience for nineteen months. The last time Deacon Blue had played a chord in anger was on the 1st of December 2019 in a continent far away. For purists, yes we did play some songs on the telly at New Year, but an audience of be-masked runners, camera crew and assorted TV people does not an audience make. So at 9:30 on a beautiful Somerset Saturday evening in front of quite a few thousand people we gathered on a stage, plugged in some instruments to their respective amps and, with the help of some creative lighting engaged in a concert. It’s not for me to tell you how good we were, but whatever good we gave out, we received back ten fold from a great audience who even managed not to let a five minute rain shower dampen their enthusiasm. To say we were grateful is a vast understatement. Folks, we were ecstatic. Even as we walked from the tented dressing room across to the backstage area there was part of me fully expecting a ‘ping’ or a tap on the shoulder to say we should proceed no further, that it never came was such a great relief. I don’t know if we’ll get another show under our belt next Saturday, but I’ll keep you posted.

Before I left on my wild southwestern adventure I managed to record a conversation with one of my all time favourite singer-song writers. Jackson Browne was in his studio and I was in mine when we hooked up for one of these Facetime chats I’ve become quite used to in the last eighteen months or so. On the day his new album, Downhill From Everywhere arrived in the shops it was great to see how happy Jackson still gets about seeing the birth of a new body of work, even after fifty years doing just that. His is an amazing career but, although the new album sounds agreeably like it could fit right into being the next record after Late For The Sky, thematically, however, Jackson is very much thinking about now and the future. We talked about the business of writing, some of the collaborations he’s been making, about why he keeps returning to Haiti and his own experience of true faith as witnessed by a priest on a motorbike. It was a fascinating chat which we will be playing out for the second half of this week’s AC.

Elsewhere we have more from Joy Oladokun, The Wallflowers and Son Volt as well as some new gems from Lily Rose and a return from Cale Tyson. As ever, we’re live on BBC Radio Scotland from five past eight and BBC Sounds whenever and wherever. Join me if you can.

Dear Listener,

Thank you. Thank you for listening. Thank you for keeping listening and thank you too for interacting. I’m particularly grateful this week because the last two shows have been given a lot of love from you. Our Allison Russell interview made waves across the Atlantic and this Sunday (BBC Sounds still has it) it even made Pick of The Week on Radio 4. Our Linda Ronstadt special also made an impact and it was really lovely to see so much love and gratitude for Linda coming back to me via twitter, this blog and general comments.

Sometimes, however, it’s just good to take stock and allow ourselves to be thankful. Life is not perfect, we’re still in the business of fighting the virus and nearly eighteen months on it sometimes feels like we’re never going to get there. We are however, and we’ve all come a long way since last year at this time. Perhaps too we can be a little grateful that in a year when none of us can travel very far, we only need to step outside our front door to enjoy a little sunshine. That, as compensation goes, is as good as it gets in the month we often mistake for summer here in Scotland, July.

In that spirit this week’s AC focusses on the positives too with a celebration of all that is great about country music. I really want you to hear the new album by Joy Oladokun. We featured Joy recently on the show and this is another great track from her brilliant debut album, ‘in defense of my own happiness.’ (Now there’s a title).

Here’s Joy from her own biog on Spotify…so good I had to quote it in full:

hi i’m joy! i’m a songwriter, a sensitive stoner, and i’m currently trying to become so good at COD: Black Ops that it makes white boys shake. i live in nashville with my girlfriend and my dog. i make most of these songs in a studio on the second floor of the house we share and they’re all about life as i learn to live it. i hope these songs help you the way they help me in writing them. i have a new album out called “in defense of my own happiness”…you should listen to it. if you want.. i’m not here to tell you what to do. -joy PS. BLACK LIVES MATTER.

If that doesn’t make you want to listen in, then I can’t help you. Elsewhere we have more joy from the brilliant new Wallflowers album, which really must be one of the best albums of the year so far. We’ll have more from Robert Finley and Yola who are sharing producer, writing and label credits. We’ll have Jason Isbell doing Metallica, something current from Chris Stapleton and pay an audio visit to The Ice Road courtesy of Luke Combs.

All this in two hours? Oh yes, but to find out how we do it, you’ll need to listen on BBC Radio Scotland FM from five past eight this Tuesday evening or check us out on BBC Sounds any time after. Did I say thanks for listening? Never mind, I want you to know, I’m deeply grateful.

I’ve always been interested in the Asylum Records story. For a while, in the early seventies, they almost held a monopoly on the most talented Californian singer-songwriter acts of the day. The Eagles, Jackson Browne, Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell, Andrew Gold, John David Souther, Judee Sill and Linda Ronstadt were all significantly big-selling artists of these years. To own one album was often to open a window onto all the other acts on the label. Linda Ronstadt and JD Souther had been partners, and it was Souther who partly produced her first Asylum Records album, the first album she felt really represented what she was trying to do.

I wonder, looking back on her story, what a young Linda Ronstadt would have done had she started out this century. Like so many artists we feature on the show, she went over to Nashville to record, but unlike many that we know, she didn’t enjoy the experience. Instead she stayed in the Hollywood Hills and followed her own unique path. That path, which clearly owed so much to country and roots music, brought bountiful success and allowed her to make the diverse directions in music which have signified her career.

This week she will be seventy five years old and, unlike so many senior artists we’ve featured over the years on the AC, unable to celebrate that by way of performing. She announced her retirement in 2011 and revealed shortly afterwards that she is no longer able to sing as a result of a degenerative condition later determined to be progressive supranuclear palsy. So, in the light of all that, we felt the best thing to do was to celebrate the contribution she has made to country music in particular over the course of her hugely successful career. In choosing tracks to play on this week’s two hour Linda Ronstadt special I have leaned towards the many contemporary artists she championed including the aforementioned, JD Souther, whose beautiful song, Prisoner In Disguise, became the title track to one of her biggest mid-seventies albums.

There were others too. Linda covered Jackson Browne, her one time back up band, The Eagles, Karla Bonoff, Neil Young, The McGarrigle Sisters and her studio musicians included the super talented, Andrew Gold. She covered classic country by Roy Orbison, The Everly Brothers and Patsy Cline and she found and reinvented traditional songs. She said she liked to be surrounded by talented musicians but she knew her way around music as she had been taught by her brother who, in turn, was taught by her father to play guitar. In the show you will hear the voices of some of the people whose songs she has made her own including, Jimmy Webb and Dolly Parton. You’ll hear songs in English and Spanish and you will enjoy her singing harmony with so many artists who asked her to contribute to their own projects including the greatest country singer of them all, George Jones.

Putting this show together was a labour of love. It all starts at five past eight this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland or any time you fancy after on BBC Sounds. Join me if you can.