One of the more delightful occurrences over the last couple of years has been the occasional encounter with an AC listener. It’s happened at gigs, sometimes after gigs but also in coffee shops, pubs and the odd train or plane journey. A natural conversation starts up and as a sign-off I get a kindly, ‘and I really enjoy the radio show.’ So pardon the self-affirmation  but I wanted to tell you all how lovely it is to find out that our wee wireless programme extends beyond the range of the BBC Radio Scotland transmitters.

The internet, which gets blamed for so many current  evils, can also be a fine thing when it allows people access to content they’d previously been denied. The quiet affirmation that the radio waves have reached a house in Kent or Suffolk is always welcome when passed on in person. I say all this because, from the end of next week when my solo shows are over, I am withdrawing from all my social media for a wee while and if you do want to say how much you enjoy the show then you’ll have to tell me in person or by mail. (digital will suffice) I’ve been keen to have a break for some time and there really is no better opportunity to withdraw from all of it than the next few months. I shall however be keeping my Radio Blog going as it has now been a presence for some fifteen years and it seems a safer place to express and receive views than some other corners of the web.

On this week’s show we will be playing a song by the man who paved the way for great country music to be played on BBC Radio Scotland. Many people have been grieving the loss of our very own Rab Noakes over the weekend. Although he’d had some very serious health issues Rab’s death was still a real shock for me, and judging by the reaction I witnessed, for a great many in and around music in Scotland. Apart from being a great singer and songwriter Rab was the originator and producer of The Brand New Opry which was hosted by our colleague, Bryan Burnett for some fourteen years before Another Country came on the air. Rab and Bryan’s mantra was to put on a country music show for people who thought they didn’t like country music. Like so many other listeners, I was an avid fan. I learned and loved what I came to find out and many are gathered here because of the great programmes they made in the 90s and early 2000s. As well as all of that Rab was a pioneering folk musician who was the first artist from Scotland to head to Nashville where he recorded in the early seventies. You can hear all about that adventure in next week’s programme when we will repeat the Rab Noakes special show we broadcast a few years back. It’s safe to say many of us would not be doing what we do now if it had not been for people like Rab beating a path to make so much music possible.

On this week’s show we’ll welcome our Nashville correspondent with his take on the recent CMA Awards, Nashvegas’s own Oscars night. We’ll also get some great new music recommendations from Bill DeMain as he dials in from Music Row. We will have some exciting new bluegrass for you on this week’s show, as well as introducing you to some fabulous new names  you might well wish to add to your collection as you begin to assemble your very own Santa letters. We will share all this from five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland (all frequencies) this Tuesday evening and on BBC Sounds whenever and wherever you like to listen. Thank you for doing that so regularly and so often. The Blog will be back without any supporting social media in a couple of weeks time and you can catch up with me here if you need to. Do join me live or on catch up if you can.

I read today about an event in Nashville which made me long to be in Music City. A group called The Long Players get together at various venues  occasionally and perform a complete album of their own choosing. This coming weekend they will assemble at 3rd and Lindsley (a great venue) to play a classic rock n roll album from the birth of the genre. Buddy Holly and The Crickets’ “The Chirping Crickets” will be given the full treatment and played in full by The Long Players with some great guests including (it says on the flyer) Steve Earle.

If you look back on the history of the Long Players you’ll find that that many of Nashville’s elite singers, players and songwriters have made their way down to the gigs over the years. Diverse albums from Pink Floyd and The Beatles to R.E.M have been reinterpreted but always as a complete body of work. It’s a testimony to the art of the album and to the joy of the cover version. How often have we imagined how good it would be to hear an album we love played in full by some great musicians and how often as musicians have we thought how much fun it would be to be part of such an evening?

A few years back I spent a day working with the great Bill Lloyd  (formerly of Foster & Lloyd) who is one of the mainstays and founders of The Long Players and I loved hearing his own enthusiasm for each successive project, so I can only imagine how excited he will be to be part of the band bringing Buddy Holly’s music to life again this coming Saturday night. We’ll be bringing you some Buddy Holly country on this week’s AC too.

As I trailed through the LP’s website I quickly came upon the video the band made during lock down. It occurred to me that two years ago at this time we were in quite a different place and so much music was about what could be done remotely from home. Amongst the general gloom about climate and the economy, it’s worth cheering yourself up by a reminder that we can once more get in a room and make music together and go out for the night to watch other people doing it. This weekend I’ll be doing just that by fulfilling a long held dream of seeing Anais Mitchell play live in Glasgow. Anais’s new album with Bonnie Light Horseman dropped through my door in a splendid vinyl package a couple of days ago and, on this week’s Another Country I’ll be reminding you why you might want to be joining me at the gig.

There’s so much more on this week’s show including a little meander through the connections between Daniel Tashian and Paul Kennerley and a little reminder of the genius of Mississippi John Hurt via the great playing and singing of Bruce Cockburn and John Oates.

Do join me live on BBC Radio Scotland from five past eight this coming Tuesday evening or at a time and place  of your choosing on BBCSounds.

Last night, as the darkness closed over the river and the haunting melody of Black Rider stole its way into our collective consciousness I thought of the other octogenarian I’d seen at Glasgow’s Armadillo a few years back. That night we’d gone through a few opening turns before we got to The Killer. Jerry Lee Lewis’s final tour was less of a triumph than I’d hoped for, yet I was still glad to be there. Among the old Teddy Boys and Girls on unreliable legs,  the country cousins and the rock ‘n’ rollers holding out for the last hurrah I felt like a bemused outsider; intrigued, but slightly out of my comfort zone. It turned out to be the last goodbye and a few days ago the world finally said farewell to one of the great pioneers of modern music.

It probably occurred to a few of those in Glasgow, Manchester, Nottingham and London on recent nights that this may be the last Bob Dylan show they are likely to see. He is now eight one years old and although there’s a vibrancy in these late years, and it would only be a bonus to expect an encore. So it was we rejoiced in the beautiful interpretations from Rough and Rowdy Ways, some unexpected cuts from Nashville Skyline and some classic songwriting via the pen of Johnny Mercer. I can’t imagine anyone being disappointed, and it was great to be among so many generations still in thrall to the songs of Bob Dylan. If he does make it back I think we’d all like to be there with him again.

So it is on this week’s AC I’ll play some highlights from the Dylan show as well as a country moment or two from the late Jerry Lee Lewis. I’ll also be bringing you a very special session and conversation from Caitlyn Smith. Caitlyn was in Glasgow recently for Country Music week and before her show she managed to make time to come in and play a few songs for us and spend some time telling me her story. Caitlyn has an A List songwriting pedigree. She’s written songs with some of the best in the  Nashville songwriting community and had successful cuts with the very best of artists. Ruston Kelly, Lori Mckenna and Miley Cyrus have all benefitted from Caitlyn’s artistry and her best know song was covered by two country giants, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. As well as all this her own career has been developing and she’s becoming as well known for her own records as much as she is from her burgeoning covers catalogue. We recorded our conversation and session in Studio One downstairs at Pacific Quay and it was our pleasure to have a guest with us to perform live tracks on the show.

You can hear this packed edition of Another Country this week from five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland FM or on BBC Sounds at a time and place of your own choosing. Either way, I’d love to have your company, so join me if you can.

Here’s an interesting story which I may have told you before on the radio. However, it’s worth repeating. Two years ago, in the light of the wider Black Lives Matter movement, the BBC in Scotland celebrated Black History Month. As we discussed how we could make sense of this on a country music programme we started to imagine how we could include African American artists in the running order of the show. Before we got very far we realised we could very easily play two hours of music playing these artists alone.

The result was a joyous episode celebrating artists we’d played before as well as discovering new acts whose records became regular spins over the next two years. We realised, as many people now know, that there was a very healthy roster of African American artists in the country/Americana community. In the year preceding all this, 2019, there had also been some serious shifting of the plates within country music. Lil Nas’s Old Town Road had caused a furore by being a country record from a black artist which country radio and Billboard had managed to sideline. You can read about that particular controversy here. The upshot of all of that however was that country music, celebrated by African Americans was here to stay.

In the UK we’d just exported one of our finest Americana artists to Nashville in the shape of Yola. Her debut album, ‘Walk Through Fire’ had brought together some great Nashville writers under the stewardship of Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach who cowrote, produced and released (on his Easy Eye label) her debut album. It was and continues to be a rich brew of country blues and soul.

In the following year we’d already had a ground breaking album from Allison Russell which had changed the way people understood Americana by refocussing the listener on to queer, race and women’s issues. To say Outside Child changed the Americana genre is a huge understatement. Despite Allison having had a significant career as a member of Birds of Chicago, telling her own story in her own voice seemed to change everything. Americana, often, seemingly celebrated only by beardy old blokes, now had a wider focus. Songs about abuse, racism and sexual identity had become part of the new repertoire. It was the change the music needed.

Mickey Guyton, Kane Brown, Jimmie Allen, Brittney Spencer & Willie Jones

What did all of this mean for the listener? For the AC we made sure we never again played a show without including African American artists. This allowed us to showcase some of the most exciting new names over the last couple of years. We’ve discovered Joy Oladokun, Amythyst Kiah, Tre´ Burt and Mickey Guyton. Since that time all of these artists and more have become core acts and we have all delighted in the music they are making.

This coming Tuesday we’ll celebrate Black History Month again knowing that it is a continuation of artists we already love with some new names we hope to hear more from over the next year or so. Do join me on this week’s Another Country on BBC Scotland FM this Tuesday evening at five past eight or on BBC Sounds at a time or place of your own choosing.

It’s two weeks since Loretta Lynn died. She was buried in a private ceremony on her home estate at Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, on October 7th and it is expected there will be a public celebration of her life in the coming weeks and months. Loretta’s long life neatly spanned the length of time country music (as we now know it) has existed.

The famous Bristol Sessions, known to be the ‘big bang’ of country music had occurred just six years before she was born and her own career ran alongside and beyond most of the legends we now associate with the genre. What made Loretta Lynn unique is that she broke so many barriers without ever setting out to be any kind of rebel. Her instinct seemingly guided all her choices and that instinct led to her breaking many of the taboos that had limited the scope and impact of popular music until that point. That she wrote her own songs, wrote the first one after giving birth to her fourth child, wrote these songs alone and that these songs became akin to anthems for female liberation are just some of the reasons why Loretta is still essential listening to anyone who’s interested in contemporary music.

On this Tuesday’s Another Country I’ll be back in my usual chair to bring you two hours of country music our way which will be sprinkled throughout with gems from Loretta’s back catalogue. It’s an astonishing body of work which demands all of us to go back and listen again. I’ve said this here before, but if you’ve never seen Coal Miner’s Daughter (Loretta Lynn biopic) it’s one of the great films of all time and certainly an essential Country Movie.

I’m very grateful to Bill Demain, Gretchen Peters, Brandy Clark and Raul Malo for the fine shows they produced in my absence. I’m also grateful to so many of you who came out to see me on my recent sojourn. It was lovely to meet so many folks on the road who also listened to the AC every Tuesday. I’ll be playing some fine things I collected including some vinyl picks found on my crate-digging days off in Leeds and Guildford.

Finally I will be reintroducing you to the music of Hannah White who was my guest on my recent tour and will be joining me when I get to Ireland later in the year. Hannah’s songs and story-telling connected with my own audience in a way I’ve seldom seen. It was great to witness an artist being embraced by a new audience and I know there are so many fine things to come from her.

If all this is not enough we’ll be telling you about next year’s C2C and playing you some essential new releases. It all starts at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland FM this Tuesday evening and at a time and place of your choosing on BBC Sounds.

I don’t think I have had many royal encounters. If memory serves they consist of various people driving past in cars. Once when the Tay Bridge was opened in 1966 as the then Queen Mother cut the ribbon then a couple of years later when our entire school were marshalled (by the P7 boys in their football strips) to Perth Rd where the Queen was to be passing and we were all taken to cheer along. Then there was the  time when I stood at the north end of Whitehall waiting to cross into Trafalgar Square as the Japanese and American tourists were all pointing west and south only for the whole royal entourage to pass. They were on their way back to Buckingham Palace from some civic do in the City and It seemed as if I was the only one looking into the royal limousines, while all around the tourists missed the very thing they’d come to see.

So I shall leave any wisdom and insight into this current sad period to others. I would add this however: there has been quite a lively discussion about what is and isn’t appropriate material for broadcast during a period of mourning. I’m not convinced that any one has got this right though I have to say I have heard songs on the radio I wouldn’t have hoped to hear in normal times. I have already said as much on twitter, but there is really no excuse (ever) for not introducing or back announcing songs. It doesn’t make any sense apart from anything else. If we wanted to hear a stream of music we can all access Spotify fairly quickly, and many probably took that cue. But there is something else which i have to point out about songs. The reason the ‘sad’ ones often hit us in the gut is precisely because someone has played the song at the maximum point of impact. Play a killer ballad on the back of an uptempo sequence and I’d suggest it might land a great deal more poignantly than had the previous ten records been at a funereal pace.

You’ll also not be surprised to learn that I believe songs to be the perfect medium for expressing so much of what we fail to do in simple conversation. I often recall a literary retreat I went on to Stratford as a student and how we would gather around the piano as songs were sung and a wistful lecturer would quietly listen and simply reflect, ‘Ah, …..songs.’ We all knew what he meant, and if we didn’t we soon arrived at an age when we did.

So songs, good songs, are essential. On this week’s Another Country I’ll bring you two more hours of songs that matter. It’s my last live show for a month or so and also the last blog until late October. If you do join me you will hear some fine new records from CMA Awards nominees Luke Combs and Miranda Lambert, Eric Church and Lainey Wilson. We will also spend the second hour playing great tracks from this coming week’s Americana Awards nominees. It all starts at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland. Do join me if you can.

Who put the Bomp (in the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp)? And while we’re at it, who put the ram in the ramalangadingdong? If you’re interested in this question (in its widest interpolation) then I suggest this week’s AC might well be the radio show for you.

As I blogged last week, I’ve been keen to take listeners on a little musical journey celebrating the great country instruments. We’ve celebrated the banjo, piano, guitar and the fiddle but before we go much further we need a little grounding. So, it’s my pleasure to introduce this week’s crucial country instrument – the bass. I’ve purposely not said bass guitar here as so often bass on country records has been played by double bass (bass fiddle as our American friends would say) and also electric bass guitar. It’s also had sessions with more than one bass when, for example, we interviewed The Bradley family a few years ago, we talked to the ninety year old Harold Bradley – brother to producer Owen, who had played tic-toc bass on Patsy Cline’s seminal cut of Crazy alongside the bass guitar of Bob Moore.

Many people who have never been involved in recording wonder about the point of the bass. The least flashy of instruments, it’s the one country tool that probably won’t get its own solo in any of the records we play. So why highlight it? It’s probably best to explain it like this: try imagining any of your favourite records without it. In traditional country and early rock ‘n’ roll it would be impossible for the music to rock or roll without the bass. Think back to these early Elvis videos where he’s playing the state fairs and his first TV shows and you’ll recall that the girls were going wild without the diabolic influence of a drum kit. The bass, stand-up of course, was doing all the heavy lifting in the rhythm department and without it…well without it there was no swing, no shuffle and certainly no reason for Elvis’s hips to make the moves that scared a generation of parents and TV executives.

   Paul Mccartney with Bill Black’s bass

So get ready for country bass in the records of Bela Fleck, Flatt and Scruggs, JD Souther and Bobbie Gentry. Turn up the volume and hear the great playing of legends like Bill Black, Victor Wooten and Stanley Clarke. As well as this we’ll bring you wonderful new releases from Andrew Combs, John Fullbright, Ingrid Andress and Mickey Guyton. As ever you will find us on BBC Radio Scotland FM from five past eight this Tuesday evening as well as on BBC Sounds whenever or wherever you’d care to listen. Don’t forget to engage your woofers and get ready for a mighty rumble.

I’m writing this week’s blog from a hotel room overlooking the beautiful city of Bruges. It’s Sunday morning and I’ve spent the last couple of days here and before that in Utrecht. We have been performing the final Deacon Blue shows of this year. Last night’s gig was meant to happen a year ago and Utrecht in late 2020. We all know how those plans worked out.

Getting to this point allows me to reflect a little on what we have endured and what we have secured. When lockdown started we did wonder what would remain of the life we knew. As our little bus drove back from the show last night we allowed ourselves to remember how strange the early days of touring felt in the last few months of last year. Even a full eighteen months after lockdown the fear that, at any point, the tour would stop with one positive lateral flow test pervaded almost every second of our journey. Eventually, as you may already know, we had to come off the road and it took until Saturday to complete a tour which went on sale in late 2019! If you’re one of those who booked a ticket then, can I thank you for your patience.

The pandemic also changed the way we did radio. For a few Saturdays (on my Radio 2 shows) and every Tuesday evening Richard Murdoch, my faithful and only producer, and I came into a deserted BBC Pacific Quay and celebrated country music. However we still haven’t gone back to the frequency of Americana/Country artists coming through Glasgow that we enjoyed in pre Covid times. There has been the occasional session in Studio One but we’re still not back to where we were. We’ve made up for some of this by recording longer conversations down the line and some of these with Allison Russell, Lori McKenna, Eric Church and Luke Combs have been memorable, moving and life affirming. I’m grateful too that sometimes, with the help of seeing each other on screen, we’ve managed more honest conversations that may not have been possible when artists were in the middle of a busy touring schedule.

However, we still have a little more space on our weekly show that we would normally have been allowed. So I want to continue our country instruments journey by celebrating the key role played in some of our favourite records by the fiddle. This, you understand is not plural, there may well be a night given over to Countrypolitan strings in future weeks, but this is simply the lonesome fiddle as played on records by The Chicks, Stephen Stills, Hank Williams, Emmylou Harris and Bob Wills. You’ll hear Byron Berline, Joshua Hedley and on her original instrument the talent that is Rhiannon Giddens.

We will also have some fine new records from Amanda Shires, John Fullbright and Tenille Townes. You can hear us this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland from five past eight or at any time of your choosing on BBC Sounds. Do join me if you can.

A couple of weeks ago I bought a new guitar. I haven’t bought a new acoustic guitar for the best part of thirty years. I’d come back from a gig, opened my case and discovered some damage to the side of my trusty old Gibson J45 and it’s currently enjoying some loving restoration.

I’d been eyeing the new acoustic for about fifteen years. In all honesty I know nothing about guitars and, it is only occasionally that I pick one up or play it live, but I know when a guitar suits me, and my new little Martin (thanks for asking) suits me just fine. A guitar should be played and I intend to take this one travelling with me next month when I hit the road, even though most of my show will feature the piano.

So often I’ve despaired at guitars being bought by collectors who stick them behind glass. Any time I’ve been asked to sign a guitar I have mixed feelings knowing the chances of someone playing the thing will be diminished as soon as the magic marker has defaced the woodwork. Guitars are beautiful things, designed by experts and made by true luthiers who put love and care into every step. The least you’d expect is for it to get a moment in the sun.

In the Country Music Hall Of Fame in Nashville you will find an image of a guitar with a quote by Harlan Howard which states, ‘Country Music is three chords and the truth.’ One always imagines these three chords being played on the guitar. We know what the chords are too. In Music Row terms it’s the 1, 4 and the 5. Pick your own key or apply a capo. If you’re in any doubt about the potency of roots music consider if you will how many great songs have been fashioned using that simple formula. The simplicity is not to be derided but rather it is better to marvel at the imagination and creativity that continues to reinvent such a limited palette.

So it is that on this week’s Another Country we will pick some great country guitar moments. There will be twangs, strums, riffs and picks from across the years. Listen out for the moment where Gram Parsons passes the baton to the great James Burton with the immortal phrase, ‘Take it from me James.’ If all of that is not enough we will also introduce you to another of our guest presenters who will be sitting in the AC hot seat in my absence in late September and October. I won’t let you into that little secret, but you will be delighted that one of our all time favourite artists and writers will be bringing you their country faves in the near future.

There will be lots of great acts on this week’s show but new records too from Ingrid Andress, Aaron Raitiere and The National with Bon Iver. It all kicks off this Tuesday evening at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland (all frequencies) and BBC Sounds at a time and place of your choosing.

My friend lived a few miles to the east of us in the little seaside town of Carnoustie. I was mid-primary school age and it was the summer holidays when my folks had been visiting his folks and, although Pete was a couple of years older I was allowed to stay over one Sunday night. I don’t remember this visit very well, although we remain life long friends, but do remember that during the night there was a violent summer storm. Lightning lit up the sky and the two of us enjoyed the thrill of waking up in the hours after midnight as we stood at the window and counted down the gaps between the thunder claps and the explosions of electricity across the horizon. The added possibility that we might be in some kind of danger only added spice to the whole adventure.

I thought of this the other night as the thunder and rain broke the Glasgow heatwave and our garden enjoyed the cool, fresh rain and suddenly everything felt a little greener again. The summer always brings the best contrasts. Lightning storms in Tuscany or southern France are part of the fun of the holiday and I remember standing out on the pavement to record the giant thunder cracks that seemed to shake the foundations of Sao Paulo when I visited some years back. It’s maybe only when we are very young that the full force of the weather makes a lasting impression. There was another summer evening when I stayed with a friend at his aunt’s house further up the east coast and it seemed as if the rains would wash us away so constant was the downpour. Torrents of rainwater gushed from drains and spilled over from the viaduct that overhung the small coastal town picking up speed as they tumbled down the narrow streets towards the shore.

Then there was the summer, more recently, where my wife, our dog and myself followed the North Coast 500 in a camper van only to have a weather front cross over during our one-night stay in Durness. How the wind blew and the van rattled as we tried to get to sleep in the storm. To wake the next day and find that all was calm and the beach had returned to its summer splendour was the best of surprises.

So it may be this August Tuesday evening brings you indoors for the first time for a while as you take shelter from whatever the weather has in store. If so I feel our little radio show might prove to be a great friend. We’ll bring you songs about bad habits by some old and new artists, explain how the piano can be as down-home as the banjo or the pedal steel and remind you of some country songs you may not have heard in a while. Listen out for Kelsea Ballerini, Jason Isbell, Patsy Cline, Charlie Rich and Waxahatchee. There will be new music from First Aid Kit, John Moreland and Ferris and Sylvester. It all starts just after eight o’clock this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland FM or on BBC Sounds whenever you like. Do join me if you can.