It’s now my intention to fill in the missing pieces on my country collection. When I was growing up Radio One stopped just after tea time. Going back up to my room to switch on the transistor radio brought a little disappointment but also some pleasant surprises. After the day time fun was over Radio One’s 247 Medium wave band would automatically revert to Radio Two. Here we would find Humphrey Littleton playing Jazz and folk and country programmes buzzing about names that were…well only just names. Box Carr Willie, Conway Twitty and Melba Montgomery. Could any of the music be as exotic as the names?

I remember 70’s pre-Habitat houses and rifling through record collections to see be-jewelled starts smiling up from below stetsons, caressing guitars. Themed albums on Mexico, Hawaii and Texas; seasonal offerings, hymns and hoe downs. It seemed to me a bit like being a horse racing commentator; how would one ever learn all this back story?

In truth I never have. When I started by deputising for Brian Burnett on Brand New Country (only once) I bought my trusty Country A – Z and it’s always served me well in a crisis but mostly I’ve relied on being led by my ears. If it sounds good I’ll be listening.

I thought of these feelings this week as I stumbled across a name I’ve seen many times but never fully known about. It is only now I realise how wonderful that is. Like a football fan who has only just hit on the George Best Youtube section it pleases me to think there are days of discovery ahead. This Friday I want to bring you closer to two of the names that have been only names. One is this man.

Hoyt Axton was a folk and country singer as well as being an actor. Primarily he was a song writer and his massive song, “Joy To The World” was a radio fixture when I was a young lad when it was cut by Three Dog Night.

The other name will remain a secret but he’s going to sing something by one of our AC friends, Mr Darrell Scott. As well as all of that we will play music by the biggest country star on the planet right now. Having never played a Garth Brooks song ever before we’re changing all of that thanks to our very special guests Blue Rose Code.

Blue Rose Code is essentially one man. He is the very gifted Ross Wilson – Edinburgh born, but resident in Peckham London. His album however is a beautiful long hymn to his home city and perfectly mashes together Ross’s own original voice with his three big influences; Van Morrison, Tom Waits and John Martyn. On stage and on the record he’s backed up by some wonderful musicians including legendary bass player,Danny Thompson.

I saw Blue Rose Code recently at The Glad Cafe and can tell you this will be a remarkable session. Steel, second guitar stand-up bass and beautiful backing vocals from Eliza Wrenne Payne makes this a great sounding live act and they brought all that touring experience and dynamic to the session.

We’ll have new songs from old friends The Barr Brothers, Chuck Prophet, Peter Molinari and an excellent new name to introduce to you in the form of Haley Bonar. We think you will like what she does and I humbly suggest Friday’s show may well be one of these nights you don’t want to miss. It all starts from five past eight this Friday on BBC Radio Scotland.

‘We’re more of an albums band,’ they said as they loaded up the van that night. It used to be the great 70’s get-out-of-having-to-have-a-hit retort. It worked then too. Bands we now consider to be the masters of their own particular universe have built careers and country piles on successive records with 3 songs per side and tracks which never troubled day time radio stations. Looking back now we’re all slightly jealous of them…at least I am. Recently someone decided to pick a fight with a retailer on twitter who was selling our album at a very competitive price. If I said the price was realistic I’d be lying. If the album price was realistic it would be more than double what it costs now. But that’s another story…..what really bugged me was how little someone thought they should be playing for that beautiful delivery van of continuous music – the album.

Sometimes we have forgotten how great a piece of art it really is. Up there with the play, the film and the novel, the album has been kicked around, derided undersold/oversold and misrepresented (the prerecorded cassette!) but still survives.

This week I’m thinking a lot about albums. In the 1970’s this man was thought to have gone off the rails.

Marty Robbins – in my opinion one of the greatest country singers of all time moved labels and made a slightly mystifying couple of albums. They’ve now been rereleased and we will be listening again. On a more contemporary theme we will introduce you to an album which follows in the footsteps of the music Marty made in the 50’s. Clint Bradley has made an excellent album which channels his inner Marty, Bob Wills and Lefty Frizzell. It’s Western, it’s swinging and it’s very good indeed.

But let me come to the point. Occasionally an artist makes an album which reminds you why we all own the dam things in the first place. The album is there to gather a brood of songs together as naturally as a mother hen. Isolated, sometimes  they won’t stand up but put them together and they can make you feel like your world is spinning a little faster. It’s always great when someone you know and love makes the record you firmly believed possible of them.  Charlie Dore (who has visited AC towers at least twice already) has done just that. Milk Roulette is the album of her life. Achingly sad, poignant, funny and gloriously musically uplifting it will remind you that great songs can be written and put together to make that thing we are celebrating here – the album. Thank you Charlie, sometimes it takes a friend to show you the way. Value your friends my friends…..  and your albums.

This week on the AC we’re only a week away from the start of the Glasgow Americana festival. So we’re going to be nodding affectionately at some of the key artists soon to be coming to town. Step forward Mary Gauthier, Anthony D’Amato and Sturgill Simpson. Don’t forget you can find all the details at http://www.glasgowamericana.com.

We’ll also be playing you new records from Justin Townes Earl, Parker Millsap and Bela Fleck and his wife Abigail Washburn. That’s all before the main event….

Willie Watson’s debut LP is called Folk Singer Vol 1 and it’s safe to say it’s made a mark already. Produced by Dave Rawlings and released on Dave and Gillian Welch‘s label Willie’s album lays down a serious marker about the roots of Americana music. The songs themselves are lovingly assembled from the canon of people’s music over the last century and Willie himself is a real troubadour whose love of Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie shines through each performance. Here’s the interesting bit…..Willie is making his debut solo album having quit Old Crow Medicine Show – you’d kind of expect him to have his own story to tell, his own songs to sing. Why he’s chosen this path and how much he loves the music will become clear in a fascinating interview you can hear this Friday. As if that’s not enough you will hear fresh performances of the songs from the album recorded exclusively for the AC. It’s going to be good.

As ever we’ll have some vintage records that will have you scurrying around wishing you could hear them again….Mr Murdoch is away but he’s left me the keys to his record cupboard and I have to say it’s particularly well stocked. So there will be the crackle of vinyl, the warm hum of valves from the new Ryan Adams record ….some of us may still have ringing ears from tonight’s show and there will be the beautiful high and lonesome plucking, picking and singing of one of a great troubadour starting out on a solo path that I’m pretty sure is going to prove very interesting.

Finally let me mention Blue Rose Code aka Ross Wilson who will be joining us next week. We’ll be playing the new single this Friday and welcoming Ross to AC land next week for an exclusive session and interview. His current single is a reimagining of a poem by this great Scottish poet… If you don’t know who this is we’ll enlighten you on Friday, as we always try to do.

It all starts at five past eight this Friday evening on BBC Radio Scotland. Join us if you can.

It’s been an amazing time in Scotland. This Friday night many of us will have had a long day and a long night. I don’t know about you but for me the thing I’m going to need on Friday evening is the thing I always need, music. There will be many listeners happy and many disappointed so I think we can all unite for a couple of hours around some songs I know you are going to love. As ever on the AC we’ll try to take you on a journey of discovery that coasts past some significant places on the Country map. This week we’re going to spend a fair bit of time thinking about this man.

Chet Atkins is one of these names we all know. When you arrive in Music City you quickly get a sense of how big a character he was. Downtown Nashville has a statue of him and streets  are named after him. He’s hard to miss. A few weeks ago a brilliant compilation of his music came out on what would have been his 90th birthday. Sadly Chet died in 2001 aged 77 but he left behind a huge legacy of his own recordings and amazing guitar playing but also a catalogue of recordings he produced for some of the greatest names in country and popular music. On Friday we’ll take you on our own mini tour of Chet Atkins for beginners….. Once you’ve done it you’ll be listening to your country music all over again.

Jim Reeves, Elvis Presley, The Louvins and The Everleys as well as Kitty Wells all feature in what should be a wonderful hour of music.

Despite everything else that’s going on here the AC found time for a wee night out as we met up with First Aid Kit before going to see their wonderful show at The Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow. We’ll be playing out a First Aid Kit two hour special in December and we think you will rather enjoy all of it. On Friday we’ll bring you a song we recorded at the show too. We discovered that Klara and Joanna really dig Jenny Lewis….so we thought we’d play some more from her and while we’re at it…….

We’ll be playing you new music on Friday from Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn, Lady Antebellum, The Lost Brothers and CW Stoneking as well as having a beautiful vinyl rediscovery to crackle your speakers. If you want to hear it all we start at five past eight, Friday on BBC Radio Scotland.

Dear Listener,

It’s been a long summer and here in Scotland – it’s not over. But that’s a whole other story. Given my diverse timetable over the last few months I though it wise to rest the blog until after the Harvest was in and the colours were turning. So it’s back with a new paint job and we’re back and this Friday to welcome a man who is a great friend of the show.

If I am correct in my memory Ben Glover has visited us twice before and we’ll be delighted to see him again. I first met Ben at the Belfast Nashville festival and since that time he’s taken up residency in Music City but returns to his Northern Irish roots often enough for us to encourage him over the water for a visit.

His excellent new album, Atlantic was recorded near to where the mighty ocean meets the land in County Donegal and he’ll be playing some songs live and telling us all the latest news of what he’s been up to. One thing I can promise you is we’ll hear a Mary Gauthier song or two as Ben and Mary now collaborate on each others records – to great effect.

As well as all of that some wonderful new records from Parker Millsap, Ward Thomas, Daniel Meade, Barr Brothers, Gillian Welch/Dave Rawlings with an extremely long but magnificent song and our dearly beloved First Aid Kit who will be playing THAT special show for us next week. There are some significant anniversaries this week which may well inspire some music you’ll find hard to resist and Richard Murdoch went shopping in the city of Dundee last weekend and I fully expect him to have brought something which might break your heart on our Vinyl re discovery. Two other fabulous things to look out for which deserve special mention: Firstly Beck Lanehart who has a fabulous voice you might well have heard if you’ve travelled on the London Underground over the last couple of years…….I have to say a busker always sounds great in those tiled, mini concert-halls….I can only imagine how good Beck sounded as on her debut record she has one of the strongest voices I’ve heard in a long time. Finally I’m excited to tell you we’ll be playing anew song from the ever fabulous Anais Mitchell. It’s going to be great and it all starts this Friday from five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland.

I remember the night. It had been a strange call in the middle of the night. A friend needed me to be there and I drove over to see if I could be of any use. Habitually the CD player in the car just started up and in the dark gloom of this winter night the Delines album came on. I think I understood then this was how this record should be encountered.

From the man who made the beautiful analogy of the freeway sounding like a river comes an album full of songs celebrating the ordinary reimagined as a holy other. (The golden light from the oil rigs at night……) On Friday we catch up with the Delines in session and talk extensively to Willy Vlautin from Richmond Fontaine about this new project. If you’re unfamiliar with the album you might need to know the background. On the last RF album Willy had included Amy Boone as part of the Richmond Fontaine live ensemble and it occurred to him one night he’d like to hear her sing songs written for her. So we get The Delines featuring the songs of Willy, the odd Decembrist, the voice of Amy all coming from that creative corner of America’s North West, Oregon. For those of you who don’t know Willy is the author of four beautiful novels and his latest, The Free, like the other three is also set in that northern landscape. Since he was last with us The Motel Life, his first novel, has been made into a movie featuring Kris Krisofferson. So there’s a lot to talk about…..

One of the interesting things Willy says is that this is in fact a late night album inspired by the likes of Bobbie Gentry and given Willy’s ability to write stories from the perspective of others it’s, as ever, a compulsive listen. I’m not sure that listening to Willy speak isn’t sometimes as hypnotic as hearing him sing or reading his prose. So I say only this…….it will be a very special night on the AC this Friday. Miss it at your peril.

We will celebrate some great new records…Old Crow Medicine Show, Holly Williams, Barr Brothers and something rather splendid from Nick Hakim. We will share all the country news worth sharing and, for those of you like me who haven’t had time to catch up with ‘Nashville’ on the TV I’ll give you Mr Murdoch’s ‘Nashville Facts you need to know.’

The blog is going to take a short summer break for the rest of July and August  as my weeks are getting more and more irregular with the arrival of our new album but fear not, the AC will carry on all year long. Country Music Never Sleeps.

To be honest…..there will be so much more but for that you’ll have to join us on Friday all starting from five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland.

On Tuesday night I accepted an invitation to see Dolly Parton at the Hydro in Glasgow. Her publicist had kindly asked us to come early so we could ‘say hello.’ I went along with my old buddy Davie Scott (of Pearlfishers fame) and we duly waited back stage to see at first hand the full Dolly machine in operation. We stood in amazed awe as Dolly stood for a good 30 -40 minutes meeting and greeting numerous fans. To each one she was patient and courteous and inquisitive. Photographs were taken and warm exchanges given. In this age of the VIP pass and the ‘added value’ ticket this was the first lady of country spending the best part of her pre show prep time with her fans. Like many things that come as surprises to me these days I found it quite moving.

I was slightly worried about the gig. The first time I’d seen Dolly was one of the great nights of my life. Up there with the best gigs of all time it had been her bluegrass show and the playing and singing had been exemplary. It had been at the Armadillo and I remember feeling slightly guilty that we’d been given tickets when people around us were spending huge sums of money just to be there. The next time I tried every available blag I know to get a ticket and failed…..(should have bought them early!) So I’d jumped at the chance of going to the SECC show a couple of years back. I enjoyed this less as it seemed to be more about the phenomenon (and she is folks) of Dolly than about the great singer/songwriter I know her to be. Nevertheless…there is always much to enjoy.

This time it was The Hydro – now one of Glasgow’s best assets – and the fit was perfect. Dolly was sublime. She played new songs, told brilliant stories – always with that knowing undercurrent of acknowledging exactly who she is and what her audience wants to hear – and reminded us in two brilliant hours why she is still at the top of her game. One telling moment was when the back projections reeled out a discography. It went from the sixties until now and it was incredible to think there really had been no time since she first broke through when she hadn’t been a major star. But more than anything else it was the songs….she did Jolene three songs in….that’s confidence! She played brilliant versions of Coat of Many Colours, Here You Come Again, Little Sparrow and great versions of Blue Smoke and Banks of The Ohio from the new album. She finished the show with I Will Always Love You and she graciously paid tribute to the late Whitney Houston – even though millions of people loved the song before Whitney’s world dominating version.

This Friday I will give you more reasons to love Dolly but for now let me say this. A cliche is a cliche because it’s true and certain artists are massively successful because they are actually really great.

This Friday we will also let you hear new records from Jenny Lewis, Blue Rose Code, Peter Mulvey, Lindsay Lou and The Flatbellys and Strand of Oak. None of this should be missed it if you can help it. Join me if you’re free from five past eight this Friday on BBC Radio Scotland.

I remember standing in a pub in Belfast as a very good cover band did a very credible version of a current hit. I found myself splurging out to my near neighbour, ‘Great song.’ He smiled knowingly, like he’d had this conversation a million times, ‘ Well, good record.’

My friend was Ralph Murphy, British Nashville exile, songwriter and ASCAP point man. I nodded….Very true. There is a big difference. The difference perhaps is best exemplified when you leave a song bare. No harmony, no other instrument, just the piano or guitar and a voice. It’s melody words and a few chord changes and sometimes, if you’re lucky a killer riff…but often it’s just the melody and the lyric. It used to be a salutary exercise when a song was handed over to a remix ‘person.’ They’d take off everything – all your favourite twists and turns and voicings – and sit the bare vocal over something completely different. Hell they’d sometimes change the chords ….the were often not over fussy about the key! (viz You Got The Love, Candi Staton). Perhaps the best explainer of all of this is Randy Newman’s Songbook albums where he re records many of his songs with only his voice and piano accompaniment, in much the same way as he performs his repertoire live. It’s stark, honest and powerful and often very moving to have the emotional dissonance of the string lines removed to make the poignancy of the lyric slightly harsher and, often, crushingly brilliant.

So why the long recitative, Ricky, I hear you ask? Well, it all brings me to this man.

John Fullbright’s new record is called Songs, and although he self-effacingly suggests that he’s not good with titles he also admits that the key to the record was the many songs he has left unadorned. It’s similar to that moment when you put the Christmas tree up and it looks and smells beautiful; there’s always a moment with me when I think, ‘it might be nice to leave it.’ You never do though. In this case John is made of stronger stuff and the aching simplicity of some of the fine songs on the epoymously titled album are repeated this Friday in session. Look out for some brilliant singing and playing too and listen in as John tells us all that has happened since receiving a Grammy nomination for his debut record.

Also new and wonderful things from Old Crow Medicine Show and their former singer, Willy Watson,The Howlin Brothers and something spectacularly from the great new Jack White album.

Mr Murdoch has found a great vinyl rediscovery which picks up a theme from last week’s show. There will be so much more….did I mention that Aoife O’Donovan will make a rather lovely guest appearance? Thought not.

It will all start at five past eight this Friday evening on BBC Radio Scotland. Join me if you can.

I want to day to pay tribute to our special guest this Friday, Mary Gauthier. Firstly because she has been our most frequent guest on the AC over the years we’ve been on air but mostly because every time she comes in I feel a little better about the world after she leaves. Mary never simply ‘delivers’ a new record. Her life is given over to songwriting and every twist, heartbreak and disappointment is catalogued remorselessly. As Neil Young once wrote, ‘my life’s an open book…’ except in his case it was nowhere near as true as in Mary’s.

For many years she wouldn’t have considered herself a songwriter, singer or guitarist. It was a move she made in early adulthood after years in various jobs including being a cook  and running her own southern themed restaurant in Boston. That only came after she’d fled her Louisiana home via a stolen car and ended up in detox and jail in Kansas City aged 18. To say she has lived a bit doesn’t really do her remarkable career enough justice. When Mary was last with us she was talking about her autobiographically themed album, The Foundling, which highlighted her search for her birth mother; the hardest part being that there was no redemption in the search. When Mary finally caught up with what had happened in her early life she met a new rejection all over again. She ended up speaking on her phone only to discover that there would be no reunion. Then there’s alcohol.

Fish swim
Birds fly
Lovers leave
By and by
Old men
Sit and think
I drink

Mary’s stark appraisal of the disease of alcoholism is sometimes wholly misunderstood. But here’s what she says…

But here’s the beautiful part … I could not have written “I Drink” if I was never addicted. Writing “I Drink” required a perspective that an active alcoholic is not capable of, and a non-alcoholic cannot fully comprehend. I needed to go through what I went thorough to write it, and today I would not change a thing even if I could because for me, inside the curse— lives the blessing. The wisdom, vision and compassion that comes from taking a stroll to hell and back cannot be obtained any other way. I was lucky enough to find my way through to the other side of addiction and into recovery, and I continue to receive many, many blessings from all that has transpired in my life. Songwriting is one of the greatest blessings of all, and writing “I Drink” stems from recovery. Ain’t life interesting?

This time round Mary is facing another challenge. The break up of a long term relationship. Get ready for  a sad, honest, brutal but eventually life-affirming interview. Hopefully, this will also lead you to Mary’s excellent new record too. We’ll hear about Mary’s co writers, Ben Glover and Gretchen Peters. We’ll hear about the lost songs of Harlan Howard and how Nashville (the TV series) is giving Nashville (the music city) a well deserved boost through using songs by Mary and others.

Last Friday the Grand Ole Opry gave Mary a standing ovation. She was surprised but delighted. Here she is on stage at The Opry with Kathy Mattea, Radney Foster, and Marty Stuart.

Since it’s a few weeks since we talked I got back in touch with her today and asked her to reflect on what that night  meant. She was kind enough, as I knew she would be, to take time to say this:

I’ve been travelling this week. A lot of the time has been spent with some great musicians and writers and I do realise there is really something special about being allowed to make music. My late friend Michael Marra once said to me, ‘No one can stop you making music.’ It was the truest advice I ever received when I was moaning, a long time ago, about something to do with the music business. But as I travelled around this week I remembered the joy of being able to get up in the morning and play the piano or spend some time exploring a chord sequence on a guitar. The thrill of turning on the computer to start creating a track and discovering that it’s nearly time for dinner and you can’t stop working on something because you’re so excited about it. I  hope I never lose sight of that.

Some of the music I’ve heard this week has been in lovely spaces with voices going out into rooms, reaching every possible nook and cranny of the space. I’ve also heard the voices of an audience as they get a song for the first time. That’s a thrill too. On Friday we’ll spend some time thinking about voices too. In this case we’ll think about what happens when family members sing together. We know it works – but we’re often not able to work out why we love it so much. It’s funny where these things start but this week Richard Murdoch got thinking of a very special double act:

The Magic Numbers are back – thank the Lord – and have some great new songs. They are two pairs of brothers and sisters and we thought that double hit would lead us nicely into some other sibling based recordings. Look out for First Aid Kit, The Secret Sisters and our good friends The Mermaids.

Sibling rivalries often take precedence over sibling harmony however so it also gives us a good excuse to celebrate a couple of difficult relationships. The Everlys are one of those but perhaps more intriguingly we will play a new track from the first record Dave and Phil Alvin have made together for 30 years. Given that Dave’s last album included a song called ‘What’s Up With Your Brother’ this is an event of some significance.

Also on the week that saw Maya Angelou slip away from this world we play something she’d have loved.

Finally I started this blog by talking about Michael Marra. As you may know his son and daughter are part of The Hazey Janes. I’m going to play you a track from their album which comes out on Monday which I think you will like very much indeed. I’m sure there will be more than this that will make you think, if that’s country – then I like it.

It all starts at five past eight on Friday evening on BBC Radio Scotland. Join me if you can.