Home
Biography
Another Country
Live
Short Stories
New Tradition
Deacon Blue
Ricky's Radio Blog - The official Radio Blog for Ricky Ross
  • Home
  • Biography
  • Another Country
  • Live
  • Short Stories
  • New Tradition
  • Deacon Blue
general musings

Willie Nelson

August 31, 2010 by ricky 3 Comments

It’s 1974 or 1975 I’m still a kid and there’s a student comes to our church, name of John Fitzpatrick. He loves music. He’s at the university and he tells me about the gigs he’s been to. At the time  he liked it better – and if I’m honest, so did I – if the music had a Christian edge. It meant we could enjoy it more and not feel as guilty as we did when we dug the Stones. Do you know where I’m coming from?

Parallel to this I’d heard about this group of people in Nashville called The Outlaws. Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard were in that elite group and then there was Willie.

So John get excited one day at the Youth Fellowship and tells me that Willie Nelson has brought out an album called ‘The Troublemaker.’ It’s all Gospel songs. What excited me more was that Willie was covering half the hymns in a Hymn Book we used to have in the Gospel Hall: Redemption Songs. But Willie was singin them like we’d never heard them sung……. Suddenly I was finding myself saying “Forget ‘Youth Praise,’let’s keep the old fogeys’ hymn book and sing it the Willie way. “Sweet Bye and Bye,” There is a Fountain Filled With Blood,” “Shall We Gather At The River” (my Dad’s favourite) and “When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder.” Man, these songs were no longer torturing me, they were released into glorious, abundant life by Willie Nelson. Thank you John, thank you Willie Nelson and thank you  Sankey and Moody.

I met up with the great man on his tour bus in Edinburgh a few months back and you can hear that as well as the music of Willie in Another Country. All on Friday from 8. The night before I’d been to see him do this. I wept.

Every Prime Minister , it was said, needs a Willie. Not much that Margaret Thatcher said I believed  – but she got it right there.

Share:
Reading time: 1 min

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.

Find me on Facebook

Find me on Facebook

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

RSS Ricky's Radio Blog

  • C2C Is Here To Stay
  • Can’t Get to Nashville? Let Nashville Come to You.
  • Heed The Words Of Charlie Dore
  • Margo’s Change Of Heart

Recent posts

  • C2C Is Here To Stay
  • Can’t Get to Nashville? Let Nashville Come to You.
  • Heed The Words Of Charlie Dore
  • Margo’s Change Of Heart
  • This Guy’s Still In Love

Archive

Copyright © 2001-2023 Ricky Ross. All rights reserved.