Religious holidays get a bit mixed up in secular society these days. I was always amused at how quickly various people deem Christmas, for example, to be ‘all over’ before it’s barely begun. The fact the Twelve Days only start on the twenty-fifth seems now to have been roundly ignored. In Scotland they’re already gearing up for Hogmanay by the time Boxing Day lands.

Christmas does have a soundtrack all of its own. There’s no big popular accompanying soundtrack to Easter which springs to mind but there is a great tradition of religious song. As you may recall I’m a lover of Gospel music in all its obvious sentimentality and simplicity. Much of what passes for Gospel is nostalgia but I am certain that nostalgia is for a time when these simple songs of hope lifted people’s spirits in times of real hardship. The promise of the life to come, of peace in the valley and of meeting loved ones, long lost at a time in the future is a common human aspiration. We are all drawn to the possibility that there may be a kinder, more forgiving world awaiting us all. Of course, none of us knows better than the next person the truth of any of that which is why all such hope comes under the banner we call ‘faith.’

There is a deeper truth to Gospel music which resonates more with me, however. It is when the songs themselves don’t simply offer the hope of a world to come but proclaim the deep desire for a slice of heaven here on earth. As Bob Dylan might say, ‘things should start to get interesting right about now.’  He’s seldom wrong too. It’s been too easy for too long for religion to duck out of social concern by kicking hope into the long grass of the supernatural. My grandfather was said to be palmed off by a curmudgeonly step-mother-in-law who would negotiate remuneration by declaring, ‘You’ll get your reward in heaven.’

In last week’s show and in the blog I was telling the story of Stephanie Lambring whose own experience of faith brought cruelty rather than kindness and isolation and alienation when liberation should have won the day. So this week, let’s have some music which contains joy as well as the hope of a better world here and beyond. Listen to the songs of Mavis Staples, Willie Watson and The Fairfield Four, Elvis Presley, Patty Griffin and even the hint of Gospel in the great comeback album from Miko Marks and appropriately, The Resurrectors.

I mentioned Bob Dylan earlier and we’ll play the ultimate Gospel song from Bob, who inevitably, brought a focus to the genre from his wise eyrie.

It’s all in two hours of Another Country this Tuesday evening at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland or BBC Sounds. Join me if you can.

I’ve been asked to warn you about some of the adult content on this week’s show.

I think I have done that now.

But, in all honesty, we deal in adult themes every week. What we don’t do is provide a platform to the dangerously unhinged Confederate flag-waving, homophobic, gun-lobby loving male country, covid denying mainstream. Believe me, there is a lot of that around, and no one really needs help trying to access that content

What is important is that this week’s special guest, Stephanie Lambring has songs on her excellent debut album which expose the hypocrisy of religion, the sexism of the music business and the shame and horror of conversion therapy. (something about to be outlawed in this country) I really can’t see any of these ideas being either terribly radical or controversial. If you’re a regular listener to the show I suspect you won’t either.

Like our last guest, Hailey Whitters, Stephanie has come face to face with the reality of Nashville as a ten year town. Signing up as a staff writer for a Music Row publisher she embarked on getting her songs to a wider audience but almost lost faith when a music business executive told her she would sell a lot more records if she lost an equivalent amount of weight. Stephanie did the only thing possible with this advice and left the music business to go its own way. For her part she travelled, went to bartending school and ended up pouring a few pints at Nashville airport and, well, she did a lot of thinking. When she did come back to songwriting she no longer wanted to be part of a hack, hit songwriting culture. She had stories only she could tell.

These stories are compulsive listening. They are all there on her remarkable debut album Autonomy. There’s the woman who keeps a Bible by her bed and a relationship with another woman in Indiana. It’s a terrifying tale of a character who is still constricted by the moral mores of Bible-belt America but missing the basic love which, one would hope, might also come with the territory. In Stephanie’s world that love has been twisted all out of shape and never more so on the song which comes half way through the album as a central pillar to the whole record. It’s here Stephanie’s songwriting arrow finds the bullseye. Quoting homophobic preachers and conversion therapists she asks the simple question , ‘Is that the joy of Jesus?’

The question hangs over the whole record which stands as a beautifully balanced testimony to Stephanie’s life. I defy you not be moved by these stories, and as someone who holds a deep Christian faith myself, nothing about it is offensive to me. On the contrary, I would simply suggest Stephanie to be a prophetic voice which should be heard in every church everywhere. In case you are wondering too, old Howard Harlan’s maxim that country music is about three chords and the truth has never been so perfectly illustrated as it has on the ten songs of Autonomy.

Stephanie is in the second hour of the show before which we have whole host of great music from Carly Pearce, William The Conqueror, Bright Eyes, Israel Nash and First Aid Kit. Listen out too for some classics from The Chicks and Merle Haggard. It’s all on this week’s Another Country this Tuesday Evening on BBC Radio Scotland (FM) or BBC Sounds whenever you like. Join me if you can.

I need to come clean here. I have very few awards. Those I do have feel as if they have been given mostly for just staying alive. So, please don’t equate me with anyone who knows anything about this subject.

But…. over the last couple of days you may have spotted some reporting back on the Grammy Awards which took place in LA on Sunday night. I was pleased to see my fellow troubadour Rab Noakes making a point which seems to get slightly overlooked in the hysteria of showbiz reporting surrounding the event. These are the American Music awards. They really only signify what has been released and sold in the US market over the last calendar year. The event is not, as some seem to suggest, the World Cup of Music.

They are also the collective, considered opinion of a group of people. Now, I may not have a shelf full of these trophies but I have, for my sins, sat on an award panel or two. Later this week I will be trawling through some good people’s work to come to a considered evaluation once more, and I’m already dreading it. The problem is not that it’s difficult to suggest a song or artist who seems more worthy than the last one you heard; we do that almost every time we switch something off and load another track in. The problem is we are given a short list which other persons will have assembled. So, in this year’s Grammys we get Crowded Table by The Highwomen winning Best Country Song which is the one I really hoped would win. Is it the best song of the year? Is such a thing possible? Of course not. Do I fret about these things? Well, clearly these events, and of course, lists are made to make us do just that.

You may know from my previous ramblings that I am no fan of the ‘list.’ It’s an overblown bloke thing which, in my humble opinion, is the preferred indulgence of the beardy guy who has, frankly, too much time on his hands. You’ve seen him I’m sure – the sort of journalist who pops up on the tail end of news programmes to bore you on why Chuck Berry was better than Buddy Holly. No one needs it and no one needs an award to confirm what the public has already told them: A gold album means people love the record. So it’s simply a nice thing when some good people get a little moment in the spotlight they may not have expected.

So I’m glad people who like dressing up got to go to the Grammy awards and found a matching mask for their tuxedo. I’m more glad however, that some good records weren’t forgotten. We’ll play some great winners from the late John Prine, Billy Strings and Miranda Lambert. Spare a thought too for those whose records we all know are every bit as good as any on these long lists. No one can tell you or me they too don’t deserve a gong.

You can hear Grammy winners and some great new records on this Tuesday’s Another Country. Join me live from five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland from five past eight or any time you fancy on BBC Sounds.

Remember last year at this time? We’ve all been doing it over the last couple of days. Discussions involving the words ‘If I knew then’ which most people end with, ‘well I’m just glad I didn’t.’

I guess if you’re reading this you’ve, somehow, survived the last year. I’m pretty certain however, your life will have changed. None of us is coming out of this last year unaffected by the virus or the factors that came along in its wide wake and we still have a way to go before we get back to doing the bits of life we’ve missed most. It goes without saying that gathering together is the thing which unites all our desires to bring back what has been lost: family dinners, a drink with some pals, a party or a concert.

I took one of these long lockdown walks the other week where my journey took me across the Clyde at the pedestrian bridge I normally walk over to the Hydro (C2C venue) from the BBC and all the memories came flooding back. I thought about guests dropping in to see us in the foyer and waiting anxiously for them to be delivered over the river after or before a tight soundcheck schedule for a performance later that night. Names and faces came back suddenly: Kelsea Ballerini, Eric Church, Midland, Lukas Nelson, Brett Eldredge, Little Big Town and Margo Price all hanging with us telling stories and singing songs. The stories were great and the songs were even better; little miniature performances hinting at what would be coming later in the big arena across the road.

Then there was you – our audience. It was a thrill for our team to see you all, to hear the questions you wanted to ask some of your favourite artists and see the joy we all experienced at  seeing and hearing some seriously big country stars up so close and personal. None of us really wants to go back to March 2020, but we do want to imagine what March 2022 might feel like. I’m an optimist with these things and I honestly believe that, God willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we’ll all be gathered in that Hydro next March listening to some great music from C2C with a select group of artists coming over to the foyer for some intimate conversation. We’ll all be a couple of years older and our lives will have changed, but we will get there and we will celebrate it all when it happens.

In the meantime we want to bring you a reminder of these special occasions in the foyer at BBC Radio Scotland. We will play you some exclusive performances of some songs you love by the artists who were good enough to share them. It’s not Country to Country ’20 or ’21, but for now, it’s the closest we’re going to get until we all get together again next year. Join me if you can this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland or from five past eight or any time after on BBC Sounds.

I can’t really remember the first time we heard the phrase, but the idea that Nashville is a ‘ten year town’ resonates. In so many ways the decade long town career has a lot more going for it than the overnight success variety. However what I really love about Hailey Whitters twist on the phrase is the way she has made it both funny and poignant.

The new It Girl fresh off the bus
She cut right in front of the rest of us
I need longer lashes and a shorter dress
To be that overnight success
I thought this year I’d wear that crown
I’m twelve years into a ten year town

Hailey speaks with some experience. Arriving in Music City from Shueyville, Iowa, she has lived that song, but in a beautiful and simple twist of fate, it has been the song which has changed her life. Originally coming out in 2019, Ten Year Town provided the calling card needed to introduce people to Hailey’s music. There is plenty beyond that initial single too. Her album, The Dream has some great moments, not least the track co written with Lori McKenna, Janice At The Hotel Bar. Drawing on some great aphorisms, it re-tells a life fully lived with some choice advice like the main protagonists’s intention to always ‘take a vodka over dessert’ or ‘Be careful with the truth, girl but don’t you ever lie.’

In an extended conversation we’ll play out on this week’s Another Country Hailey talks about her inspiration for Janice, where some of these lines were first heard and also about some of the people with whom she’s been collaborating recently. The Dream is a pretty fine album as it stands but has just been extended with some great collaborations from Little Big Town, Jordan Davis, the man Hailey describes as The Hillbilly Shakespeare, Brent Cobb and a Dream duet with Trisha Yearwood, a teen idol for Hailey.

She also talks about the songwriter who helped to get things started, Brandy Clark, who has just recorded a little extension on her 2020 album, ‘Your Life Is A Record’ with a little star studded input from Lindsey Buckingham. We’ll play you this latest Brandy cut as well as some great new things from some new names including, Sister Gavin and The Gator, Lydia Luce and Heath Sanders. Fear not, if you’re crying out for some artists you’ve loved for a long time. You will hear from Taylor Swift, Gillian Welch, Miranda Lambert and something old and gorgeous from Chris Stapleton.

All this in two hours of Another Country this coming Tuesday evening  at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland or BBC Sounds. Wherever and whenever, join me if you can.

One of the last live shows I got out to before all this was a great show by Sam Outlaw and his band towards the end of 2019. I particularly enjoyed the moment Sam said, ‘And now the words no audience wants to hear, ‘Here’s a new song.’ We laughed because we knew how true it is. At least we think that, until something comes along to make us fear that, worse than that, there might be nothing at all new coming along.

There has been a little bit of that going on over the last eleven months or so in our current world wide health crisis. What if no one makes any new records, or they do..but we don’t like them or (as often happens) I start to think that none of this stuff really matters? It’s only music after all and there are things going on that are more important, vital even and they really make any discussion on whether a song, singer or album is any good feel a little immaterial. Clearly, there’s some merit in that position.

But them I turn it round and ask, what if there was no new music? What if, alongside our loss of theatre and live music we also lost new records coming out and somehow we simply had to recycle all the old songs over and over again? Granted, there would be certain radio stations who wouldn’t notice for a few years, but for the rest of us, the absence of the new and would feel like a blow to the head and the heart.

All this occurred to me when I was going through a bit of a dry patch on new records and I discovered an artist called Olivia Ellen Lloyd last week. Hailing from West Virginia but now based in Brooklyn NY, Olivia grew up listening to her father perform songs from Doc Watson to Tom Petty and it became the best apprenticeship you could wish for until his death in 2014. This stopped her performing for a while though she continued writing. For this, we must be grateful and if you want to hear the fruits of this we’ll share a great new song from Olivia on this week’s show.

In another nice surprise the Johnny Cash Forever Words album has just been expanded. It’s a lovely realisation of completing Johnny Cash’s unfinished songs by a great selection of artists including  Marty Stuart, Alison Krauss & Union Station, and Kris Kristofferson & Willie Nelson. The original sixteen songs released in 2018 have been augmented by eighteen new recordings of Cash lyrics set to new music. We’ll play you some of the album and some of Johnny too this Tuesday evening, and yes, we’re grateful that even The Man in Black can enjoy a posthumous creative re charge.

And it happens again; we start with an empty page and before we know it two hours packed with great music will be lovingly compiled by my producer, Richard Murdoch and he and I will enjoy nothing more than hanging out in our usual spot to play it all out. It starts at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland this Tuesday evening. You can listen live or any time after via BBC sounds. Join me if you can.

‘Dear Ricky’…the tweet went…..’will there be any 24 Bit files available for download?’

In truth I didn’t even bother replying. But, just in case there is a hifi nut or two reading this: No there won’t be any 24 Bit files available and here’s why:

Music, pop music in particular, but in actual fact nearly all of it, for people of my generation was listened to on fairly ropey sound systems. We listened to a lot of cassettes, thin vinyl on mono record players or cheap hifi and we listened to all our pop radio until the late 80s on Medium Wave. Not only was that pretty thin on quality it was often as not posted missing under bridges, in built-up city centres and remote country areas. A bizarre childhood memory is being in the car driving along the south coast of England while my parents listened in and out of the Wimbledon ladies final. Perhaps it was more exciting because miles would go past when we had no signal and by the time the radio returned Mrs King had won the second set. It was riveting if a little frustrating.

I remember too our first radio plugger almost sobbing to me that we had made a fine stereo record which would never be heard on the wireless because Radio One – the only likely station to play it – was still broadcasting on AM. As if to prove the point he went on to wax lyrical about the Philippines from whence he had recently returned where FM stations were in greater number than Mrs Marcos’ shoe collection.

That is why, in the great scheme of things I’m not as worried about mp3 or streaming quality as some are. We listened on anything and everything to scratched 45’s being spun from fishing boats….I’m not holding out for 24 Bit thanks.

Of course radio did change eventually and we now boast FM or digital and the medium wave is left to the desperate for finding obscure football commentaries on old transistors. But…and here’s the big but…it was Medium Wave and MW only, where we first fell in love with music. I heard all of Joni Mitchell’s The Hissing Of Summer Lawns in sequence one beautiful evening on the John Peel show, I heard Steely Dan’s Doctor Wu on Johnnie Walker’s lunchtime show and on my father’s car radio the first ever listen to Born To Run. (I could even take you to the stretch of road where I heard it). We knew nothing else and expected nothing better. We could turn it up (more crackle but added excitement) or add some bass or treble but it was still the compressed mash that is old radio.

On my visits to Nashville I would often be more on Medium Wave than FM as the Legend (WSM) only broadcasts on the peoples’ frequency. On any given evening I’d trawl the dial to find the signal and drive around to the sound of Eddie Stubbs telling me the greatest stories country music has to offer.

‘That was The Delmore Brothers, always immaculately turned out and always professional,’  he’d intone in that deep southern voice. How I loved to imagine Eddie sitting in his booth; the epitome of the nighthawk. Radio doesn’t get much better, even when the signal’s clearer.

On this week’s Another Country we will celebrate a lot of music you may only have heard on your AM receiver. It’s Part Two of the Country Juke Box where we spin out some country stars favourites and your own suggestions too. We’ll be playing Rascal Flatts, Merle Haggard, Gram & Emmylou and some Kacey Musgraves too. We’ll be broadcasting in glorious stereo, but if you close your eyes you might just be able to imagine some of these records hitting their first audience through the medium wave and for a glorious three minutes making a listener’s life a whole lot better. Listen out too for your own selections as we play out our first ever Listeners Juke Box.

We’ll also give you a reminder of what Eddie Stubbs sounds like. Eddie has retired now and, on my next visit to Music City, I’m going to have to find a new friend on the radio. It won’t be too bad, I’ll just move the dial along until I land somewhere I feel I can stay for a while.

Meanwhile join me this Tuesday evening on whatever wireless you have for Another Country on BBC Radio Scotland. We’re live from five past eight or from anywhere in the world on BBC Sounds any time you like.

When I last sat down for a conversation with Nashville journalist, Marissa Moss it was 2019 and the world was a little different. I caught up with her this week as, since the US election and the social upheaval before and after, it seems that no aspect of American society lies undisturbed. Include in that Country Music.

Marissa, as you may know is a writer for the Nashville Scene, Rolling Stone and other outlets and within the last few days wrote a great explainer to mainstream USA about what has been going on in Music City in recent days. Her piece in the LA Times highlights some of the problems country music has been addressing since before our last conversation, but is also lays bare the troubling thread of racism that still underpins the genre. In the article Marissa points out some of the prejudices that seem to beset Music Row policy execs and draws the reasonable conclusion that all is not well on Music Row. On this Tuesday’s show we’ll play you some excellent music by Rissi Palmer, a black country artist who was dropped by her label for poor sales. As Marissa points out however, she suffered similar sales figures to fellow white artists whose contracts have since been extended. And yes, in case you are wondering, we will be getting her to explain why all of this bubbled to the surface this week because of the actions of Country Music’s current star, Morgan Wallen.

 Rissi Palmer

If all this seems a bit gloomy we will also be talking about the recent TJ Osborne story. TJ, one half of The Brothers Osborne, decided to celebrate his sexuality publicly and there has been a lot of celebration that finally, a male country artist on a major record label, has been able to be honest about living as a gay man. We asked Marissa to pick us the most appropriate Brothers track, and she didn’t disappoint.

There is also the moment where I ask Marissa if any of this ever put her off country music and you can hear how she answered that on this Tuesday’s show.

We have so much new music to play including four (count them) Scottish artists releasing tracks this month. We’ll bring you records from Carly Pearce, Langhorne Slim, No-No Boy and Robert Vifian, Ruston Kelly and Curt Chambers.

We’ll mark the passing of a great Nashville writer, Jim Weatherly, the author of Midnight Train To Georgia and along the way we’ll play you a recording from 96 years ago by one of the first female country stars because, as you well know, we love country music.

If you do too you might want to let the snow keep falling, keep yourself warm and make a date to be near the wireless tonight at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland. If you’re anywhere outside Scotland you will find us live or later on BBC Sounds. Join me if you can.

A few years ago I made a decision to only go to gigs I really, really wanted to see. I felt I’d reached a point where I wasn’t surprised or delighted nearly as often as I should be and needed to prioritise my live outings. Right now, of course, we’d all turn up for an encore of a Les Dawson tribute act but then? Well before all this, of course, we were a little more picky. Then I wanted to see certain acts at least once and Tony Bennett was on my list.

It must have been around 2015 when he was at the Royal Concert Hall and we fell into conversation with a few folks we knew sitting beside us. We were trying to work out how old Tony was and had all settled for a number just south of eighty. Someone then decided this information was far too sketchy and double checked to whisper along the row that the legend now walking on stage to a resounding ovation was eighty eight. Having the same number of years as a piano keyboard must, at least, have been some compensation on that birthday morning.

In truth Tony was on good form but, having seen TV performances I’d loved, he never really took my breath away in the manner the younger Tony might have. Nevertheless, when I read today that Tony Bennett was struggling with Alzheimer’s Disease, I took comfort that I’d taken the chance to see him perform in Scotland that last time.

I remember noticing around then that he was advertising shows and an album for the following summer and couldn’t help but admire the ambition of someone of that vintage engaging in such forward planning. Believe me, in these weird times, I’m not inclined to throw too far forward myself.

I thought back to that show when I came upon an anniversary my producer, Richard Murdoch, pointed out to me this week. It will be one hundred years since the birth of Wilma Lee Leary at the end of this week. A remarkable country artist who outlived her famous partner, Stoney Cooper by thirty four years. Such was her own commitment to playing live in her later years that she suffered a stroke while performing on the Opry Stage one night in 2001. Despite her doctors prognosis that she wouldn’t walk again she returned to take her final bow and bid farewell to her fans on the famous stage.

One of the great things of country music is how valued elderly artists are by the country community. Rather than being sidelined and ignored as happens in the transient world of pop music, the roots genres of jazz, blues and country pay increased respect to artists of significant years. I love that. It’s great to see so many still making interesting records and sounding great too. We all love Dolly at 75 but she’s just a youngster compared to Loretta and Willie, who continue to record and release new music. I have enjoyed seeing and meeting Dolly and Willie but would still have loved to see Loretta. I still live in hope.

We’ll play you some Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper on this Tuesday’s AC. We’ll also have some tracks from the new generation of country artists including our current favourites, Hailey Withers, Brent Cobb, Morgan Whallen and Margo Price. Listen out for the son of Jim Croce, AJ Croce singing Randy Newman and a little bit of the man himself too. We’ll follow our noses and take you down all the places the music leads in a two hour show starting at five past eight this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland. Join me live if you can on the FM wireless or on BBC Sounds.

It’s cold, it’s the New Year and there are long, dark evenings and late sunrises. It must be Celtic Connections time. It is, of course, but for the first time in as long as I can remember, the city is quiet and the house lights are not on at The Royal Concert Hall in the centre of Glasgow.

I went downtown last week to record a couple of songs with the good Roddy Hart for his on line Roamin’ Roots show. It was strange walking into the Concert Hall when there was no hint of the normal atmosphere to be seen or heard. In fairness, the festival and The Lonesome Fire were making the best of things by creating a great atmosphere on stage (six feet apart) to a gallery of cameras. You can see see all of this on the CC stream this coming weekend.

It made me reflect a little on festivals gone by when we’ve welcomed guests into the BBC foyer, The Strathclyde Suite, The CCA and last year into The Cottier Theatre for some great songwriters rounds. From the top of my head I’m remembering The Be Good Tanyas, Margo Price, My Darling Clementine, Rob Vincent, Charlie Dore, The Secret Sisters and Rickie Lee Jones all being guests on some magical nights. It’s also been great to see our regular listeners face to face and hear comments and suggestions when we meet up.

None of this is going to happen this year, as you well know. It is, however, remarkable to see how much effort the Festival and the guest artists have gone to, to make something happen to brighten our lives this January. How do you get artists together when they need to stay apart? How do you connect with people when you can only talk online? As I’m sure you realise, the greater the difficulty, the more ingenious the circumvention by musicians.

So, we salute the Americana Night brought together this year which features Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turresi, Dean Owens and Calexico and more this coming Sunday evening.

I caught up with Rhiannon last week from her temporary base in Dublin and asked her all about the album she made with Francesco as well as getting her hot take on the unfolding drama of the new presidency back home. It was a good time to talk. You can hear all of that conversation on this week’s show.

As well as that we’ll have some happy reminders of guests who’ve joined us around this time of year from festivals past. Listen out too for great new music from Flyte, The Pink Stones, Eric Church, Brit Taylor and Willie Jones. In a packed two hours you might even imagine you’re having a great night out, but, on what promises to be a cold one, be grateful you can listen in from your own fireside.

Join me live from five past eight  this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland or listen in any time on BBC Sounds.