Have you ever been to a ’round?’ If not, this week’s AC will enlighten and, hopefully, delight you. Let me tell you how it works.

In Music City and famously at The Bluebird Cafe, The Round is the performance format which is often staged to showcase the songwriters of the city. You may not know the names of course, but you will probably know some of the songs. In the centre of the room four chairs are placed facing inwards. Around the circle are the tables where the customers can enjoy a light supper and a few drinks all served by the most discreet staff you’ll ever witness. The four songwriters will assemble and in turn perform a song before passing on the musical baton to the next singer in the circle. So the round carries on while stories are told and the songs flow.

I suspect many of you will have experienced some of these nights and can vouch at how special they can be. We’ve been lucky enough to host a round in one of our sister studios in Nashville during our last visit to the city. On this week’s show we will give you a slightly different emphasis as we host three of Music City’s youngest stars.

Priscilla Block, Tiera Kennedy and Morgan Wade were the three singer songwriters chosen to open C2C’s Saturday line up at this year’s festival. The Hydro crowd got a chance to see these talented women a couple of weeks ago, but the great news is that, before they journeyed across the river, they spent an hour singing and telling stories in Studio One at BBC Radio Scotland. I got to sit in on the round and ask a few questions about each of their stories. You can hear all of this round on this week’s Another Country.

As well as the three singers I’ll play you some other tracks from stand out artists who featured at this year’s C2C. Listen out for songs from Brittney Spencer, Seaforth and Tenille Arts. We’ll also, as ever, have some killer new releases too. It all starts at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland and whenever you want to listen on BBC Sounds. Join me if you can.

Over the last few months any certainty we had that C2C would happen has been slightly tempered by the nature of the current pandemic. For a while at the start of the year, we feared the whole event might prove impossible. There were too many known unknowns…as for the unknown unknowns …… most of that was simply beyond our ability to forecast.

However, on Friday night at Glasgow’s Hydro at 5:20 p.m. Hailey Whitters climbed up a small flight of stairs to take the stage of a festival which ran for three nights. Everyone showed up, everyone played their hearts out and an audience which averaged around 10,000 for each night enjoyed a unique country festival. The numbers are important. Only a few years ago I had to announce from the stage that next year’s event was to happen at the big arena next door and, believe it or not, there were complaints. People wanted their festival to be a little secret between a few friends. As much as that is understandable, these folk forgot that country music is more popular now in the UK than it has been since the seventies. In 2022 I heard no complaints from people that they were sharing the event with another 10,000 concert goers, and the sound and visuals were a credit to one of the best music arenas in the UK (and in case you think I don’t know what I’m talking about, I have played a good few of them!)

By Sunday night we had witnessed a great cross section of contemporary, commercial country music. One thing I probably should explain is that C2C is not the place where you might enjoy the nuanced corners of Americana. As much as I love Gillian Welch, Charley Crockett or Son Volt…this is not their space. C2C is hit friendly, multi-platinum and success orientated. That said, there is room for some great intimate moments which always make each event a delight and a surprise. Within that broad category there are too some wildly contrasting interpretations of what is and isn’t country music there days. To the great credit of the Glasgow C2C audience they always show a great knowledge and breadth of appreciation for all the acts. There were a few times when I really couldn’t enthuse about what I was hearing and it all got a little too loud and a bit obvious with Kip Moore on Saturday night (necking ‘Jack Daniels’..really?) ..but for the few things I didn’t enjoy I’m pretty sure I was out of step with the majority in the room. I’m glad about that, as who could curate an event that pleases everyone’s taste?

My own highlights were the great performances from this year’s Spotlight Stage. There is something compelling about a young act getting three songs to wow a new audience and having to do it on a tiny stage with only an acoustic guitar. So, big love to Seaforth, Tenille Arts, Brittney Spencer, Erin Kinsey, Matt Stell and Callista Clark – you people were truly great. I really enjoyed Ashley McBryde again and was knocked out by Luke Combs who tore down the house on Friday night. Miranda Lambert was probably one of my highlights. I loved her song choices and her own acoustic rendition of Tin Man was one of those special moments. Brett Young on Sunday night took me by surprise. I don’t know what I expected but it certainly surpassed anything I’d imagined. Tenille Townes took the Hydro by the scruff of the neck and staked a claim to be a future headline act in years to come. She really is the real deal. It was a joy to introduce these special guests and, of course, a particular delight to welcome back Darius Rucker who might be the best act you could pick to bring appropriate warmth and collective delight to a weekend which was a celebration of people getting back together.

All photos © Julie Broadfoot for BBC Scotland

On Sunday afternoon we hosted these great final night acts in the BBC foyer. They sang, laughed and told me stories in front of a very patient audience of regular listeners. Thank you for coming along folks – you were a great audience. On this week’s show you can hear all of that over the the two hours of the AC. It’s a special show in the company of Tenille Townes, Brett Young and Darius Rucker. It goes out at five past eight on Tuesday evening and you can hear it live on BBC Radio Scotland or any time you choose on BBC Sounds. Join me if you can.

If you remember, it was raining.

I was, if I recall correctly, staring out at a bleak hospital car park upon which it seemed the rain had been pouring continuously for a month. It hadn’t. It seldom is as long, but it felt as long or maybe from where I stood, a little longer.

The news was bad. Coronavirus was spreading and no one seemed to be able to make a decision about what we should all be doing about it. This was two years ago on the day before Country 2 Country 2020 was meant to be taking place. Within a few hours the festival and all our BBC events around it were cancelled.

So, despite all the current news, there is a part of me which is feeling good that we have passed through the waters and reached some kind of safe shore, even if we are all still a little shell shocked. We all have stories to tell of what we learned living through a pandemic, about how we changed and who we lost. As 10,000 of us gather to listen to some great country music this weekend in Glasgow, it may be that some of these stories will return as the songs hit home. The world is a different place now. We know things we certainly didn’t know two years ago and the songs we loved then may have new twists as we listen again.

On this week’s Another Country I’ll be telling you news about what our involvement in C2C will be. I’ll let you know live on this Tuesday’s show how you might be able to join us for our limited coverage. The good news is it looks likely we will be seeing each other at some point in the foyer of BBC’s HQ at Pacific Quay. It has, however, been an uphill task trying to pull all of this together despite Covid being less of a threat than it was a couple of months ago. Artists are naturally reluctant to break out of well maintained safety bubbles and the BBC building is still getting back on its feet after two years of all but essential staff working from home. So…keep your fingers crossed. If you don’t make it to see any of our events I hope you will join me at The Hydro, where I will again be introducing events from the stage.

This Tuesday night I’ll aim to remind you about how special C2C can be by introducing you to the lineup for this year’s festival. There are some great new artists coming to the Hydro as well as some country superstars. Listen out for tracks by Darius Rucker, Luke Combs, Ashley McBryde, Miranda Lambert and Tenille Townes. We’ll even have time to take you down a beautiful diversion of Guy Clark songs too.

It’s going to be a great Glasgow weekend and you can get yourself in the mood by joining me live on BBC Radio Scotland this Tuesday evening from five past eight.

I was thinking about music the other day. In times of trouble, we all go towards it. It, perhaps, becomes more important than it ever was when we seem to be facing circumstances for which we have little or no solution.

As I heard news of the Ukraine invasion my mind went back to another European war over twenty five years ago, the significance of which, in all the inevitable, shock and outrage of the last week, seems to have been forgotten. The Bosnian conflict was, and continues to be, one of the worst conflicts we have seen in Europe. Thousands were killed, genocide was carried out, people became homeless, stateless and to make matters worse, there has been no real reconciliation within the countries affected.

I learned all of this three years ago when I visited Sarajevo with the Scottish Remembering Srebrenica group. As I tweeted out some thoughts on my visit I received an interesting response from a follower. She had been a young school girl who lived in Bosnia and was delighted I was visiting her home land. Her own life had taken her to live in Greece, but she remembered hearing the bombs fall and listening to the radio or her CD collection and how much our music had brought comfort during that time. It was a revelation to me that the music had reached that part of the world, but it was welcome news.

I thought too of the brutal invasions of Iraq in 91 and 2003 and how rock music had been used by the military to terrorise and intimidate the enemy. How too it was played at ear bleeding volumes to political prisoners in the hell hole of Guantanamo Bay on Cuba. Music, in the wrong hands, can be a curse or a blessing.

I wonder what songs are going round the heads of those waiting for the next attack to begin in villages, towns and cities in Ukraine this week? In years to come we may find out.

That’s why I never feel time spent playing great music on the radio is anything but the most important thing I could be doing at any given time. Over the years the right song at the right time has made my day and seen me through the week.

On this week’s Another Country we’ll play you some of these songs which might prove to become valuable friends in the years ahead. We’ll also give a warm welcome to our special guest Luke Combs in the second hour of the programme. If I reached for my Country Music A-Z I fear there would be no mention of Luke as his star has risen so quickly and certainly over the last few years. It’s all based on two massive selling albums which contain the voice that has clearly impacted more with the country audience than any other over the last while. The albums This One’s For You (2017) and What You See Is What You Get (2019) have brought Grammy nominations as well as ACM and CMA awards, not to mention multi platinum sales.

Luke is the headline act for the first night of this year’s Country 2 Country in Glasgow. We’ll get right into the mood on this week’s AC. Join me on BBC Radio Scotland or BBC Sounds from five past eight this Tuesday evening if you can.

If you follow me on Twitter you may have seen a moving Thread I shared yesterday. Nashville journalist and all round country music enthusiast, Brian Mansfield told a story about a life changing moment for his family. He explained how, twenty years ago, when the death of Waylon Jennings had just been announced he was forced to stay in the house and miss out on the church service he normally attended on a Wednesday evening. Brian explained that had that announcement not been made on that sad evening his normal schedule would have meant they would have been elsewhere in the house and not listening out for their daughter whose breathing, due to whooping cough, had ceased.

After an emergency phone call, an admission to hospital and a week in hospital, including three days in ICU his daughter pulled through. Happily she is now a healthy young adult. What moved Brian was the irony of reflecting on the ‘what if’ nature of Waylon Jennings early life. It was Waylon, of course, who gave his seat up on that ill-fated flight by Buddy Holly in 1959. The recipient of Waylon’s kind gesture was JP ‘The Big Bopper’ Richardson, who along with Holly and the other travellers lost his life in the subsequent air-crash. Waylon Jennings carried the guilt of that decision for the rest of his life.

It was this part of Brian’s thread which really struck home for me: ‘Waylon never knew his death allowed my daughter to live. Knowing that he suffered from survivor’s guilt for most of his adult life, I wish there was a way I could have told him. I think he would have appreciated hearing that.’

Twenty years on from the death of a country music giant, we’ll pay our own tribute to Waylon Jennings. We’ll also have some new music from his old Outlaw buddy, Willie Nelson.

Elsewhere on the show we’ll also hear a big song from Mickey Guyton. Mickey’s profile exploded last weekend when she was asked to sing the US National Anthem before The Superbowl. The reaction to her performance was phenomenal and for many people who don’t know the current direction of country music her performance reminded us of the value of young female country artists and the increasing profile of  American American voices.

We have new music from C2C artists we’ve not played until now as well as some great new things from old friends including Jenny Lewis, Punch Brothers and Jason Isbell. There will be more from John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen, Sierra Ferrell and The War On Drugs. We’ll do all of this in two hours which starts at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland. Do join me if you can.

If you’ve followed my ramblings over the last few weeks you’ll not be surprised to hear I’ve been more excited about one particular album release than many of the (relatively good) other offerings that have come out this year. The eponymously titled new album by Anaïs Mitchell promised so much and, in all truth, has not disappointed.

Anaïs has always been a fascinating character for me. Carving out a career that is quite unique within Americana and/or Folk Music, she has followed her heart on a quite delightful path which has been as attractive for its many deviations as it has for its general direction. What that direction is may be open to some debate too. What has dominated her creative thinking is the off/off Broadway Musical , Hadestown she tentatively put together fifteen or more years ago up in her home state of Vermont. Since those early days Anaïs’s musical (which is entirely her work) has moved to off-Broadway, London’s West End then finally to a triumphant run (which still continues) on the Great White Way itself. In that time it has garnered Tony and Olivier Awards and, in the way all great art does, has changed the nature of the genre itself.

Over the course of that journey Anaïs has brought out some beautiful solo records, collaborated once again with some interesting side projects and even joined a band who will bring out their second album later this year. I should add that all this has happened while she brought two children into the world. With her young family, Anaïs has now returned to Vermont where she lives on the farm she grew up on with her extended family close by. It was there I spoke to her a couple of weeks ago when she told me about the process of writing and recording the new album. The record is produced by her fellow Bonny Light Horseman, Josh Kaufman, and it’s impossible to find anything to dislike about the songs, the performance or the sound. Everything comes together simply but with glorious imagination and, as we discuss in the conversation for this week’s Another Country, there are appropriate nods to great artists. What is never in doubt too is Anaïs’s way with a lyric, which in the case of this album, tell the listener much more about a subject she may have skirted round until now: Anaïs Mitchell.

On this week’s AC we’ll give over Hour Two to that conversation and a good deal of Anaïs’s new album as well as some choice cuts from her extensive back catalogue. I promise you that a few minutes in her conversational company will be the only warmth you need on, what will inevitably be, a cold Scottish winter evening.

There’s more…always more…but for all of that you’ll need to join me on BBC Radio Scotland  this Tuesday evening from five past eight or on BBC Sounds at a time that suits you. Whichever way, do join me if you can.

There was a favourite song amongst Elvis Costello’s B Sides I came across in an excellent compilation called Taking Liberties that came out in the early 80s. ‘Hoover Factory’ was a short tribute to the Art Deco magnificence of the building that catches your eye as you drive into London from the west. Elvis’s song never really had a chorus as such but landed on the line ‘It’s not a matter of life and death, but what is?’

This sprang to mind as I approached The Blog on an afternoon of high political drama at home and abroad. Art has a way of tucking itself into unusual historical moments. The recent discussions of the Birth of Modernism throw up some interesting anomalies. I particularly enjoyed a wander round the park listening to ‘The Rest Is History’ by Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook where they throw in these great titbits like the opening dinner to celebrate the new age in 1922. Picasso, Stravinsky, Proust and Joyce all attended…except that Joyce was late and drunk and he and Proust spoke only of truffles. Sometimes everything does not quite fit in where one imagines it should be.

Lola Kirk

Will this week, for example, be remembered for the end of a Prime Minister or the beginning of the end of an era defining music streaming service? I suspect it may prove to be neither. I’m also praying it doesn’t become the week a European War commenced.

There’s another story brewing which has interested our Nashville correspondent. It concerns the streaming service that dare not speak its name and it’s not the story you think it is. Bill DeMain, our man in Music City, will be joining me on this week’s Another Country to explain how the age of streaming may have led to the age of Crowd Funding. Bill will also bring us some Nashville News and his usual country tip which, I can almost guarantee, will become a regularly played artist on the show.

I’ll also bring you some great new things. Listen out for Ali Sperry, Anna Ash and Cody Johnson. I’m also very excited to be playing the great new single by Lola Kirke which may become a 2022 favourite. You’ll hear some new cuts from the Brothers Osborne and Old Crow Medicine Show. We have Hayes Carll doing Bob Dylan and something great from Charlie Rich. It all starts at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland and it’s an FM night as there’s football on the Digital Feed. Join me if you can.

That’s nearly it for this week except to say that you may have seen, this is going to be a busy old year for me. I look forward to seeing you on the road somewhere in the UK or Ireland in September and October. If you’ve not seen my news you can find it on my social media pages or on this link.

Finally, I’m really pleased to be sitting in for Mark Radcliffe on BBC Radio 2’s Folk Show this Wednesday. Join me if you can to hear some great music from this year’s Celtic Connections.

Watching TV entertainment news people trying to get a handle on complex subject matter to create that light segment before the weather forecast can be painful viewing. The item on the news I caught earlier today made me want to hide behind the sofa. It was trailing the new Brian Wilson documentary, ‘Long Promised Road.’

Interviewer: ‘What is the real Brian Wilson then? What do people need to know?’

Brian Wilson: ‘Songs’

Ask a stupid question eh.  It’s not the only daft question that was asked, but it’s enough to be getting on with. However, because he is a very smart human being, Brian’s answer redirected the interview and drew the viewer’s attention back to what mattered, the songs.

It’s such a fundamental point that gets overlooked in most media interviews I have to endure. The most important factor is the songs. It’s all we really care about on a Tuesday night and it’s the only thing I really want to talk to artists about when I get a chance to record interviews. How did the song arrive, what were the background factors and how did it end up sounding the way we heard it first?: The only questions that really matter.

On this week’s show we will ask some of those questions retrospectively as we pay tribute and draw attention to the songwriting craft of Dallas Frazier who died on the 14th of this month at the age of 82. I arrived too late at my love of country music to know much about Dallas Frazier’s life but again, I know his songs. And what a song catalogue he has.

A prodigy of Ferlin Husky who picked him to win at a singing contest in Bakersfield, California when Frazier was only twelve, he had recorded and published his first song by the age of fourteen. In the fifties his career consisted of appearing on the Hometown Jamboree TV show as a regular contributor until he scored a No1 Hit with Alley Oop. It started a phenomenal songwriting career which took off seriously when he moved from LA to Nashville in 1963.

On this week’s AC we’ll spin you some tracks which you will know and a few you don’t. Safe to say that Elvis, George Jones, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris and Tammy Wynette have all enjoyed success with Dallas Frazier songs and only last year, Connie Smith, recorded, “I Just Don’t Believe Me Anymore.” We feel certain you’re going to enjoy going down this particular rabbit hole.

We also have some great new things to play you. Listen out for two Scottish troubadours, Dean Owens and Roseanne Reid who both debut new songs for 2022. We will also look forward to Country to Country 22 with songs from Callista Clark, Luke Combs and Tenille Townes.

It’s two hours of country music our way all starting at five past eight this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland (all frequencies) and on BBC Sounds at a time and place of your own choosing. Join me if you can.

One of the reasons people connect with the music we play on Another Country is because of the stories. We play songs telling tales which often reflect the harsher truths of life. If the song is a ballad, there is inevitably an ache, a longing for things to be different and there is probably less romance and fantasy when it comes to the love songs.

Off the top of my head I can think of a few of these troubled love songs….By The Time I Get To Phoenix, On The Other Hand, He Stopped Loving Her Today and that song that every songwriter I know would love to have written, I Can’t Make You Love Me. All of them scratching beneath the surface at all ages of love, whether we are in our teens or have reached a grand old age, they speak the truths of the human heart.

In the same way there are songs we’ve played which have shaken core beliefs and perhaps anyone who has heard them has had to rethink their social attitudes on some key issues.  In the last year I’m recalling Persephone by Allison Russell, Joy of Jesus by Stephanie Lambring  and Willie Jones’ American Dream. It takes a special kind of songwriter to create these kind of songs and it also requires the right kind of slant and delivery. This week’s special guest, Hayes Carll, has all of that and more.

Texas born and raised and now Nashville based, we’ve been fans of Hayes Carll’s music over the many years of being on air. His was one of the earliest interviews we broadcast in the early days of the show when we celebrated with him the recognition he received for his song KMAG YOYO which was Americana Song of The Year back in 2011. Since then we’ve followed the interesting twists and turns in the Hayes story and even caught up with him on his honeymoon a few years back. On this record Hayes has drafted in his wife, Allison Moorer on production duties too. I managed to record a conversation with him about his new album, You Get It All, a few months back and on this week’s Another Country you can hear Hayes’ thoughts on these songs as well as a little insight into the Carll/ Moorer sessions over lockdown which included them playing some killer covers to their on line worldwide audience.

In other news I’ve been enjoying Neil Young’s ‘Waging Heavy Peace’ and towards the end of the book he pays a glowing tribute to Linda Ronstadt. I thought we might play something significant by the two of them as the album the song comes from approaches its 50th birthday.

It’s all on a packed AC commencing at five past eight this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland (FM only this week) or, as ever, live or any time after on BBC Sounds. Join me if you can.

PS…a friend is looking for a banjo tutor in Glasgow. He thought there might be someone in the wider country music community who could help. Any suggestions please reply to the Blog and I’ll pass on the info.