As spring arrives I’m minded to think back three years and take stock a little. We were driving out to a theatre workshop with which my wife and I are both involved (in different ways) last week. As we were hurriedly getting into the car and anticipating the week before us we both recalled how fortunate we were to be going to a room where we would wear no masks, greet our friends properly and get to speak and sing together. Sometimes it catches you unawares, but we’ve all been on quite a journey.

In my happy place I’m always on a family holiday when the kids were young. We still enjoy going away together, but now there are more of us with husbands and partners in tow and even a grandchild too. Then we would have a mix tape, or a holiday CD burned to accompany us on long road trips or even short spins along the coast to a night out in the south of France, or Fife or wherever we went. It would be eclectic. I’d sneak a few favourites in and there would be enough songs we loved together for a sing a long. This could range from The Sound of Music to Stevie Wonder’s Misstra Know It All and all points in between. Coldplay’s The Scientist got heavy rotation on one Spanish adventure I seem to recall. There was one song, which even now, brought universal adoration and repeat plays. It was a tune from my own boyhood which appeared regularly on Saturday morning radio: Alan Sherman’s Hello Mother, Hello Father. An American kid’s letter home from summer camp. It was the final verse which came to mind this week as the sun shone and life looked a little more ‘normal.’

Wait a minute, it’s stopped hailing
Guys are swimming, guys are sailing
Playing baseball, gee that’s better
Mother, father, kindly disregard this letter

In my vernal reverie it was that last part of the song which hit home. Gee, it really is better. There’s much that isn’t right about the world but the ability to interact, socialise, perform, applaud together has again become central to everyday life – and I’m still grateful. As it happens the trigger for all of this was thinking about our very special show this week. It’s a recording of Nickel Creek‘s Celtic Connections performance in January at Glasgow’s City Halls. It was an exceptional night of virtuoso playing and singing which will amaze, fascinate  and delight. In between sets you’ll hear a conversation I recorded upstairs with Sara Watkins and Chris Thile from the band which spans the seventeen years since their last visit to the city.

As ever we kick off at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland and also BBC Sounds where you can listen again any time you wish. Do join me on this week’s Another Country In Concert special.

When Jordan Davis appeared in the BBC foyer for his performance and chat on Saturday afternoon he was dressed in the winter clothes he’d beeen sporting on his recent Canadian tour. Who can blame him? Spring in Glasgow is mid-winter in Tennessee and Jordan wasn’t taking any chances with the temperature.

Jordan Davis / BBC Scotland Country 2 Country 2023 – © Julie Broadfoot

Jordan was the first of six visitors to the foyer over a weekend of conversation, acoustic performances and full on rock-outs in the BBC and Glasgow’s Hydro. it was, for Scotland, the best attended C2C so far, and judging by the reaction of the audience, a complete success. On this week’s show we’re going to bring you a more reflective edition of the festival that you won’t have experienced in the noisier Hydro. Instead we have acoustic performances and chat from Midland, Jordan Davis, Matt Stell and Morgan Evans with some fascinating conversation from Lainey Wilson and Thomas Rhett thrown into the mix. It was a hectic few days for me between hosting the mainstage over the river each evening and welcoming these great guests to the BBC each afternoon. I am truly indebted too to the AC audience for coming over in the afternoon and making a whole day of their C2C visit. You were all so patient as we went through the many angles and pick-ups that are part of a TV recording.

Lainey Wilson /BBC Scotland Country 2 Country 2023 – © Julie Broadfoot

if you are keen to see this as well as listen in you can watch the first show this Saturday night at 10 p.m. on the BBC Scotland channel and you can also see that via the iPlayer if you don’t live in Scotland.

My head is spinning a little but I thought it would be fun to reflect a little on some of my big takeaways from the weekend. I’m sure this is more of a discussion starter and (I have to be honest) there were times when it was just impossible to see an entire set as I often had to be two places at once. We didn’t have any guest from Friday but I enjoyed getting to know the audience and having time to take in the live sets. Lindsay Ell and Mitchell Tenpenny certainly went down well though I have to confess I found both sets a little more rock than country….though in Lindsay’s case brilliantly executed. She’s an amazing guitarist and great performer. I was really taken by Old Crow Medicine Show’s set however. It really had everything: fiddle, banjo, madolin, washboard, free step-dancing and gospel harmonies. It was a triumph which won the band a whole new audience.

I really enjoyed meeting Zac Brown up in his dressing room and I told him how great Caroline Jones was earlier. Caroline is the newest ZBB member and plays almost everything. She performed a great solo set on the spotlight stage earlier in the evening and we will be playing some of her music over the next few weeks. Unfortunately I found the ZBB sound a little tricky and I know they had experienced technical issues on the night which didn’t really allow me to fully engage. I gather, however, that the audience really loved the show.

Saturday was a better evening all round for me. I just couldn’t stop listening to Jordan Davis and thought he put in one of the best shows of the weekend. I knew Lainey Wilson would be good but was a little thrown by her slightly over-eager opening. She then settled into letting her songs do the work and the show became a sheer delight. She sang and played brilliantly and delivered a beautifully curated performance. Thomas Rhett’s only problem on Saturday was what to leave out. There were so many hits to cram in he could have played beyond the curfew. I thought TR too had one of the best sounds of the weekend.

Thomas Rhett/ BBC Scotland Country 2 Country 2023 – © Julie Broadfoot

Matt Stell‘s set was certainly well received though I only caught the last part. Morgan Evans was the pleasant surprise of the weekend for me. he’d picked up a kilt earlier in the day and sported it for the entire set! The reaction he got for his performance was one usually reserved for headliners and I suspect his might be the performance everyone remembers a year from now. Midland brought country harmony and some interesting covers. I loved their Wichita Lineman version – no easy song to get right – and finishing the set with Wicked Game was a lovely surprise. Lady A closed out the weekend and the hits were all present and correct with all three singers in great voice. Hilary Scott’s decision to make the Glasgow audience the background chorus for American Honey was a perfect moment.

 With Morgan Evans /BBC Scotland Country 2 Country 2023 – © Julie Broadfoot

It seems C2C is winning new friends each year and I look forward to bringing you our highlights over the next couple of weeks on the TV and the wireless. Join me from five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland or BBC Sounds this Tuesday evening, and on BBC Scotland or iPlayer over the next few Saturday evenings. Join me if you can.

It’s March, it kinda feels like Spring and on the second weekend of the month there’s really only one place you want to be. If you’re in or around Glasgow I suggest you might want to get yourself down to the river and beg, steal or borrow a ticket for Country 2 Country, the three day festival of all that’s best from Nashville.

I’m still celebrating the fact that we can all gather again. We missed two years of this great event and I’m delighted to tell you this year will have more people in attendance each evening than it had on its biggest night ever in 2022. That night, with Luke Combs headlining, was one of the best atmospheres I remember at the festival and there was a real sense of celebration in the room. This year I’ll be in my usual spot on stage welcoming some great guests including, Old Crow Medicine Show, Zac Brown Band, Lainey Wilson, Jordan Davis, Thomas Rhett, Midland and Lady A. If you’re there for the weekend then so am I and we’ll all hope to still be on our feet come Sunday night.

If this isn’t exciting enough we are hosting two very special afternoons over at Pacific Quay (BBC Scotland’s HQ) across the river, which is three minute’s walk from the Hydro’s front door. On Saturday and Sunday the stars of C2C will be performing acoustically and chatting with me as well as answering some questions from your good selves. We’ll be filming all of this for BBC Scotland TV and making a two hour special radio show for broadcast on Tuesday March 14th. You will certainly want to be there if you can and we’d love to have a packed house of AC listeners and country music fans. If you’d like to be in the audience you will need to listen LIVE to Another Country this Tuesday evening as we’ll be announcing ticket details on the show. So do tune in.

Here’s little montage of some of some great times in the PQ foyer over the last few years:

On the show we’ll also be playing you tracks by the artists you’re going to see over the weekend as well as playing some great new cuts by Tenille Townes, the fab Wood Brothers and Ashley McBryde. With a little help from Jackson Browne we will also pay tribute to the late David Lindley after the sad news of his death last weekend. There are, I’m glad to say, always so many fantastic new records to play. So do join us live this week as it will be your chance to get up very close and personal to some of the biggest country stars on the planet. It will also be your chance to hear them perform their songs the way they sounded when they were first written.

So many people tell me they would love to go to Nashville and experience country music in its natural home. Let me suggest to you that on C2C weekend you can simply, and very easily, let Nashville come to you. Tune in this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland or on BBC Sounds from five past eight and find out how to be part of the gathering. I look forward to seeing you there.

What is it about songs? Why is it they can have such a deep impact on your emotional wellbeing? Sometimes it’s like falling in love; there’s no rhyme or reason, it’s simply that you’ve heard a song and you really just need to hear it again.

That’s why, I suppose I enjoy playing music on the radio and when push comes to shove I’d always call myself a songwriter over any of the other job titles I might claim. Songwriters are good people to be around. Oddly enough I really hadn’t hung out with that many until midway into my career I signed a publishing deal that involved me doing a lot more co writing. The first time I was put together with another writer my publisher suggested I go up to Highgate in North London and spend a bit of time with Charlie Dore. 

I can still remember the first of many visits to Charlie’s place in the early 2000’s as she led me by the hand through the weird world of the cowrite. She taught me what to expect, what to ignore and how to listen to what was happening in the room. I learned to re draft, to spend a bit of time on the song and I learned to expand my own expectations of what a song can and cannot do. It only made me fall in love more with song.

Over these last twenty years or so Charlie and I have remained good friends and it has been a joy to play her music on the wireless in that time. A few years after we met she returned to making her own music as a solo artist, which is how she’d started a good few years before. Charlie was known for her big radio song, ‘Pilot of The Airwaves’ which had been successful in the US and the UK. This had ultimately led to her career as a songwriter penning hits for Tina Turner, Celine Dion and George Harrison. Stepping into her studio to see these gold discs adorning the walls was a moment I won’t forget.

Over the last ten years or so, Charlie has made a series of beautiful records which aren’t quite folk or pop but happily could easily be described and embraced by the ever helpful Americana genre. Indeed, Charlie will tell you that her earlier career was closer to country music until the label who’d signed her on that very basis decided it had all got a little too country!

On this week’s AC we are welcoming Charlie to the studio to play songs from her most recent album, Like Animals, and pick some country/Americana faves for the show. She’ll be performing alongside her own regular writing and recording collaborator Julian Littman and bringing their music shop assortment of instruments with them. It will be a magical two hours where you can hear Charlie live and hear some great picks including tracks from Willie Nelson, Shawn Colvin and The Carter Family.

It all starts at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland or whenever you fancy listening in on BBC Sounds. Either way do join me if you can.

On this Tuesday’s AC we will play out a long conversation I recorded a few weeks ago with Margo Price. We were speaking between my studio and her back porch in Tennessee where she now lives. It’s geographically distanced from East Nashville and emotionally it represents a slight musical unhooking from the roots she explored on her first few albums.

Margo Price’s music has always been changing. The desire for new directions is perhaps the most consistent factor in her musical style. On her new record, Strays, the even articulates that search in a song called ‘Change of Heart.’ Despite it being less ‘country’ than her earlier releases, there’s still no doubt about what rocks Margo’s boat. Her own story is pure country and she would acknowledge that she wouldn’t be where she is today without absorbing the classic country music of the 50s and 60s as part of her constant search to find new inspiration. What I hadn’t known until I read her biography over Christmas was how long and deep a struggle it was to get her career to where her audience first encountered it.

If you can recall it was Midwest Farmer’s Daughter which introduced the world to Margo’s music. Before that, our Nashville correspondent, Bill DeMain had told us about this East Nashville act called Margo Price and The Pricetags who were causing a stir over the river. The song and video for Hurtin’ On The Bottle was the first song we played and it was that song which drew Jack White’s attention to Margo’s music leading to her signing to his Third Man Records label.

You can read all about that in Margo’s memoir, Maybe We’ll Make It, which talks about the struggle she and her musical soul-mate and husband Jeremy Ivey had to get their songs heard. It also tells the heartbreaking story of the birth and death of one of Margo and Jeremy’s twin sons, Ezra. As you can well imagine, that loss is a pain she carries with her every day. She has come a long way since that dark time thirteen years ago and the uncertainty in that book title best explains Margo’s openness to the future. She’d be the first to explain that she has no certainty that she has made it or ever will and that’s what makes her story and her music so compelling.

We talked all of that and especially about the great collection of songs she has cut on Strays. Listen out too for Margo explaining to your old fogey presenter how inspired she gets by her experiments with psychotic drugs. It will be the fourth time Margo’s been with us in the last ten years or so and as ever, it was a real pleasure to spend time in her company.

If that’s not enough we have new bluegrass, country-folk and some great down home country classics in a packed two hour show. It’s all live from five past eight this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland or whenever you fancy on BBC Sounds.

I was on holiday and far from home when the news broke last week about the passing of Burt Bacharach. Often, when people of a certain vintage die, there can be a bit of communal head scratching as to how sure most of us were that they were still alive. Indeed my old radio friend, Simon Mayo formed a jocular quiz around the subject of whether certain celebrities still walked this earth are had passed on to the life hereafter.

In Burt’s case, however, there was none of that. His legacy was certainly assured, but so too was his presence on the world stage. Burt Bacharach had been playing shows, writing and producing music and releasing records until very recently. Not only that, but (if it really needs said) he was doing all of this up to and beyond his own very high standards. A quite remarkable feat. In case you wonder why any of this has anything to do with country music then I’d love to point you to his recent collaboration with Nashville’s very own Daniel Tashian. It’s an EP which we have enjoyed hugely on the AC called, Blue Umbrella, and it really is a beautiful piece of work highlighting both artists as great song writers.

I may have laboured this point before, but in case there is any doubt, I think one of the reasons that people love Bacharach songs is because the ones they always quote are written by Burt and Hal David. In the interviews I’ve seen with Burt over the last few days I’ve noticed he is always keen to give due credit to his late, great collaborator. These beautiful melodies would be soulless without the addition of the lyrics of Hal. A House is Not a Home, I Say a Little Prayer, Walk On By and I’ll Never Fall In Love Again are love songs of a higher order because of that brilliant combination of a lyric and a melody. What is also true, and song writers can never really over-learn this, is everything Burt did was led by the melody. And that, more than anything else, is what turned Brill Building craft into pop music gold.

Hal and Burt never veered very far from the love song as a format for their 2 – 3 minute masterpieces. I’m guessing, if you had asked them, they’d have told you that the well never runs dry on that particular subject. That is why, on this week’s AC, we too are going to celebrate the love song. In our case, it will be the country love song but…and this is a very important but, our two hours

We will have songs of young love, parental disapproval, the first tingle of romance, commitment, disappointment and songs that celebrate love from all sexual orientations. There will be complications, mismatches, break ups and divorce. There will however be time to console you with love that lasts and is truly celebrated on St Valentine’s Day. It will be two hours of country love songs curated by ourselves and going out to lovers of all kinds and all places this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland at five past eight. Join me live if you can on the airwaves or at any time you can make it on BBC Sounds. It will be great to have your company.

There’s so much to tell you…..

This week’s show is a game of two halves…as they say. I know all of this because, unusually we prerecorded the show on Monday. There was a very good reason for this. Beth Neilson Chapman is visiting Celtic Connections to play her first show in Glasgow for some years. The show itself is the first live showcase for the songs from her excellent new album, Crazy Town. Beth had half-settled on the title in the last days before the pandemic, then when the full force of Covid and 2020 hit home, she knew for sure she’d named the record correctly.

Beth had been in the studio with Ray Kennedy at his Room and Board studios in Berryhill Nashville cutting songs which had been written and redrafted then collated over the preceding years. Running parallel to all of this her husband, Bob Sherman, was suffering from Leukemia. In early December 2022 Bob died of the illness. Beth was with him in these last days and wrote in a public blog, ‘ He was funny, smart, and kind, and brought so much light and love into my life.’ In this week’s show Beth talks about the loss and, in one sense, preparing herself for that loss by doing the very thing which she does most naturally; writing songs. Beth is a true songwriter. Her songs have been cut by Faith Hill, Willie Nelson and many more. She and I have written together and she will wrestle a song to the ground before she is ready to say it’s finished. She is also a great interpreter of songs, fabulous singer and consummate musical talent. You can hear so much about this in this week’s second hour. It’s a must listen. Stay tuned too, as Beth unpacks the full meaning behind her most famous song, Sand And Water.

In the first hour of the show we’re celebrating The UK Americana Awards which took place in London last week. If you’ve detected a slight detachment about this even from me in the past, you are probably not mistaken. I’ve often felt the occasion tried a little too hard to reflect a tradition that wasn’t really there in terms of UK acts. I have to say if that was the case it is certainly not true now. There was a healthy spread of new, young artists playing on the night and the winner of all the categories deserved their gongs.

We will bring you music from these winners including Ferris and Sylvester, Hannah White, Allison Russell and Nickel Creek. As well as all of this we’ve found you some fabulous new records you may well want to explore further from The Mother Hips and Mary Elizabeth Remington. You’ll hear some classics too, chosen by ourselves and Beth Nielson Chapman. It’s a glorious two hours of country music, our way, and it all start at five past eight  this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland and whenever you like on BBC Sounds. Join me if you can.

Long ago, in another world and a different time I’d visit a little record shop not far from where I lived. On the southside of Glasgow, If I remember correctly it was called ‘Salvation Sounds,’  and was located in the Arcade at Shawlands and was, until this day, the only good reason I ever found for going in that dull sixties pile. I’d browse around for half an hour until I found a couple of things to add to my record collection then retreat home to listen to my new finds.

What made this shop so good was the guy who ran it rejoiced in celebrating new music and championing things he’d discovered himself. It was always a joy to return to see what had changed since the last visit. One one sunny Saturday, I saw a new section, which was simply labelled, ‘Americana.’ It was so good to find that the music I liked had finally got a name. No longer folk/rock or singer/songwriter or even New Country, the A label seemed simple, descriptive and inclusive enough to embrace much of the music I’d loved from way back.

In recent years I’ve become less fond of the term, but in the absence of anything better, I’m relatively happy that we have a name for something that seems to encourage songwriting as a primary asset. So it is that some 25 years on from that time, a great number of fellow travellers will gather this week in North London to celebrate a genre that’s as vague a definition as popmusic. Now it seems, and this is quite handy, if you want to be called Americana – you are, and if someone else calls you that, so be it.

It has been particularly useful when it comes to fitting things in to our two hour show every week. It’s often come down to how in or out of place the record sounds next to the one you’ve played just before it. There is, as you can see, lots of wiggle room. Interestingly the Americana festival in the US has used the term to draw together all manner of R’n’B acts from the sixties and seventies that seem to have been overlooked elsewhere. In a definition of mission creep, they also seem to have assimilated Gospel music….of a certain kind. No one’s complaining, least of all me, but equally no one seems to be arguing about what should or shouldn’t be included. In Country and Folk music some of these debates get a little more heated.

In any case the UK Americana people have their annual shindig this week in London. It’s been going for a few years now and I think I may be a member of something or other to do with it…but am not entirely sure what that means. They do give out awards to UK Americana acts, but again the long list is quite tricky to get your head round as even I, with a radio head-start, find I’m genuinely baffled by most of the names of the acts. I usually get to hear them for the first time on the night, and that can often be a very pleasant surprise.

So, on next week’s AC, I’ll be fresh back from Hackney with all the news of the night and a few new records in my bag. On this week’s show I’m going to play you some Americana gems I may have found at Salvation Sounds all these years ago and bring it right up to date by imagining what artists they’d be displaying in the shop window if (if only) the shop were there today.

Do join me this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland from five past eight or at any time you choose on BBC Sounds.

Looking back to two years ago i have a vivid memory for signing up to perform at my good friend, Roddy Hart’s Roaming Roots show at Celtic Connections. The trouble is, there really was no Celtic Connections, as the pandemic was in full swing and everything had been put ‘on line.’ I totally understood why this had to happen, but reflecting on it later with some of the pals, like Roddy and others, who played and sung with me that night, we all remembered just how weird it all was.

What I do recall is our deep desire to make some kind of music, any kind of music together. We’d been locked up/in/out (choose your preposition) for months. Music – which is about so many things – is certainly about common experience. Someone needs to sing or play and someone else needs to listen; that is the deal. For these long winter months of the pandemic there had been none of that and all of us were desperate to do something, anything together if we could. I signed up immediately when Roddy mentioned the possibility of performing. imagine all of our disappointment when we quickly realised we had to stand six feet apart and there would be no backstage area where we could chat or pass the time of day. So acute were the regulations that I missed friends coming in and out of the Concert Hall as I didn’t recognise their faces behind the masks.

Contrast that to this week when Celtic Connections kicks off in Glasgow and next week in Hackney Empire when we celebrate UK Americana Fest. This Thursday the annual CC fest starts a full run for the first time in three years and there is a host of Americana acts coming into Glasgow to perform. Look out for gigs by Lucinda Williams, Madison Violet, Bonny Light Horseman, Nickel Creek, Aoife O’Donovan, Amythyst Kiah, and Beth Nielson Chapman. It’s an exciting line up and, yes, you can also catch Roddy Hart’s full Roaming Roots show too, if you’re lucky enough to have bought a ticket.

I’m hoping to make it out to see a few shows myself and we’ll have some great CC guest dropping in over the next few weeks. You can hear some of the Americana acts from CC on this week’s Another Country. You will also be able to hear the voice of our very own Nashville Correspondent, Bill DeMain, who will be bringing us the latest news from America’s Music City.

Listen out too for more from Madison Cunningham and Adeem The Artist, both of whom we introduced last week. There will be new records from Morgan Wade, Doug Paisley, Lily Rose and HC McEntire. As ever we’re on BBC Radio Scotland this Tuesday evening from five past eight and any time you choose on BBC Sounds. Do join me if you can.

I’ve probably shared this before, (and I need to warn you that you may not want to hear this) but….I love January.

I think it may go back to school days. I didn’t enjoy returning to school in August as that was always much too long a break. A summer could change everything, and there was no way of knowing where your personal star would be hanging in the brutal new session. Some years you were up, but most likely you would be down. The new year – now that was different. There had only been two weeks holiday and, to be honest, no one had much chance to think about anything other than Christmas and Hogmanay.

The new year brought all manner of unexpected delights. If there was going to be snow then January was the best bet for delivering some good sledging, if not there were new football strips to show off or if the weather was very bad you got to bring your pals over to listen to the albums you’d bought on your record tokens. Hell…I could go on.

However I have to say how much I still embrace these early days of January. I would be the first to acknowledge that this is all very well for me as I have never had a proper job in the last 37 years and, at this point in my life, I think I may well continue to dodge being gainfully employed for a little while yet. The start of the year opens up like a blank page to a songwriter. All possibilities are there and, although you know that much of what you aspire to may well get crossed out or erased; there will, you trust, still be something worth reading come December.

I did a bit of photo browsing recently as I looked over the years our children were still with us in the family home and I was surprised at how much we all managed to fit into a calendar year. Similarly, as we picked out the best songs of 2022 to recap the radio year a few weeks ago, it was wonderful to remember how many great records we’d fallen in love with in the last twelve months.

So, with my optimism for another year in full charge, I will bring you some new names (to us) on this week’s Another Country. I don’t know if these will be familiar acts come December but I do know there is much to enjoy in some of their recent offerings. Get ready to hear some the female voices of Elle King, Madeline Edwards and Mackenzie Carpenter. Prepare yourself to be blown away by the songwriting sophistication of the first non binary artist I can recall us playing on the AC, Adeem The Artist. Listen out too for new recordings from Luke Grimes, Kameron Marlow and the truly exceptional Madison Cunningham. If this all sounds a bit challenging fear not. We will also be bringing you gems from Lainey Wilson, Caitlin Rose and Gabby Barrett plus some familiar songs courtesy of Merle Haggard, Don Williams and Bruce Springsteen. It’s the AC, that’s what we do every Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland and at a time and place of your own choosing on BBC Sounds. Either way, do join me if you can.