Like one in thirty of my fellow Scots I succumbed to the old Covids last week. I was lucky enough to test negative in time for the big Deacon Blue show we had at the weekend at Blenheim Palace (thanks if you were there), but wasn’t able to be on-air last week for the AC. I’m fine now and feel slightly relieved that I managed to catch the virus without having to cancel any more live gigs.

So it’s meant we have lots and lots of new music to play you this week as well as welcoming back an old friend. Darden Smith returns for the first time since he last visited us in 2013. Darden comes to play songs and talk about his new album Western Skies, which is really a fascinating listen. It’s accessible but has such great layers and wise insights from a song writer who has always been a vital listen. Having spent a tour with Darden I know how great his company can be, but I also enjoy his company when I hear his songs. There’s a deep truth in this record celebrating his own home state of Texas as well as throwing a light on the business of getting older. I love songwriters who grow old with you and reflect that narrative in their output. If you do then the second hour of this week’s AC is for you.

We have lots to play you before then including new tracks from future guest Arlo McKinley, old friend Courtney Marie Andrews and the ever green Carrie Underwood. We’ll celebrate Steve Earle’s tribute to Jerry Jeff Walker by playing a track from the new album, a great Jerry Jeff cover and a song from the man himself. We do all of this in a two hour show and you can hear it all on BBC Radio Scotland from five past eight this Tuesday evening or at a time and place of your choosing on BBC Sounds. Live or later, join me if you can.

Elsewhere on the show we have the wonderful new title track to Mary Gauthier’s equally fine new album, ‘Dark Enough To See The Stars,’ new things from Anais Mitchell as well as someone fabulous new recordings from Josh Rouse and Midland. We do it all in two hours of Another Country from five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland or on BBC Sounds whenever or wherever you choose. Join me if you can.

Over the last few weeks, in my live absence from the show, I’ve been on a long holiday on the west coast of the USA. We travelled quite a few miles starting off staying with my daughter in the Bay Area and taking in the California Coast, Nevada and Arizona. It’s only three states but even within that small sample it wasn’t difficult to conclude that there are many Americas.

As a kid I dreamed of visiting the US. I was too busy saving up for instruments during my college years to engage in long travel adventures so I never visited the US until I was thirty years old. Since my first visit I have gone back nearly thirty times and, am excited to meet my first grandchild who will be born in California this summer. It’s a country that always reveals new characteristics on each successive visit and these last few weeks proved no exception to the rule. As much as I love America the division of the last few years seems to loom larger (even to the casual tourist) than it has ever done on any previous visit.

That our holiday was bookended by two atrocious gun massacres cast a long shadow. I’ve been in America when mass shootings have taken place. Ironically I was on holiday there when the children of Dunblane were killed in the worst (non terrorist) mass killing to have ever occurred in the UK. That the name of that town still resonates with all those who remember that event illustrates the contrast in responses of our two countries. In the US however, there are simply too many towns to have suffered similar events for their names to become synonymous with gun violence. What has become more apparent to me in recent years is our outrage at gun ownership is also matched in many parts of the US. Equally there is a large percentage of the population there for whom the only answer to the growing violence is to encourage more people to get armed.

What has interested me is the righteous anger, sorrow and naked outrage by many of the regular artists we support on the AC. You may remember also that last week’s special guest, Eric Church, tried to suggest some gun law reform after the biggest mass shooting ever, which directly affected the country community. That Eric was quickly shut down and spent the next year or so refusing all interviews explains some of the problem reformers are facing. It’s not a great career move in country music to support gun ownership reform.

There are many good voices within the wider country community however. It’s noticeable too how the sense seems to come from women. In all the hand wringing and emotion I witnessed on TV press conferences it was overwhelmingly men who defended the status quo while women…and particularly mothers who wept and called for change. It’s been good to see so many of the women we play regularly on the AC show courage and leadership on gun reform. Let’s make sure we amplify their voices over all the noise that currently fills the airwaves.

We’ll play many of these voices this week as we catch up on the great stories and songs country music tells so well. Join me this Tuesday evening at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland for two hours of great music. It’s country music…our way.

Let me take you to Oregon. It’s the autumn of 1989 and Lorraine and I have rented a car to take us out to the countryside. I can’t remember much other than enjoying the landscape and making a promise to ourselves that we’d come back and spend more time on the west coast. There were pines and far off hills and pulling away from the tour for a day felt like a small holiday in itself. We stopped at what our U.S. friends call a Mom and Pop store which was an extended log cabin in the woods. We were buying soft drinks and snacks when I noticed a tired looking shelf of less than current cassette albums. We’d tired of the radio and it seemed a good chance to get some new music. The trouble was there wasn’t a great choice of anything very new. It was then I spied The Judds compilation.

I’d heard of the Judds as they’d caught the ear of a few opinion formers back in the UK and had been featured on The Whistle Test. So it was we pushed the cassette into the car and set off to go deeper into the woods accompanied by the voices of Naomi and Wynonna. It turned out to be one of the best investments we ever made. The Judds and The Oregon landscape somehow went together like candyfloss and carnivals and the tape stayed in the car as long as the rental lasted.

Years later I saw Wynonna Judd appear at Marty Stuart’s Late Night Jam and I reflected that any artist who ditches their surname seems to lose a little of their soul. A Naomi-less Judds was not the beautiful sound I’d discovered all those years before.

So it was the other day while running my eyes over the CD collection I saw again a favourite album of the duo. Known as Heartland in the US and as Give A Little Love here, it’s a perfect showcase of what made The Judds so great. On this week’s AC I’ll give you some reasons for revisiting this lost classic.

Our main event this week is a session and conversation we recorded with Erin Kinsey during her fleeting visit to Glasgow for C2C last month. Erin’s music had caught my attention via my daughter flagging up Hate This Hometown a few months back. Erin told me the story about that one, how she became a TikTok star and how Dolly Parton covered her song at The Opry.

It’s a packed show this week and it all starts at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland or any time you fancy on BBC Sounds. Join me if you can.

I grew up with Gospel music. It was everywhere around me. Our church, a Brethren assembly, sang from two hymn books. The Sunday morning one was called The Believer’s Hymn Book and on Sunday evenings we all sang from Redemption Songs. It was the evening version I loved more. It was a treasure trove containing big, joyful choruses and catchy refrains all designed to affirm faith and/or drive the seeking soul towards salvation. There would be Hymns asking questions, “Will your anchor hold in the storms of life?,” hymns of encouragement ‘Trust and obey,” or the gory but affirmative, “fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins.”

As we grew up and the modern ways set in the young people of the church rather turned their nose up at some of these old hymns which had found favour with the revival meetings of the early part of the century. Some of these had been brought over by American Evangelists who also wrote the lyrics and music. The most famous team had been Sankey and Moody whose combination of preaching and singing left a lasting repertoire which formed a good deal of the hymnal in mission halls and tent meetings for the best part of the next century.

It was in this context I first heard Willie Nelson’s ‘The Troublemaker,’ an album of hymns and sacred songs arranged by Willie and the family which brought a new energy to the old chestnuts I’d heard since I was knee high. Looking back now, Willie was only following a great country tradition of recording Christmas albums and sacred albums where the artists would put their own spin on a familiar repertoire. That the tradition still exists would be a mild understatement. Only in the last year there have been more Gospel albums added to the groaning pile already in the vaults. Brent Cobb and Carrie Underwood have recently cut their own sacred recordings and in recent years Alan Jackson has brought out two volumes of faith filled songs. All of which is a delight to me, as the repertoire rarely goes too far beyond the classic hymns I learned to sing as a lad.

As it’s Holy Week we thought we’d celebrate this great tradition once more. We’ve cast our net a little wider and we will bring you some fine interpretations from George Jones, Breland, Flatt & Scruggs and Dolly Parton. We’ll also disappear down a couple of interesting rabbit holes in our desire to update you with all that is good in current country music. It all starts at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland this Tuesday evening or any time or place of your choosing from that time onwards on BBC Sounds. Do join me if you can.

They say, and Hailey Whitters sings, that Nashville is a ten year town. The reference is usually made to describe the long apprenticeship undertaken by young artists as they set out to become country stars. It can also prove to be true of some country careers too. There is a thirst in all commercial music to discover and break the next big thing and nurturing something beyond a ten-year-career often proves to be beyond Music Row.

In fairness, country music is a genre which is more accommodating of older artists than many other branches of popular entertainment. There’s many a breakthrough artist I’ve encountered who are getting wider recognition for the first time when they are somewhere north of thirty years old. That, I would suggest, is refreshing. The difficult trick, for any artist, is building a career which will last. How does any singer or group ensure that their audience will stick around as long as they have? I may be biased here, but I think it’s got a lot to do with the songs.

This week we’re going to mark the beginning of one of the most successful country careers ever. That this artist is still alive, making music that matters when so many of his contemporaries have passed on is a tribute to his voice, his energy and his repertoire. And what a repertoire there has been for Willie Nelson. He’s been a soldier, a disc jockey, a song writer, singer, actor and a country outlaw and, in the sixty five years since he first released a record, he has proved to be one of the world’s most popular entertainers, whose appeal and fame goes well beyond the boundaries of country music. It took Willie five years to have a hit single and on this week’s AC we’re going to remind you of the moment the world first fell in love with Willie. We’ll also play you something from the new album he’s about to release at the grand old age of eighty nine. I suspect this is a sentence I will repeat, with a slight edit to the numbers, over the next few years.

Elsewhere we have some Grammy news and a significant anniversary for the man who first gave us the Blue Suede Shoes, the great Carl Perkins. A regular traveller with the Johnny Cash live entourage we’ll play you some early Carl as well as a great Johnny and Carl duet.

It’s also a week we’ll play you plenty of new, young acts too. Listen out for AC debutantes The Whitmore Sisters,  Kaitlin Butts and John Craigie. It all starts at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland this Tuesday evening or on BBC Sounds at a time and a place of your own choosing.

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.