I bought this T shirt (pic below) a couple of years ago. It was bought on tour, never the wisest purchase window so forgive me, but it sort of summed up much of what you feel as a songwriter. You can pour your heart and soul into what you are currently doing but you can be 100% sure your audience would happily ignore it all in favour of a song from your earlier work. Incidentally this is not a complaint, it is merely an observation I’ve made  based on my own preferences on attending gigs. I’m thinking of the wide smile that spread over my face when Gillian Welch and David Rawlings opened with Elvis Presley Blues at last week’s show in Glasgow. There was a definite sense of, ‘Phew, we’re off to a good start’ within the room.

On this week’s Another Country we will join with our old friend and Nashville correpondent Bill DeMain whose custom it is to bring us an early listen to a new artist whose music he’s been enjoying. I probably don’t need to remind you but Bill it was who brought Eli Paper Boy Read, Margo Price and many others to our attention. On this week’s show I know he has another new name to bring to us and I often think how much we will hold on to that first song we ever heard. It’s the one that go us hooked. Ashley McBride’s Dive Bar in Delonega, Kacey’s Arrow or Luke’s Hurricane..you can add your own in here. As guilty as my own audience I return to these songs again and again.

So with this in mind let me also draw your attention to the latest Bob Dylan release. Through The Open Window (bootleg Series Volume 18) may be the most fascinating collection yet in that beautifully curated series. On this album (double if you have less money and time or 8 CD /139 tracks if these strictures don’t concern you) we look through that window into Bob Dylan in his house, on early folk records and his first recordings in a New York studio. We see the artist emerging and we hear the voice and style changing. There’s a fascinating early version of Don’t Think Twice where he strums rather than picks and I find myself wondering if he hadn’t yet mastered his picking style for which he is so well known. In a time when Dylan performs while barely mumbling a word to his audience there are long loquacious ramblings which are both insightful and very funny. And of course there are brilliant, brilliant songs which foretell the sixty year career to follow. What rounds this off however is the fact that, in Dylan’s case he is on a five year tour of his last album which he plays (in almost its entirety) every evening and people seem to be more that happy. As I’ve often reflected; there’s Bob and then there’s the rest of us.

We’ll share some of the great moments from that Bootleg release tonight as well as bringing you great music from Cale Tyson, Tyler Ballgame, Lucinda Williams and Jake Owen. It all starts at five past eight this Tuesday evening on BBC Sounds or BBC Radio Scotland. Join me if you can.

It’s a beautiful  late October day and I’m looking out of my studio window as the autumn trees bend and sake in the breeze. The leaves are all golden and once more I understand why the romantics loved this season more than any other. Perhaps what we enjoy about the post clock-reset is the certainty that it’s really OK to light a fire and put on woollen garments happily discarded over the summer months. (that last bit was aimed at my southern readers as Scottish summers usually don’t allow for the shedding of any layers)

It’s also the season where we enjoy going out to be entertained in indoor spaces. This week alone there are plenty of live attractions coming your way and (if Chuck Prophet is still this side of the Atlantic) opportunities to witness rock n roll shows that will melt your heart and change your life for the better. This week I’ll get to see the long awaited Gillian Welch and David Rawlings show and last night I saw Brandy Clark for the first time ever. Brandy curated a brilliant gig which touched on most of her best songs as well as showcasing songs which may appear on record next year. Judging by the reaction of a very enthusiastic Glasgow audience, Brandy has made a connection for life with the city. I’ll play a highlight moment on this week’s AC.

As I pulled the car out of the drive last night to see Brandy, I was serenaded on my journey with one of Mr Murdoch’s fine playlists which sprung into action as soon as I turned on the engine. It happened to land on Will Clark and his latest album Carolina Lightning which also happens to be my soundtrack as I write. There’s something about bluegrass music which puts a smile on your face in a way no other music can do. A few years ago when Steve Earle was touring with the Del McCoury band he visited Scotland with his bluegrass show. A very well known promoter was known to be rubbing his hands with glee that he could put on a high selling show where there were a number of musicians on the stage and only one microphone required! It’s the joy of watching the musicians take their solo round that one microphone that makes live bluegrass so special. Let’s get more of it over here, I say.

You’ll hear Will Clark’s excellent new album on this week’s AC as well as a little Bob Dylan rabbit hole I want to take you down. It’s only a few weeks until Bob comes to Scotland. Each time we never can know if it will be the final visit but I intend to celebrate what must be my favourite album of the last few years. Rough and Rowdy Ways (if you’ve not heard it, go buy it) is perhaps one of the finest records of Bob’s career. It’s perfectly sequenced and the fact that the live show leans so heavily on the album only endears the experience more. I could go on….

I will this Tuesday. Join me from five past eight on BBC Sounds or BBC Radio Scotland if you can.

Hello again.

It’s been a break from the Radio Blog for me, but over these last few weeks I may have waved at you from a stage or joined you in singing a song. If you have been on The Great Western Road Trip over September and October then I’m grateful as you were wonderful audiences. More news of live appearances coming very soon!

I’d also like to say a huge thanks to all those of you who messaged me to say how much they enjoyed Small Acts Of Love at the Citizens Theatre over these last couple of months too. Working with Dominic Hill, his great theatre company and my co writer, Frances Poet was a real joy.

All of this has meant that I left my live duties as your AC host for a few weeks. However the BBC were good enough to let me leave you with a few special shows including 90’s Country Women, Tom Waits Birthday Special and a 50 year celebration of the amazing career of Emmylou Harris. Talking of Emmylou, if you tune in to this week’s live broadcast this coming Tuesday evening you will hear exclusive news of Emmylou which will bring great pleasure to her many fans who listen in. You can still listen to that all this specials as well as my Country Connections show via BBC Sounds. In the meantime there has been so much going on in country music we need to share with you. It seems Luke Combs may not only be a country music superstar but, in fact, second only to Coldplay in live ticket  demand in the UK. As I write this the news has just broken of a 3rd (THIRD!) Wembley Stadium show next summer in addition to his two Edinburgh Murrayfield gigs.

I think we can safely say that country music, far from being a weird subset, has become part of and as big as the mainstream. I also hope this means that some of these country music fans start to dig a little deeper and find the joys of artists they’ve not yet discovered. As ever, I’d like to suggest The AC as a perfect way to start that discovery. On this week’s show for example you’ll hear artists including Will Clark, Waylon Wyatt and The Head and The Heart. If these are new names to you then you might be relieved to know we’re also celebrating 110 Years since the birth of Nashville’s legendary producer, Owen Bradley whose stewardship introduced Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and Buddy Holly to the world. We’ll also celebrate imminent visits of Brandy Clark and Chuck Prophet to Scotland. All this and and so much more in a packed two hours of country music that starts at five past eight this coming Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Sounds. Do join me if you can.

Dear Listener,

My apologies for the absence of the Radio Blog last week (and this one too in truth) but life caught up with me. Small Acts of Love (a show which for which I wrote the songs) opened at The Citizens in Glasgow last week and, as luck would have it, we are deep in rehearsal for the forthcoming Deacon Blue tour. If either of these runs is news to you then check out appropriate places for tickets…I recommend them both highly!

The Radio Blog will return, but not until late October when I should be back from the peregrinations of rock and will happily return to live Tuesday evening shows of Another Country. In the meantime we are broadcasting some very special two hour shows over the next few weeks. It all starts this week with our Ashley Monroe special. The first hour features songs written by Ashley and various vocal collaborations. In the second hour we have a long conversation with Ashley about her new record Tennessee Lightning as well as tracks from the album and some gorgeous country picks by the artist herself.

Over the next few weeks you can listen in to more special shows. On 23rd September you’ll hear my Country Connections show which (we think) manages to link every song we play to the following track. Connections of singer, songwriter or something significant in the production take us from The Chicks to Jonny Cash and all points in between.

On 30th September we will celebrate 50 years since Emmylou Harris released her debut albums Pieces of The Sky and Elite Hotel. It will feature solo performances, her many duets and some beautiful extra curricular activities by Emmylou over the years.

As promised we will finally get round to our celebration of 90’s Women Country Artists on  7th October.It was a a great decade for female singer songwriters and we have compiled an impressive playlist which may well get you diving back to your record collection to listen again to some brilliant albums.

If all this isn’t enough you will get a chance to hear again our Tom Waits special first broadcast last year. You’ll hear some great tracks by Tom as well as some beautiful covers of Tom Waits songs by country and American artists.  That show will be on 14th October.

I hope you enjoy these shows. They’ve been compiled with love and care. The Blog too will be taking a short autumnal break and return with gusto on the 21st of October when we’ll have so many new songs to play you. I hope I’ll meet some of you on the road over the next few weeks. 

I was slightly late to the party where Van Morrison is concerned. I missed out the early seventies and really only caught up in the early eighties through my best pal, Mr. Perkin Warbeck, who had always been a devotee of the man. Van love really came properly when I met my wife and she guided me through the early years and hidden gems. Around 1990 we did a gig in Tipperary where we were second on the bill to Van. That night I thought we played pretty well and did all the things which make you feel as if you should be feeling quite smug about the hour or so you were on the stage. So smug in fact that we took seats out in the stadium to watch Van to whom we thought we may have given some pause for thought. Then Van came on. Reader we weren’t even close.

That night Van debuted songs from his new album, Enlightenment, and by the time he’d got through the opener I knew he was dealing aces with his Real Gone beating ours hands down.

Earlier in the day the Irish promoter had come into our dressing room and said, ‘Would you like to say hello to Van?’ Sure I thought..then started getting nervous on the way to his dressing room/tent. ‘You do one of my songs,’ he said. ‘Van’ I almost blurted out, ‘we pretty well do them all.’ He was referring to a live version of Angeliou we’d released and he seemed to approve. After that  I made a quick exithaving had a beautifully happy Van moment. Yes, I still tell my kids about it.

We’ve been on a bill together since but I decided to leave Van and let the mystery be as Iris Dement wisely counselled in song. Van is a phenomenon who has made some of the most significant to rocknsoulnjazznbluesncountry that  is only possible to categorise as Van Morrison. There have been many who have come close to channeling his influence and you can hear it in Springsteen, Graham Parker, Elvis Costello, Rickie Lee Jones and so many more. I don’t think Tom Waits would be fully Tom had he never heard Van’s music. I have no concrete evidence of this but I think I’m on solid ground.

Van tuned 80 over the weekend and in honour of that milestone we thought we would celebrate his in fluence on country music and country music’s influence on him. We’ll play Van songs and country classics through the lens of Van in the second hour of this week’s show. Elsewher we have an unreleased classic from Charley Pride, new releases from Ken Pomeroy, Lainey Wilson and a fabulou track from another Irish lover of country music – CMAT. If that’s not enough we’ll have a beautiful new recording by another great octogenarian, Mavis Staples. It’s all within two hours of Another Country live this Tuesday evening at five past eight on BBC Sounds or BBC Radio Scotland. Join me if you can.

Ever since The Beatles made it possible artists of all kinds who are vaguely associated with popular music have been encouraged to be the writers of their own material. In all truth it is the only thing I was ever interested in doing and anyone who knows me will tell you the list of songs I can cover is very short. When I decide to do a cover on tour it’s usually a job to learn it up and immediately forget it afterwards. But cover we will and cover we must. Right now we are planning a few good things to touch upon come September – hope you can make it along to hear them.

Over the summer there have been some great tours crisscrossing the Atlantic and the southern US States which have featured many of the artists we favour on Another Country. I’ve been keeping a close eye on the stories coming from Willie Nelson’s Outlaw Tour which is celebrating its 10th Anniversary with Bob Dylan playing on every show from May to September. Bob doesn’t change the show around too much these days but often his own songs feel a little like a slightly oblique cover version. I’m probably  not the only one who recognises a song until a couple of minutes in. But that would suggest a disapproval I don’t intend as some of his reinventions are my favourite moments in the shows I’ve seen recently.

On this week’s AC we aere going to celebrate the cover version by playing some current stand out covers popping up on summer dates. You will hear Bob, Willie Nelson, Margo Price, Luke Combs and The Castellows. The thing about the cover is it often gives us more of an inkling to the thought process of the artist as much as the songs of their own they choose to include. It also happens on recordings too when you think of  Eric Church’s recent album closing with Tom Waits’ Clap Hands. It’s a splendid take on the song too, that had it come a few months earlier, would have certainly been a high point in our Tom celebrations a few months back.

This week I’m also indebted to some fine listener suggestions which have come in over the last week. Look out for a great Neil Young country track and two new artists witnessed live by regular listeners. We shall also celebrate a summer visit by Chappell Roan to Edinburgh this week and remind you of fab things coming your way in this long summer which seems to go on and on. it’s all on BBC Radio Scotland FM or BBC Sounds from five past eight this Tuesday evening. Join me if you can.

On my first day of my short lived teaching career there was a general staff meeting. The headmaster kindly introduced me to all my colleagues. On hearing the announcement my immediate boss, my principal teacher, leaned over to me and said: Ricky Ross! What kind of name is that? It sounds like a country and western singer.

At that time (1983) this was NOT cool. I’m pretty sure these days it would be taken as a compliment. Bill DeMain, our Nashville correspondent who joins me on this week’s show, used to have a running competition along the lines of, ‘Is this a Country star or a London Underground Staion?’ You can see his point. I think I’d want to hear thise first couple of Stamford Brook albums, wouldn’t you? My own personal fave name, however belongs to a country star who died 50 years ago. Lefty Frizzell was only 47 years old at the time of his passing and he left behind a turbulent life with many of the stereotypical lifestyle habit we have come to expect from artists of that era. Lefty was a true star and on this week’s AC Bill will tell us more about his music and his life 75 years after one of his classic songs reached the top of the charts.

That’s not all folks. I’ve been rather taken with a new act signed to Loose Music, Greazy Alice. The band are from New Orleans and their own story is inspired by a seminal American singer. Loose explain:

Greazy Alice is a character from Terry Allen’s seminal 1975 song cycle Juarez, a working girl haunting a cantina on the Mexican border “Well I’m sitting in a border palace, suckin’ on Dos Equis beer, suckin’ with Greazy Alice” – “Border Palace” by Terry Allen.

This will give us the only excuse I need to play you a great version of a Terry Allen song I’ve long wanted to play on the show. You will also hear fabulous new things from Ashley Monroe who comes to Scotland next week as well as Larry Fleet who’s in Glasgow on Wednesday. I’m delighted to bring you new music from Hannah White and a great collaboration between Zach Bryan and The Kings of Leon. I had a gushing notice from my San Francisico based family this week saying how wonderful their joint gig was last weekend and it really did make me feel very jealous. All of this in two hours I hear you ask? Oh, yes, and we start at five past eight on BBC Scotland FM so do join me if you can there or on BBC Sounds.

I had to look, but I was pleased to say they were still there. These first two Oasis album nestling, undisturbed in the O section on the shelves. ‘Definitely Maybe’ and ‘Whats The Story’ sitting there nicely awaiting a re-spin some 30 years on. They’ve survived a few culls which have been less forgiving to some big albums. But, as I write I’m looking down on these two CD’s and a bonus B side compilation and recalling what attracted me to them in the first place.

I guess, for me, there was something about the straightforward nature of the songs and that voice. Big, warm, distorted guitars playing all the usual chords always makes for a good start, but there was also an ache and an ambition that couldn’t quite be ignored which drew me in. These guitars were important though. Suddenly, after years of drum machines, loops and beats, guitar, bass and drums were back in fashion and music shops were packed out with young kids turning up the amps and blasting out Live Forever. For that alone Oasis need thanked.

And what, I hear you ask, has this to do with country music? Nothing really except at BBC Radio Scotland over last weekend this week there is a recognition that the lads are in town and 200,000 gig goers can’t all be wrong. So, to this week the AC will doff a bucket hat to Manchester’s finest and play an hour of country songs celebrating, warning and occasionally over indulging in Cigarettes and Alcohol.

You’ll hear Hardy, George Jones, Patsy Cline, Lainey Wilson and Alan Jackson holding a cold one while they sing songs in praise or fear of the demon drink. What happens when they light up while the beer flows? You’ll need to tune in to find out.

Earlier we’ll catch up with some great new music. Listen out for new cuts from Morgan Wade, Joshua Hedley and The Barr Brothers. We first met these brothers a good few years ago when they performed a memorable session in studio one and, if memory serves me well, their set up involved a spinning bicycle wheel! We’ll also get back to our year long Neil Young celebration with a great suggestion from a listener. You can have a Neil track played too. All you need to do is write to me rickyross@bbc.co.uk and pick a country tinged Neil song and supply the reasons you’ve chosen it.

Do we do all of this in two hours? Oh yes. It all starts at five past eight this Tuesday evening on BBC Sounds and BBC Radio Scotland . Join me if you can.

On this week’s Another Country we’re going to celebrate a band that have finally decided to call it quits after twenty five years. I admire their ability to make the decision though, having decided to split up a band after eight years then reform it five years later, I kinda feel there may be an encore still to come.

For clarity the band I’m talking about is Madison Violet who have been guests and favoured artists on the AC since we first discovered them back in 2009. It seems we were still late to the party even then as they had eight years of previous behind them even at that point. However I have warm memories of sessions and guest spots by Lisa MacIsaac and Brenley MacEachern over these last sixteen years or so and, hearing that this would be there final tour, we thought it only right to ask them to come in and refelect on that decision and on the years of making music together.

We spoke before the last show they played at Cottiers in Glasgow which was promoted , as ever, by The Fallen Angels Club via Kevin Morris who is such a great supporter of Americana music in the city. It was fascination to hear the two women talking openly and honestly about the great times they’ve enjoyed together but also to hear how difficult some of that time has been. Like me, I know you will be moved at how the two women have faced up to grief, personal health issues and prejudice over these last years. In many ways Madison Violet’s own journey has opened the path to so many other women who have now felt able to open their personal lives to their audience. The decisions to do that have not always been straightforward or even voluntary and in a remarkable story you will hear Lisa and Brenley talk emotionally about the toll it has taken. What comes through is a great story of friendship and deep love of making music which makes a fascinating second hour of this week’s show. I urge you to catch it.

Before all that we will have some great new music from Sierra Ferrell, Jesse Wells and Nikki Lane. You’ll hear a great return to form from Tift Merritt and a lovely throwback to ten years ago when Jason Isbell first released Something More Than Free. We’re on BBC Radio Scotland FM and BBC Sounds from five past eight this coming Tuesday evening. Join me if you can.

One of the joys of a hotel stay is turning on a TV and remembering that Frazier gets another spin every Channel 4 morning. Waking up late last Sunday I caught the episode where the eponymous hero sets out to write his own obituary so he can clarify his life goals. Eventually his father wisely counsels that finding lost Inca gold and translating Ovid might be a little fanciful. On reflection Frazier re drafts his obit.

As ever in fine comedy there was a grain of truth to the story line. All of us have a list of things we hoped might happen but never quite achieved. I know there are little journeys, quests and learnings I hoped I’d master long before now and certainly before I die that, on reflection, now seem a little less likely to happen. There is, however, an upside to all of that. As often as we let go of the unobtainable we equally rejoice in the unexpected. Stuff happens that we hadn’t factored into our life plans which, in all kinds of great ways, changes our lives for the better. Sometimes too we are just not ready to do everything in our youth or early twenties so, it seems, some of us get round to some of these things a little later than planned and heck, who’d have thought it, but we do it better than we might have done as youngsters.

All of this came to mind when I opened a package sent to me at AC HQ last week. It seems Rosalie James has returned to making music after working elsewhere and facing some daunting personal issues. However she has made a very fine record which I’ve been enjoying spinning on my home turntable and if I can, will try to sneak in an appropriate track over the next few weeks. (though her record is really not country, it has elements of roots music I know you would enjoy)

On a similar theme Patty Griffin who, let’s face it, has never made a bad record, has (in her sixty second year) just released a particularly fine one. I often wish Patty would drop an album a year but I’m grateful when any come along and especially glad to hear her voice on tape again given the health issues she has faced over the last few years. We’ll tell you all about this moving record and play you a couple of tracks from it on this week’s show.

We’ll also feature songs from the excellent new Tyler Childers LP from which, I suspect, we will be playing songs over the course of the next year or so. Produced by Rick Rubin it is perhaps going to be the biggest album yet from one of the most exciting artists in country music. Patty, Tyler and some other fine artists will all be on from five past eight this coming Tuesday evening on BBC Sounds and BBC Radio Scotland FM. Join me if you can.