It’s funny how many times I’ve heard the name, Charlie Worsham mentioned. People, country people it seems all love Charlie Worsham. It’s not difficult to see why. Having played his music over a long number of years, intentionally or unintentionally, (I’ll explain that later) it was a joy to be sitting chatting to the man himself a couple of months ago in Glasgow.

On that day Charlie had been a busy fellow. He’d crossed the Atlantic, completed a soundcheck for that evening’s headline act and slipped in a solo performance at King Tut’s in the afternoon. To look at Charlie’s eternally youthful complexion and how relaxed and generally chipper he seemed you could imagine another couple of musical commitments before bedtime wouldn’t phase him. Later on, as part of Dierks Bentley’s brilliant band he played beautiful guitar and mandolin and smiled and laughed as Dierks did his level best to trip up his sidemen…all in the best possible taste.

Charlie Worsham spends so much time making other people’s music sound better it seems he barely gets time to make his own music. However this C2C he has taken the time to play some of his own songs at a fringe event in King Tuts and the AC has been given access to that gig from which we’ll play a few tracks on this week’s show. We’ll also have a sneak preview of songs which will be part of the next Charlie solo album. It’s one I’m looking forward to hugely as Charlie’s own voice has a great way of welcoming you in and doing what great country artists always do so well: telling you a story.

So, let me explain that ‘unintentional’ comment. I realise we probably play Charlie’s guitar, mandolin, dobro or banjo on a very regular basis. His playing has graced so many of our favourite tracks of the last ten years and more. Charlie has contributed so much to other artists’ records it’s nice to see some of these acts returning the favour. If you need a quick primer try the Luke Combs duet on Learning To Pray – a song from Charlie’s debut record album. But it’s Charlie’s playing that has made him everyone’s favourite picker. You can hear that picking on records by Eric Church, Kip Moore, Lainey Wilson, Kacey Musgraves and many more. Arriving in Tennessee from Mississippi he played live at The Opry aged 12 and has been in studios or on the road ever since.

On this week’s AC we have given over hour two of the show to a Charlie Worsham hour. You’ll hear his songs and the songs he’s played on as well as cuts from that gig in King Tuts. As well as that you’ll hear Charlie in conversation with me backstage at C2C and like the Nashville community, you’ll find yourself falling in love with Charlie. It alls starts this Tuesday evening at five past eight on BBC Sounds and BBC Radio Scotland. Do join me if you can.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been doing a clear out. In truth it’s my 18 monthly CD cull with the exception that this year I’m putting all the CD’s back in proper alphabetical order.

I told my barber – an avid record collector himself – about all of this and he nodded sagely before explaining that he likes to do the same. ‘I mean, it’s not over complicated, Ricky,’ he confided, ‘just alphabetical for the artist then each album in chronological order.’ I realised I still had some way to go.

One of the most interesting aspects of ‘the cull’ as I like to call it is what makes a keeper and what propels the rejected LP towards my local Marie Curie shop. (if you want to double your CD collection head over to Shawlands now). I realised quite early on that there were many albums I really didn’t know at all. Perhaps I played one song on the radio or kept it because I thought I might return to listening, but ten or fifteen years on, I never have. It’s not that I don’t want to hear that record again, it’s just that, well…given the time we’ve all got on this planet it’s really not possible to listen to everything. Taking into account also we now live as a couple in a house made for a family of six, we shouldn’t really be filling it up any more with unwanted clutter. It’s not the first cull we’ve completed either, and yet somehow we have a shelf full of cookery books despite a very clear memory I hold of donating a car-boot’s worth of the dam things a few years back. Are they breeding?

The interesting question however is not really about what you throw out but what is the criteria for a ‘keeper?’ Almost 95% of that is nostalgia and sentiment. Even though the CD as a product is only 40 odd years old certain selections pull on my heartstrings and I can still remember where and why I bought them. So the task of the cull took a little longer as I wandered back and forward to the CD player to try to work out if I still loved certain records. In all honesty I was a little taken aback with some albums I could have sworn were favourites, which, as they spun round or crunched their digits or whatever failed to bring the expected smile across my face. I daren’t say which of these fell into this category but I will admit that my own listening preferences have changed. I’m less tolerant of the ‘original for originality’s sake’ recording and probably keener on the song that speaks to me despite the lack of exceptional studio wizardry. Somehow, in this phase of life (old I guess you would say) in my own writing and in other people’s I’m drawn closer and closer to  the simplicity of a song. Perhaps, as some have often asked me, I’m more influenced by country music than I ever thought possible.

However I keep a playlist on my Spotify of all that I hear and love that falls outside Americana or Country and often things come in that demand a listen. The inevitable will happen: the clear space on the shelf will disappear and some new additions will take up the slack awaiting another cull a couple of years down the line. If they make that, they can be sure they’ll join the keepers.

There’s a few lovely things on this week’s show that are certainly in my keepers list. We have a great Neil Young selection from a listener and we also mark what would have been Levon Helm’s 85th Birthday as well as cleberating the great John Fogerty’s 80th with a return to the chat we had a couple of years back. We hope you enjoyed our Mary Chapin Carpenter hour last week as we will also have a little bonus from that session.

All of this is available from five past eight on BBC Sounds and BBC Radio Scotland this Tuesday evening. Do join me live if you can.

There’s always been talk of solo female artist from the eighties and nineties exemplifying a time when country music was in a golden period. It’s not hard to see why. Just think of some of the great names who emerged in that glorious decade: Roseanne Cash, Nanci Griffith, Faith Hill, Trisha Yearwood, Suzy Boguss, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Shania…the Chicks. (heck, feel free to add your own names in here)

I think these are all artists we’ve played regularly on the AC over the many years we’ve been on air. Some of them were also part of that ‘new country’ movement which included singers like Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Gillian Welch and Rodney Crowell. Something ‘real’ was going on which made a connection with people like me who hadn’t paid close attention up until that point to what was coming out of Nashville.

There’s one name which I haven’t included in that long list which brings me to the very special guest joining me on this week’s show. Mary Chapin Carpenter is another artist who emerged in that creative period whose songs struck a chord in their home country but also made a mark with UK audiences who have remained smitten by the music. 

Mary Chapin has turned the focus back on to her own life for her first new solo album in some years. Intriguingly it’s not the only record to be released this year with her name attached. Earlier in the year her collaboration with two greats of Scottish folk music, Karine Polwart and Julie Fowlis also came out. The three artists hooked up at Celtic Connections at some point and this led to a collaboration that has already toured these islands.

We are very excited to welcome Mary Chapin to PQ’s Studio One where we have hosted so many great sessions over the years. She will join us to sing acoustic versions of songs from the new album, Personal History as well as picking some intriguing country records for us to play. I do believe she may well also sing a cover version of a personal favourite too. All will be revealed on this week’s very special show.

We’ll also have some significant anniversaries, great new tracks and another personal Neil Young story and country selection from one of our regular listeners. Don’t forget I want to hear your own Neil country picks and share your stories. The best way to tell me is via email: rickyross@bbc.co.uk

Do join me for this very special AC night from eight P.M. on BBCSounds or BBC Radio Scotland.

Today is Lorraine, my wife’s birthday. I’m always slightly jealous as hers, invariably, falls on one of the loveliest days of the year. Mid May in Scotland is usually the best weather we can hope for and this year has not disappointed.  My arrival, on the other hand, came three days before Christmas and is easily submerged into other festive celebrations.

We have enjoyed a few great birthday days in various locations and situations but one particular birthday will never be forgotten. We were on tour in 1989 and shortly before the tour began the tragedy at Hillsborough in Sheffield took place. Within  a few weeks of that awful day we found ourselves on tour in Liverpool where, before any internet, bundles of letters and notes were left for us at the stage door of the Royal Court Theatre. The letters contained stories of family and friends who’d been caught up in the disaster. In some cases we were told of young men who had tickets for our show but had been killed in the Leppings Lane end of Sheffield Wednesday’s football ground. Inevitably we knew we had to take a moment to remember those lost lives and grieving families during the show.

I’m told we played a song called Take Me To The Place which is essentially a reworking of Abide With Me and during that song and even before the audience threw large bunches of flowers on to the front of the stage.  As the song closed the Liverpool voices took over and 2,000 people sang You’ll Never Walk Alone back to us. I turned round to the band to get the gig going again as, by now, I felt so emotionally exhausted by the strength of love and sorrow in the room that we needed to somehow change the mood in some way. Needless to say the band were equally frozen in grief and it took all our effort to bring the gig back to some kind of normal order. There was, however, nothing normal about that night. The gig seemed to form a bond between Deacon Blue and the Liverpool audience that has remained very special since that time. A couple of days later we visited Sheffield and there Lorraine and I were asked to visit a young man (who later died) who was in a coma in the local hospital.

36 years on memories of a unique evening still resonate. For the people of the city however insult was added to injury in the months and years following as blame was aimed at supporters and responsibility for the deaths of the victims had to be dragged out of the Police and those responsible for ensuring the safety of football fans. The pain still lingers and to the city’s credit, those victims and their families are never forgotten and, only a few weeks ago, tributes were again made as the football club paid tribute to the Ninety Seven. So many were so young and in those years in between 1989 and 2025 so many hard birthdays have been endured by those who loved them.

Liverpool is, of course, Britain’s very own music city. So much of what we now revere about pop music was formed in and around Merseyside. In America’s Music City, Nashville, there is still a deep love of everything Beatles related. I’m pleased to say that one of the people who loves that music more than anyone is our Nashville correspondent, Bill DeMain who wil be joining me on this week’s radio show. Expect Bill to tell you some stories about songs you know and love as well as a nod to events in and around Music Row. We’ll be on air from eight on BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Sounds. Join me if you can.

I’d sort of forgotten. However I was reminded by social media that thirty eight years ago our first album came out. I’d made a small independent album a few years before and Jim, our keyboard player had played on other people’s albums, but to make our own record had been our ambition. An album was such a permanent thing. A gig happened then quickly disappeared into the ether, but an album, well….no one could take that away.

And so it seems, people still listen, all these years on. For that we’re grateful. But the album as a piece of art is enduring in tough times. The novel, the film, poem and painting have survived and there is no doubt about the endurability of the song, but the record album – twelve songs or more around a loose idea or time – is struggling to keep its head above water.

It’s not that people don’t love music or consume music. They consume it an even faster rate than before, it’s actually because of the volume of music available to all of us that makes the business of listening from beginning to end a slightly onerous task. Then comes the second problem; where to buy them. Leafing through the racks of records in the local store was a lunchtime activity for us as schoolboys growing up in Dundee. Swapping, taping and lending was the way we expanded our record collection. (Apologies now Sheena Matthews – you never got Hunky Dory back).

Streaming, as far as we can estimate, is here to stay. Even for me, an album lover, owning the CD or the vinyl doesn’t preclude opening my laptop or hooking up my phone to the kitchen ghetto blaster and letting Spotify take its algorithmic course. However, occasionally something comes along which demands the full listen from beginning to end and last Friday with a new Eric Church album arriving that moment presented itself. On Saturday morning, as I prepared some lunch for old friends arriving I played Evangeline v The Machine from beginning to end and it did not disappoint. In fact on EC’s record it actually encourages you to keep listening by quietly segueing the tracks. It’s a great listen and gently moves the dial of country music one more time to create a new thing which, I’m delighted to say, is always fresh when Eric Church is at the helm. On this week’s show I’ll play a couple of key tracks from the record which might make you do what I will be doing as soon as I get into town next week: picking up a physical copy.

On last week’s show we played Eric Church followed by Avery Annna as they both referenced Monsters beneath their beds. On this week’s show we’ll be playing out a conversation with Avery I recorded during her visit to C2C in March. Her new album comes out a week on Friday and it’s based around fan letters she has received over the last couple of years. Titled Let Go Letters it promises to be another piece of work you’ll want to listen to from beginning to end. Listen in as we talk through letters and more this Tuesday from eight. Join me on BBC Radio Scotland or BBC Sounds if you can.

I was working with an old friend the other evening. Davie Scott, of Pearlfishers fame, is steeped in music and has spent many hours ruminating on the business of wrting songs. His mantra has never changed: ‘If you want a song you should ask a songwriter.’

I always understood the importance of that axiom as, for many years in the old business of music, it was assumed that all artists should also be song writers. Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and The Beatles started it the fashion because they all happened to be great, but it doesn’t always mean you have to write your own songs. To be honest, I was less than chartitable about this on the first few years of presenting Another Country. I’d look down at the credits and I’d sniffily pass on some great records because they didn’t come from the pen of the singer. More fool me.

The great tradition of A&R in the old days was to match an artist to the right song. In fact it was often the job of the producer to be the person who would select the material. My old music publisher Richard Rowe told me of Sunday evenings sitting around the record player in his Dad’s house sifting through American 45’s that had still not come out in the UK in order for him to find songs for appropriate artists on his Decca label.

Increasingly the song has become assembled by a large cast of writers. It’s often very difficult to imagine what four or five people might have done on a 3 chord country song about trucks and beers lasting three minutes. But..if they were in the room they are on the credits. It has been pleasantly surprising to find newer artist who we’ve played in recent weeks like Tanner Adell, Sierra Hull and Crys Matthews taking feeling confident enough to put out songs written entirely on their own.

Allen Toussaint

On this weeks show we’ll highlight a couple of great solo writers who have written massive songs in country music. Rodney Crowell has written some brilliant songs which have been covered by everyone from Emmylou Harris to Van Morrison. Last Friday Willie Nelson released his latest album, Oh What A Beautiful World, which is made up entirely of songs written by Rodney. We shall also play two great songs by Kenny O’Dell whose most famous song topped the country chart fifty two years ago this week. And finally we will play a classic song which became a country hit more because of the artist than the song itself. Glen Campbell’s version of Allen Toussaint’s Southern Nights came about because Jimmy Webb was playing the original release to Glen one day. Glen loved it so much he whipped the 45 off the turntable and shouted to Jimmy that he had to borrow it as he had a great idea. The next time Jimmy heard the song Glen’s voice was coming out of a car radio and the song had been re imagined and released.

So…on this week’s AC we shall celebrate some great songs, old and new. We’re on Radio Scotland from five past eight and available on BBC Sounds any time after that. Do join me of you can.

Last Tuesday I enjoyed an unusual privilege: attending a gig on an AC night. For technical reasons we need to pre record some shows and I took the chance of being free to catch my old friend Sam Outlaw on his visit to Cottiers Theatre in Glasgow’s West End.

The gig was promoted by Kevin Morris via his Fallen Angels Club which has been supporting live music for many years before the AC has been on air. It was a real joy to see how packed out the theatre was for Sam’s show. Not only that but the Fallen Angels audience love a support act and were all there early for Hannah Aldridge too. (something my youngest and I didn’t manage). He and I however had the best night. Sam, perfectly accompanied by Hannah and others was on great form as he played through his great back catalogue. Highlights? Too many to mention but it was great to hear Angeleno, Love Her For A While and that kind dedication on Tender Heart (one of my favourites).We’ll play another stand out live highlight on this week’s show.

As well as enjoying Sam’s set it was great to meet so many folk who listen to the show. This is a real bonus for me as in radio, you are never really sure who is listening. Someone – please remind me – mentioned they were in Nashville and encountered the multi talented Chris Scruggs. Chris, as many of you will recognise, is the son of country royalty. Earl Scruggs along with his partner Lester Flatt was responsible for bringing bluegrass music into the mainstream and if you’ve never heard Foggy Mountain Breakdown then I suggest it might well be the very thing to lift your post holiday blues.

On the AC we love nothing more than a country connection and on this week’s show we shall start the two hour collection with a Chris Scruggs collaboration before we move on to his regular band leader, Marty Stuart. You’ll have to tune in to hear how we do that but let me draw your attention to a significant anniversary. It’s 90 years since the birth of  WS Fluke Holland the original drummer of Johnny Cash’s Tennessee Three. In the 80’s Johnny’s band was joined by Marty Stuart and Johnny’s extended family continue to make great music as you will hear from his former son in law Rodney Crowell who’s newest offering is a duet with Johnny’s old Highwayman partner, Willie Nelson.

It’s country music folks and we love it. There are plenty of new acts to celebrate too and you will hear it all from 8 this Tuesday evening on BBC Sounds or BBC Radio Scotland. Join me if you can.

Since it was record store day last weekend, and it being Saturday and football was taking precedence, I decided to make my own private record store sojourn the day before. I don’t buy vinyl, though occasionally some gets sent and I gather up a few over the course of a year. I like vinyl, in fact can find almost no good argument against it – hell we released about 50 versions of our recent album on twelve inchers. It’s just that I really don’t need any more stuff in my life. I’m consciously decluttering, except I really don’t commit hard enough so I compromise by culling some of my record collection every year or so then immediately filling up the shelves with, well, my own personal record store day.

I remember reading an interview with Elton John in the seventies when he was asked about his wealth and he explained that he could go into a record shop and buy whatever he liked. Reading that then seemed liked the apotheosis of luxury living. Never mind sports cars and swimming pools – this was as good as it gets. I’ve never come close to that kind of oppulence but I do reflect that with the family grown up and my serious commitments being less exacting on the bank balance than they once were it allows a little lassitude in the record shop.

Last Friday I bought the new Bon Iver, last year’s Zach Bryan, Jason Isbell’s Foxes In The Snow (don’t you already own this one? – Ed) and a missing Tyler Childers. (Can I Take My Hounds To Heaven – thanks for asking). Thing is…I used to get sent most of these but it’s all gone digital. The other thing is that albums are so long…how much time do we have to listen? I’m still on Zach and it’s Monday. But I do like hearing the running order the artists intended and, even when there are few, I like the credits. You will hear the fruits of this record store day in the months to come.

Siobhan Maher Kennedy

In other news we have another great show for you this Tuesday. In the second hour we will be joined by an old friend from Nashville, Siobhan Kennedy. Siobhan is from Liverpool but went to Music City over thirty years ago to record an album with the man who would become her husband, Ray Kennedy. Since that time Siobhan has become part of the city’s fabric and a close confidante of the late John Prine. She’s also got a few stories to tell about her experience of running Ray’s Room and Board Studio over these years.  Liverpool to Nashville! It’s the ultimate music journey. Join me this Tuesday to hear from Siobhan as well as fabulous new records from Muscadine Bloodline, Charley Crockett, Crys Matthews, Vincent Mason and Tanner Adell. It all starts at five past eight on BBC Sounds and BBC Radio Scotland.

On Friday last week I found myself in an interesting place which should perhaps have a blue plaque. Shepherd’s Bush Empire in west London was the venue for our final show in our short run of theatre concerts last week. Although I knew it to be a great music gig I was surprised at how wonderful it was as a great rock n roll ball room. Yes, there are floral boxes and plaster carvings on the decorative ceiling but there is in its heart a warm space where rock ’n’ roll can thrum and thrive.

It has history of course. In the seventies the Empire was home to BBC live events like In Concert specials from The Old Grey Whistle Test. In the eighties it became the permanent home to the Wogan TV show which aired three times weekly. Before all of that variety acts of all stripes and colours performed on a stage which even boasted Charlie Chaplin as a visiting artiste.

In 2003 a run of the mill London date by American Country act The Dixie Chicks gave the Empire a new notoriety. Ashamed and embarrassed by George W Bush’s intervention in Iraq, Natalie Maines declared:

Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.

That short sentence triggered a longer backlash than anyone could imagine. It also foreshadowed the ominous fissures in American politics which have been a hallmark of US society since that time. For the Chicks (their name change came along 17 years or so later) their country music career almost ended. Pariahs on country radio and victims of death threats at live performances, nothing would be the same again. It is good to remember however that, despite being banished from one genre’s airwaves, they remain a successful recording and performing group. 

All of this has been going through my head as I get back to celebrating the great roots music we love to highlight each Tuesday on the AC. People (quite correctly) are feeling anger and disappointment towards America and what the current president is inflicting on countries who have been good friends over many years. Even at this Sunday’s Olivier awards it was remarkable to hear legendary American actors apologising for where they have come from. There is , of course, no need.

America is not Trump, Vance or Musk and they in turn, are not America. Similarly America is not The Chicks and neither is it their great adversary, Toby Keith. America may be divided and extreme but these are positions that have always been apparent in US society. Country music, at its best, will keep telling the stories of ordinary Americans, and for that I am still grateful. We play all of these voices on Another Country and we continue to celebrate that diversity.

We will play tracks by Charlie Worsham, Maddie and Tae, Hailey Whitters and an extended chat with 49 Winchester’s Isaac Gibson recorded during their recent visit to Glasgow.

Join me for another packed episode from Tuesday at 8 p.m. on BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Sounds.

As my good brother-in-law likes to declare, minutes after the chimes that herald each new year, ‘Well that’s it all over for another year.’ In the same spirit the AC team of Richard, Emma and myself breathed a sigh of relief that we’d recorded fifteen (fifteen!!) interviews and with the good help of my friend Edith Bowman, managed to introduce all of the acts who played on the C2C stage at Glasgow’s 2025 Country festival.

If that’s not enough the weekend was rounded up emotionally by Lainey Wilson presenting our programme’s producer (he invented the show with myself back in 2008) Richard Murdoch, with his first ever award. It was a Country Music Association award for his contribution to widening the popularity of the genre. Proudly, we boast five awards for the show over the years we’ve been on air but on this occasion it is such a joy to see Richard in the limelight.

The award could not have come from a more fitting artist. We are all huge Lainey fans at the AC as you must know by now. We have championed her music since we first heard What a Man Ought To Know, her first major release back in 2021. So it was truly joyous to end the interview we recorded about her huge success over the last few years with her surprising Richard by presenting him with an award which recognises the work he puts in to making the AC such a special show. I am often asked if I know any of the stuff I say on air and I usually reflect that I would know none of it were it not for the notes my producer gives me. Between us we have always vowed to learn as we go along as there is always so much more to know. Sharing what we have found out brings us both such pleasure. All of this would not be possible without the newest member of our team, Emma Gallagher. Emma has been such a great colleague for us and it was Emma who booked every artist to be interviewed in my tiny dressing room backstage at The Hydro and whose subterfuge managed to keep the award a surprise until the very last moment.

The event itself was, perhaps the most successful festival yet. Each night was special and, in the lucky way that the venues rotated, we kept the best show until the final night with Lainey Wilson’s masterclass 90 minute Whirlwind. It hit all the right notes and played songs we loved to perfection with some added live edge on tracks like Heart Like A Truck and the beautiful acoustic picking on What A Man Ought To Know. But…there were so many highlights over the weekend. I only missed two shows (because of interview duties) but I heard 49 Winchester  and The Castellows made many friends. For me the stand out moments came from Dierks Bentley – perhaps some of the finest players to grace the stage (and thank you for the shout out Dierks), Avery Anna, the amazingly emotional set by Shaboozey,  Cody Johnson (what a voice!),Wyatt Flores and Lainey Wilson. I’m sure you may have a few things I missed so please feel free to add in to the blog here.

However we will celebrate all of the acts withe extended conversations and tracks from this Tuesday and the following week with all of this available on BBC Sounds. Do join me from 8 p.m. this coming Tuesday on BBC Radio Scotland.