Goodbye Blue Sky and friends

This is a slightly new look blog. I’ve been writing a weekly blog since I first came onto the airwaves nearly 19 years ago. Over time I’ve often questioned the point of sending this out but I hope it’s been a reasonable way of keeping touch. From now on in it will become the only public piece of communication I’ll be doing other than Another Country every Tuesday and any gigs we happen to be performing. I have said ‘thank you and goodnight’ to all of my social media accounts and,one week in, I have no regrets. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with these but for reasons to which I’m sure most of you can relate , they are no longer for me. I’m neither interested in reading, writing or posting and I’m more than aware that we lived happily with out all of them twenty years ago and I’m pretty certain we can carry on similarly now. There’s a reply function on this blog where you can easily post your own thoughts and any questions. I’m also on the airwaves every Tuesday and you can find me there: rickyross@bbc.co.uk or text while we’re on air to 80295. Always glad to hear your messages.

The F Word

It’s been a big week for cursing. I’m not sure it ever helps, but I’m going to offer my own take. Americans are bad at it. I’ve watched so many (quite good) dramas peppered with the F word I wouldn’t know where to start. However the peppering has become the problem. I remember hearing one F Bomb in a ‘Don’t Look Now’ blurted out by Donald Sutherland and it made more of an impact than that famous scene in The Wire when they say nothing else but the chosen curse.

We had Ashley Cooke in conversation and I recommend her song, The F Word to you. In her case it stands for Forever and, in case you’ve not heard it , it’s a great twist on a familiar theme. You can still hear Ashley talking about this on the first our C2C special which are both still available on BBC Sounds. But just in case you need to cut to the chase……

I did suggest that our Colonial Cousins aren’t very good at it. Let me suggest that we, in Scotland, could sweep the board if there was an Olympic Medal for the endeavour. If you need  any evidence I can point you towards the movie California Schemin’ co starring my youngest which will take you on an excellent primer to the art of every word including the aforementioned curse starting with F. It opens this coming weekend.l

On This Week’s Show

Having taken a week’s break for Scotland’s national football team to take up the airwaves I’m delighted to be back on air this coming Tuesday. We’ll have beautiful new tracks from Fruit Bats, Ella Langley, Charlie Sexton and Lainey Wilson as well as some classics from Lead Belly, Merle Haggard and a Country Game changer from Kitty Wells. As well as this you can hear a conversation with Nashville’s new rising star Baker Blankenship (pictured above) whose early set on the first night of C2C was a real breath of fresh air.
We’re on from 8 on BBC Radio Scotland or BBC Sounds wherever and whenever you choose. Join me if you can.