I’m sure you know the song. It’s on Lainey Wilson’s Whirlwind and it’s a clever lyric which, in the best tradition of the genre, allows country music to hold a conversation with itself.
Once you get a taste, you’ll lick the spoon
Learn every word to The Dance and Neon Moon
And next thing you know
You’ll hang a swing on a piece of land
Start sayin’ things like hell naw, hot damn
Even as that song was being written the peak of country music’s popularity was some way off on this side of the Atlantic. Surprisingly, it may still not have peaked. But one thing is for sure: country music is more popular now than at any time I can remember in my long life.
If you look at the BBC Radio Scotland Social Media you can see and hear me alluding a little to this phenomenon. As we were filming the short links to our Luke Combs special Cheyne, (RS’s ace Social Media guru) and I were thinking aloud at the reasons for country music’s recent polularity. There’s the Taylor Swift factor, the Nashville TV series and Yellowstone too but even that doesn’t explain the astonishing career success of Zach Bryan or Charley Crockett.
So, help me out. If you’re someone who wouldn’t have listened to Country Music ten years ago I’m very interested in why you like it now? Please answer in the blog and we’ll try to give some time to your thoughts on future shows.
Thank You All
In keeping with this theme I got a welcome note from our boss here at BBC Radio Scotland last week. It explained that Another Country has almost doubled the numbers listening to the show over the last year. I’m so delighted new listeners are tuning in and, should you not already have heard the show, you are always welcome. You don’t have to like country music to enjoy what we play as we like to think we are simply playing great songs by some very talented artists. Way back in the 90’s and 2000’s the late Rab Noakes with Bryan Burnett set the path which we still follow with a show called Brand New Opry. Rab liked to say they played music which had been ‘touched by country music.’ On this week’s show we’ll play Lambchop, Brenna Wedl and Humbird to continue that great tradition. So thank you for listening.
Everyone Loves Charlie Worsham
Everyone loves Charlie Worsham and its not difficult to know why. He’s Nashville’s go-to guitar guy and despite playing on a million other records he’s finally released his third solo album just the nine years after the last one! Charlie was a standout guest at last year’s C2C and not only featured as part of headliner Dierks Bentley’s band but played a solo show earlier in the day at King Tuts. No one has a bad word to say about Charlie and you even feel better for spending twenty minutes in his company. Last week Vince Gill announced that Charlie had become a member of The Grand Old Opry live on the Opry stage. Charlie, who was playing in Vince’s band on the night, declared that this was the happiest moment of his life. We’ll tell you more about that moment and play you some great new music from Charlie on this week’s Another Country. As ever we start from five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Sounds. Join me if you can.