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.