I Prefer Their Earlier Stuff

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.