The heart-stopping, pants-dropping, house-rocking, earth-shaking, booty-quaking, Viagra-taking, love-making – Le-gen-dary E – Street – Band!

Because let’s face it, this celebration we’re about to have is about togetherness. It’s really about how one performer, Bruce Springsteen has shaped rock ‘n’ roll music over the last 35 years. But it’s also about how he has allowed everyone to come along on the ride.

I go to a few gigs now and then – probably not as many as you do – and someone will ask how it was. It will have been good, but, I hasten to add I saw Bruce Springsteen and The E St. Band last summer and it’s going to be hard for any gig to top that. It’s not that the Springsteen show is better played or better lit – though it’s not slack in these departments – and it’s certainly not that it’s got more energy or meaning or light and shade or emotion – though it has all these too. The difference is that you go in feeling one thing and you come out changed. As the man says, it’s a rock ‘n’ roll, baptism, exorcism, barmitzvah….”we’re going to do it all! ” And he does.

So we can’t take you to a gig but what we can do is give you a sense of why Bruce Springsteen’s music is so vital and in particular, why he’s made such a connection to country people. His songs have been cut by Travis Tritt, Waylon Jennings and Johnny  Cash. Trisha Yearwood, Faith Hill and Emmylou Harris have all recorded songs and Patty Griffin has a particularly female take on an iconic Bruce song.

Bruce Springsteen is in the line that brought Chuck Berry,Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly ,Robert Johnston, Merle Haggard and Jimmy Rogers and that, my friends, is a great line. We welcome you if you love Bruce or if you’ve only ever heard the odd track on a car radio. If you think he was only good in the seventies and eighties we’ll try to bring you up to date and if you only came along when Born in The USA came out we’ll try to convince you that there’s a whole load of great things that went before. However as people in the music business always say, “It’s all about the songs.”

It’s a final show for this year tomorrow night. I’m taking a break and will leave you in the care of the wonderful Edith Bowman.

I know for a fact that Edith has great things in store for you on the albums show. I’ll be back over Christmas with a special show and Another Country proper will return in January.

On Sunday Morning.

It’s remembrance Sunday so we’ll talk to Army Chaplain, Donald Prentice. We find out more about The Heart of  Midlothian players who went to France in 1914 and I discover what makes Portobello a Transition Town. (I’ll give you a clue: it’s no longer relying on fossil fuels and is trying to explore new alternatives) We’ll play music from Radiohead, Michael Marra, The Korgis....and Joni Mitchell too.

walking my dog, on the way home from school one morning…….

It’s cold and wet here and frankly, the cheery way I turned up my coat collar last week has now been overtaken by a dark scowl. I’ve been telling my son and daughter (who both have November birthdays) that it’s really a great month, who wouldn’t love autumn…etc… for 10 years. Maybe evenI should acknowledge that it it’s tough out there. That’s why it will be nice to welcome a man from sunny Kentucky on Friday – Mr Darrell Scott.

He’s hot off the Band of Joy tour and he’s playing solo in Glasgow on Saturday night. What instrument Darrell plays will be a good guess. He’s master of guitar, mandolin and steel and he (apparently) became quite excited about using the 9 foot grand piano in studio 1. We’ll talk about Robert Plant and his recent touring and writing with Beth Neilson Chapman. We’ll hear all about those Nashville sessions he’s taken part in and ask what it’s like when you hear that Faith Hill or the Dixie Chicks are going to cut one of your songs. And, yes, we’ll talk about his new album The Crooked Road.

Great exclusive track from Lissie tomorrow night too. Richard M was at her gig recently. We also have music from Sara Watkin (in Glasgow Saturday too), Dylan LeBlanc, Ray Davies and Lucinda Williams (I Know!!) and The Jim Jones Revue. I’m visibly excited…and that, I’m pretty certain will make your dank November Friday evening come alive like a veritable fireworks display. Sorry, did you have one planned already?

On Sunday...

We take a visit to The Anatomy lab in Edinburgh University where Humanist Cleric, Tim Maguire checks out the institution to which he’s leaving his body for medical science. I don’t go with him, but I get a chance to chat to the Anatomist. We talk Post Conflict Tourism – Pakistan, Iraq and Yemen. If you’ve had enough of The Dordogne, Arran or Costa Brava do you fancy a trip to Iraq? We meet the man who will organise your trip.

We also talk to Professor Tom Devine and Rev Lindsay Schluter about a conference called “What Has The Reformation Done for Us?”

Music from Michaels Jackson and Marra, Josh Tillman and Marvin Gaye. All from 8 on BBC Radio Scotland this Sunday Morning.

But first tonight…The Black Keys. Glasgow Academy….I’m going!

If you haven’t seen them live then you should check out the Facebook page where there’s a link to their performance on Later. They are also on tomorrow night and quite wonderful they are too. Elvis Costello also features on Later. Not over convinced by this record – but it’s only my job to deliver you the goods. I am only too aware you can quickly let me know if you like what we’re playing!

The main part of the show is given over to our live session and interview with Eilen Jewel. Eilen and her band are from Boston but are playing tribute to one of Country Music’s greatest female singer-songwriters, Loretta Lynn on this rather fine record..

Please don’t tell me you have forgotten about our Another Country Movie Club? If so, we’ll remind you…

We’ll play some music from the film and nudge you to watch it before we rap things up next week. Just in case you don’t know – it’s Martin Scorcese’s brilliant documentary about Bob Dylan which constantly flicks back to the electric tour with The Band in the UK in 1966.

Also………??? Dolly and Porter, Mavis Staples, The Blind Boys of Alabama, The Carolina Chocolate Drops….and we’ll talk about that other Bob gig.

Mr Plant was in Edinburgh just last week.

Hear it all live on Friday Evening at 8. BBC Radio Scotland FM

On Sunday……

Did anyone see this? If not I highly recommend it.

We talk to the lone Scotsman, David Dalglish who went from running a busy restaurant in Glasgow to experiencing meditative silence in North Wales.

We will also talk to Christopher Jamison, the man who encouraged the group to undertake “The Big Silence.”

We will meet Amy Hardie who’s had a rather disturbing year after a few disturbed nights sleep. A Halloween tale if ever there was one. Amy’s beautiful film is called The Edge of Dreaming. But I’ll warn you, it’s also quite disturbing.

And we’ll also chat about how these two characters are getting on rather well….

All from 8 on Sunday morning. BBC Radio Scotland.

Firstly….On Sundays, I’m back.

Really looking forward to a new series of Sunday Mornings with Ricky Ross. This Sunday I meet a couple I’ve heard about but never met before, John and Mary Miller. They are remarkable people who are living through some remarkable times in Zimbabwe.

We’ll also be on the search for that Big Society we keep hearing about. In particular this Sunday we’ll see how a smaller state and a bigger society might affect children and families. We’ll be talking to Katie Grant and Gita Sahgal and we’ll enjoy some great music from Mavis Staples, Patty Griffin and Nicky Thomas. All from 8 on Sunday morning on BBC Radio Scotland.

Plus a fitting musical contribution from this man….

The Late Solomon Burke

But before that, Friday Night……

There’s a poster on the wall of my old pal, Tom Jutz with a picture of a boy and a banjo beside an old dilapidated shack somewhere in the south. The boy is singing, head back, unselfconsciously out there in the field. The poster advertises a film – can’t remember which one – which in turn celebrates ‘Bluegrass.’ (Actually re visiting this a few months on I know it’s called High and Lonesome and it will become a movie of the month at some point)

On Friday we try to do the same thing. We bring you music that was made on the instruments that were around – banjo, mandolin and the fiddle. It’s the space which doesn’t get crowded out with other things that perhaps gives bluegrass it’s unique edge. There’s a courtesy in southern people and it’s there in this music: you don’t solo while someone else is and you back up the rhythm when you’re not centre stage. In it’s purest form it will be done around one mic and everyone will make sure they’ve got the right distance from it. If you want to hear more of that dobro then the dobro player just has to get a little closer to the microphone.

We’ll have bluegrass from the originators and some from down right imposters – but it will all be good. Not only that but we recorded Alecia Nugentwhen she was in Glasgow playing at Celtic Connections and we have some of that concert for you on Friday. Look out for  Alison Krauss, Bill Monroe, Del McCoury, Ralph Stanley and ….Dolly. We may also surprise you with the Raconteurs, Furnace Mountain and The Avett Brothers.

On the facebook page Norrie expresses mild disbelief that I might not have owned ‘The River’ until 6 years after it came out.

The year was 1980 and I was a volunteer youth worker working in the City Churches in Dundee. I was paid some amount

that was pretty marginal and given free rent in a flat in town. I was totally happy, but there wasn’t a lot left to buy records.

I was going out with a girl who arrived at my flat one day with a copy of The River and we put the album on. I’d heard about Flo and Eddie from

Frank Zappa days but nothing prepared me for the impact of the second verse of Hungry Heart. It was a moment. Why had I not heard it until then?

The reason was simple; Bruce Springsteen didn’t get played on a any radio station I’d ever heard of…at least, not during waking hours.

So it was the time, poor times for most people and certainly for me, when you got any copy of your new favourite album and you hoped to buy it second hand or get a present for Christmas. Double albums? Well, that was double the price. As I said in the facebook page it was my intention when I signed to CBS records to get my hands on some seriuous bits of missing catalogue. Cue the sudden acquisition of Bruce’s missing albums, Dylan, Thelonius Monk, Willie Nelson and George Jones. I’m nothing if not eclectic.

What else could be done and not done in 1980? We stood at football matches and people took in bevvy on a grand scale to the match. They smoked in pubs…they smoked everywhere! Gigs were cheap. It cost the same to go to a gig as it did to buy an album….so you can work out why the recording business is in such disarray. You think things are bad now economically? It was terrible then. No one seemed to have any certainty of finding work and things were about to get even worse for a few years. But in among the gloom were pieces of music that took you out of yourself and made you believe. The River was one. On Friday night we’ll celebrate that album.

We’re not celebrating alone. We’ll be joined by a band of brothers who love that album as much as I do. Roddy Hart and The Lonesome Fire have just brought out their 3rd album “Road of Bones” on vinyl no less! They will be playing songs from that record, we’ll be talking about the music with Roddy and they are going to play  one  of  their favourite songs from The River.

Country music…? Oh yes. Nice new things from Rachel Harrington, Mt Desolation and The Duke and The King.

p.s

I went to Hampden on Tuesday night with my wee boy and some pals of his. It was a great night because the team were heroic, even though we lost. I hate the Hampden PA system (hate Hampden mostly) and their dire music and stupid Americanisation of our great game – the fireworks, the dafties telling us to ‘make some noise’ but on the way out they played Dignity. It was a nice wee moment.

I’m sentimental. So when I came across the music of Frazey Ford I immediately warmed to it because of her surname.

The Fords are on my mother’s side. My Grandpa, Joe Ford was my hero as I grew up.

My Grandmother, Kitty was a huge influence on me. Her father,

Willie Robertson was a hymn writer and I’m guessing that’s where the song writing must have come from. My grandmother also wrote poetry and recited verse.

So …I’m well disposed to the Fords.

That aside, I like Frazey. She likes Ann Peebles and Donny Hathaway but she also loves The Rev Al…I guess we all do. But Frazey’s taken all these things and made something quite new and charming from them. She’s bringing a bunch of musicians in to Studio 1 on Friday and she’s going to perform live on the night. Between songs we’ll have a blether and find out lots more about her…expect a great cover too.

Which brings me to…… The Another Country Movie Club. This will be our final Movie Club this year. Next year we will open our movie club in a rootin -tootin down-town vibey venue. Imagine! More news on that in the next few weeks. In the meantime a movie you can all buy (cheap), or hire and watch with your chums as the dark nights and wood smoke gathers in.

And this is a Country film Rick?, I hear you ask. Well, no. But Bob Dylan is at the heart of Americana. All American roots music since the sixties has Dylan in there somewhere. That’s nearly 50 years of music and I’d imagine that influence will only grow. So showing where he came from and the hurdles he had to jump (Folk singers don’t come out of the movie very well…….) make for a great understanding of where we are now. Also this…..

is about to come out. We’ll tap into a lot of it in the coming weeks.

Also…. New music from Bruce Springsteen, Mavis Staples, Po Girl and KurtWagner and Cortney Tidwell.

All from 8 on Friday on BBC Radio Scotland.

She asked if I’d ever been to Nashville, and I had to admit I had, but that I’d failed to find the heart of the place and that my own tastes veered more to the Americana side of things. “What does that word even mean?” she asked. “And what’s wrong with country? Come to Nashville and I’ll show you the good stuff.” “I might just have to do that,” I replied?

The writer is not me. It’s from a piece in The Independent…the subject of the piece? Caitlin Rose. What a great reply.

Want to hear more stuff like that? I certainly do. I’ll give her every opportunity  on Friday night when she’ll be our live guest on Another Country. Later that night she’ll be opening for Deer Tick over at The Captain’s Rest. If you have to miss the show then you have my blessing to be at that gig.

Lest we forget, we will re cap on our Movie Club’s movie of the month, “Walk The Line.” On the Facebook page you can suggest your favourite song from the soundtrack. I’d also be interested to hear your thoughts on the film here in the blog. Stay tuned too on Friday when I’ll tell you about the Another Country Movie Club going large…as the young people say.

But that’s not all……

We’ll have a world exclusive when we hear  Gurf Morlix’s version of Clay Pigeons. Gurf’s going to be at the Glasgow Americana Festival (don’t tell Caitlin about that one!) when he kicks off the festival on October 10th.

More…oh yes. New music from The Duke and The King, Delta Spirit, Jim Jones Revue and…..

Le Noise was produced by Dan Lanois and recorded by my good friend Mark Howard. I love it. It’s worth the price and your two hour time commitment just to hear Hitchhiker. On Friday night from 8, you will.

This Friday is going to be about Avi Buffalo.

If you got the chance to see them recently then I congratulate you; I missed it. However Avi himself (real name Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg…and sometimes you need a snappier title) came into our wee studio in Edinburgh and cut 3 session tracks on a borrowed acoustic guitar. (Richard Murdoch brought it all the way from Glasgow!)

Avi’s influences include Simon and Garfunkel, Neil Young and The Beach Boys. He’s got all these going on and way more.  He’s only 19. To my particular delight he comes on the show a week after the septuagenarian Kris Kristofferson. It’s my considered opinion that we’re playing music that’s great whatever age you are playing or listening to it.

We’re not going to go too far into the show without talking about Robert Plant and Buddy Miller.

I haven’t heard all the album yet and I love it! What I’m saying is that I love the fact that someone who could be sitting back and organising polo matches is out there making great music and listening to new cool bands…and cutting their songs!

But this picture is what I really love.  For his producer, Robert has picked THE man to do the job…yes, my friends there will be many ‘Where’s Buddy?’ moments this week.

The big news about the album is Robert’s choice of Low‘s songs.

I didn’t know much about Low, and you will no doubt fill me in on this but I gather they are a 3 piece band from Duluth who are part of the ‘slowcore’ thing. You can find out more yourselves but the lovely thing about old Percy is he’s already got me finding their music. What a guy….and me never a Zep fan! What was I thinking??

In the past week I have been to see Sam Baker at the The Fallen Angels Club, I’m hoping to see Wilco and I’m aware of missing Steve Earle and Dave Rawlings Machine. On the Facebook site I suggest that you could let us know about what you thought of these gigs here or there and tell us what we missed. There must be gigs in other parts of Scotland we’re missing, so let us know all about them.

There will be lots of all the usual stuff. Look out for new releases from Ray Lamontagne and Justin Townes Earle and some lovely things from Furnace Mountain, Frazey Ford, Tift Merritt, Deer Tick and Caitlin Rose.

We won’t forget about Hank Williams or Bill Monroe in all of this and remember to tell us about your thoughts on our Another Country Movie Club film of the month, ‘Walk The Line.’

If you still have some radio time left in you I’ll be sitting in for the great Bob Harris on his weekend Radio 2 shows for the next couple of Sauturday/Sundays. This Saturday we have Roddy Hart and The Lonesome Fire in session.

Don’t mistake me for someone who knows things. A few years back a friend of mine held a film premier at the GFT and invited me along. As we were going to our seats he said, “Ricky, you know Kris Kristofferson don’t you?” I realised at this point that we were to sit next to the great man and his wife. Fortunately it was a film; the lights went out and we said hello quickly then a polite goodbye a couple of hours later.

I tell you this because I didn’t really know Kris Kristofferson’s work and right up to that point the best use of his name occurred in  John Byrne’s wonderful ‘Still Life.’ (I’ll leave you to find that one) That all changed a few years ago when my friend Roddy Hart asked me along to see his show at The Royal Concert Hall supprorting the great man. What I hadn’t fully recognised was the depth of Kris’s songs, how intrinsic they were to the Scottish DNA and how much he was loved by the people of Glasgow. That night and last month he played without his band and, whenever someone would shout for a particularly massive song, reply. ‘If I do that the night will be over.’ Nobody wanted that. When he got to the end of the final chorus he would let the song trail off and announce its completion by offering a dusty, “Thank you very much,” triggering wild applause. It was magical. I told everyone to go and see it so I had to go back myself.

This time the blessed Roddy arranged for me to meet up and invite him to be our special guest on Another Country.  I met up with him in his dressing room just after soundcheck at the Royal Concert Hall and I took along with me my old pal Perkin Warbeck (aka Doug Small.) Warbeck is a fan from way back and had the ultimate conversation opener to the great man, “I saw you play Matagalpa, Nicaragua in 1987”

Kris and Warbeck then spent 15 minutes reminiscing about their time in Central America and in particular Kris’s support of The Sandinistas who were facing severe sanctions from the then US Reagan government. You probably know more of Kris’s radical credentials than I do but just in case you are in any doubt, this is a good illustration of those and the man’s ability to hold his own.

In the end I must have spent 45 minutes with Kris Kristofferson and decided we didn’t have time to talk about Michael Cimino, Barbara Steisand or Waylon Jennings. We skipped over the army years and we didn’t spend time talking about the Rhodes scholarship to Oxford. However we did talk about his friend John Cash, his being there at the birth of some of the great Dylan recordings and some of the wonderful covers of his many great songs. If you need to be reminded about the impact of some of these then you might want to to listen to Glen Campbell, Gladys Knight or Elvis Presley…oh yeah, sorry…that’s just ONE song! If you want some more names….Perry Como, Willie Nelson….Al Green!

There’s so much more……. But you can hear all of that on Friday from 8.

In the other hour you will get another chance to hear the interview I did with the man who gave the name to Kris’s supergroup, The Highwaymen, Jimmy Webb which was first broadcast on January 1st. We also have an exclusive session from Jimmy and his family recorded when he visited Scotland last year.

For the night owls, I’m going to be sitting in for Bob Harris on September 19th and 20th on Radio 2. On the first of these nights I’ll be joined by the aforementioned Roddy Hart and his band.