Since it was record store day last weekend, and it being Saturday and football was taking precedence, I decided to make my own private record store sojourn the day before. I don’t buy vinyl, though occasionally some gets sent and I gather up a few over the course of a year. I like vinyl, in fact can find almost no good argument against it – hell we released about 50 versions of our recent album on twelve inchers. It’s just that I really don’t need any more stuff in my life. I’m consciously decluttering, except I really don’t commit hard enough so I compromise by culling some of my record collection every year or so then immediately filling up the shelves with, well, my own personal record store day.

I remember reading an interview with Elton John in the seventies when he was asked about his wealth and he explained that he could go into a record shop and buy whatever he liked. Reading that then seemed liked the apotheosis of luxury living. Never mind sports cars and swimming pools – this was as good as it gets. I’ve never come close to that kind of oppulence but I do reflect that with the family grown up and my serious commitments being less exacting on the bank balance than they once were it allows a little lassitude in the record shop.

Last Friday I bought the new Bon Iver, last year’s Zach Bryan, Jason Isbell’s Foxes In The Snow (don’t you already own this one? – Ed) and a missing Tyler Childers. (Can I Take My Hounds To Heaven – thanks for asking). Thing is…I used to get sent most of these but it’s all gone digital. The other thing is that albums are so long…how much time do we have to listen? I’m still on Zach and it’s Monday. But I do like hearing the running order the artists intended and, even when there are few, I like the credits. You will hear the fruits of this record store day in the months to come.

Siobhan Maher Kennedy

In other news we have another great show for you this Tuesday. In the second hour we will be joined by an old friend from Nashville, Siobhan Kennedy. Siobhan is from Liverpool but went to Music City over thirty years ago to record an album with the man who would become her husband, Ray Kennedy. Since that time Siobhan has become part of the city’s fabric and a close confidante of the late John Prine. She’s also got a few stories to tell about her experience of running Ray’s Room and Board Studio over these years.  Liverpool to Nashville! It’s the ultimate music journey. Join me this Tuesday to hear from Siobhan as well as fabulous new records from Muscadine Bloodline, Charley Crockett, Crys Matthews, Vincent Mason and Tanner Adell. It all starts at five past eight on BBC Sounds and BBC Radio Scotland.

On Friday last week I found myself in an interesting place which should perhaps have a blue plaque. Shepherd’s Bush Empire in west London was the venue for our final show in our short run of theatre concerts last week. Although I knew it to be a great music gig I was surprised at how wonderful it was as a great rock n roll ball room. Yes, there are floral boxes and plaster carvings on the decorative ceiling but there is in its heart a warm space where rock ’n’ roll can thrum and thrive.

It has history of course. In the seventies the Empire was home to BBC live events like In Concert specials from The Old Grey Whistle Test. In the eighties it became the permanent home to the Wogan TV show which aired three times weekly. Before all of that variety acts of all stripes and colours performed on a stage which even boasted Charlie Chaplin as a visiting artiste.

In 2003 a run of the mill London date by American Country act The Dixie Chicks gave the Empire a new notoriety. Ashamed and embarrassed by George W Bush’s intervention in Iraq, Natalie Maines declared:

Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.

That short sentence triggered a longer backlash than anyone could imagine. It also foreshadowed the ominous fissures in American politics which have been a hallmark of US society since that time. For the Chicks (their name change came along 17 years or so later) their country music career almost ended. Pariahs on country radio and victims of death threats at live performances, nothing would be the same again. It is good to remember however that, despite being banished from one genre’s airwaves, they remain a successful recording and performing group. 

All of this has been going through my head as I get back to celebrating the great roots music we love to highlight each Tuesday on the AC. People (quite correctly) are feeling anger and disappointment towards America and what the current president is inflicting on countries who have been good friends over many years. Even at this Sunday’s Olivier awards it was remarkable to hear legendary American actors apologising for where they have come from. There is , of course, no need.

America is not Trump, Vance or Musk and they in turn, are not America. Similarly America is not The Chicks and neither is it their great adversary, Toby Keith. America may be divided and extreme but these are positions that have always been apparent in US society. Country music, at its best, will keep telling the stories of ordinary Americans, and for that I am still grateful. We play all of these voices on Another Country and we continue to celebrate that diversity.

We will play tracks by Charlie Worsham, Maddie and Tae, Hailey Whitters and an extended chat with 49 Winchester’s Isaac Gibson recorded during their recent visit to Glasgow.

Join me for another packed episode from Tuesday at 8 p.m. on BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Sounds.

As my good brother-in-law likes to declare, minutes after the chimes that herald each new year, ‘Well that’s it all over for another year.’ In the same spirit the AC team of Richard, Emma and myself breathed a sigh of relief that we’d recorded fifteen (fifteen!!) interviews and with the good help of my friend Edith Bowman, managed to introduce all of the acts who played on the C2C stage at Glasgow’s 2025 Country festival.

If that’s not enough the weekend was rounded up emotionally by Lainey Wilson presenting our programme’s producer (he invented the show with myself back in 2008) Richard Murdoch, with his first ever award. It was a Country Music Association award for his contribution to widening the popularity of the genre. Proudly, we boast five awards for the show over the years we’ve been on air but on this occasion it is such a joy to see Richard in the limelight.

The award could not have come from a more fitting artist. We are all huge Lainey fans at the AC as you must know by now. We have championed her music since we first heard What a Man Ought To Know, her first major release back in 2021. So it was truly joyous to end the interview we recorded about her huge success over the last few years with her surprising Richard by presenting him with an award which recognises the work he puts in to making the AC such a special show. I am often asked if I know any of the stuff I say on air and I usually reflect that I would know none of it were it not for the notes my producer gives me. Between us we have always vowed to learn as we go along as there is always so much more to know. Sharing what we have found out brings us both such pleasure. All of this would not be possible without the newest member of our team, Emma Gallagher. Emma has been such a great colleague for us and it was Emma who booked every artist to be interviewed in my tiny dressing room backstage at The Hydro and whose subterfuge managed to keep the award a surprise until the very last moment.

The event itself was, perhaps the most successful festival yet. Each night was special and, in the lucky way that the venues rotated, we kept the best show until the final night with Lainey Wilson’s masterclass 90 minute Whirlwind. It hit all the right notes and played songs we loved to perfection with some added live edge on tracks like Heart Like A Truck and the beautiful acoustic picking on What A Man Ought To Know. But…there were so many highlights over the weekend. I only missed two shows (because of interview duties) but I heard 49 Winchester  and The Castellows made many friends. For me the stand out moments came from Dierks Bentley – perhaps some of the finest players to grace the stage (and thank you for the shout out Dierks), Avery Anna, the amazingly emotional set by Shaboozey,  Cody Johnson (what a voice!),Wyatt Flores and Lainey Wilson. I’m sure you may have a few things I missed so please feel free to add in to the blog here.

However we will celebrate all of the acts withe extended conversations and tracks from this Tuesday and the following week with all of this available on BBC Sounds. Do join me from 8 p.m. this coming Tuesday on BBC Radio Scotland.

Well, who’d have thought it? For two weeks running on the AC we play There Stands The Glass and in neither week did we feature the Webb Pierce version. If you missed either show you can listen back on BBC Sounds to both shows which feature Chuck Prophet and Willy Vlautin. Chuck favoured Ted Hawkins singing his version of the country classic and Willy opted to give us his own version of the song. Both were brilliant as was the conversation that came with the songs.

Chuck’s take on modern America is as unique in its own way to Willy Vlautin’s. Willy even talks about his fandom of Chuck and the joy he got riding in the Econoline with his old Green On Red guitar hero. What they both have in common is their empathy for the outsider. The characters that inhabit the songs of Chuck and Willy are all outsiders who, by the standards we’ve come to associate the newest American government, have very little going for them. In a  brutal world where the populus is divided into winners and losers it’s a pretty sure bet the big man with the orange face wouldn’t be counting these characters or their authors in the winning column.

That’s the thing about America; we no sooner get a handle on some of what is going on than we find a conflicting story to disabuse us of all we thought we understood. Take this coming weekend: The twenty odd acts that make up the 2025 C2C line up will probably be telling stories about a different America than the ones favoured by Chuck Prophet, Willy Vlautin, John Prine, Nanci Griffith and Johnny Cash...insert your own act here. However that’s the great thing about country music or musical theatre or…pop music…just when you’re convinced that you don’t love it, along comes a song that turns you round and leaves you pointing in a different direction.

On this week’s AC we’ll give you a glimpse of that other side of country music celebrated by the many acts of C2C who’ll be performing at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro this coming weekend.  We will also remind you of some of the great moments of C2C from the last ten years or so of festivals which started off in the smaller Clyde Auditorium but now attracts crowds of at least 4 or 5 times the size of that original audience. You’ll hear songs from headliners Dierks Bentley, Cody Johnson and Lainey Wilson. We’ll include some great cuts from Shaboozey, Tanner Adell, Wyatt Flores and The Castellows. If these names are new I can assure your they will become familiar over the coming months and years.

We will play songs from years gone by with contributions from Kacey Musgraves, Eric Church, Darius Rucker and Ashley McBryde. It’s a packed celebration which will set you up for the biggest event in the UK’s country calendar. Listen in live if you can from five past eight this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland or BBC Sounds.

Now Jesus was a social drinker
He never drank alone
He never partied at a strip club
Keeping his woman up at home
Or overstayed his welcome
Or threw up in your sink
Nah, Jesus was never late to work, man
And he always pulled his weight

Not my words, but the lyrics of Chuck Prophet who brought his new band, His Cumbia Shoes to the city of Glasgow on Sunday and left everyone feeling a lot better than when they arrived. He turned St Luke’s into a Cumbia dance floor and gently poked fun at Elon Musk, the audience and mainly himself over the course of a couple of hours of wonderful live music. Jesus Was a Social Drinker is typical of the Chuck oeuvre where something almost whimsical turn around into a human truth that often as not will break your heart. It’s a Chuck thing and I love it. Here’s how that song ends:

He was an all-around decent dude
But he had his share of rough nights
And the more I learn about him
Well, the more respect I have for the guy

Chuck’s found a new groove and the music he’s discovered has given him an energetic boost and perhaps the inspiration he needed to keep going. His live show, as I may have mentioned here before , is that rarest of events these days, something that leaves you with a warm smile in your heart and never outstays its welcome.

Chuck was admirably supported by three members of California’s Cumbian Kings, Quiensave as well as two of his regular Mission Express buddies, and although Stephanie Finch wasn’t part of this particular expedition she was serenaded beautifully in a tender moment by her husband. Late as Sunday was, Chuck came into AC HQ early on Monday morning and recorded an hour with me which will become the second half of this week’s show. He picked some favourite country/ Americana tracks and hidden gems and put them all into wonderful context with matching anecdotes. It’s a magical hour you won’t want to miss.

Before all of that the first half of this week’s show will include new records from Patterson Hood, Dean Owens, Hannah Cohen and Sunny War & Tre´Burt. There’s more, but I’ll leave that for you to discover when you listen in. Let me just ask this however: why has it taken me so long to discover the voice of Randy Hauser…yes he’ll be in the show too.

It all happens from five past eight this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland or BBC Sounds. Do join me if you can.

As I write this I’m thinking of a very special place I visited with my wife, Lorraine, five years ago. Bukavu in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo is a very special place. The suffering and crimes that have been visited on the women there have been chronicled elsewhere in my writing but it’s safe to say that events over the last few days have made people’s lives there far more precarious, if that is even possible.

I usually think deeply about Bukavu every Sunday morning as I recall the most exciting Mass I have ever attended. The singing, the dancing and the sense of celebration and welcome allowed our small party of Scots visitors to experience a unique religious experience which, speaking for myself, I have never encountered before or since. I doubt today, I will ever participate in anything like it again. The coming of the M23 rebels into the city has changed everything and we await news from our friends there who, when we last heard, were too frightened to step outside their homes.

Some of the amazing Bukavu singers

In the church on that Sunday 6 a.m. Mass we heard music that soared through the building and felt as if it might lift the roof. What a thing music is. Sometimes it comes in when you least expect it and it changes the scenery and offers hope and release when there seems little else to lift the spirits. My old friend, The Herald’s foreign correspondent, David Pratt told me a story about reporting from a war zone in the middle east and, avoiding gunfire, found himself sheltering a giant video screen which was showing a video of Deacon Blue being broadcast by MTV or another music video channel.

In 2017 I was visiting Sarajevo  when I heard from a Bosnian woman who told me how our music had offered her respite (as a young school student) during the worst days of the Balkan war. It was humbling and reassuring to know music travels, inspires and sometimes, at the worst of times interrupts the darkest of times. Songs are necessary and I’m grateful.

On this week’s Another Country we’ll play you some songs you may find will (happily) interrupt and inspire. I trust none of you reading this are facing the hardships and dangers endured by some of the stories I’ve chronicled here. However we will all face times we haven’t reckoned on and I’m sure music and particular voices and songs will find a way in. Let me point you to some special moments you want to revisit from this week’s show. Listen out for Madison Hughs and Brent Cobb, Will Johnson, Vincent Mason and Katie Pruitt. You’ll also hear some classic songs from Shania Twain, Charlie Worsham, Tift Merrit and Brandi Carlile.

It all starts at five past eight this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland (FM folks) or BBC Sounds. Do join me if you can.

I’m  in a learning mode. Let me explain: In the period between making a record and the record coming out is a strange liminal period where no one really knows what’s coming except the band and close associayes who played on the record. It’s probably fair to say we don’t really know it that well either. In truth I have to go about leaning my own songs. I have a poor memory and often when I sit down to recall a song i find myself thinking, ‘I’m not even sure what key this is in.’ So if you pass me running on the road  or driving along somewhere and I look lie I’m singing to myself …I am doing just that.

It’s a thing that I never thought would happen, but there are songs I’ve written or been involved with in some way that I have forgotten, and sometimes I can’t even remember them coming about in the first place. However that is the magical thing of creativity; sometimes these gifts just land and the only thing you really are asked to do is to accept or refuse the offer.

I thought about all of this as I was in conversation with a journalist about how one of my earliest songs came about and I found myself confessing that I really don’t know where it all came from but was simply glad it had arrived. An old songwriter friend once recalled how a record company had nudged him to write them another of his classic songs which he’d penned for some significant artists. He explained that he’d try, but that kind of song usually only arrives once a year or so, despite the fact he went into his studio every day to upset that ratio.

As someone who sifts through new songs by new artists every other day it’s interesting to stumble on a track that makes you want to play over and over again only to find the next release somehow doesn’t do it for you. I guess if we knew how to hit the mark every time we’d all be doing it!

All this brings me to this week’s celebration of one of the greatest pop/country song writing partnerships of all time. Boudleaux and Felice Bryant were the magical husband and wife team behind some of the biggest songs by The Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, Ray Charles and even Bob Dylan. It’s 105 years since Boudleaux was born and you’ll hear some classic country cuts of his songs on this week’s show.

Listen out too for fabulous records by Stephen Wilson Jr, Sierra Hull, Dylan Gossett and Waxahatchee.

All of this begins at eight o’clock on BBC Sounds or BBC Radio Scotland. I’d love you to join me if you can.

I’ve never received a Grammy and I’m thrilled for anyone who gets any award. Over the years I’ve cast a cold eye on the award season having often got a little over excited at the nominations. ‘Oh look, there’s ****** and they’ve finally been recognised!’ Only to wake up on Monday morning that the usual suspects swept the board and an opportunity has gone.

The CMA ’24 awards were a classic case in point. Poor Shabbozey; everyone in the world thought he had the single of the year except the folks who hand out gongs on Music Row. And then there was Beyonce´. Single handedly re writing the manual of country music and bringing an amazing  collection of talent to the party into the bargain. Allison Russell, Tiera Kennedy, Rhiannon Giddens, Dolly, Willie the aforementioned Shaboozey...the list goes on and on.

So on this week’s Another Country we shall celebrate the great decision to award Beyonce´s Cowboy Carter, best album at The Grammys as well as giving gongs to Kacey Musgraves and Sierra Ferrell. We applaud you folks.

We have some beautiful new music too from Alisa Amidor, Red Sky July and Cale Tyson to play you as well as ain interview with a special guest.

Willie Watson, once of Old Crow Medicine Show was in town last week to play at Celtic Connections. We met up with him the day after his show at Cottiers to talk about the record he calls his debut album. The reason for my clarification is Willie has already made two solo albums, Folk Singer Vol 1 and 2, but this new album is his first featuring original songs. It’s not the easiest interview I’ve ever conducted and at points I almost thought we weren’t going to finish. You can hear Willie talking about his own mental health and combatting ADHD which helps explains how he responded.

We will be playing out songs from the new album as well as some of the old catalogue and lovely collaborations with The Fairfield Four. It all starts at 8 p.m. this evening on BBC Sounds and BBC Radio Scotland. Join me if you can.

Over the weekend, having abandoned our East Neuk weekend to the storm and subsequent power cut, I encountered two great pieces of radio and a film which, though it never wholly disappointed, equally left no real mark.

On Saturday on BBC Radio 4 there was a wonderful half hour programme in which two comedy producers, Jon Plowman and Peter Finchman explore a classic comedy series. This week they interviewed Ricky Gervais about ‘After Life.’ It was fascinating and hugely enjoyable as they, and in particular, go to the heart of what makes something funny, but also why the show was so moving. Towards the end of the interview they focussed on Ricky Gervais’s use of music. They marvelled at how ambitious he’d been with songs and artists but more crucially at how the entire song had been used to tell a particular part of the story. You can hear it all on this link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0027cr1

Later that day I went to see ‘A Complete Unknown’ which focusses on the early years of Bob Dylan’s career. Again, the interesting thing about the film was the respect paid to the entire song. (with the interesting exception of the title track) Dylan’s songs were used to move the narration along and, inevitable, this worked seamlessly. If I’m honest, the songs outshone the drama.

Finally let me point you to Nick Cave’s Desert Island Discs in which, over a brilliantly hosted hour, Lauren Laverne listened to the stories behind his choices. It was utterly compulsive listening. Uplifting, funny, heartbreaking and ultimately life affirming, it again showed we need songs at all points in our lives.

On this week’s  AC we will again devote two hours celebrating the great art of the song. You’ll hear songs lasting just over two minutes to ones that creep up to four, but each will be there because they say something quite unique and have been created and crafted by songwriters who want to share a story which has not been told elsewhere. You’ll hear selections from Ashley Campbell, Hannah White, Carly Pearce and Ruston Kelly. We’ll celebrate Neil Young’s country roots and we will say Happy New Year to our Nashville correspondent, Bill Demain.

Bill has an interesting anniversary to celebrate concerning an artist who had to flee Music City to be taken seriously. You may take a little while to guess so while you’re pondering I can tell you that Bill has news of exciting developments on the live scene in Nashville.

To hear all of this and more please join me this Tuesday for two hours of country, Americana and  roots music which will have you scurrying to discover more about some very exciting artists. We start at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Sounds where you can listen any time you choose.

As the host of a show which celebrates Americana I suppose I should be spending some of today with my eyes on the TV. There’s an event going on in Washington which is getting quite a lot of attention, as I’m sure you know. However I’m more inclined to take the sage advice I stumbled upon earlier today on hearing T Bone Burnett on a talk show when he pointed out that if you really want to know anything about America you can do that best via its music. I’m not going to argue with that.

I think that is probably true of the nations of the UK too but, perhaps, we know less about our own music than we do about America’s. What is certainly true for me is the refining and re understanding of the human spirit is constantly mirrored in the songs of any era. Sexual politics, relationships, inequality and social perspectives which constantly change are all subjects of modern songs. Given that country and folk music seeks to tell these stories simply but profoundly it’s no surprise the genres keep churning out more songs.

One of my best friends who is a great all round musician explained why he wasn’t over interested in writing songs in the way I was when I started out in music 40 odd years ago. ‘All the books have been written…’ he began. And, yes, there was logic to what he said. Had we to draw a line at the end of 1984 many of us listening to Oldie pop radio stations would hardly notice. But the line wasn’t drawn there and as we gear up for another adventure around the sun it’s obvious so many songwriters still have so much to say. Overwhelming as that is (the current estimate is 100,000 songs per day are added to streaming services) I welcome each new release with the start of this year bringing some wonderful new releases which – pardon me for repeating old tropes – I firmly believe we shall be enjoying on our best-of play lists next December.

Allow me to highlight some gems which are coming your way on this week’s AC:

Listen out for Gaby Moreno. Now an Angelino, she is originally from Guatemala and has had huge success and Grammys in Latin Music. However her current single crosses between Spanish and English and seems a perfect fit for our wider understanding of Americana.

You’ll enjoy too the wonderful talent of Stephen Wilson Jnr. He’s become a successful songwriter for hire but is breaking through with his own singing career and his current single is co written with nashville legend, Travis Meadows, the man responsible for Dierks Bentley’s Riser.

My Morning Jacket

We are also delighted to tell you we will include new tracks from old friends Bonnie Prince Billy, Michaela Anne, Ruston Kellly, Nadia Reid, Jason Isbell and the most welcome of returns from My Morning Jacket.

Finally: I’m not sure who is and ism’t Americana these days, so to muddy the waters further I find myself reflecting on a line from a song from U2′s The Joshua Tree where Bono sings, ‘Outside is America.’ It sure is.

It’s all in a packed two hours of Another Country this coming Tuesday on BBC Sounds or BBC Scotland from five past eight or any time you like after that. Join me if you can.