I’m trying not to succumb to my life-long desire to start a list. I used to make lists of everything…..albums, gigs, songs, titles, sets  (still do a bit of that), running orders….oh there’s a million bits of useless paper out there somewhere. I do realise it’s a bloke thing and I have to confess my stomach churns now to see these macho music journals dragging out their end of year lists again. Despite our antipathy it seems we men are determined to inflict our litanies on everyone. So in an attempt to sum up the year we have avoided The List. There is no best song/album/gig/producer and no top ten. Indeed there is virtually no science whatsoever but rather a reflection of some of the things which we loved playing the first time and are still enjoying now.

I’ve said it before but one of the things that I find baffling is people’s unwillingness to accept that there are always great new musical things coming along worth celebrating. This year we’ve really enjoyed the return of some favourite artists and discovered a whole lot more. We’ve been in the studio with many of them and marvelled at their musicality and their sheer creative energy. We have rejoiced in the great collaborations may have shared with us – some of them unexpected- and others fulfilling what many of us have desired for a long time. So to all of these artists we say a huge thanks. It still warms my heart to get into AC Towers on a cold Scottish morning and watch a tired troubadour make his or her way, half-asleep up our many floors to AC central. There a guitar case will be unlocked, Mr Murdoch will (Jeeves-like) slip a welcome cup of coffee into a grateful hand, strings will gently be strummed and the magic will start to happen. So many times it’s come to pass and we have so many fine sessions now by so many great artists that listing them would take too long. On behalf of you and us I salute all of them.

In the new year we will return again to new music but for this Friday we’ll simply reflect once more on what a fine year 2012 has been for all things we consider to be country. It all kicks off at five past eight on Friday on BBC Radio Scotland.

On Sunday

It’s that time of year so we will gather together three wise women and I’ll try to let them share their wisdom with you. We’re so pleased to welcome  Rabbi Julia Neuberger (Baroness, Academic and broadcaster), Mona Siddiqui (Professor of Islamic and Inter-religious Studies at the University of Edinburgh) and Sally Foster Fulton, Associate Minister at Dunblane Cathedral and Convener of the Church of Scotland’s Church and Society Council.

We will discuss the issues which they each feel are the most important for the faith communities at this point in 2012. We will do all this and enjoy some wise songs by some wise women too. Personally, I can’t wait and I really do hope you can enjoy this very special hour on Sunday morning.

We could only find one wise man for the first hour unfortunately. However he has some significant wisdom to impart.

Sir Harry Burns has been Scotland’s chief medical officer for seven years now and the demands of a job like that should leave little time for other things. That would be to underestimate the hinterland of Harry. Cyclist, music-lover, Christian, Hispanista, cook…oh we could go on. Did I mention he is the father of six children? I will spend a good part of the first hour talking to Sir Harry about his life and passions and what he has learned about the wellbeing of Scotland in these last few years. He is also bringing in some great music. It all starts at five past seven on Sunday Morning on BBC Radio Scotland.

This week my head’s been in Alabama. In particularly I’ve been imagining Montgomery. I’ve been in Alabama but never that far south and it’s a place I’d like to see some time, not least for its place in the History of the The Civil Rights Movement. I’ve been reading Colin Escott’s excellent biography of Hank Williams and one of the fascinating aspects of Hank’s life is how little he travelled, certainly in comparison with today’s artists. (He only left the States once!) In fact his early life as a musician saw him go between Montgomery and Shreveport, Louisiana. This week on Another Country we finally catch up with another young man whose early life has oscillated between these two states, Dylan LeBlanc.

Dylan’s mother brought him up in Louisiana where (and you might have heard the clip on last week’s Sunday show) he found the fire and brimstone of Baptist preaching a little too scary for comfort. He opted instead to live with his father in Muscle Shoals Alabama where he encountered the less scary but all together more entertaining Black churches. Dylan does a fine impersonation of one of the preachers on the show for us. It’s from this base in in Alabama that the songs Dylan has recorded for his first two albums are drawn. If you want an easy comparison his music has the same beautiful naivety of early Neil Young records like After The Gold Rush and sonically isn’t far away at all from Harvest. Like Neil, Dylan loves the pedal steel and on both records it echoes perfectly with the cadences of his voice. As with all good artists there’s a troubled soul running away from some of the demons on his trail and it’s the way Dylan deals with that aspect of his story which gives the music its potency. On Friday he’s with us in conversation and in session and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

We’ll play music from Buddy and Jim, some early Neil Young and Maria Mckee. I will continue my mea culpa on tribute albums by including something from this year’s Guy Clark compilation album  (This One’s For Him)as well as a new tribute to the late  Hank Cochran by  Jamey  Johnson.

It all starts on Friday at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland

On Sunday..

Do you know about the Scottish Youth Parliament? Neither do I! I intend to find a lot more about it from this woman…

She’s the chief executive and in a year when 16 and 17 year olds are to being allowed to vote on the future of their country it’s worth finding out how politically active a lot of them are. Hamira Khan will be joining me in the first hour of the programme to tell me how her life has gone from being a very successful PR person,via a close encounter with full time politics to heading up the Youth Parliament.

We will find out why so many people are worrying about or planning to watch or even taking part in Nativity Plays. They are as popular as they have ever been and Edinburgh’s Churches will have already staged theirs by the time we talk. The doyen of religious drama in Scotland,  Suzanne Lofthus and she expalins the pull of the Passion Play and why so many people like putting on dressing gowns and pretending to be shepherds.

The BBC have been filming the work of Westminster Abbey over a year. It tells the story of the complex role the Abbey plays in National life and gives us an insider’s guide to the decisions, dilemmas and duties involved in running such an iconic worship space. Pip Blackledge is an Episcopalian Priest in Morningside and he’s the ideal man to cast his eye over the series and tell us what to look out for – and what to avoid.

Bob Dixon will also give us another of his Folk Saints. This time it’s someone who you will not have heard of but deserves a metaphorical plinth, Alice Scrimgeour.

As always we’ll have music ranging from The Carpenters to Bob Dylan. From  Frank Ocean to ……well, The Silver Seas. Join us if you can.

It all starts on Sunday morning at five past seven on BBC Radio Scotland.

A very good friend of mine who presents some excellent radio programmes once said, ‘Anyone who wants  a career to be a radio presenter should have immediately disqualified himself from the job.’ I know what he means. It’s an odd thing and of course it takes no real talent except an ability to know when to get out of the way for someone who’s got something interesting to say or sing. There is however a great joy that comes from getting out of the way for these events. This Friday we have assembled some fellow broadcasters. Prime among these is one of the great voices of alt country music, Tift Merritt.

Tift is a three time AC guest to whom we have officially issued the ‘come back and see us any time you want’ message. Not only has she brought out one of the finest records of a very fine career that contains no low points for me but she’s made it with some of our favourite people and done it all in record time. She was in Edinburgh this week to play at the Pleasance and, by all accounts, put on a fine show. The next day she travelled to London to perform on later with Jools. You can see the results of that day later on Friday evening on the show itself. We will spend the best part of the second hour of the show in Tift country talking Tucker, Letterman and her relationship to her New York neighbour Andrew Bird. We also talk to Tift about her radio show. Once a month she puts down the guitar and points the microphone at another artist (writers, painters,…you name it) and asks them how they go about their own business. If you know her work you are already clearing the diary for the show, and if you don’t you should.

New music and records this week come from other people who are no strangers to the airwaves either. Step forward Wanda Jackson, Bob Dylan and Ferlin Husky. We’ll also check out recordings from The Harmed Brothers, Caroline Herring and John Murry. We will also remind you why we all love Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale (two part time DJs) and Father John Misty – who was on fine form at King Tuts on Monday past.

We start at five past eight on Friday evening on BBC Radio Scotland.

On Sunday…

I will talk to Yasmin Alibhai Brown about what it’s like to have to leave your home country and start again and what it’s like to be a Journalist at a time when no one wants to employ them and everyone is queuing up to blame them for everything. If you’ve not yet asked yourself the question, Why Poverty? then you can let the BBC do it for you. Eight films under that banner have been produced and are going out on BBC Four. Brilliant, heartbreaking and sometimes plain absurd they take a long hard look at why so many of the world is getting poorer while significant numbers get better off. John Harvey and Lorna Gold will attempt to come up with an explanation or two.

From the sublime ……we have a beautiful story about Drake Music Therapy on how people with significant disabilities are making music……. and to the ridiculous: we talk to Stephen Goddard from ‘Ship of Fools’ about Christmas Card design. How religious will yours be?

Are we in the middle of a moral panic or are we in the downtime between the last one and the next one. We bring in some experts – Vivienne Cree and Claire Fox – to sort it out.

Music too……. Tracey Thorn goes Christmassy (that’s twice we’ve referred to it so far), Benny Goodman, Kris Kristofferson and The Impressions will all impress. It starts at five past seven on Sunday Morning on BBC Radio Scotland

A few weeks ago an email came to us from Antony D’Amato. He was volunteering to come and see us. Blimey – we thought – who does that? He sent us some music and immediately we liked what he was doing so much we invited him over. A couple of weeks ago he came by PQ on his way to open up for Israel Nash Gripka at Stereo. Anthony told us about his upbringing, his inspiration of fellow New Jerseyite, Bruce Springsteen, his encounter with Gretchen Peters and his two albums.

He played live and cut some great guitar/vocal versions of the songs from his new album, Paper Back Bones and told us the whole story of how he came to be on tour in Scotland. It’s a tale you’ll want to hear if only to give the context of his two fine albums. Anthony is a real talent that you don’t meet every day. Join us on Friday when he’ll be in session.

Also on Friday I get to try some redemption . I asked a question born out of frustration at listening to tribute albums by various artists. I have two main gripes: First of all it’s often an odd cast list and secondly it seems to add little to the songs or our impression of the artist. It’s almost as if it’s an afterthought and I wonder why some of the versions get out there when often as not, people have actually covered the songs in their own catalogues better. One of the other factors is the sheer inconsistency…there are many artists, so it’s a real mixed bag. Recently Dean Owens turned all this on its head by singing a complete album of Johnny cash songs himself – and I think that is both bold and very good. (I actually like the one song Dean wrote himself the most!). So last week I asked you on the Facebook if anyone had heard a good compilation/tribute album, as I hadn’t. One of the albums we clearly disagree on is this one which I’ve owned and rarely played since that time.

You’ve sent in some powerful arguments, so I’ll play at least one of those to show that I do listen occasionally. New music too from Caitlin Rose, Buddy Miller & Jim Lauderdale.

Also Grizzly Bear, Kris Kristofferson and some great older things from Don Williams, Hank Williams and Eddie Arnold.

It all starts on Friday at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland.

On Sunday

A few months ago I went for a run one Saturday morning with the neighbourhood running group. It had been a while since I’d last run and there were new people who’d joined the group. I ended up running beside Tony McLaren.  My friend Simon said to me, ‘Ricky – you should meet Tony. You’ll want to speak to him on your radio programme.’ How right he was. Tony McLaren left the Roman Catholic priesthood a few years ago and is now married with children. A few years ago he set up the Mental- Health charity, Breathing Space which aims to allow people a place to find just that. I’ll spend the first hour with Tony and some of his music. I do believe I know at least one of his song choices quite well!

During the US elections and the recent internal wranglings of the Anglicans over women bishops there has been a great deal mentioned about The Evangelicals or the Evangelical wing of the Church. So who are they? Are they the bible thumping Gospel preachers we used to see singing hymns on street corners? Are they too the charismatic Christians we often hear about who seek to express the gifts of the Holy Spirit in a rather extrovert manner? Or are they in fact similar to the people from the Washington based group Sojourners who express concern about poverty, social injustice and campaign against nuclear weapons? Do they all believe the Bible to be literally true and do they want to convert us all? To throw some light I’ll ask a past and present Evangelical and a theologian to explain a few things.

We’ll also celebrate the 60th anniversary of, what must be described as, an Evangelical Classic Text: The Cross and The Switchblade by David Wilkerson. Ian (our producer) and I were both read it aloud in school and we still remember some of the quotes…

We’ll find out what’s going on on World Aids Day and we’ll talk to Louise Yeoman about her new radio series Women With a Past.

One of Louise's other stories about witch pricking.......

Get ready for this one…..Louise has discovered a Scots woman who was the first to translate Marx into English. What happened to her you say? She ended up as a Vicar’s wife in a small parish in England. Louise will explain more.

We have some great music too: Van Morrison, The Clovers, The Young Disciples, Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss and a rare appearance from the late great Larry Norman.

Don’t miss a minute. We start  on Sunday morning at five past seven on BBC Radio Scotland.

Friday is Children in Need Day.  There’s plenty going on across BBC Radio Scotland without our help but we felt we didn’t want to break the spirit of the day. So this week we are playing songs recorded for children. We hope to hear tracks from some of our favourite artists including….

…and of course……

and it wouldn’t be Friday if we didn’t have a song from………

Now if you don’t know that these folk I just mentioned are Johnny cash (with Roseanne on his lap), Woody Guthrie, patty Griffin and Buddy Miller, don’t worry….you’ll have the joy of hearing them, perhaps, for the first time.

We will also talk to Laura Veirs about her wonderful children’s project Tumble Bee…..

….and play some of her great children’s songs from that album. So put on your Onesie, make some hot chocolate, curl up by the fire and let the wireless do the rest. Got the drift? Good – well this week don’t shoo your kids away or be tempted to turn over to another station. Stay with us and we’ll give you songs which show that Country can be child-friendly too.

We’ll not forget our commitment to bring you fresh new recordings and indeed, we already have a big pile of records we want to share with you. There will be new music from The Staves, Beth Orton, Charlie Dore and The Wooden Sky.

It all kicks off at five past eight this Friday on BBC Radio Scotland.

Sunday Morning

I’ll spend some quality time with Gerard Burns. You may think you don’t know Gerard but I’ll be you know his paintings……

We spoke to him earlier in the year when he  used some members of Glasgow’s Emmaus project as models for his  painting for Lentfest of the Road to Emmaus. We’ll talk about painting, faith, stress and…rock ‘n’ roll. My kind of conversation….

Maybe there’s never a perfect time to talk about Israel and Palestine but Anthony Lerman’s new book ‘The Making and Unmaking of a Zionist’ is a fresh take on The British Jewish experience. We’ll talk about the Zionism he thought he believed in and his own vision for the future of Israel.

We will review the new film, The Master.….

(though it only seems to garner 5 star reviews! ) and we will begin a fantastic new series where Bob Dixon introduces us to some Folk Saints. This week it’s the amazing life of Stella Reekie.

We’ll also chat to Rony Bridges who’s recently become a writer-in-residence at Glasgow’s Barlinnie Prison.

All that and music from The Johnny Otis Show, Ella Fitzgerald, Neil Diamond and Of Monsters and Men.

It all starts at five past seven on Sunday Morning and is the best bits are now available as a Podcast from BBC Radio Scotland website.

This week on the AC we not only have a Grammy winner, but Lord preserve us, one who won the gong aged 18! I ask you. That’s not the only unusual thing about Matraca Berg.

She also belongs to that rare group of Nashville musicians who were born and bred within the city limits. When matraca sings Oh Cumberland – she means it. She came in last week while she was in Glasgow to play at The Arches and performed a great session for us down in studio one. She was joined by her husband Jeff Hanna from the Nitty Gritty Dirt band. We also had a long chat about those Grammies, those songs for other people – Faith Hill, Deanna Carter, Kenny Chesney, Trisha Yearwood and many more and she found time to explain why she hadn’t made an album in a long, long time before last year’s The Dreaming Fields. Now she’s got another one recorded and released and… well…there’s no stopping her.

New music from a great new artist called Anthony D’Amato who’s in town supporting Israel Nash Gripka.We’ll sample more of Neil Young’s Psychedelic Pill and hear fresh music from Delta Spirit and new English band Iko…you’ll like it. We’ve talked about memphis Minnie before on the show -0 certainly with those Carolina Chocolate Drops…now there’s a tribute album and we’ll let you hear Maria Muldaur doing Minnie. We’ll also play plenty records which will remind you why we love Country Music. We’ll start lining up the records around on Friday Evening at around five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland.

On Sunday

As it’s remembrance Sunday we hpe to play lots of music to suit the occasion. There will be the nostalgic, the stirring and the elegiac as well as the odd song which asks a question or two about the business of war. We’ll have a first hand witness too.

Robert Lawrence was an officer involved in the conflict in the Falklands. He was severely wounded and was awarded the Military Cross. We’ll spend a good bit of time talking to Robert about his own memories of that time and how he adjusted to life after military service.

What does the Roman Catholic Church do when it runs out of priests? Apart from recruiting them from other countries or ordaining women John Haldane will explain why he thinks it’s time they thought about allowing clergy to marry. Hold on to your berettas there – this could get heated.

During the second world war The Germans held  four very gifted young men captive. Their story is told in a remarkable new bok called ‘Birds In A Cage’ and we will hear from Dr Kevin Franz about what he thinks of the book. We also hear about Horseback UK which is taking injured  Military Service personnel out to the countryside to see how horses can help their recuperation.

There’s probably more, but you’ll have to tune-in to hear it. It starts at Five past Seven on Sunday Morning, BBC Radio Scotland.

I still have huge problems with the telly. Mrs Ross has taken to Strictly of a Saturday and I’m partial to all sorts of nonsense myself and then I realise why it all breaks down……the songs. They dance around to them on Strictly and that kind of annoys me. Then you get a documentary – the Trump one on BBC recently was very good – but I found myself more concerned with who was playing the music – Jonsi (thanks for asking) – than the main thrust of the story. For me it all starts and ends with the songs, I even found myself drifting off while someone was talking on the radio over a football PA system blasting Coldplay. Let’s face it – it’s always going to be more interesting than some gnarled old pro saying nothing about football.

The trouble being that it seems to have happened all my life. I used to get hooked on the test-card tunes as a kid and I now get seriously annoyed (is that just being an old fogey?) when I hear great songs played in Morrisons. It seems wrong, to me, that ‘God Only Knows’ can be talked, shopped and shelf filled over. I have to stop, listen and respect in some sort of mad, middle aged protest. Look out for me, bring your kids to watch – you’ll be entertained.

But songs…. I remember my old friend and lecturer, Jim McIntosh sighing wistfully when he exhaled the word ‘songs.’ He was often talking about Shakespeare where the clown gets to say everything everyone has been feeling but hasn’t yet been able to say…’sigh no more /present mirth hath present laughter’…you name them, there’s plenty of great ones.

This week the funeral of Michael Marra was brilliantly punctuated by song. There were his own and some remarkable others…Danny Kaye, Wilco doing Woody and a performance of another which you will know. It’s a song by Gillian Welch we’ve played a few times and should perhaps play again. On this occasion ‘The Way the Whole Thing Ends’  was aptly chosen and performed brilliantly by Rab Noakes, an old friend of Michael’s, and the man who originally thought up the concept of country music on the radio on a Friday night.

This Friday we’ll play some more great ones; some you’ve probably never heard before and others you’ll welcome back as you would lost friends. You never know you might hear something this week that will be become a friend for life. I hope so.

To help us along we have the return of a great old friend. A son of Antrim and Nashville resident, Ben Glover returns for the third time in as many years. He’ll be playing live some of the excellent songs from his new album, ‘Do We Burn The Boats?’ He’ll talk about writing the songs and then he’ll tell us about playing them across the world and occasionally getting to work with some people he’s admired at a distance for some time. He’s great company, so don’t miss a minute.

We’ll have some new music from Punch Brothers, Howler, Tift Merrit and John Hiatt. We’re also going to play a batch of songs that could only have come from…well…Jail! It all starts at five past eight on Friday, BBC Radio Scotland.

I’m back on Sunday Mornings….

I know you are all up at 7 on a Sunday so….. You’re not? Well fear not, for the early riser or the all night clubber I am on the airwaves from five past seven over the next few months each Sunday Morning but  for those with a gentler start to the day you can now DOWNLOAD the best bits of the show and listen at your leisure. Let me know if it works for you.

Talking, listening, playing some great music and getting involved in some of those tricky moral questions which never seem to go away. Each week I also get the chance to have a lengthy conversation with someone I’m sure you too would like to meet. On Sunday I’ll be spending a lot of the first hour of my show with Colm Toibin, Irish novelist, poet and recently author of the play turned novella, ‘The Testament of Mary.’ It’s his imagined account of a memoir by Mary, Mother of Jesus. As you can, no doubt, imagine there’s a lot you can expect in the narrative and a fair amount you don’t.

We’ll hear how the Coptic Christians are going about electing their new Pope in Egypt nearly two years after the start of the Arab Spring. We’ll also hear a very moving interview with Margo MacDonald about her attempt to pass an assisted suicide bill through Holyrood. I’m talking water with Ian Bradley who’s just written a fairly exhaustive Spiritual History of Water ………

And we’ll also meet the next Moderator of The Church of Scotland. She doesn’t look like you’d expect him to either…if you know what I mean.

Along the way we’ll play music from Judy Garland, Ry Cooder, Louis Jordan, Jonsi and Karine Polwart. It all starts at Five past Eight on Sunday morning. But don’t forget you can now download the best bits so you can play any time you want.

It’s 1994. In the spring months I have gone through losing my father, watching Dundee United win the Scottish Cup for the first time having been (with my Dad) to 6 losing finals and…..done, what I thought, would be the last Deacon Blue gig ever. On top of all that we decided to move house…..

In late June we go on holiday to a remote village house half way up a mountain in the Alpes Maritime. It’s a lovely spot and for company we take a few key CDs. One of these is ‘My Life’ by Iris Dement. Was it just the times I was going through or did it really seem that God had delivered that album just when I needed it most. Songs of loss, struggle and ultimately redemption seemed the perfect soundtrack to my life….I’ll include my wife here too as she also loved that record. My mother came out to join us and she too loved the sound of Iris. Later on we were joined by my sister and her family and she too fell for the charms of that brilliant album. Iris came to Glasgow. We enjoyed her but there were some odd moments of personal reflection that didn’t quite sit as easily as the songs. However there was no doubt that Iris was a major talent and she would leave a stamp on me that few others have succeeded in doing.

So it’s with this background that I leapt with joy when I read about a new Iris album coming along in Uncut this month. Sure as shooting it was waiting for me when I got back from my month on the road. That’s a welcome home. So this Friday I’ll give you a flavour of what to expect from Iris on her first studio record of new songs for 15 years. Crazy huh? (I’ll tell you now you won’t be disappointed)

We will also have some great things from old friends The Jim Jones Revue, Grizzly Bear, Kris Kristofferson and Wanda Jackson. There will be no guests this Friday. There will be no exteneded chats and no deviations. We will simply play you some of the best new records you need to hear and remind you that there is so much already available you can still enjoy.

Now I’ve enjoyed playing live recently. It has been wonderful to get out and see songs come alive but there’s a big bit of me that has missed my Friday nights in on the radio. So why not stay in yourself or take a long drive and together we’ll spend a couple of great hours in Another Country.

It all starts at Five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland.

1987…… late 1987. I am in the home of the ‘family of music’ CBS Records in Soho Square, London. I’m there to meet Bob Clearmountain who is in London to work with our band and intends to re record one of our songs in order to make it sound like the smash record everyone tells us it should be. Bob’s in the A & R office and together we make our way to the studio where we’ll be working. I tell him how much I like the new Bruce Springsteen album. (Tunnel of Love has come out in September) He likes it too. We share a few sentences on the themes of love, disillusionment and fear which seem to rise to the surface from Tunnel of Love. ‘Yeah’ says Bob, as he looks bewildered at the London traffic, ‘ I said to him at the time,……’Has Julie heard these songs?’

A few months later Bruce Springsteen’s short marriage to Jilianne Phillips was over. The man who had paid to go through that Tunnel of Love had come out the other side a slightly more perplexed figure than the one who had gone in. He didn’t go up to the fat man sitting in the ticket office and ask for his money back but heck he did decide a few more shots on the waltzers might be worth the money. By spring ’88 I was in pole position to see the Tunnel of Love Express tour open in Madison Square Gardens NY. Bruce looked at Patti Scialfa all night and Patti looked back. The rest was history.

Five years earlier I was leaving Dundee to come to Glasgow. I remember trying to make sense of my friend, Andy’s 4 track cassette recorder. It was great. For five minutes it sounded like you were making an album. Drums on one track, bass, keys vocals…..wasn’t this how The Beatles did it? Bruce Springsteen also bought one. He set it up in his house and recorded what we now know as Nebraska. The story goes that Bob Ludwig refused to master it, and again the rest is history.

On Friday we celebrate the significant anniversaries of these two seminal albums. Some would say they may be the best albums Bruce has ever recorded. You can judge for yourselves but both records have drawn country artists in and we’ll play you some great covers of the songs as well as the unbeatable originals.

That’s not all. As promised we also chat to this band.

It’s Grizzly Bear who return with a great new album and we’ll ask all the right questions to the men from Brooklyn and hear some of these new songs.

All the usual mix of old and new from five past eight this Friday on BBC Radio Scotland.

Stop me if I’ve told you this before. It’s the BBC canteen circa 2008 and I am meeting a man called Richard Murdoch who has lately arrived from Radio One and between us we’ve been tasked with putting a show called Another Country on air. I’m parking the car thinking to myself, ‘Who is this guy? Why am I doing this? I know this won’t work…and I’m about to get found out.’ (add your own here) We meet over a BBC table. Me ‘So, Richard, do you know anything about country music?’ Him ‘No.’ Me ‘Neither do I.’ Us….’so shall we just muddle through?’

And from that promising start we have been muddling through very happily for the last few years. Occasionally, however, I get found out big time. Look, I love country music but I’d be the first to admit there are prairies of missing information out there. A couple of years ago my live agent (a man who knows a thing or two about country) said to me ‘Marty Stuart’s coming over.‘ I think he expected me to organise a conga right there. I realised as I put the phone down I had not been reacting properly. Who is Marty?

I started to search around and the more I learned, the more I wanted to know. Then it really clicked. I met Marty on that fateful frosty morning, bestsonned and beaming and coming towards me in the BBC carpark. I got it. Marty is the keeper of the flame.

From collecting missing memorabilia of Hank, Patsy and his old boss Johnny C and opening up RCA Studio B to record his albums to hosting one of the best nights of country you’ll ever experience…Marty’s Late Night Jam at The Ryman…to writing,producing and performing country songs like someone who means it  – i.e. your heart might just get broken – Marty is the man who can explain everything you love about country music.

So you’ll be pleased to know that we will spend hour two of Friday’s AC with the man himself talking about his new album, Roger McGuinn, Stonewall Jackson and listening to the music of his Fabulous Superlatives.

Also we have Ry Cooder, Patterson Hood, Bruce Springsteen and lovely new things from Get Well Soon, Karima Francis and The Jim Jones Revue.

I have one more night on Radio 2 this Sunday sitting in for Sir Bob Harris and look forward to you hearing Rachel Sermanni in session plus some great music from Frank Ocean, Neil Young, Joan as Policewoman, Admiral Fallow, Judee Sill and Bill Withers. Not bad huh?

Friday starts at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland and I’ll be on Radio 2 from just after midnight on Saturday. Do join me if you can.