This week on the AC we’re only a week away from the start of the Glasgow Americana festival. So we’re going to be nodding affectionately at some of the key artists soon to be coming to town. Step forward Mary Gauthier, Anthony D’Amato and Sturgill Simpson. Don’t forget you can find all the details at http://www.glasgowamericana.com.

We’ll also be playing you new records from Justin Townes Earl, Parker Millsap and Bela Fleck and his wife Abigail Washburn. That’s all before the main event….

Willie Watson’s debut LP is called Folk Singer Vol 1 and it’s safe to say it’s made a mark already. Produced by Dave Rawlings and released on Dave and Gillian Welch‘s label Willie’s album lays down a serious marker about the roots of Americana music. The songs themselves are lovingly assembled from the canon of people’s music over the last century and Willie himself is a real troubadour whose love of Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie shines through each performance. Here’s the interesting bit…..Willie is making his debut solo album having quit Old Crow Medicine Show – you’d kind of expect him to have his own story to tell, his own songs to sing. Why he’s chosen this path and how much he loves the music will become clear in a fascinating interview you can hear this Friday. As if that’s not enough you will hear fresh performances of the songs from the album recorded exclusively for the AC. It’s going to be good.

As ever we’ll have some vintage records that will have you scurrying around wishing you could hear them again….Mr Murdoch is away but he’s left me the keys to his record cupboard and I have to say it’s particularly well stocked. So there will be the crackle of vinyl, the warm hum of valves from the new Ryan Adams record ….some of us may still have ringing ears from tonight’s show and there will be the beautiful high and lonesome plucking, picking and singing of one of a great troubadour starting out on a solo path that I’m pretty sure is going to prove very interesting.

Finally let me mention Blue Rose Code aka Ross Wilson who will be joining us next week. We’ll be playing the new single this Friday and welcoming Ross to AC land next week for an exclusive session and interview. His current single is a reimagining of a poem by this great Scottish poet… If you don’t know who this is we’ll enlighten you on Friday, as we always try to do.

It all starts at five past eight this Friday evening on BBC Radio Scotland. Join us if you can.