Over the next few weeks we are going to bring you some great country stories from the beating heart of America’s Music City: Nashville Tennessee. This week’s blog is an introduction to the forthcoming delights.
On this week’s show we have lots of great new artists and releases plus one of Country Music’s great stories told through the lens of Canadian songwriter, Matt Patershuk. If the title of his song, ‘Ernest Tubb Had Fuzzy Slippers’ doesn’t intrigue you then it’s quite possible that country music may not be your thing. Needless to say, we were fascinated, and we have a little accompanying passage of songs we trust you will enjoy.
We also welcome Michael Ray who stopped in to say hello on the morning after his successful solo show in Glasgow. Since his first visit to Scotland at C2C Michael’s fast building a new audience here. You can listen to Michael’s own story of how he made the journey to Nashville from his native Florida in the second hour of this week’s programme. His current album, ‘Amos’ is named after his biggest musical influence: his late Grandfather, who taught him to play guitar and gave him his first live opportunities.
On next week’s show we’ll repeat the wonderful afternoon we recorded with three great songwriters performing in the round in Music Row’s Spotland Studios. Bob DiPiero, Heather Morgan and Allen Shamblin tell stories and perform the songs they wrote for artists including Tim McGraw, George Strait, Bonnie Raitt, Maren Morris and many more.
In two weeks time you can imagine yourself walking through The Country Music Hall of Fame to see and hear their current exhibition, Outlaws and Armadillos. Peter Cooper, archivist, country historian and as always, songwriter, will take me through the stories of the seventies outlaws as we hear the music of Waylon, Willie, Tompall Glaser, Jessie Coulter and so many more. We’ll compare these outlaws to today’s outlaws and we’ll cross the plaza to spend a little time in The Johnny Cash Museum too. As ever this will inspire some choice cuts from classic country albums.
If that’s not enough our Nashville season concludes with a very special programme with Jerry and Gordon Kennedy. Jerry was one of the guitar playing producers of the sixties who worked with a host of legendary names including Tom T Hall, Roger Miller, Jeanie C Riley, Roy Orbison and….. Elvis Presley. Gordon (his son) has carried on the tradition as a guitarist for (among others) Peter Frampton and Grammy winning songwriter for Garth Brooks and Eric Clapton. It’s a wonderful family conversation which came out of a couple of days I enjoyed in Gordon’s company writing for a forthcoming project. The shared love of music he and his father enjoy as well as their hilarious stories make this show on December 3rd a very special night in the AC calendar.
The nights have drawn in….the leaves are being gathered and we invite you to spend a couple of hours each week with some brilliant people who have created some amazing music. We’ll be on BBC Radio Scotland every Tuesday from five past nine.
