I’m looking out at the Spring rather than walking in it. However it’s still a beautiful sight. I’m listening to a song I’ll be playing this week I want to share with you. It’s by Chip Taylor and it’s been in my head the last couple of weeks. It’s a spring song, which makes it special to me.
There was a time when the seasons of the year made little impact. I guess when we were younger we just didn’t bother much about the weather or its implications. However I have a strong sense of my father welcoming the long, milder days of spring as he would an old friend turning up at his house. He was pleased not to drive in the dark and as a man who went travelling the roads of Scotland perhaps he imagined he’d get to see a little more of the place. How ironic that the spring of springs – perhaps the finest I can remember has coincided with the time when we couldn’t actually enjoy it. Still, we’ve marvelled at the empty roads, the clear blue skies and the clean water flowing through our dark old cities.
There’s really nothing that has not been touched by this hell we’re living through. It’s good that people are able to survive it, that books get read and films get watched but we all know we’d all rather be talking about something else. Still when we congregate around the screen and we ‘meet’ our friends all we do is talk about it. Perhaps that’s why I feel it’s good to switch the radio over to some music. There really is so much to enjoy…and I mean records I want to hear.
On the AC we’ve been keen to support some of the many artists we play regularly who live and work near us. On this week’s show we’ll catch up with Rab Noakes who should have been celebrating 50 years since he made his album, ‘Do You See The Lights’ came out. I’ve managed to get Rab to record some thoughts on where he is, what he might have been doing and what he hopes he’ll be doing when all this is over. We’ll also hear a track from that very record and something new Rab will share with us.
Oh there’s so much more. We have a new song by Jackson Browne who takes Zhou Enlai’s famous quote about the impact of the French Revolution (It’s A Little Too Early To Tell) as the theme of his lead track from the forthcoming album. Jackson’s always an important artist to listen to and we’ll also take this opportunity to wind back and listen to something wonderful from his back catalogue.
Elsewhere there’s Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle and Josh Turner talking trains and some great new records from Pharis and Jason Romero, Angelo De Augustine featuring Sufjan Stevens and Dirty Projectors. There’s also a new release from John Anderson who’s now another benefitting from Dan Auerbach‘s Easy Eye falling upon him, Kacey Musgraves and Chuck Prophet. ‘You do all this in two hours?’ I hear you cry from your social isolation. Oh we do and we will this Tuesday evening from 8 p.m. Live on BBC Radio Scotland and your BBC Sounds App. Join me if you can.
