If you follow me on Twitter you may have seen a moving Thread I shared yesterday. Nashville journalist and all round country music enthusiast, Brian Mansfield told a story about a life changing moment for his family. He explained how, twenty years ago, when the death of Waylon Jennings had just been announced he was forced to stay in the house and miss out on the church service he normally attended on a Wednesday evening. Brian explained that had that announcement not been made on that sad evening his normal schedule would have meant they would have been elsewhere in the house and not listening out for their daughter whose breathing, due to whooping cough, had ceased.
After an emergency phone call, an admission to hospital and a week in hospital, including three days in ICU his daughter pulled through. Happily she is now a healthy young adult. What moved Brian was the irony of reflecting on the ‘what if’ nature of Waylon Jennings early life. It was Waylon, of course, who gave his seat up on that ill-fated flight by Buddy Holly in 1959. The recipient of Waylon’s kind gesture was JP ‘The Big Bopper’ Richardson, who along with Holly and the other travellers lost his life in the subsequent air-crash. Waylon Jennings carried the guilt of that decision for the rest of his life.
It was this part of Brian’s thread which really struck home for me: ‘Waylon never knew his death allowed my daughter to live. Knowing that he suffered from survivor’s guilt for most of his adult life, I wish there was a way I could have told him. I think he would have appreciated hearing that.’
Twenty years on from the death of a country music giant, we’ll pay our own tribute to Waylon Jennings. We’ll also have some new music from his old Outlaw buddy, Willie Nelson.
Elsewhere on the show we’ll also hear a big song from Mickey Guyton. Mickey’s profile exploded last weekend when she was asked to sing the US National Anthem before The Superbowl. The reaction to her performance was phenomenal and for many people who don’t know the current direction of country music her performance reminded us of the value of young female country artists and the increasing profile of American American voices.
We have new music from C2C artists we’ve not played until now as well as some great new things from old friends including Jenny Lewis, Punch Brothers and Jason Isbell. There will be more from John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen, Sierra Ferrell and The War On Drugs. We’ll do all of this in two hours which starts at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland. Do join me if you can.
