Grow Your Hair Kids

I don’t know where to start but I’ll have a go:

Occasionally people (and it seems to me that this seems to be happening in a lovely way across the pond) seem to find it easier to cut themselves off and make gloriously isolated music. Over the last few years we’ve loved Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear and our old friends Richmond Fontaine who have all wallowed in their own sacred space. Their playgrounds were scattered throughout the northern states. So let’s add a new destination: Stillwater, Oklahoma. Home to this interesting collective:

Other Lives (for that is them) have done some good touring of late. Opening for Bon Iver across the west coast earlier in the year they quickly endeared themselves to Justin Vernon, his band and their followers. Now they are winning over European audiences and on Friday we will find out how all this has come about. One thing seems certain…if you want to get in on this cool act, grow your hair and don’t trim your beard.

We will also have some other great new things……including the new single from our faves, The Black Keys. I don’t like hyperbole but it’s TOTALLY GREAT.

We’ve got old things from Rick Nelson, Johnny Cash and Guy Clark. We also have lovely new things from Ash Mountain, Shelby Lynne and Kurt Vile. We’ll hear what Richard and I were doing this week and I’ll tell you all about the country roots of my new friend…Hal David.

Now I hear you say. What about Bob?  We are close to the end of our backwards epic journey. But we still have some significant landmarks to pass. This week it’s 1964 (As it was last week but we are still in Bob as a folk musician – though you can hear the rubs beginning to happen.) If this all sounds like gobbledygook  because you’ve just joined us then we’re playing Bob Dylan‘s entire catalogue backwards and this week we will listen to….

It will all in colour and on your radio…now how do we do that? Join us on Friday at five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland to find out.