It’s my delight to be on the airwaves over Easter weekend. On Easter Sunday morning we’ll celebrate the most optimistic day in the Christian calendar with Chris Foxon. Chris is a Methodist Minister in Partick, Glasgow. In perhaps one of the most moving and life affirming stories Chris will share his own Easter story which took him from despair to hope and made him re-evaluate the basis of his Christian Faith.
We’ll also hear the voices of some young people who would like the miracle of hope to break into their lives. Unfortunately for them the reality of unemployment looms large and we’ll ask them how they find hope in these very hard times.
On Good Friday I’ll bring you a 2 hour celebration of all that I love in country music. Starting with some of the key records that made me first love country, I’ll try to share with you my love of the records which still make me stop the car, sit down or inflict Hank, Patsy or Carrie on my family. I hope you’ll love some and I’m sure you’ll tell me what I’ve missed out. Either way it will be a fun ride. Here’s where I bought a whole pile of them….
Last Friday’s Another Country was possibly my favourite of this year’s run to date, with the commentary accompanying your song choices making for illuminating listening. You sent out a challenge for listeners to contribute their own lists, and for a moment I thought this would be utterly self-indulgent and of interest to precisely no-one but myself… but then, as a serial compilation and playlist creator, I figured I would produce one anyway! And, having done that, I may as well share it. So this is a short-ish list of country, folk and Americana songs that have been significant to me in discovering the genres, these artists and more besides, in case anyone else might be even vaguely interested…
Iris Dement “Our Town”
My all-time favourite radio DJ has to be Chris Stevens of Cicely, Alaska’s KBHR, or K-Bear. (Sorry, Ricky – but he is fictional!) Northern Exposure remains for me one of, if not the very finest television series ever produced. Chris Stevens was the philosophical heart of the show and, in addition to the metaphysical goings-on at the radio station, the jukebox in the town’s bar – The Brick – was a feast of country music (and more besides), with music often used in diegetic fashion to leap from some onscreen source to become the soundtrack to a scene. No song affected me more than this one, though, playing over the tear-inducing final moments of the very final episode, “Tranquility Base”. Not only that but it led me to the excellent albums “Infamous Angel” and, later (and with a little help from Another Country) “My Life”.
Mary Chapin Carpenter “Come On Come On”
This album became the soundtrack of my first ever trip to the U.S.A. having previously heard just one song (“I Feel Lucky”) on a compilation CD that came free with an edition of Q magazine. I fell in love with it and it is forever tied to that first of many explorations of the country, and in the couple of decades since I have fallen deeper and deeper in love with Mary Chapin’s music and in awe of her songwriting. If anything, since the radio-friendly hits have become fewer and farther between, her craft just seems to get better and better, notably on the albums “Between Here and Gone”, “The Calling” and “The Age of Miracles”. I know she’s not favoured by the Another Country team, but I couldn’t put such a list as this together without giving her mention, and this album – and the wonderful title track – were my initiation into probably my favourite songwriter of all. I am currently eagerly awaiting her new album – “Ashes and Roses” – which is on the way in June, and maybe an appearance on Another Country someday yet!
Shawn Colvin “Someday”
Another under-rated and under-represented songwriter, I would venture. I think I first heard her music via the single “I Don’t Know Why” that Bob Harris had featured on his overnight show, and her music was often a companion to me on overnight shifts working alone at a petrol station. “Cover Girl” was full of wonderful, sparse interpretations of great songs, but the one that resonated above them all, given my situation at the time, was this cover of the Steve Earle song. Two decades on from that time and Shawn Colvin is still producing wonderful music that resonates with me yet deeper. Alongside close friend Mary Chapin, she has a new album – “All Fall Down” out this June alongside her autobiography, “Diamond in the Rough”. Both will be must-buys for me on their release.
Deacon Blue “Deportee Song”
For me, a joy of live gigs is discovering influences on the artists I admire that have then come to inspire me in turn through their choices of covers. I was so pleased when “Deportees” got included as a B-side (if I can still use the term!) to “Bigger than Dynamite” as it was a memorable live moment for me, not to mention my way in to starting to discover the music of Woody Guthrie. Again, I’m so pleased that Another Country is showcasing his music this year. Now if only Deacon Blue were releasing a new album this year too then my 2012 musical calendar would be complete. Wait… what? Really?! Fantastic!
Randy Newman “Sail Away”
Again courtesy of a Deacon Blue live moment, it’s been such a pleasure to be able to go back and discover Randy Newman’s back catalogue. The Songbook Volumes 1 & 2, stripped back to piano and vocal, are for me the definitive way to hear these songs. I could very easily include Blind Alfred Reed’s “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?” for the same reason too.
Gretchen Peters “On a Bus to St. Cloud”
Another Another Country find for me, and a song that reminds me of long coach trips through the landscape of Andalucia. Included not just for the discovery of another fine songwriter, but for the memory of good times in the sun and the joy in of having nothing but the open road and adventures ahead.
Martyn Joseph “Thunder Road”
Bruce Springsteen was, to my detriment, an artist I had pretty overlooked until five or so years ago. Again it was hearing a stripped back version of “Thunder Road” performed live by another of quite simply the finest songwriters out there, Martyn Joseph, that made me re-evaluate his body of work, and now my shelves are crammed full with Springsteen’s back catalogue.
Rosanne Cash “Sea of Heartbreak”
A recent epiphany for me just a couple of weeks ago at Union Chapel had me appreciate the talent of Rosanne Cash fully, and I came home and ordered her memoir “Composed” as well as copies of “Black Cadillac”, “Rules of Travel” and a career-spanning compilation within minutes of getting through the door. A joy of Another Country is the veritable warren full of rabbit-holes it has led me down in exploring established artists as I come to appreciate them more fully. (My bank manager is probably less happy about this.) “Sea of Heartbreak” and “The List” were my way-on to Rosanne’s music, but I’m not looking back now, and a sneak preview of a brand new song from her upcoming album of Southern-influenced songs was just one highlight of a truly memorable evening.
Elvis Presley “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” / “Where Could I go But To The Lord” / “Up Above My Head” / “Saved”
I gifted the Masters boxsets of Elvis back catalogue to someone very close to me over a series of years, and love each and every era. Probably nothing quite made as much impact on me – in terms of any live performance ever, for that matter – as the ’68 Comeback Special, and whilst “If I Can Dream” is the standout performance from that show for me, the Gospel medley is also just superb.
Johnny Cash “You Are My Sunshine”
Alongside Elvis, this list wouldn’t be complete with a few other names, and this is the first of them. So many potential choices, but there’s something about the version of this song that appears on “Unearthed” that cuts to the soul, and I love the studio outtake at the end too!
Gram Parsons “Love Hurts”
Again, just a great version of this song, and probably my favourite moment in terms of Gram Parsons’ collaborations with Emmylou Harris. Both of them have clearly lived this song.
Hank Williams “I’ll Never Get Out of this World Alive”
Another classic, plain and simple, and the first Hank song that really got to me, gallows humour and all.
Thanks again for the music, Ricky, and here’s hoping you get to dust that jukebox down again soon…