Nothing sounds as good as, I remember that
Like a bolt out from the blue, did you feel it too?
I remember that
Paddy McAloon
What do you remember most? people say that things learned – experientially and intellectually – in childhood are the things most deeply held. Memories are often set to music. This week we meet a man who has remembered the things which turned him on to country music. Mr Niz encountered country at close quarters. He heard it travelling across the United States with his preacher father. He remembers the hymns and he remembers the sound of the pedal steel. He loved that so much he learned the instrument.
On Friday we will be joined by Mr Niz. Let me introduce him properly. Stuart Nisbet is guitarist and pedal steel player extraordinaire who has played with The Proclaimers, Justin Currie and his own band, The Liberties. He is the go to guy for steel in Scotland as well as being the man to speak to if you want to put a gig on. Stuart is also a promoter with Regular Music so has a story or two to tell.
A few years ago he told me about his his plans to pay tribute to some of the hymns that he’d heard growing up. These hymns had crossed the Atlantic from the pens of the legendary Hymn writers, Sankey and Moody. When it finally came out the project was a little wider than that. But unlike say, Tom Jones’ Praise and Blame, Mr Niz has chosen some pretty original titles to record. I like to think I know a hymn or two but many of these are new to me. He’ll be here to tell us about falling in love with lonesome music, how much he loves the Louvins and his road trips across the US as a boy. It will be great.
Lots of interesting things to bring you on Friday night too. Not least this new band from Brooklyn.
The y are called Lone Bellow and we think you’ll love them. We’ll have a rather strange and wonderful track from a new band from Montreal – Little Suns – we rather like things from Montreal and we will play you Martina McBride doing Gretchen as well as introducing some fine new things from Gambles, Agnes Obel and the Avett Brothers. We’ll reflect on the time The Eagles supported Neil Young at the old Apollo in Glasgow.You might be even more pleased to know that, although the CMA awards are ongoing this week from Music City, we will be oblivious to all of that and continue in the deep groove of what we have always done; playing great music that is only there because Hank did it first.
On Sunday
I will spend the first hour talking to Margaret Evison. It’s remembrance Sunday and Margaret’s book about her son, Mark, and his untimely death in Afghanistan, is a timely reminder of the precarious life of the soldier on a weekend when we remember the huge sacrifice of millions. Margaret’s very moving story is punctuated with some beautiful music which meant so much to Mark.
I’ll also play you some music suitable for Remembrance Sunday.
For the first time in my life I meet the most stylish man in Scotland………..
I’ll be talking to one of our finest artists and playrights, John Byrne about the John Byrne awards. The awards challenge young adults in Scotland and South Africa to consider how relevant and valid society’s traditional values are today – and invites them to express the values they feel will help create a better world.
The Vatican have been asking the opinion of lay Catholics across the world. We find out what people are saying with some help from Father Roddy Johnston and Liz Leydon.
It all starts on Sunday morning at five past seven on BBC Radio Scotland. Join me if you can.
Memory’s an interesting one. I spent a fair bit of time studying psychology some years ago, so I understand something of how cognition and memory work, including its reliability or otherwise… but that feels all very clinical. Some childhood experiences linger, for certain, and make a deep impression even when I/we cannot always conjure them to mind in vivid detail. Music is a powerful emotional memory hook to me, though—I can name a few albums that I am still very much attached to for the memories they invoke over and above their interest to me on their own merits! I even associate certain songs and albums with the seasons or specific times of year, and can find that oddly comforting.
Incidentally, based on that photograph Lone Bellow look like time-travellers! Looking forward to tonight’s playlist, and I’ll be interested to see what makes the cut for the Sunday show, too—and will be listening in for sure.
I only managed to catch up with it today, but this week’s Sunday Morning was a carefully judged show, too. Margaret Evison’s story regarding her son was indeed very affecting, and the music selection was superb throughout: Michael Marra’s “Happed in Mist” was new to me, and I had a face-palm moment for not thinking to recommend “Here’s the Tender Coming” myself!