The leaves are falling down….well the ones in my garden are. It’s been a long time coming but there have been a few trees which needed taking down a metre or two. As I write there’s a chipping machine in front of my window drowning the new Langhorn Slim album…it’s driving me nuts. It’s doing a power of work though. Trees have become dead limbs and those same limbs are being chipped into tiny bits of bark. What Tony Soprano couldn’t do with this machine doesn’t bear thinking about.
This Indian Summer we’re having isn’t confusing any of us. Summer has passed and we know that winter will come sooner or later. By nine it’s getting dark and the thought of being indoors and listening to the radio begins to make a lot more sense than it did in those high days of summer. As you can imagine that excites here on the old AC as we have a rather tall pile of records we need to prune a little too.
I’m quite excited by some of these and want to get a chance to play a few things this coming Tuesday. That new album by Langhorn Slim is called The Spirit Moves and I’ll be playing something to you without the noise of chainsaws to get in the way. I’m hoping I’ll find time for something from the new Alela Diane record. You may well remember her from the Pirate’s Gospel a few years back. This time round she’s working with Portland Oregon based writer/producer, Ryan Francesconi. As well as Alela we will revisit the new album by Joan Shelley which really is very fine indeed. Like Alela, Joan is collaborating beautifully and in Joan’s case it’s the voice of Will Oldham we’re loving here. I’m also going to play more of that Jason Isbel album. Jason’s return to sobriety and subsequent solo albums have been a revelation and it seems that people are responding. This new album charted for the first time in the UK and went into the top 10 on the US Billboard Album chart. Not that we’re counting of course…
What else you say? We know you love a bit of bluegrass and, as Kirsten is working with me on the show we share a love of Cahalen Morrison and Elis West and want to play you a bit more from their album and a few Bluegrass treats. Look out for Jim Lauderdale, Crooked Still and Roscoe Holcombe.
We’ll be playing you some Neil Young on vinyl and heck yes we’ll certainly have some lovely old things which will remind you of why we all love country music.
On Sunday
With the Scottish Governments plan to prioritise education, we’ll be exploring what we want from our schools. What kind of citizens do we want our schools to produce; should schools be divided along gender or faith lines; is there any place for religion in schools – these are some of the questions we’ll be asking.
And I’ll be speaking to Justine Roberts, the co-founder and chief executive of the phenomenally successful parenting website Mumsnet.
Music from Soak, Paul Simon, Trembling Bells and Gurrumul.
All from 10 this Sunday morning on BBC Radio Scotland.
I’m genuinely interested to know why BBC Radio Scotland debate the place of religion in schools every month. Maybe we could take religion out of schools and prevent politicians from mentioning religion or faith and ban public bodies from having anything to do with religion too and we will end up with a great free thinking society like the Soviet Union or China. Are the BBC suggesting that one of the biggest problems with the Scottish education system is the amount of ‘religion’ being taught in school?