Flashes like a spray of blue jays
Hmmm — a golden crown upon each one
Like an eagle seen against the sun
Bruce Cockburn
It’s one of these mornings and I’m back at the desk looking out at the park where I’ve just enjoyed the morning walk with Alf the dog. If it weren’t for the radio I’d probably imagine the world right now was just about as perfect as the picture I recall; single leaves dropping languidly as Alf shuffled around in the leftovers of summer. At one point I looked and there was the unlikely sight of him wreathed in his own condensation, happy as the morning.
Life’s not that simple, I know, but if I’ve learned anything (and the jury’s still out there) I’ve learned that you’ll regret it if you fail to celebrate the moments that matter. Other things will come along soon enough and the good memories help balance everything out. Right now I’m completing the moment and have put on the new vinyl album by Conor Oberst where he sings of Paul Gauguin in The Pacific and John Muir in Yosemite. It’s one of the joyous things I’ll share with you on this Tuesday’s Another Country.
We will also repeat a moment from last year when we hosted Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats. These chaps have taken Nathaniel’s music to a whole new audience since they released their current, eponymously titled album. It’s been great for us to watch the progress of Nathaniel and his troubadours over the last 15 months or so. Since we first new him as an introspective folk singer it’s been great to see his music embraced by a wider audience who now include the 4,000 souls who have bought tickets for his 2 sold out Barrowlands shows early next month. Last October they came in to AC Towers to perform an exclusive acoustic session and I sat down to chat to the man himself about singing, drinking, getting famous and being on one of the most the most iconic record labels of all time. On this week’s show you get a chance to hear all of that again.
Also, and if you like The Night Sweats, we think you’ll just love Tami Nielson, Dietrich Strausse and Margaret Glaspy, you’ll swoon at the new track from Hiss Golden Messenger noting that Tift Merrit guests on his latest album and what do you know, we have something new and wonderful from Tift herself. We’ll bring you your regular Merle Moment and, not a moment too soon we’ll have a song from one of the biggest country stars of all time, Garth Brooks. If I told you we also had a track from Sarah Jarosz I think you’d feel we have a very special show lined up.
It all starts at five past nine on BBC Radio Scotland FM on Tuesday evening.
