Many years ago I worked with some fabulous brothers called The Robbs. They had a studio in LA where I recorded a solo record and they would tell me great stories of past adventures. One night along with Mick, my guitarist at the time, the youngest of the brothers, Joe, took us to his favourite Mexican restaurant along Sunset. We Scots were quite taken with the Mariachi Band working their way round the room and adding to the ambience. The novelty however was less appealing to Joe who remembered a similar excursion from their studio a few years back with their then client, Mr Jimmy Webb. It appeared Jimmy’s budget was slightly more elastic than my own and his response to hearing the Mariachi players was to invite them all back to the studio and add them to his record. It’s a lovely idea and would only really work if you had the right song, of course.
Cut to twenty years later in the same city and Sam Outlaw is making his debut album with Ry Cooder handling production duties. Now I can’t tell you the exact circumstances, but on that album, ‘Angeleno,’ a Mariachi band was added at the suggestion of Ry. How fine it all sounds too. If that’s not enough there’s a little latin horn flavour on the opening track of Sam’s current album too.
This Tuesday we’ll get a chance to ask about that Tijuana sound when Sam Outlaw brings in his touring band for a very special Another Country live from Studio One. We’ll talk about these Ry sessions and we’ll also talk about Sam’s brilliant sequel which he’s produced himself, ‘Tenderheart.’ A lot has happened since he was last with us…Sam’s ‘Angeleno’ won UK Americana’s Best International Album award and he was nominated twice in the US Americana awards. More importantly Sam’s records and gigs have been building up a growing fan base (he’s now visited Scotland a number of times) and there’s at least one more chance to see him at Oran Mor as part of Celtic Connections on February 3rd 2018.
If that’s not enough we’re going to take you on a little road trip to Oklahoma. It is not coincidental that the blog should start off with a story about the State’s most famous musical son. We’ll have a little of Jimmy Webb‘s own music later in the show as well as some great contemporary Okies. Do join us live from nine o’clock this coming Tuesday. Sam Outlaw, his touring band including the wonderful Molly Jensen and our usual choice cuts from the country catalogue. Does it get any better?
It’s all on BBC Radio Scotland FM this Tuesday evening.
