On this week’s Another Country we’ll catch up with our very own Nashville cat, Bill DeMain our Music City man in the know. Bill has all the latest from the country capital and we’ll hear how Twang Town has locked down and may have to lock down more.
A Nashville story I particularly love comes in the form of a track we will play from an album which has just been scheduled for a pre Christmas release. Called ‘From Elvis in Nashville’ it chronicles a time that has long fascinated me. In the summer fifty years ago Elvis Presley made the short trip from Memphis to Nashville to spend five days recording 40 – 50 songs in record time. Surrounded by the original Nashville cats including Charlie McCoy and James Burton he worked his way through songs he’d always wanted to cut and contemporary songs of the time. The final mixes had always been overdubbed with strings, voices and brass arrangements but the album has been remixed to reflect the raw energy of the original sessions. Think ‘Let It Be’ Naked from around the same time and you’ll get a sense of what the album is trying to deliver. We will play you a great sampler this Tuesday evening.
As ever on the AC we like to bring you some artists we’ve not played before. Christian Lee Hutson is an artist whose music has worked his way into my consciousness over the last few weeks. Every time I come back to his music I want to play more and play it on the radio. His album, ‘Beginners’ is all based round his voice and from there the production on each song grew. Interestingly it is produced with woman of the moment, Phoebe Bridgers, but in an interesting way, appeals to me more than her own record because of its natural organic nature. You can judge for yourself if you tune in, but I suspect it’s an album you may well want to own.
We will also share new tracks from some old friends of the programme including Eric Church, Joana Serat and, for the first time in a more years than we can remember, Caitlin Rose. Caitlin’s mother, Liz is one of the writers on the current single from her fellow Love-Junky, Lori McKenna whose new album, The Balladeer we have been trailing for these last few months. If that’s not enough we’ll have something from The Mavericks, who’ve recorded their new album in Spanish. Another Country you say? Oh yes….and it’s all on BBC Radio Scotland this Tuesday night from five past eight. Join me if you can.
