Last week, the first week any of us were allowed to stay away from home, we took a short holiday. It wasn’t far away, the weather was pretty mixed and we ate fish ‘n’ chips at least twice. It wasn’t the Cote D’Azur or some exotic Caribbean island but I think it may have been one of the most anticipated and best breaks I’ve enjoyed in a long while. I’m sure I’m not the only one to have experienced some of those feelings recently.
One of the best things was to be able to get in the car and take off without the feeling we couldn’t venture any further than our council boundary. On our return some friends asked us to pay them a visit to their newly built holiday hut facing over the Southern Uplands about an hour or so from Glasgow. We enjoyed a warm spring evening outside their little woodland paradise catching up on old stories before driving home through the gloaming down the Clyde valley. The good Jamie McDougall was spinning his Classics Unwrapped and we took in the breathtaking beauty of the sunset to some gorgeous music as we faced north and west again. Having had a holiday then a bonus day out I felt a little like our old AC friend, Tift Merrit, when she sung how much she longed to stay on for a couple of days on her song, ‘Feeling of Beauty.’ Sometimes it feels like time should just stand still.
That’s perhaps where music comes in. Play the song again and suddenly you are there. I have been playing a beautiful string piece I heard on Jamie’s show this morning and imagining that journey as I listen; and I may just need to play it again and again over the next few months. Taking ourselves out of where we have been may be the thing we need most right now. We’ve been stuck in one place for a long time and we all need a little room to roam. If you can’t roam yet, let me recommend the radio to you. Should you still be without the means or time to get away we hope to take you on little journeys of the mind on every show we’re on air. Songs about places we’ve never been, people we haven’t met yet or heartbreak we’ve been spared; they’re all in our regular two hours on any given Tuesday.
You can listen at home, out of doors or just cruising around wherever you happen to be going. This week you’ll hear bluegrass from Sturgill Simpson, new songs from Dean Owens, Ashley Ray, Kalie Shorr and Saint Sister. Listen out too for Ashley Monroe (a future guest) duetting with Trent Dabbs on his new single. It’s a song co written with one of our guests from a couple of years back, Anderson East. There will be something new from Anderson too. It’s a show packed with great songs you’ll want to play wherever you are. Join me from eight on BBC Radio Scotland FM or on BBC Sounds if you can.
