I hope you enjoyed last week’s AC with our special guest, Michaela Anne. It’s still all there on BBC Sounds if you need to catch up. I feel slightly guilty about missing my normal live broadcast but we knew you’d understand that Bruce Springsteen was in town and we really felt it rude not to pay our respects.
I had asked for a couple of tickets for his show from one of my old friends who has dispensation on these matters and she did not disappoint. It took only a minute to question why I’d even thought twice about making my way over to Edinburgh last Tuesday. I suppose I’d thought that a night on E Street could not get any better than nights at Madison Square Garden or Sheffield or Manchester or London or Glasgow…where joy has been overflowing on some rare summer nights. Can one man and his band lift our weary spirits higher than expected for one more night? Yes, he can.
There was also something else about this night in Edinburgh that had not been there on earlier visits too. There was sense that we were all growing old together. Where once there was only the future, now, as Bruce himself said, ‘At 15, it’s all tomorrows. At 73, it’s a lot of goodbyes.’ Perhaps knowing that two of E Street’s finest have gone before allows us to put a little perspective on things too. Missed but not forgotten, Dan Federici and Clarence Clemons were celebrated in their absence. Maybe too because some of us know the pain and effort involved in trying to do the simple things we once completed with ease thirty odd years ago there is a celebration in every stage swivel, step or audience high-five. This is a seventy three year old man making us believe in ourselves again and again and again.
There were so many beautiful moments and exciting passages (we could all pick favourites I’m sure) but in the gathering dark there was a sense and an acceptance that all of this can’t last; this life does not last forever, and as much as we celebrate it while we’re here, it’s only fitting to recognise that all this too will pass. On this week’s AC I’ll play one of the standout songs of that great night at Murrayfield.
Oh ,there’s so much to play you this week including a fun section I have borrowed from the fab Bluegrass Situation website who have highlighted eighteen tracks for Boygenius fans. We liked the idea so much we thought you’d like to hear a sample or two from the list. Talking of lists we will have a great rendition of another song from Roseann Cash’s List performed by Natalie Merchant. There are also some fabulous new artists to explore as we bring you cuts from Summer Dean and Jordan Shellhart. It’s a packed two hours of country music LIVE from Glasgow’s Pacific Quay and it starts at five past eight this Tuesday evening on BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Sounds.
I’m also sitting in for Mark Radcliffe on BBC Radio Two’s Folk Show this Wednesday evening from nine with special guest GNOSS live in the studio.
Do join me if you can.
