When did it last happen to you? You know, that moment when you’re otherwise preoccupied then something comes into your orbit, a melody, a hook, a voice and before you know it a song has wormed its way into your brain before embedding into your heart. Once there it’s unlikely it can be removed.
That’s not to say some songs invade unintentionally and dam it, I’m not sure why one of the worst offerings by Rod Stewart comes into my head when nothing else is going on. (There’s plenty good ones from Faces era I can substitute fortunately) Let’s stick with the good for a minute though. I can remember places, times and particular moments when a song burst its way into my life. The first time I heard Michael Jackson’s Human Nature on my walkman on a ski run where, so absorbed, I drifted on to a perilous black run instead of the easier blue. Or when my pal Charlie put the needle down on that first Prefab Sprout album one winter afternoon in his west end flat. I still want to thank Johnnie Walker for that lunchtime spin for Misstra Know It All coming out of Newsround…..I even taped it.
Country hooks have become important to me too. Country Radio loves these easily identified two bar riffs at the top of so many hits. That little acoustic guitar figure before Miranda’s The House That Built Me, the distorted guitar effects before Sam Hunt’s Break Up In A Small Town, the pedal steel motif that heralds the joyous first verse of Connie Smith’s Once a Day…I could go on. For a short while I became addicted to hearing that mandolin pattern at the top of Carrie Underwood’s So Small ; even now it brings on a Pavlovian reaction of happiness suggesting I’m somewehere other than a dreich Glasgow Tuesday in January.
Some of this drifted across me as I sat in the City Halls last Saturday evening. As each song progressed I realised that Teddy Thompson too had been hooked by the hooks. Not, however, just by the hooks but also by the stories, the melodies and simple wordplay involved in country music. I enjoyed the fact that he assumed no one else of his generation quite understood his love of country and even wondered aloud if his audience (packed out by the way) shared any of this. They did Teddy, but if they didn’t, they do now. It was a masterclass in playing, singing and performance where every one of Teddy’s fine touring ensemble did what was needed and no more.
You can hear some of Teddy’s current album on this week’s AC as we preview another great country event blowing in to Scotland on Wednesday evening. Ashley McBryde’s tour lands for two special Barrowlands nights this week and we will remind you of how significant a writer and singer she really is by replaying you some of the interactions we’ve enjoyed over the years.
There’s lost more, and as ever, lots of new artists to enjoy. You can hear all of this on BBC Sounds from 8 this Tuesday evening or join us live on BBC Scotland.
