It’s a little too easy to get caught up in a drama. Sometimes it’s tempting to want to play a bigger part in it than we deserve. However this last week I have watched three different documentaries on 9/11 and each one has been beautifully made and has allowed people like myself, bystanders across the water, to understand a little of what it has been like for those left behind.
Sundays With..this week falls on the anniversary of that awful day. I have been very taken with WNYC’s (the NPR station in New York) website inviting listeners to suggest music for the anniversary. There are many beautiful, brilliant and stirring suggestions. Some of the songs take on a whole new meaning in the events of 9/11 and others simply echo the sadness. I’ll be playing suggestions throughout the show.
I also hope to include some of my facebook friends and supporters’ own memories of how the tragedy affected them even here. Feel free to add to theses stories here. We’ll here from Bob Dixon who has been gathering memories and stories in the Big Apple itself. I will also be chatting to John Mann who was then a pastor in Minneapolis struggling to contain his parishioners anger and is now a minister in Pollok, Glasgow.
It’s also another anniversary. It’s 15 years since The Mark Scott Foundation was established. Mark was a sixteen year old boy murdered in a shocking sectarian attack in Bridgeton. His father Niall will be in the studio talking about how much or little has changed in the intervening years.
I will also be chatting to Robin Harper, Scotland’s first green MSP on the publication of his new autobiography, Dear Mr Harper.
It’s going to be a special two hours and it all starts at seven next Sunday morning on BBC Radio Scotland.
On Another Country…
It’s 100 years since the birth of Bill Monroe, father of bluegrass. We will have an hour of bluegrass music from Bill, The Stanley Brothers, The Avetts, Dolly Parton and yes…Bob Dylan!
In the second hour it’s an 80th birthday party for George Jones.
We’ll hear George singing George. We’ll hear George singing Bill Monroe and we’ll hear a host of other great artists singing the songs of the man Frank Sinatra called “the second best singer in America.” Listen out for Gram Parsons, The Everley brothers, The Secret Sisters and Kitty Wells. All from five past eight on BBC Radio Scotland.
There’s not time to play all the songs I’ve gathered for Sundays show so I thought you’d be interested to hear this one suggested by one of the listeners at WNYC. Dylan, by Nina Simone.
Really looking forward to both shows this week. I’ve been somewhat remiss in catching the Sunday show to date, but will definitely be making an appointment for this Sunday morning.
Looking forward to Another Country too, of course, and notably for the bluegrass hour. I missed Dolly Parton on tour this time around, sadly, but share your love of her bluegrass material in particular, quite apart from which I would have to cite “The Grass Is Blue” as one of my absolute favourite songs period.