It’s always nice when people come back to you. I’m pleased to say that we’re now meeting some of our guests for the second time around. I caught up with Nanci Griffith when she was over here three years ago on the first series of American Tunes. Then she was playing the Fruitmarket in Glasgow and she gave us a wide ranging chat about all that was going on for her. A lot has changed. George W has gone and Obama is in the Whitehouse. I remember seeing a sign in the lawn in front of a house in Nashville and thinking…this must be Nanci’s place.

When I first ran into Nanci she had been so angry at the former over Iraq that she’d had a writing block. That’s changed too; “The Loving Kind” is full of great songs by Nanci. We’ll hear all about it and play you tracks on Friday.

Some really good things have come my way recently: look out for material by The Hold Steady, Merle Haggard, Avi Buffalo and Harper Simon.

On Sunday….

The Church in Ireland, Oscar Romero, Lourdes – the movie and the book I’ve just finished and highly recommend,

Shall The Religious Inherit The Earth by Eric Kauffman.

There’s a poster on the wall of my old pal, Tom Jutz with a picture of a boy and a banjo beside an old dilapidated shack somewhere in the south. The boy is singing, head back, unselfconsciously out there in the field. The poster advertises a film – can’t remember which one – which in turn celebrates ‘Bluegrass.’

On Friday we try to do the same thing. We bring you music that was made on the instruments that were around – banjo, mandolin and the fiddle. It’s the space which doesn’t get crowded out with other things that perhaps gives bluegrass it’s unique edge. There’s a courtesy in southern people and it’s there in this music: you don’t solo while someone else is and you back up the rhythm when you’re not centre stage. In it’s purest form it will be done around one mic and everyone will make sure they’ve got the right distance from it. If you want to hear more of that dobro then the dobro player just has to get a little closer to the microphone.

We’ll have bluegrass from the originators and some from down right imposters – but it will all be good. Not only that but we recorded Alecia Nugent when she was in Glasgow playing at Celtic Connections and we have some of that concert for you on Friday. Look out for  Alison Krauss, Bill Monroe, Del McCoury, Ralph Stanley and ….Dolly. We may also surprise you with the Raconteurs, Furnace Mountain and The Avett Brothers.

On Sunday I’m going to chat to Billy Paul about how to stop young offenders re offending without always throwing them in jail. We’ll look at why pilgrims go on pilgramage and we’ll drop by Salaam Scotland to hear about Scotland’s first Muslim Cultural festival. There will, as always, be music too……

When The Carolina Chocolate Drops dropped by they put a few things in perspective. Firstly the interview had to hold off for ten minutes or so while Rhiannon’s baby had a feed. Her baby is on the tour too and it made me realise that this band was serious. No one ( in their right mind) really chooses to tour with a baby. I did it with one who’s now 17 and there is still a pleasure for me of getting on a flight and knowing I can concentrate fully on a newspaper, meal and a film without trawling the aisle for a missing dummy.

They also explained bout the roots of the Jug Band and despite what we probably think you’ll realise that the roots of country are as strong in the African American tradition as they are in the descendants of Scots and Irish in the southern states. Maybe the Europeans (as often happens) wrote the history books…but the Chocolate Drops will tell you more.

In 1988 an album came out that caught the popular imagination. On it were songs by Patsy Cline and Hank Williams and also the Velvet Underground. The band was The Cowboy Junkies and the album was called The Trinity Sessions. Given that I spent a degree of that year flitting between London, Glasgow and New York trying to put the vocal on one song and sit around while someone mixed the track, it was with a little chagrin that I discovered the Cowboy Junkies had recorded their entire album in one room and on one microphone. Years later I got a chance to visit Holy Trinity church in downtown Toronto and discovered for myself the magical ambience of the building that gave birth to the album. On Friday we suggest to you that The Trinity Sessions should form part of your beginners guide to Americana.

There’s old music and new: Jan Howard sings about being married to Harlan and we hearr from Glasgow’s own Woodenbox With A Fistful of Fivers and check in with the new Langhorne Slim LP.

On Sunday….

Ethical Banking, Reuniting Refugee families and The National Youth Orchestra of Iraq – directed from Glasgow. Music for Mother’s day from

Holly Williams, Alison Krauss and The Impressions.

Friday Night/ Another Country

I’d like to pretend it was an interview, but really was just a conversation. It was a couple of weeks ago now when Willy Vlautin came in for that ‘chat.’ I think originally we thought it would be a 15 minute segment in the show. It turned into the second half of the programme and even Richard had to edit it down. I asked Willy about records he made, artists he loves and we talked about his new book “Lean On Pete.”

It won’t surprise you to find out that Bruce Springsteen and Merle Haggard came up in the chat but it might intrigue you to know that he talked about much more than these people. A man of great taste and total honesty – a lovely combination.  It was a real pleasure to be in the company of such a good man and great songwriter. All that from 9 . But before that….

We go on a real road trip. The Low Anthem, Woody Guthrie, John Prine and The Felice Brothers just some of the highlights.

Sundays with Ricky Ross

On Sunday we discuss the current Citizens Production of My Name Is Rachel Corrie. We look at International Woman’s Day 100 years on.

Also…What happens in Disaster Zones when the cameras move on? In the last week the tragedy that is unfolding in Chile will inevitably draw the focus away from the people of Haiti. So what’s going on there now? I’ll also be talking to Alistair Urquart , The Forgotten Highlander whose memoirs of  being a Japanese prisoner and witnessing Nagasaki at close quarters have recently caused such a stir.

Oh…and as always there will be music. Danny Wilson, Aztec Camera from Scotland and more. All from Sunday BBC Scotland at 8 a.m.

I’m not going to have time to do n extensive blog, but this is a short note to announce that I’m back on Sunday mornings.
We’ll have the usual variety of topics and discussions that centre around religion, ethics and morality.

Tomorrow (Sunday 28th Feb) we will discuss the modern way of death, on a similar theme Jolyon Mitchell discusses the film, “The Lovely Bones,” Rosa Murray and Maureen Sier talk about religious fasting seasons and Dominic Smart tells us about the Test Of Faith tour which tries to show that religion and science are not at logger-heads.
Music from Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman, Rodney Crowell and Teenage Fanclub. BBC Radio Scotland 8 – 9 a.m.

My little boy came into the room while I was writing this. Is that Johnny Cash dad? I asked him what he knew and he told me that a friend in his class and he had been discussing music they loved. They both loved \’Ain\’t No Grave.\’ Believe me when I tell you that this has nothing to do with me and everything to do with the man we are about to salute.

It seems that we’re finally getting round to something that’s been looming for a long while. On Friday we are going to spend the two hours that Radio Scotland has given us on Johnny Cash. I naively wondered what we’d do with the time a while back there. Then my producer, Richard  asked me for a list of favourite JC tracks and I realised if we were both going to be happy we’d need to take over the airwaves for the whole evening…there’s a thought!

So for good or bad we have two hours in and around the music of Johnny Cash with tributes from friends of the programme as well as an exclusive long chat with Johnny’s only son, John Carter. The excuse (as if we needed one) is the release of American VI – Aint No Grave for which John Carter has acted as associate producer, but the reason is more fundamental. Johnny Cash was part of a huge dynasty of music which goes back to the very first recordings of what we now call country. That music was gospel and rythm and folk and blues and eventually rock ‘n’ roll. Johnny himself was one quarter of the most potent rock ‘n’ roll roster of all time and even now there will be arguments about which one of the Presley, Perkins, Lewis, Cash quartet was the greatest. I wouldn’t begin to try. Competition has no place in the arts for me. Let’s just be glad we have the recordings. And if you’re still not sure….try this

What is particular interesting in the case of Johnny is the fact that his career re ignited in the last years of his life. This wasn’t because he was suddenly on a cool label with a cool producer. It was because that producer decided to do what great producers do; allow the artist to shine through on his own merits. This might explain further.

The singer became the star and anything that got in the way of that voice and the story of these songs was quietly rubbed out. Johnn Cash himself had the idea of singing these songs in that stripped down fashion long before he’d ever met Rick Rubin.

Unfortunately he was then on a record label who’d long forgotten about why they’d signed him in the first place.

On Friday we will play music written and performed by Johnny Cash, music that inspired and influenced Johnny Cash and hear the voices of artists who continue to be influenced by the Man In Black. In my opinion that two hours is going to be worth our license fee alone.

Lest we forget too, Johnny’s life was never straight forward….

One last story. A couple of years ago I visited a boy in hospital. He was the same age as my 2nd eldest daughter. He’d been in hospital for months as he’d suffered a spinal injury paralysing his lower body and limiting the use of his hands. We chatted for a while then I explained I had to go. I was doing a radio programme that night. Was there any country music he might like? Yes, he said, Johnny Cash.

It’s mid term here in Glasgow. We’ve all been up to my favourite East -Coast haunt, St Andrews. It’s glorious there in winter.The sky is as clear as can be with the only interruption to the view the small dots of fighter planes taking off and landing in Leuchars. I felt glad to be alive.

I tell you all of this as the title alludes to the Seamus Heaney poem  of the same where he is brought home from school to discover the sudden death of a younger brother killed in a traffic accident. I thought of this poem last night when I re read the episode in Johnny Cash’s autobiography where his father picks him up unexpectedly to tell him the news of his brother’s accident. In Cash’s case it was an older brother, but the memory and the sentiment is as powerful. Why do I tell you this? Because next week would have been Johnny Cash’s 78th birthday and we will be celebrating that as we welcome the new release of American VI – Aint No Grave.

Perhaps you’d like to suggest some Cash songs you wouldn’t normally hear for our JC special on Friday 26th? We’d love to hear from you about your choices.

Last week I said, on air, that there was no such thing as a great double album. I wasn’t deluged with corrections but I did get one from Vanessa saying…3 words – “Blonde on Blonde.” Good point, but at 14 songs and running shorter than a lot of single albums it’s hard not to conclude it’s not really a doubler. I stand firm. But hey, it was recorded in Nashville so let’s celebrate it anyway.

Also on the show will be that session and interview with Sara Watkins where she talks about her new life outside Nickel Creek and the making of her new album under the watchful eye of John Paul Jones. All the usual stuff too with new songs from Local Natives, Darden Smith and The Acorn plus one or two old ones too.

What’s you favourite story?

Most of the ones I really care about I love to hear again. Maybe it’s getting older and becoming more like my father but I do enjoy it when some of my best friends (and I include my wife here) tell me a story again. Often they forget and I act as if I’ve never heard it before because, in actual fact, it’s often more enjoyable the 3rd or 4th time.

It happens to me all the time too. I look at my producer Richard Murdoch and say – “Have I told you or the listener this one before?” He’s usually kind enough to say,  “No.” I say all this because I started the week and am ending it in the company of some of the best story tellers I know. On Sunday we (Richard and me) went through to Edinburgh to see Nanci Griffith and it was a real pleasure to spend time in the presence of  a great song writer and singer who always knows how to get you hooked on the end of a great yarn. We’ll broadcast my chat with Nanci over the next few weeks. Tomorrow night in Glasgow Willy Vlautin comes to town. He’s playing at the Captain’s Rest on his own and, I imagine, reading from his new novel Lean On Pete. Willy came to see us before with his band Richmond Fontaine and we enjoyed it so much we invited him back again. He’s popping over to BBC Scotland before the show to talk about some of his favourite songs and, hopefully, tell us a few more tales. Willy is the master of this and I have spent a few days now listening to Richmond Fontaine and reading his latest novel in preparation for tomorrow night – which I still hope to attend after we come off air.

We’ll also be broadcasting that chat with Willy soon and look out for the Richmond Fontaine tour which comes to Scotland soon. Tomorrow night we pause to enjoy conversation and a session from Diana Jones. Diana tells her own story brilliantly and her own experience of adoption and rediscovery is well worth hearing and is beautifully illustrated in her last two albums. Elsewhere we re visit Langhorne Slim, Audra Mae and Tift Merrit and will give spins to Israel Nash Gripka and The Middle East – all very new. We’ll not forget the anniversaries or our occasional Beginners Guide to Americana. Tomorrow night we suggest that Stephen Stills‘ 1972 Manassas album might be another record well worth owning. All from 8 – 10 on BBC Radio Scotland.

Richmond Fontaine…despite meeting a creepy guy in seer sucker, Willy’s coming back!

There was a nice tribute in The Guardian today to Nancy Banks Smith who has completed 40 years as a TV reviewer. It made me think about what I’ve watched over the last week.

I watch as much or as little TV as the next person but I’m really not given to watching much music. I don’t find it it too compelling to

have to know what people look like; sometimes it can even put you off. I did see two bits of music TV this week. Firstly I saw as much as I could take of the Grammys. Here was a case of the medium becoming the message. Each live performance blended in to another as everyone decided the only thing missing from any given song was the kitchen sink. Truly awful. (I hasten to add too that the winners bore little or no resemblance to good records that have come out over the last year – but that’s for another day.) It was all that is bad in the music business and Lord knows I’ve been in it long enough to recognise its bad days.

I decided instead to watch something which I recorded weeks ago and hadn’t yet seen: a BBC4 documentary of Fleetwood Mac. Many would say that my dismissal of the Grammys would be equally apposite for the Mac…but not me. Here was a great documentary which had the cumulative effect of doing the very thing any good music show ought to do: make you go out and listen to more of their music. On that criterion the programme was a resounding success. Sara, Dreams, Landslide…all songs that I had to hear again. Three great song writers in one band all giving their own story of being in one of the most successful acts of all time – then divorcing each other – well, that’s a story that’s got to be worth hearing. Conclusion…. keep getting back to the music. Ignore all the hoo-ha of Brits, Grammys and any other televised awards and celebrate what you hear and like. As E M Foster so beautifully put it, “Avoid all occasions which require new clothes.”

You can listen on Friday in your semet. A great double act of Charlie Dore and Beth Neilson Chapman, new music from Ben Glover, Midlake, John Hiatt and a special mention to Caitlin Rose (one to watch). We’ll finally get round to playing The Avett Brothers – which I’ve been dying to do since the start of the year. If that doesn’t convince you try this: the first track from, what must be the final record from Johnny Cash, American VI. All from 8 on Friday night on Another Country, BBC Radio Scotland.

Over the years people have stuck tapes, CDs and a few other things in my hands. I’ve even had the odd thing posted to me. Believe me when I say that I listen to them all and never assume that because I don’t get them they are not worthwhile. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve chatted with a couple of up and coming song writers and it is always exciting to meet the force and confidence of youth.

I say this because (although it seems long ago now) I was once such a song writer. I was also from the sticks. People used to say about getting started in music; talk to someone in the business. I knew no one. It was Dundee and the late seventies and early eighties and it really felt a million miles from wherever the music business was meant to be. If I’m honest I really think we thought (or I did) that it really wasn’t for the likes of us. Punk did change a good deal of that but even now I do sometimes wonder whether that attitude stops real talent pushing their way forward.

So Celtic Connections is good because it really ignores these traditional routes to success. Many of the artists playing there have great careers but have never been played on mainstream radio or ever have ever had to endure making a promo video. They have simply followed their heart and made the music they have been listening to, adapting and changing. One of the nice things I have learned about music from working on the radio is we really do take each record as we find it. We love finding new things and sharing them with you and we hugely enjoy it when an established artist comes back with something we can’t ignore. So this week we have brand new music from Sweden – First Aid Kit, Beach House, Dawn Landes and Laura Veirs from USA as well as Ray Price and Dolly Parton. We also have country royalty as we play the session and interview from Holly Williams she cut with us last week and some tracks from the Low Anthem’s live appearance at The FruitMarket Cletic Connections show. All great stuff.

Going back to the sticks however. I’m aware that we broadcast from Glasgow and are lucky enough to get these great acts coming through town. Where I grew up there were very few American acts coming to play and I am aware that many people may feel that in their part of the world they feel cut off. I relate to this hugely and please feel free to criticise us if we sound too Glasgowcentric. We’d love to hear and be involved in events all over Scotland and flag them up for people’s attention. Coming from the sticks is something that made me feel an outsider for years. It’s being an outsider that makes me think the way I do and rejoice when I find that spirit in the music I’m playing. Long live the sticks.