Had a good week? Mine couldn’t have started any better….

On Monday night I went to the Concert Hall to see Randy Newman. He was on fine form. Higlights……Life Isn’t Fair, The Great Nations of Europe and Marie + a very funny rap on Toy Story. It broke my heart to be in London on Wednesday knowing that Randy was playing there and I had to miss it as I was interviewing some very special guests for the show. More of these fine women over the next few weeks.

However, there’s something about Mary…..

When I got the word that we were expecting a familiar visitor I had the warmest feelings of nostalgia. Last January there was a great run of artists in the studio during Celtic Connections. One particular day I was lucky enough to welcome Mary Gauthier. So it was a real joy to know that she was coming back to see us.

The last time Mary had told me she was writing and recording a concept album. Tricky to pull off. For some reason, whenever these two words are spoken I usually think of this.

Needless to say there’s no pomp here. If you want to know what Mary was forecasting back in January 09 you can archive the interview here. It’s nice when an artist promises you something then delivers it almost within a year. Mary’s new album……

……..is about to come out. She’ll be in session on Friday joined by her guitarist, Ed Romanoff and also by Barry Walsh on piano who had, apparently, never heard the songs before! However not only do we have Mary singing but I’ll also have a long chat with Mary about the huge emotional journey to make The Foundling as well as the physical trips north to Toronto to record the record.

Also…….. Avett Brothers, Local Natives, Bob Dylan, Phosporescent and George Jones.

I’m only quoting Randy Newman.

23  years ago I was in a studio working on the first album I ever made. Jon Kelly, the producer, and I had a conversation about Randy Newman. Jon said, “Let’s have a Randy Newman night some time.” I imagined this. There would be a fire lit and one b one we would unsheathe each piece of vinyl and play the record in its entirety. Not too realistic but it was wish. Needless to say it never happened, though Jon and I did go to see the man in London one night.

Next Monday, 17th May Randy visits Scotland where he’s playing at The Royal Concert Hall. Bafflingly there still seems to be some availability for tickets at this show. I say this because it is a very rare chance to see the greatest living American song writer play live. The last time he was here I went to see him a few years back at the Edinburgh Queens Hall and it was one of the great gigs. A true highlight was this moment.

So this Friday on Another Country we will only do one thing: we will celebrate the music of Randy Newman. We will play songs which have chronicled the Great Depression, The Louisiana Flood, Racism and the USA’s own shaky prosperity built on the  evil of the Slave Trade. We will play songs all written by Randy but performed by great singers including Glen Campbell, Linda Ronstadt, Van Dyke Parks and Harry Nilsson. Trust me I will not be able to play you everything, even though we will try to play more songs than we have ever played in one night.

I am going to make sure that we play songs you will recognise as well as some personal favourites and some very obscure covers. I hope those of you who love the music of Randy will feel we have done justice and those of you not yet convinced may want to get hold of some of his music. The title of this piece is perhaps one of the key songs in understanding Randy Newman; so if you need some further persuasion…..My Life is Good.

This Sunday is my final shift for this season. I have hugely enjoyed these Sunday Morning encounters and I’m grateful to everyone who has given positive feedback. Like Friday night this show will be extremely personal. It comes the day after a day which I hope might end like this….

That photo sees me celebrating Dundee United’s 94 Cup win with Davie Bowman and nearly getting arrested. I did say that no court would find me guilty for surviving 6 losing finals and getting over excited at finally winning.

However I have already met some of these pluck Ross County types and I have no desire to count chickens…..so I only hope to be in a state of mild euphoria by Sunday morning.

In that light then we will discuss cheating, money and corruption in the world of sport with Craig Brown and  Graham Spiers. We will look at football, rugby and doubtless snooker too. I will also meet up with Andrew Greig in his garden shed to discuss this lovely book:

It’s a memoir inspired by the poetry and personality of Norman McCaig and I recommend it highly to you. I can also promise you great music from Michael Marra, Paul Simon and  A Tribe Called Quest.

The melodies are memorable, the humanity is universal, the outsider is still central to the plot and just when you need to feel it most it  comes upon you suddenly and breaks your heart. But more than any of these things it is at its best when it is understanding its own history and acknowledging its own roots.

So in 1981 when people had begun to get over the impact of Punk/New Wave and might well have been tiring of New Romanticism an interesting project by one of the new wave pioneers, Elvis Costello, caught the public imagination. Having plundered the style and sound of Atlantic and Stax (Get Happy) he decided to take The Attractions to Nashville. There he recorded more than an album’s worth of country covers under the watchful eye of Billy Sherrill (legendary producer to George Jones, Tammy Wynette and many more).

What this did for country music is anyone’s guess but for me, at the time, it was further evidence of what I’d already half suspected: Country was cool. On Friday we’re suggesting to you that you might well like to re visit Almost Blue, Elvis Costello’s Nashville record and see if it isn’t also a good building block in the Beginners guide to Americana. In truth it would be an album he’d rerlease five years later which would nod more directly at the Americana direction of the nineties and noughties. But for now this was an interesting marker to put down.

What else Ricky, I feel I’m hearing?

I’m quite excited about some new things:Lone Wolf,The Hold Steady and some artists youi’ve probably not heard about yet. Like this woman……….once of The Wailin Jennies……

Annabelle Chvostek.

Oh and there will be all the usual nice surprises and things you’ve probably forgotten about. All on Friday at 8 p.m. BBC Radio Scotland.

On Sunday…….

Bishop Richard Harries on Faith and Politics,  We look at how the 21st Century Church is using 21st Century technology and we discuss “Male Initiation Rites.” I know…….!

There will also be some great music from Arrested Development , Alicia Keys and Pete Seeger!

Overheard opinions can be a mixed blessing. Who would have thought a pensioner in Rochdale could make such an impact?

Last week we ‘overheard’ Caitlin Rose telling her band mates that the session she’d just done had been “a blast.” Phew! Always good to know the guests are having a good time.

On air, I asked Caitlin if we could play one of her songs again – it was so good. She agreed , but was worried about her performance so she promptly recorded it again. We’ll play you that on the show.

We’ve been so lucky with guests recently but I’m delighted to tell you that, once more, we have a live band in Studio on Friday night. We’ll be joined by the wonderful collective noise that is Wooden Box and a Fistful of Fivers. In case you don’t know, we’ve been playing a wheen of tracks from their debut album and enjoying them hugely.

Not only that but also new music from Jakob Dylan, Bonnie Prince Billy and Avi Buffalo. Plus a very spooky track from Karen Elson. (she’s the one on the left)

There’s loads of the usual things too…….including a very interesting version of this song……

Reasons to Quit

On Sunday……

The Challenges of The Church with Richard Holloway and Sister Isabel Smith. We ask the author of this book …..

If he has any answers.

Also …how to disappear. David Bond tells us how…..

There will be music from Van Morrison, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and The Delphonics. All from 8 on Sunday morning.

If you’ve been paying close attention you’d probably have expected the odd post from here…..

And you’d, no doubt, be disappointed to discover I was swanning around here…..

Well I’m sorry to say I never made Nashville. Just as you’re making plans a volcano can just..explode…and you have to adjust.

So for Music Row, read The Palatine Hill and for The Opry I can tell you all about the Coliseum. Trouble is we’d booked a studio

over in Music City so we though it best to bring you our show anway. So Rome can wait and on Friday we have Caitlin Rose in session live

from Nashville. New music from Elizabeth Cook, Gaslight Anthem and much more. Plus that Bob Dylan song about Rome I kept singing to myself on my

1000 mile road trip home.

On Sunday I’ll spend an hour in the company of Peter Owen Jones. If you enjoyed Alastair McIntosh last week, which many of you seem to have done, I think you’ll love Peter. He’s best known for his BBC Television series “Around The World in Eighty Faiths” and I’m sure you will enjoy his company hugely.

We’ll be talking about this book:

You might also want to see him in action:

Peter Owen Jones

I’ve been going on about this a long time and it’s finally here. The Avett Brothers session and interview comes to Another Country this week.

It’s been a long time coming. I first read about the band last year in American Songwriter and, to be honest, got them a bit confused with the Felice Brothers and various other sibling outfits. Since then the band have made I and Love and You, signed to Columbia Records and been produced by Rick Rubin. The last three things are pretty interconnected. More importantly they came to BBC Scotland to records 3 songs for nother Country and a couple of days after the session (I was on football duties in Manchester with my 9 year old son the day they came in) I had a chat with Scott and Seth.

What else, Ricky? I hear you say…. New music from Bonnie Prince Billy and The Cairo Gang(yes, another moniker!), a fave track from the new Jakob Dylan album and more from Audra Mae– one of the great discoveries of 2010.

On Sunday...

This man in conversation:

Actually, the one on the left

He’s Alastair McIntosh and he’s the author of Soil and Soul and I cannot recommend the book highly enough. He’s also a great conversationalist, wonderful thinker and living prophet. You could do a lot worse than listen to him for an hour…you’ll probably wish you could go on longer! All at 8 a.m. Sunday on BBC Radio Scotland.

This week we meet Beach House. They came by  a few weeks ago and we had a chat before they went to play at King Tuts.

I couldn’t make the gig but I know it would have been good. Beach House are Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand. (Legrand being such a famous musical name I had to ask her and yes, her UNCLE is the man who wrote this.) Some of these songwriting genes have rubbed off as Beach House are making some lovely music. We played Zebra last week and I said at the time that we’d not played a better song all night. See for yourself.

When you’re putting together suggestions for the Beginners Guide to Americana it’s hard to avoid Ryan Adams.

This will give you a clue to the album choice for Friday.

We also have some splendid new things from Audra Mae ,She and Him and  Merle Haggard.

On Sunday….

400 years of The King James Bible, David Baddiel on The Infidel, The Moderator of the Church of Scotland and we discuss the

new campaign to prevent young men committing suicide. We will play some brilliant music from The Blind Boys of Alabama, Lesley Duncan

and Ed Harcourt. All on BBC Radio Scotland, Sunday Morning at 8.

A few weeks ago I was coming from a night on air at Another Country. As I drove through the dark streets of Govan I was listening to Vic Galloway’s show which comes on at 10 o’clock after my own show. Vic was introducing new tracks from the debut album by Sparrow and The Workshop. I listened in wonder as I realised that a new Scottish band were making music which was very fresh and which we should e showcasing on the show.

The good news is that on Friday we will be broadcasting  from studio 1 at BBC Scotland so we can bring you a live session from Sparrow and The Workshop. Also, I pushed my luck and asked if they would cover a Loretta Lynn song….and they have said yes. It’s going to be brilliant.

As it’s Good Friday we’re also playing some Country Gospel. Stay tuned for Buddy Miller, Rev Gary Davis, Patty Griffin and Elvis. You might also like The

Great new album tracks from Jakob Dylan, Mary Gauthier and Tift Merrit…and I mean great. We’ve only got two hours to do all this you know. At the end of the night you’ll feel you’ve been in Another Country.

On Sunday….I talk to Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell about physics, astronomy, poetry and the search for dark matter. Great music from Patty Griffin and  Bruces Cockburn and Springsteen.

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……