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Friday 24 May 2013, 10:35
I once had an email exchange of views with someone who said he wasn’t going to buy my music because he said I supported terrorists. In actual fact he was referring to the fact that I was doing a benefit gig for Medical Aid to Palestine. (I know…but sometimes the public out there can be pretty ill informed.) It came up again recently when I was upbraided online for doing a free gig at a prison. How they thought the prisoners should pay for it was beyond me…
I like to know what I think, I like to think I half know what might be in the news and like everyone else I’m constantly surprised that I still get shocked by things in the news. I guess we’re all reeling from these terrible images from Woolwich and, having just returned from the supermarket and seen the spread of newspapers, I’m perhaps wishing I knew less. The trouble is we often can’t look away, and for some people there was no choice.
Sitting listening to the news over breakfast, I did what I often do in these situations; I turned down the news and put on Bruce. In particular it was Wreck On The Highway – but it could have been so many songs. It’s a gut response with me. I put on music to write this and suddenly...
Read more about What do you reach for?
Wednesday 22 May 2013, 09:39
Is there some sort of undeniable creative thread that links the acting profession to the music profession? Both worlds seem littered with individuals equally as willing to try their hand at either job, often with hugely variable and unpredictable results. Zooey Deschanel is a talented actress – doe-eyed indie darling of movies like 500 Days Of Summer and accomplished comedy foil to Will Ferrell in Christmas classic Elf – but she is also one half of rising pop duo She and Him alongside M Ward, already on their 3rd album and growing in popular and critical stature every day (we’ve been playing the infectious new single “Never Wanted Your Love” quite a bit on the show). Tom Waits is a revered songwriter, but it was perhaps inevitable that the showmanship and theatrical verve so evident in his work would find its way onto screen in some form (he has always favoured the more peculiar of roles, one particularly memorable character his bartender in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Rumble Fish”).
I have been thinking about this because last week I headed to the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow to see a long time favourite of mine, Loudon Wainwright III. I’ve attended a number of...
Friday 17 May 2013, 10:09
... A Month of Great, Scottish Musicians and Bands who we revere and consider as great friends of Another Country.
It’s going to be big, noisy and very exciting and it all starts this Friday with Woodenbox. Many of you will remember their session from a couple of years back and since then they’ve managed to lose a ‘fistful of fivers’ and keep things simple with a one word monikor. They’ve also given birth to a fab new album, tracks from which they will play this Friday as well as an interesting cover version which they’ve rustled up for us.
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As ever though we’ll make sure you hear the best of the new things out there. I’m pleased to say we’ll continue to enjoy the new offering from Patty Griffin, we’ll reflect on a wonderful Emmylou...
Thursday 16 May 2013, 10:05
There are two types of hype machine on the market these days. Hype Machine 1: the uber-slick, expensive and highly attuned device, targeted specifically to meet all of our zeitgeisty requirements, usually driven by – and for – the masses. When it works it can be an impressive beast. You would have to have been living under a very large (and non disco ball shaped) rock not to have heard at least a little of the most recent Daft Punk single “Get Lucky”. The strategic placement of a one-minute advert during the American TV show Saturday Night Live displayed Pharrell Williams and Nile...
Monday 13 May 2013, 17:21
…I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings. (Robert Louis Stevenson – a fine writer and Scotsman to boot)
I’ve had a wonderful few weeks and I did mean to send everyone a postcard from Brighton...
That’s why, having spent a number of weeks on the road, I’ll be very happy to be land-locked in studio 6 on Friday night with a pile of new records to share with you. This Friday, my friend, there are no guests, no session versions, only great new records. And boy, do we have some great new music for you.
Here’s what we have lined up so far: New records from the fab Phosphorescent...
Read more about The World Is So Full Of Such Wonderful Things
Wednesday 8 May 2013, 16:01
As the song goes, “it takes two, baby”. But collaboration in music is the most unpredictable of beasts. Do it well and you can create some truly interesting work – valid and challenging musical projects that bring the best of talent together in new, unusual and often unpredictable ways. Think ex-Belle and Sebastian singer Isobel Campbell and former Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan, both seemingly from different ends of the musical spectrum, combining to glorious effect on their Mercury nominated album “Ballad Of The Broken Seas”. Or serious indie troubadour M Ward and actress...
Thursday 2 May 2013, 14:16
In last week’s blog I mentioned my admiration for the voice of Roy Orbison, a man who could reputedly scale nearly 4 octaves with apparent ease (those tight trousers paid off in the end). But somewhere amongst the superlatives perhaps I failed in my attempts to describe just why I find it so special. “Distinctive” was the simple word I was searching for. Because when you hear a Roy Orbison record in whatever context, there is no denying that it’s Roy Orbison. And yet it’s hard to put a finger on just why his vocals connected so deeply with listeners over the years: maybe the tone...
Friday 26 April 2013, 16:16
My first hour guest on this week’s Sunday morning, Camila Batmanghelidjh, is a woman of colour and style, both in appearance and personality, both of which shine through, even on the radio. A charity campaigner and trained psychotherapist, she founded Kids Company, which offers practical, emotional and educational support to the most deprived and at risk children, in our society. Together with her personal choice of music, it’s a wonderful listen, and in fact Camila stays on, to join in a discussion in the second hour of the show about a project that’s currently gathering momentum in some...
Thursday 25 April 2013, 10:42
“Legend” is a word bandied about far too often in music these days. Take one top ten hit, add a celebrity romance (preferably followed by a messy break up), throw in a dash of rehab then season with a triumphant comeback and you practically have the Legendary Status Recipe nailed. But it shouldn’t be that way. The musicians that we should truly revere are the ones who stick at it no matter what, who have to work hard to earn our respect: endless gigging, constant writing and recording, sacrifice, blood, sweat and rock n’ roll. And above all, talent. These are the people with the...
Friday 19 April 2013, 09:32
Joining me on this week’s Sunday Morning programme, is a man whose life was completely turned around, thanks to a chance meeting with a ginger tom cat, he named Bob. James Bowen was a street-musician, struggling to cope with homelessness and former drug addiction – now his books charting his changed fortunes have become best-sellers, and there’s even talk of a film about it all.
In the second hour of the programme, I’ll be asking how we could radically change the future of Scotland – a subject covered in another book by writer Alf Young about a road journey both he and his son Ewan took...
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