Lately I’ve been broadcasting ‘Clint West’s Americana Plus’ from the new Studio 2 at the Lancashire School of Rock just north of Manchester. However, the transfer from Studio 1 has not been without some teething problems. Last week technological problems put me off air for an hour. The Rewind of the programme below is therefore only one hour long, rather than the usual two.
One consequence of this unexpected truncation was that I had to quickly reschedule the programme and decide what to cut away. I wanted to still include some of the regular features, one of which is ‘Country Couple’ where I indulge my love of old country music by playing a couple of old country tunes back-to-back. On this occasion it got pared back to a ‘Country Single’ namely Pee Wee King’s ‘Texas Toni Lee’.
The ’Country Couple’ feature is very much the Marmite section of the programme. Listeners either, like me, love it, or they use it as an excuse to visit the bathroom, make a cuppa or let the cat out. Those in the latter category really are missing out. For me country music is the bedrock of what we now call americana. In short no Hank Williams, no country-rock and everything that sprang from it.
I’ve not always been a fan of country music though, far from it in fact. I grew up hating country music. This was largely due to my mum’s predilection for the MOR country pedalled by the likes Boxcar Willie, Slim Whitman and Charley Pride. As a teenager I was drawn to the new exciting sounds of punk and it wasn’t really until I saw Joe Ely supporting the Clash that it dawned on me that there was more to country music than Nashville pap. The Cowpunk movement led by bands like Rank & File and Jason & The Scorchers drew me further in and things just snowballed from there.
Forward wind to 2024 and I am the proud owner of a large collection of country music records ranging from the biggest names like Johnny Cash to many obscure rarities. Fortunately, unlike many other genres, country obscurities don’t require a second mortgage to obtain. There are also many wonderful compilations of such rare recordings available, particularly from the fantastic German Bear Family label.
Hopefully the technological problems in Studio 2 are now consigned to the past and this week I’ll be able to bring you a full two-hour programme. Listen in every Tuesday from 8.00pm – 10.00pm on http://socialmusicradio.uk or via the Rewind facility at any time.
Here’s last weeks show: https://hearthis.at/social-music-radio/clint-west-americana-prt2-28052024/ hearthis.at
