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BBC Radio 2 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Light Programme.

BBC Radio 2

Radio 2

The Country Show with Bob Harris

Music: Country

The very best in Country music, celebrating the new alongside the defining legendary names

The very best in Country music, celebrating the new alongside the defining legendary names.

Bob Harris Country

The Country Show with Bob Harris: 03/05/2012

Music: Folk

03/05/2012

BBC Radio 2 - The Country Show with Bob Harris, 03/05/2012

Joining Bob in session tonight, and making his BHC debut, is Americana legend Dave Alvin.

Joining Bob in session tonight is one of the all-time great American songwriters & guitar players.

Along with his brother Phil, Dave Alvin was a founding member of acclaimed roots rockers The Blasters, who tore out of early 80s LA to make a global impact, pulling along the likes of Dwight Yoakam & Los Lobos in their wake.

Phil was the singer, but Dave was the real voice of The Blasters, writing classics like "Long White Cadillac", "So Long Baby Goodbye", "American Music" &, of course, "Marie Marie", hauled into the UK Top 10 by none other than Shakin' Stevens.

The band split in 1985, & Dave joined X, hooked up briefly with The Gun Club and recorded some still-unreleased sessions with Bob Dylan before making his solo debut with 1987's Every Night About This Time; George Jones passed on the chance to record the title track on the grounds that it was "too country" ! He really hit his stride, however, with 1994's King Of California and the mostly acoustic folk-blues of 1998's Blackjack David, for which he should probably have won the Grammy he got for 2000's Public Domain: Songs From The Wild Land, which drew on a rich heritage of traditional American music in a manner that anticipated Springsteen's 2006 album The Seeger Sessions.

Since then, Dave's career has alternated between what he calls loud folk music & quiet folk music, & you'll be hearing both sides tonight as Dave highlights material from his latest album, the highly acclaimed Eleven Eleven.

Amazing music. Played by an amazing line up.

Radio 2: Amazing music. Played by an amazing line-up. The home of great music, entertainment and documentaries

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The Country Show with Bob Harris

03/05/2012

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