88-91 FM Johnnie Walker, BBC Radio 2

JW:  And it is Radio 2’s country week, It’s Johnnie Walker live from Nashville.

JW:  The current Entertainer of the Year, or Female Vocalist of the Year, I should say, is Trisha Yearwood, she will be doing a live performance during the CMA Awards, which you can hear live on Radio 2, with Garth Brooks.  She happens to be married to Robert Reynolds, the bass player with the Mavericks, and we are hoping to connect up with them, they’re in Cardiff because they are playing a concert there tonight, but now let’s hear from Trisha Yearwood herself, who is nominated again for the Female Vocalist of the Year, here’s a song from her called Perfect Love.

JW:  There’s some crackle on the transatlantic…. (crackle provided by PD??)

JW:   By the miracle of modern communications I think I can talk to the Mavericks who are in Wales somewhere.   Who is there?    I don’t know…
RR:  Robert’s here
PD:  And Paul
RM:  And Raul
RR:  And we had time to get a call in to you before we ran off to do our next deal.
PD:  Where are you, John?
JW:  Where am I?
PD:  Yes.
JW:  I‘m at the studio just on Music Row.
RR:  Oh, lovely, tell them we said hello.
JW:  I’m a little bit upset at the lengths you guys will go to to avoid me.   I thought I was going to come to Nashville to see you and you arranged to be there..  (laughs)
RR:  We planned our whole UK tour around when you were out of the country.    (laughs.)
JW:  So, the Albert Hall:  how did that go?
RR:  It was fantastic, I mean, I guess those that saw the show know that we had a great time and I hope they did aswell, but you can imagine playing the Hall, it’s phenomenal, it’s the Beatles, it’s Dylan, it’s those kinds of things for me, but it’s also everything else, great, great shows for years.
JW:  Paul, were you overawed at all, or was it just another gig for you?
PD:  Oh no, it’s amazing.   I think to date it’s the most amazing venue that we have played, what with the history and just the sheer beauty of it, so it’s pretty amazing to be up there on stage and look out….
JW:  We have talked before about Bobby and he does admit that the mouth opens before the brain’s really had time to think about what…
(hoots of laughter from RM, PD, RR)
JW:   ...which is kind of great in funky little clubs and bars and places like that in the early days, but at the Albert Hall…. I was really worried that you’d be severely embarrassed,  maybe you’d developed a signal to the sound guy to switch Bobby’s mike off.
RM:  We kind of keep that in check, we goof off a lot but I think, depending on the place and the crowd and stuff…we know when to behave and Bobby and I have our little rhetoric….  We try not to insult huge parts of the audience at least.  (laughs)
JW:  So listen, what was it like when you guys first came to Nashville, was that a realisation of a dream?   Or was it kind of ‘well, that’s the place we’ve got to go’?
RM:  It was probably a little bit of both.  At the time we felt like that was the place we had to go, for many reasons, you know, obviously the business is there, and at the time it was definitely the right move for us.   We really didn’t feel like at the time that New York or LA or any city was going to be that receptive to us, you know, so we went on a hunch and it paid off.
RR:  It was a reversal of the Beverly Hillbillies, we left Miami for Nashville.   ‘There’s gold in them there hills’.
JW:  In the same kind of truck?   All the stuff on the back? (laughs)
RR:  We didn’t even have a car back then…
JW:  Why aren’t you there for the CMA Awards, I mean because you are on tour, obviously, but couldn’t you have re-scheduled the tour to fit in, for the Awards show, or…?
RR:  I think we could have, but let me tell you, honestly - and I say this as a compliment to what’s going on for us in the UK right now - we want to spend our time and our money and our effort where we feel most wanted right now and I am not saying that the CMA as an organisation doesn’t want us because we got nominated and that’s cool, but we’ve got a job to do.   Right now it’s just so great for us in the UK and Europe that we want to spend our time there and that’s why we are doing it.
JW:  You’re not getting a bit blasé now…  ‘Oh well, we’ve won 2 years in a row, ’95, ’96…’
RR:  No…
RM: ‘…let someone else win it.’    No, that’s not it at all.   You kind of weigh up your options and what would be best for your career, and at the time it seems that the best thing for us to do is tour Europe right now and it just happens to fall during this time when they are having the CMAs, so…

JW:  I don’t suppose Raul’s got his guitar there?

RR:  Well, we heard that you were interested and, by a force of nature, Paul and I strong-arming him, he’s got the guitar ready, and it’s even tuned up,   Would you like to hear a song?
JW:  Love to, yeah.
RR:  Give us a second, this transcontinental musical thing is a bit high-tech.
RM:  Are we ready?
JW:  I’m ready if you are.
 
Fool #1  - performed live in the studio

JW:  The Mavericks in Cardiff on our special Nashville show.   Bobby and Paul:  what do you think to that?   Does he get the gig, did he pass the audition, do you think?
RR:  He’s passed the audition, it sounded great to me.   How’s it transmitting?
JW:  Sounded wonderful this end.
RR:  Good, good.

JW:  Any places I should go to?   Or anything I can do for you guys while I’m here?
RR:  If you would, for me… I’m not sure I left enough food out for the dog, so if you could run out to Hendersonville, check on the dog, that would be great. .
JW:  I’ve already been out there, Bobby.
RR:  Oh, you have?
JW:  They asked me not to tell you because it would spoil the tour.
RR:  What’s that?
JW:  The Fire Department, they are damping down now..
(hoots of laughter from RM, PD, RR)
JW:  You have left the oven on or something, so, unlike your leader, I can’t bring myself to tell a lie…
RR:  It’s those brownies that I promised the band that I was baking.
JW:  The insurance assessors are coming later and we have reserved a big suite for you at the Union Station, so you’ll be OK while the new building goes up.
RR:  Did any of my guitars get salvaged?
JW:  ‘Fraid not.

JW:  Alright, well listen, good luck for the rest of the tour, you will have a wonderful time in Cardiff tonight..
PD:  Thank you.
JW:  Alright, it’s been great connecting with you.   We’ve done some strange things in our time, haven’t we?
RR:  We sure have, and this has probably been one of the strangest because I have got to tell you that with modern technology it feels like you are right here in the room…
JW:  Yeah, I feel very close to you too…

JW:  Thanks a lot, guys
RR:  Thanks for having us.
PD:  Have a great time in Nashville.
RR:  Wait a minute, real quickly – I want to thank the overseas operator – ma’am, thank you for the connection (puts on squeaky voice) ‘That’s OK, you finished?’  Yes, ma’am, we’re done ‘Great, ok, thankyou’   (laughter from RM, PD, JW)
RR:  Ma’am, ma’am, this call is going to be charged back to the BBC, I want to make that clear, not the Mavericks, the call will be on the BBC…

What A Crying Shame

JW:  Still one of my favourite Mavericks songs, the title track from a previous album, and that’s What A Crying Shame and enjoy their show in Cardiff tonight.   Once they get into…they do this wonderful version of Swingin’ Safari and then they go into another couple of other songs and Dance The Night Away, and I guess the Cardiff audience will be going nuts tonight.

By the way, Bobby, the dog’s fine, me and Trisha last night fed the dog ourselves and Trisha’s got a little message for you….’Don’t hurry home…’   (Laughs.)
 
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