Dick Barrie's
Country Music Website

Welcome!

As we plunge into 2004 and beyond, the music remains as vital to people like me and you as it did to those first listening to Jimmie Rodgers in 1930, Bob Wills in 1940 or to Hank Williams in 1950. This is music with a beat, a story, a good tune -- and you can understand the words!

Y'see, in addition to quite a few other interests, I've been hugely influenced in my life and work by American country music - of every style and status.

During my early teens - the age a person's lifelong musical tastes are usually defined - rock'n'roll was brand new. As a kid, I thus found the music of singers such as Elvis, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash and the Everly Brothers to be new, raw and exciting - little did I know at the time that these were country boys, merely pepping up the age-old music of their land!

Having enjoyed such music, and collected a huge personal library of country and rock-a-billy sounds for over twenty years, I was asked by Edinburgh's RADIO FORTH to produce and present a country-music programme in 1978 - a programme I'm still hosting, over 1,150 episodes and 25 years later!

This has allowed me the friendship of a good few stars, and to be a regular visitor to Nashville and other influential American cities. My most-recent trip had me checking out the music scene - live and on radio - in upstate New York and over the border into Canada at Niagara Falls, hopefully keeping the weekly programme on Forth2 fresh as mustard on my return!

Want to check out more about my opinions on the music, past and present? Or learn more about country music - local, national and international?

Click here to listen to Forth2 - 24 hours every day!