Iona’s Song of the Week - No. 16

This week’s song is by a country artist (surprise, surprise!) we encountered at the Country Music Festival in Perth, Scotland, in about 2014. We hadn't heard him before but were smitten at first encounter. We have now seen him at a ‘house concert’ in Glasgow, at a weekend festival in Hassocks, West Sussex, and tonight at the Blue Lamp in Aberdeen. Each gig has been a wonderful experience, and over time, we have got to know Ags quite well. He is a genuine guy carving out a musical career for himself, and sounds like he hails from Texas, although he actually comes from West Oxfordshire!

And like another classic country artist we admire, the late, great Kinky Friedman, Ags has written a detective novel “Outside the Light” which we bought at tonight’s gig.

From the outset, one of our favourite songs of his has been I Saw James Hand and it was our introduction to the musical maverick that was James Hand, who passed on in June 2020. Ags has recently released an album of the Texan’s songs, and the final track on the album Your Pal Slim: Songs of James Hand was written by Ags and he had hoped to record it as a duet with James but sadly that never came to pass. However, we do have Ags’ original and this Iona’s Song of the Week.

So here is Corner of My Street, a tribute to the late James Hand by Ags Connolly…..

https://youtu.be/PX9CXGVV1f0?feature=shared