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Al Booth is Editor, Specialist Music at Radio 2, a role which covers a range of output from the Folk Awards to the Cheltenham Jazz Festival and a range of musical genres in between. The first week in November marks one of the highlights of her musical year.

This week I’m heading to Nashville for the 26th time – that amounts to a few hundred hours spent backstage at the , a few dozen live programmes broadcast to the UK, countless sessions recorded for Bob Harris’s radio shows and several country music documentaries made for Radio 2 – not to mention the twenty five cowboy shirts and ten pairs of cowboy boots purchased on late night shopping sprees on Nashville’s Lower Broadway.

It’s a wonderful and unique city which I love, and country music, in all its guises, is its lifeblood. The fortunes of the city are mirrored by the fortunes of the country music industry – and now, more than any other time since my first visit in 1999 Nashville is flourishing. Country music’s popularity is growing, the Nashville TV series is one big advert for the city and Nashville’s economy is one of the fastest growing in the US. Right now Nashville is cool in a major way, and this month Ö÷²¥´óÐã Four and Radio 2 are celebrating the history, the culture, the people and the music of this great city with our joint Country Nights season. With TV and Radio documentaries which celebrate the life-stories of musical legends, explore the international influence of country music, discover Nashville’s alternative country scene and trace the commercial and musical history of the city, Country Nights reflects the importance of Nashville’s influence on America’s musical landscape and beyond.

The Heart of Country – How Nashville Became Music City USA on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Four gives an insight into the commercial and cultural influences which shaped the city, whilst 'The Gambler' himself, Kenny Rogers, is the subject of a new documentary - Kenny Rogers – Cards on the Table (Kenny, incidentally was a surprise guest on Patrick Kielty’s live Radio 2 show from Nashville last November – he was doing some interviews in the studio next door and we grabbed him – he’s a real country legend in every sense of the word!)

Unsurprisingly Radio 2’s Bob Harris crops up several times during the season. Bob has been the voice of country music on Radio 2 for the last 15 years, and he and I started visiting Nashville at the same time. Fitting then that Bob’s personal take on the city makes up one of the key TV programmes in this series. Bob Harris: My Nashville sees Bob exploring some of his favourite Nashville haunts and talking to some of the friends he’s made and artists he’s championed over the years. He talks to Emmylou Harris on the historic stage of country music’s Mother Church, the Ryman Auditorium; he joins legendary guitarist Duane Eddy at RCA studio B, home of the ‘Nashville Sound’; and the programme culminates with a special house concert at the home of Nashville based singer songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman.

I was one of the select audience who got the chance to witness Nashville’s renowned musical community coming together in a wonderfully informal and celebratory way. Filmed last November a few days after the CMA awards, this house concert brought some of the greatest songwriters and artists in the city into Beth’s front room – sharing stories and songs over some home-cooked food and cold beers. To be watching some of my favourite singers in the world like Gretchen Peters, Suzy Bogguss and Beth Nielsen Chapman performing in this environment was an incredible and uniquely ‘Nashville’ experience (you can see the whole concert on the on 14th November).

As well as his TV documentary Bob is a huge part of Radio 2’s ‘Country Night’s coverage’, starting with a programme about the history of the (Monday 3rd November 10pm) and finishing with Bob’s highlights show from this year’s CMA awards (Saturday 8th November 6pm). Bob was also the host of an unusual concert held last March in the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio Theatre featuring one of country’s biggest contemporary stars Brad Paisley. Brad had been headlining the at the O2 the day before with his full band in front of 14,000 fans. From one extreme to another he arrived at the Radio Theatre with just a couple of songwriter friends and some acoustic guitars and improvised his way through an evening of acoustic songs, stories and chat in front of a small invited audience. You can see and hear the results as part of ‘Country Nights’ which will feature both a Radio and TV version of this exclusive concert.

The excitement in the UK for Brad’s performances comes on the back of a growing appetite for country music generally in this country – something which Paul Sexton explores in his Radio 2 documentary Nashville: UK (Thursday 6th November 10pm). Also in this season is another chance to hear the story of one of Nashville’s most influential session guitarists Harold Bradley (Radio 2, Tuesday 4th November 10pm) and Ö÷²¥´óÐã Four will also provide viewers with a rare chance to see Robert Elfstrom’s 1969 classic film that captures Johnny Cash at his peak with Johnny Cash – The Man, His World, His Music.

As for me and my team, we’ll be clocking up some more hours backstage at the Country Music Association Awards, adding a dozen more live sessions to the Bob Harris archive and bringing the best of Nashville to the masses with a three hour Radio 2 show presented by Patrick Kielty live from Music Row (2pm Wednesday 5th November).

And then there’s the question of the cowboy shirts…

Al Booth is Editor, Specialist Music at Radio 2.

• More details about the Country Nights season can be found on the .