Country music | 10 November 2016

There was something unexpectedly moving about hearing not just one but several renditions of the somewhat naive and rose-tinted but always heartfelt ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ when I switched on the radio after several days’ absence. America has been so much in our thoughts these past few weeks, but a distasteful, shameful version of itself. It was just so refreshing to hear something different, something meaningful, yet still so American, like a glass of ice-cold water after a long walk in the heat.

Last Saturday’s edition of the series Soul Music (produced by Sara Conkey) gave us Jimi Hendrix’s electrifying version of the American national anthem at Woodstock in 1969 as well as Jose Feliciano’s controversially funky rendition at a baseball game the year before. We also heard from John Carlos, one of the medal-winning US sprinters at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City who took the opportunity of the medals ceremony to make a stand on the podium for Black Power, raising their fists as the anthem was played.