Discovery of the Week

Richard Madeley gets right on my tits.

He's been doing that for a while, but I should probably explain why that's particularly on my mind right now. He's been sitting in for Chris Evans on Radio 2's breakfast show this week and although I try to thrust my iPod cable into the requisite stereo hole and drown out his glass-of-water voice as quickly as possible, sometimes early morning slumpiness gets the better of me and a few gaseous snippets of banality leak out, threatening to overwhelm me with a sudden realisation of the futility of Life.

However, there have been a few occasions when I've been unable to divert my ears quickly enough to avoid hearing his boring stories about the adventures of himself and his equally charmless wife, the excruciatingly bland Judy Finnigan. Mostly, these moments have been painful and traumatic. But, against all expectations, his time on the breakfast show has actually brought about something - wait for it - pleasant.

On Monday, he chose a record of the week. Here we go, I thought. This'll be former members of ABC joining forces with Kenny Thomas to record a funk-pop version of No Woman No Cry. But it wasn't. It was a country-style song called Me and Tennessee, a duet sung by Tim McGraw and (this is a turn-up) Gwyneth Paltrow. And I absolutely love it.

In recent years I've been exposed to quite a lot of country, roots and bluegrass music in local venues and I've mostly really enjoyed it, much to the surprise of my own preconceptions. This isn't hardcore shit-kicking, but it's got enough of a flavour to give the lyrics about disappointed love the tortuous wrench that country does so well.

But the real surprise is Gwyneth's voice. I realise she's sung before - most recently on the squeaky clean sickbag that is Glee - but this song demonstrates that she has a really great country voice. I'm going to buy this single and investigate if she's done anymore along those lines, because I owe her a big debt. She's actually made it possible for me to get through a three-minute interval in Richard Madeley's company without wanting to steer the car off the nearest motorway bridge. And that's no mean achievement.