When Texan troubadour Aaron Watson wrote 20 new songs for his 14th album Red Bandana he didn't have to look far to pay homage to his heroes.
Watson, now 41, opened with The Ghost Of Guy Clark and included eulogies to the late Red Steagall on Riding With Red and a vast cast of mentors in Legends .
Clark, a revered singer-songwriter, attracted celebrity studded audiences on his Australian tours, before he died of lymphatic cancer at 74 on May 17, 2016.
Septuagenarian singing actress Dolly Parton is joined by a vast cast of peers on the soundtrack of her latest movie Dumplings that was released in December.
They include Pistol Annie Miranda Lambert, Mavis Staples, bluegrass belles Alison Krauss and Rhonda Vincent and Adelaide born Sia.
Kentucky roots country singer-songwriter Marty Brown has returned after a 23-year recording hiatus with his fifth album American Highway .
Brown, 53, wrote all 10 songs with his co-producer Jon Tiven after a career rebirth on America 's Got Talent.
The singer is joined by his entire family including teacher wife Shellie and co-writer son Marty Brown Jr on his video for Umbrella Lovers that premieres on Nu Country TV on Saturday July 13.
FELICITY MOURNS SHOCK DEATH OF HUSBAND GLENN HANNAH
Glenn Hannah
Prolific Golden Guitarist and multi-media minstrel Felicity made the most of her decade long hiatus as a solo artist by recording two acclaimed trio discs with Lyn Bowtell and Kevin Bennett.
But it was a pre-marital overseas sojourn with producer-guitarist-photographer-graphic artist Glen Hannah that fuelled New Harmony - entree of her seventh solo album Frozen Rabbit , released on April 26.
Felicity and co-writer Luke Webb detailed the joyous journey that also produced two daughters Tia, 8, and Ellie, 6, who have also joined her on-stage.
Sadly Glenn, 2017 Musician of the Year at Tamworth 's Golden Guitar Awards, died on Tuesday May 28.
"Today we say goodbye to my darling Glen," Felicity, now 43, said of Glen whom she met in 2001 and married in Vanuatu in March 2009.
"The saddest day of my life, broken beyond words and not sure how to do this alone.
"He touched so many lives in the most incredible way and now lives on in our beautiful girls.
"Thank you for all the love and support from our dearest friends and family."
We also send our condolences to Felicity - a one-time Nu Country TV host - and her extended family.
Australian country music king Lee Kernaghan has released his 15 th album Backroad Nation that he is promoting on a national tour.
Kernaghan, 37-time Golden Guitarist, visited the outback to film videos, featured on Nu Country TV , for Wheels and the album title track.
The album is a riveting reflection of his travels that earned him four ARIA and three APRA Awards while raising funds for long suffering farmers beset by drought, flood and famine.
Kernaghan, 55 and father of two sons, features singing spouse Robby on his album that features 12 new original songs.
Prolific Golden Guitarist and multi-media minstrel Felicity made the most of her decade long hiatus as a solo artist by recording two acclaimed trio discs with Lyn Bowtell and Kevin Bennett.
But it was a pre-marital overseas sojourn with producer-guitarist-photographer-graphic artist Glen Hannah that fuelled New Harmony - entree of seventh solo album Frozen Rabbit, released on April 26.
Felicity and co-writer Luke Webb have detailed the joyous journey that also produced two daughters who have also joined her on-stage.
Singer-songwriter actor and pilot Tim McGraw has offered to sing at the AFL Grand Final during his third Australian tour in September.
McGraw, now 51, wore a Collingwood jumper when he as a guest at a previous final when the Magpies and St Kilda fought an epic battle in front of 80,000 plus fans.
Tim starred in Hollywood movies including gridiron box office smash The Blind Side with Sandra Bullock and Country Strong with Gwyneth Paltrow.
He also wrote his duet with singing spouse Faith Hill - Keep Your Eyes On Me - for 2017 movie The Shack starring British born Australian actor Sam Worthington and Octavia Spencer.
Tim headlines the 21 st Deni Ute Muster on October 5 and Country To Country festivals in Brisbane and Sydney.
LUKAS NELSON AND THE PROMISE OF THE REAL CORNER MARKET
Fellow Texas raised singer-songwriter Lukas Nelson and The Promise Of The Real performed one of the most dynamic live concerts of the young year at the famed Corner Hotel , Richmond.
Lukas, just 30, proved that he is a genuine keeper of his famed singing actor sire Willie's flame in a two-hour music marathon.
Riverina refugee William Crighton and Melbourne sisters - The Wolfgramms - added spice to the sensational show.
Californian singer-songwriter Devin Dawson had good reason to exploit prison imagery and metaphors in three of 12 songs he wrote on his debut album Dark Horse .
He grew up in Orangevale near the gates of the infamous Folsom Prison and could hear nocturnal sirens roar throughout his childhood.
Devin used gaol backdrops in two of his video clips.
Dawson , 30, also hosted the inaugural Country Music Association Showcase at the historic Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne on Saturday March 23.
Devin led a quintet of singer-songwriters - fellow American Brandy Clark, Canadian chanteuses Lindsay Ell and Tenille Townes and Mornington Peninsula raised multi-media artist Lachlan Bryan - in the prestige concert.
Photo credit - Peter Coates Inside Edge Photography
Nouveau North Carolina outlaw singer-songwriter Luke Combs built on his large Australian fan base on his return tour.
Combs, just 29, and Ashley McBryde headlined a joint St Kilda Palais concert after appearing at the sold-out CMC Rocks Queensland Festival in Ipswich .
Chart-topping Florida Georgia Line headline their concert at Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday March 20 after supporting Georgian star Jason Aldean on their 2016 tour.
The band, fresh from CMC Rocks Queensland festival in Ipswich, perform with another Georgian Thomas Rhett and Tennessee preacher's son Morgan Wallen.
Nu Country TV is one of five Australian nominations in the international section of the prestigious 2019 Country Music Awards in the U.S.
Veteran Victorian journalist, TV and radio host and songwriter David Dawson is nominated for the 2019 Wesley Rose International Media Achievement Award.
Dawson is one of five Australians nominated for the annual awards.
He joins Cessnock singer-songwriter and prolific Golden Guitarist Travis Collins, Sydney marketer Susan Heymann, general manager of Chugg Entertainment , Paul Jackson, group program director of NOVA Entertainment and Trevor Smith of Aloha Media , Byron Bay-based content production house for audio, visual and online.
There's no danger of Mid-west refugee John Hiatt hitting the highest notes at the age of 66 on his 23rd solo album The Eclipse Sessions.
But Hiatt, who won acclaim on his Australian tours, delivers droll humour in love metaphors in new single Over The Hill, accompanied by a video we feature on Nu Country TV.
Hiatt recorded his album near Nashville during the total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017.
Steve Ripley, founder of the chart topping Oklahoma band The Tractors , died two days after his 69 th birthday on January 3 after a battle with cancer at his Pawnee home.
The multi-talented singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist-producer Ripley made seven albums with The Tractors and 2002 solo album Ripley that he promoted in an interview with Nu Country .
Ripley created the Red Dirt music genre in 1972 that morphed into Americana .
He sampled Hillary Clinton in the Hale Bop Boogie - a hidden track on The Tractors 1998 album Farmers In A Changing World .
North Carolina singer-songwriter Eric Church survived life threatening surgery to release his eighth album Desperate Man.
Church, 41 and father of two sons, featured title track co-writer and veteran Texan outlaw Ray Wylie Hubbard in the video filmed at famed abandoned Cornelia Fort Airpark north of Nashville.
The singer also lampooned political power brokers in several of his 11 original songs written in his fishing cabin near the airport.
Expatriate Californian singer-songwriter Kevin Welch has released his 12 th album Dust Devil with a little help from son Dustin and daughter Savannah .
It's the first album in eight years for Welch, 63, who moved to Nowra on the NSW south coast with his Australian wife.
Welch returned to Nashville to produce the album featuring eight memorable new original songs and two by peers.
Seven time Grammy winner Carrie Underwood topped U.S. charts with her sixth album Cry Pretty during her short Australian return tour in September.
Underwood, 35, headlined the 20 th Deni Ute Muster and announced her pregnancy after recovering from a fall that broke her wrist with horrific facial injuries that required about 50 stitches.
Carrie revealed how she turned her pain into pleasure in nine originals on her 13 song album.
Midwest Farmer's Daughter Margo Price debuted at Brian Taranto's fifth Out On The Weekend Festival at Seaworks in Williamstown.
Florida born Joshua Hedley and The Hedliners also returned to the popular festival with a vast cast including Courtney Marie Andrews, Willie Watson, the ReChords, Sierra Ferrell, Henry Wagons, Weeping Willows and Cartridge Family.
Revered Shipwreck Coast singer-songwriter and Goanna co-founder Shane Howard OAM and veteran 3RRR-FM Off The Record radio host Brian Wise were presented with Vanguard Awards at the second Australian Americana Honours show at Thornbury Theatre .
Howard performed two songs with his daughter Myra on the show featuring inaugural Vanguard award winner Kasey Chambers.
Expat American singer-songwriter Kevin Welch, Margo Price, Joshua Hedley, Weeping Willows and Little Georgia were among the diverse artists who also performed on the memorable show.
Irish singer-songwriter Catherine McGrath was discovered as a teenager by Sir Elton John who also nurtured another Catherine as a teen.
Novocastrian Catherine Britt was just 20 when she recorded a duet with Sir Elton on Top 40 single Where We Both Say Goodbye.
But McGrath's duet Don't Let Me Forget on her debut album Talk Of This Town was with another former child prodigy - Louisiana singing actor Hunter Hayes.
Catherine, just 21, promoted Don't Let Me Forget that debuts on Nu Country TV on Saturday October 13, and her album on her September Australian tour with another Novocastrian Morgan Evans.
Expatriate Kiwi singer-songwriter Matt Joe Gow has long mastered the art of videos to promote his narrative songs on his CDS.
Gow filmed his recent videos in Melbourne but has enlisted his sister Cat Jean to direct and appear in the video for his third album title track Break, Rattle And Roll in his homeland.
The singer launches his CD on October 5 with concerts here and in New Zealand as we feature his Ride On video on Nu Country TV on Saturday October 13.
Midwest Farmer's Daughter Margo Price enjoyed good tidings on the eve of her debut Australian tour in October.
Her guitarist husband Jeremy Ivey discovered moonshine barrels from an historic still on the hill in the back of their five acre home north of Nashville where outlaw Jesse James and his gang once roamed.
Acclaimed singer-songwriter Margo also has her own brand of marijuana akin to Octogenarian mentor Willie Nelson's Reserve .
“They're in the process of growing this amazing plant, we couldn't decide what strain it was going to be,” Margo revealed in an interview with Nu Country TV from her pick-up truck in her home driveway.
“My brand is Indica which is good for insomnia. It's very relaxing, it's a beautiful purple colour and I'm very pleased with how it came out.
Brisbane singer-songwriter Megan Cooper had good reason to honour a local football star forced into early retirement.
Megan quit an early passion for flamenco dancing that was cut short by painful ankle injuries.
So she wrote Running With Ghosts - one of the highlights of her second album Wild Mountain that followed an EP North and 2013 debut album Ghosts, Choirs and Kings.
Cooper also filmed a video for her tribute song that will be featured on Nu Country TV.
When Victorian quintet The Mason Boys needed a locale to film their video for nostalgia fuelled album title track Feels Like Home they didn't have to look far.
They chose the historic rural retreat - Uncle Nev's Trail Rides north of Melbourne at Upper Plenty - with its rustic charm.
The band is performing at major music festivals and venues to promote its album that also features a song about a fictional Byron Bay outlaw - The Ballad Of Billy M.
Jindabyne singer-songwriter Brad Cox was surrounded by lakes and rivers when he was raised in the Snowy Mountains high country.
But the 39th Toyota Starmaker winner experienced the soul destroying aftermath of drought in his four years as a stockman in the parched plains of the Northern Territory .
Now, as the latest drought worsens, the singer is raising awareness with his new single Water on The Ground and three rural charities.
Novocastrian singer-songwriter Catherine Britt boomeranged from storms of life on her earthy seventh album recorded in her bucolic Beverley Hillbillies studio, outback in the her backyard.
It's a true testament of her resilience that she wrote all songs after recovering from breast cancer diagnosed when she was just 30.
Now, three years down the Lost Highway , she has reaped riches from her post-operative journeys to the heart of our nation with her Cold-Cold Hearts trio.
The young mother illustrated entrée song Red Dirt with a vivid video shot at Silverton near Broken Hill.
KENNY CHESNEY SONGS FOR THE SAINTS AND VIRGIN ISLANDS
Singer-sailor-songwriter Kenny Chesney was born in Luttrell - the same east Tennessee town as the late Chet Atkins - but found fame and fortune deeper south in the Virgin Islands.
Chesney, 50, has swum in the slipstream of fellow briny balladeer Jimmy Buffett and debuted at #2 on the mainstream Billboard chart with his 20th CD Songs For The Saints.
The title track is also a perfect anthem for the struggling St Kilda football team who lost their major country music fans - former captain Nick Riewoldt and ruck-man Rhys Stanley - to retirement and Geelong.
Chesney exuded altruism by donating money and rescuing residents, anonymously at first, from his St John island home away from home after ravages of recent hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Kenny's album was inspired by human struggles and recovery and benefit his Love for Love City Fund Foundation for Virgin Island relief.
Kirsty Lee Akers wrote and filmed a video and song for one of her music students who died at just 15 from cancer in the Hunter Valley.
Akers eulogy House Full Of Flowers (Hannah's Song ) was played at the funeral of Hannah Rye and is one of the highlights of her fifth album Under My Skin.
She is releasing the single and video on the anniversary of Hannah's death on August 21.
Hannah also appeared in one of Akers videos - Ain't That Kind Of Girl - during remission.
Texan troubadour Kevin Deal appeared in a live phone interview on Nu Country FM during our radio resurrection at our Harley House studio at the Paris , Texas , end of Collins St in 2001.
Now, 17 years down the Lost Highway the singer-songwriter-stone mason has released his ninth album The Long Road Home .
We will feature several new Deal video clips during our spring series of Nu Country TV.
Mississippi minstrel Charlie Worsham won many fans during his April tour when he played historic Melbourne Forum Theatre with Georgian Kip Moore and South Carolina star Lee Brice.
That was after they headlined The Way Out West festival at the Waltzing Matilda Centre in Winton , Queensland.
Charlie, 32, also enjoyed a short but memorable role in TV crime series Bones.
But art didn't imitate life when struggling country singer Colin Haynes, played by Worsham, was murdered.
Instead Worsham released his second album Beginning Of Things for his Australian tour.
Nouveau new age North Carolina outlaw Luke Combs did it his way when he blew into Nashville from that other music mecca Asheville .
Combs dropped out of the fourth year of an Appalachian University degree and self-financed his debut single Hurricane in 2016 after releasing three indie EPs dating back to 2014.
Now, in the chilly winter of 2018, Luke is so hot after touring here with South Carolina star Darius Rucker his debut album has been re-released with five bonus tracks as This One's For You Too .
Shotgun Willie Nelson lives up to the title of his 67th studio album Last Man Standing released just two days before his 85th birthday.
The Octogenarian's wry wit permeates his self-effacing title track entrée that name checks deceased pioneer mates Waylon Jennings, Ray Price, Merle Haggard and Norro Wilson.
Willie bemoans passing of his peer pals in his mortality missive that ends him with him changing his mind and settling for longevity enjoyed by elder sister pianist Bobbie, now 87.
The seasoned singer-songwriter and actor has too much to live for - there's his 44th July 4 Picnic in Austin, his national Outlaw Music Festival tours and the long running Farm Aid festivals.
Knoxville girl Ashley Monroe had a little help from Texan singing actor Waylon Payne and her Pistol Annies pals Angaleena Presley and Miranda Lambert when she recorded her fifth solo album Sparrow .
The singer-songwriter co-wrote all 12 songs on her album that includes new video clips featured on Nu Country TV .
Monroe , 31, revealed in her Nu Country interview that Pistol Annies also have plans for their third CD.
Preston singer-songwriter John Flanagan's Trio attracted a crowd to their Preston porch picking hoedown to promote his video Something To Complain About on his third album Honest Man.
It was recorded in February 2017 over four days at Dog & Bear studio in Trentham - the central Victorian town that veteran country singer and DJ Gene Bradley Fisk now calls home after moving from Moriac.
It also features songs on uber driving for Paul Kelly that inspired The Last of The Cassette Men and historic lament Free John Zarb.
Pascoe Vale postman Zarb went to gaol - instead of delivering mail - in 1968 as a Vietnam War conscientious objector.
Oklahoma chart-topper Blake Shelton has long honoured his home state in his music so it's fitting he named his 13th album after a lake near his home.
Lake Texoma is a reservoir formed by Denison Dam on the Red River at the border of Oklahoma and Texas.
The lake is south of both Tishomingo, Oklahoma where Shelton lives, and his hometown Ada .
Album entrée I'll Name The Dogs exudes extra-marital canine humour for the twice wed singer and his new single I Lived It is accompanied by a video on Nu Country TV on Saturday June 16.
WOLFE BROTHERS SURVIVE ON VAN DIEMANS LAND BERRIES
Tasmanian country band The Wolfe Brothers have survived on a healthy mixture of home grown berries and music.
The band's music and video clips are a huge promotional tool for their home state and Fairy Glen berry farm that has been in the Wolfe family for almost 110 years.
Nick and Tom Wolfe and band member-songwriter Brodie Rainbird are promoting their fourth album Country Heart on a national tour that includes concerts with their mentor Lee Kernaghan.
Riverina raised singer-songwriter, TV host and actor Darren Coggan was a huge bonus on the 2018 Powercorp Australian Country Music Festival - the outside curtain raiser for the Geelong-Essendon AFL game.
Coggan, concert opener Michelle Gardiner, Mallee Boy John Williamson and The Black Sorrows kicked the dew off the grass at the Yarra Park free concert.
The concert, promoting fresh country produce, the Food Bank and bush reared footy stars, also showcased armies of volunteer CFA and SES volunteers who keep urban and rural residents free of predatory pestilence.
Former Prahran plumber and superstar marathon Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy hugged babies, kissed babes and promoted the bush with a selfie splurge as fans enjoyed healthy alternatives to that joyous wedding across the ocean.
DEAD LIVERS 40TH ANNIVERSARY RESURRECTION
CONCERT REVIEW
Veteran outlaw country band The Dead Livers celebrated their 40 th anniversary with a CD launch concert at Thornbury Theatre.
The septet was supported by Nu Country TV hosts Paul Hicks and Red Smith and Nu Country FM DJ Kenny Joe Blake and other guest artists.
Lost In Suburbia musician Peter Bird, who re-mastered the band's Greatest Misses CD at his Yelp Studio in Warrnambool, also appeared on the show featuring photographs by former Nu Country treasurer Kip Karpik.
Georgian Kip Moore headlined an Anzac Day spectacular concert at the historic majestic Forum in Melbourne CBD during his latest Australian tour.
South Carolina born Lee Brice and Mississippi man Charlie Worsham also performed to a capacity crowd on a tour created by late Nu Country TV benefactor Rob Potts and fellow Tasmanian born promoter Michael Chugg.
NSW Central Coast chanteuse Jayne Denham has released her fourth album Calamity on the eve of her return to Nu Country TV .
The trucking troubadour recorded at the Nashville studio of Rascal Flatts bassist Jay De Marcus during one of her many international writing and performing sojourns.
Her Calamity video is one of 14 she has filmed to promote her music.
“Our condolences to the family and friends of revered Victorian singer-songwriter Cyndi Boste who passed away on April 21 - just eight days before her 57th birthday.
The much loved artist's life is celebrated at Daylesford Town Hall on Thursday April 26 from 1.30 pm.
Cyndi fought a spirited battle with cancer and died in Daylesford Hospital after a colourful career here and overseas.
The Dandenong Ranges born singer and her double bassist brother Rory, who recorded with The Band Who Knew Too Much , enjoyed a 35 year plus career.
Cyndi released four acclaimed albums and performed a Nu Country TV benefit showcase at the Hotel Kew in August, 2006.
Georgian singer-songwriter Kip Moore is making his third Australian tour to promote his acclaimed third CD Slowheart.
Moore has expanded his fast growing fan base on his tour with Lee Brice and Charlie Worsham that includes a Melbourne CBD Forum concert on Wednesday April 25.
Kip's record company EMI promotions Chief Dave Parker has donated copies of Slowheart to Nu Country TV members wishing to renew their membership or join up.
Midwest Farmer's Daughter Margo Price had no trouble recruiting Texan singing actor Willie Nelson and the McCrary Sisters to guest on her second album All American Made .
Willie, 85 on April 29, often hosts Margo on his tours, July 4 festivals, Farm Aid and annual shows at his movie town Luck where she has filmed live videos in his chapel.
Margo, now 34, and guitarist husband Jeremy Ivey wrote all 12 songs on her album that has won wide acclaim.
The singer has primed the sales pump with frequent appearances on top rating U.S. variety shows.
DEAD LIVERS 40 TH ANNIVERSARY REMASTERED
GREATEST MISSES CD
Pioneer Victorian outlaw country band The Dead Livers celebrated its 40th anniversary by releasing a re-mastered edition of debut CD Greatest Misses.
By popular demand the band has changed the CD launch venue to the Velvet Room of Thornbury Theatre at 859 High Street , Thornbury, on Saturday May 12.
There are three new alternate songs on the 14 track CD that was re-mastered by Lost In Suburbia guitarist Peter Bird at his Warrnambool recording studio Yelp .
Ironically, bassist Michael Schack and pedal steel guitarist Brendan Mitchell both boomeranged from successful liver transplants to enjoy their musical and personal longevity.
Their Greatest Misses CD is also available as a digital download.
Pioneer New Zealand country music outlaw Peter Caulton who found success in Australia with a 1996 album recorded in Austin , Texas , has died after a heart attack shortly after his 71st birthday.
Caulton was the headliner on the Spurs Cowboy bar circuit in Melbourne , Geelong and Canberra in the eighties and played major festivals and TV shows here and overseas.
The singer also scored wide exposure on his duet with the late A.P. Johnson on his Duncan parody I'd Love To Have A Smoke With Malcolm that he wrote while hosting his country music show on 3RRR-FM.
It first appeared on a four track cassette during Willie Nelson's 1981 Australian tour and The Dead Livers Greatest Misses CD.
Caulton also released acclaimed album Hard Road, Tough Country that he recorded with Austin A Session pickers in Texas in 1996.
It included Caulton's version of former Nu Country FM DJ Kenny Joe Blake song Who Drove The Mystery Train?
Gippsland dairy farmer's son and latter day singer-songwriter and secondary teacher Michael Waugh launched his second album The Asphalt & The Oval at The Spotted Mallard in Brunswick on Friday March 23.
Also on the bill were Melbourne bluegrass band The Weeping Willows, Canadian troubadour Scott Cook, Lindsay Martin, Mandy Connell and Rich Davies.
Waugh's album, produced by Shane Nicholson, explores a younger brother's battle with cancer, rural family struggles, football challenges and other personalised narratives.
Veteran Adelaide country folk band Redgum have donated proceeds of their historic 1985 Live In Amsterdam CD to a roadies support group.
Redgum , renowned for support of military veterans and other major causes, is first band to step into the breech for Australian Road Crew Association - a not for profit organisation dedicated to welfare of live production crew.
Live In Amsterdam is the debut disc on Black Box Records for ARCA that provides financial and counselling assistance to road managers who experienced high suicide rates and health issues after their employment ceased.
Roadies amassed a treasure trove of live recordings spanning more than 40 years and made ARCA their custodian.
Acts including Australian Crawl, The Church, Cold Chisel, Crowded House, Men At Work, Mental As Anything, Midnight Oil, The Models and Paul Kelly plan to assist the crews who helped them on their journey.
Rick Hart channels Emmylou Harris and late Band drummer and actor Levon Helm in his imagery on debut album Let Me In.
Hart's video clip for Sweet Emmylou - filmed at Warburton and Drouin - is one of several he has used to promote his album on Nu Country TV.
Rick is joined by his wife Vanessa on the disc that also features a song written with Evan - one of their three sons.
Australasian singer-songwriter Vanessa Delaine and Gulf of Carpentaria singer Kalesti Butler are among the debutantes during the new season that extends into 2018.
Delaine recently launched third album Wild & Free in Albury with fellow Wodonga music teacher and guitarist Michael Barnard.
Altruistic country music promoter, indie record label operator and manager Rob Potts died tragically on October 27 doing what he loved - escaping to the wilderness of his home state Tasmania .
Rob, 65, perished when his red Honda motor bike hit a patch of gravel on a sharp corner 31 kilometres west of Tullah on the island state's West Coast Ranges.
Potts, a major benefactor of Nu Country TV with fellow Tasmanian born promoter Michael Chugg, often retreated on hikes through the wilderness before their major festivals and tours.
Rob and Michael have long been generous benefactors of Nu Country TV with sponsorship of their major tours and festivals.
Chicago singer-songwriter-satirist Robbie Fulks was so spooked on his debut Australian tour by our magnificent native Cassowary bird that he wrote and performed a song about it at the Out On The Weekend festival.
Fulks and his fiddler Shad Cobb spoofed the Cassowary in the popular festival at Seaworks on the dock of the bay at Williamstown.
New Orleans band The Deslondes , Lille Mae, The Davidson Brothers, Raised By Eagles and Snowy Mountains singer Fanny Lumsden and her band were among guests at the afternoon session.
Grammy winning string band Old Crow Medicine Show stunned a capacity crowd at the Forum with their 50 Years of Blonde On Blonde tribute show to Bob Dylan.
The sextet also performed blended their originals with other Dylan classics during their spirited encore.
Memphis belle Valerie June shared the bill on her debut national tour with the Old Crows.
KEVIN WELCH AND KASEY CHAMBERS CELEBRATE
AMERICANA
IN THORNBURY
Expat Californian singer-songwriter Kevin Welch celebrated the Australian Americana nuptials by moving to Nowra on the NSW south coast with his Australian wife.
The frequent Australian tourist also performed at the inaugural Australian Americana awards show at the Thornbury Theatre .
Welch joined inaugural awards winners - promoter Brian Taranto - and singer-songwriter Kasey Chambers on the show that also featured Shipwreck Coast icon Shane Howard OAM.
It ended with an all-star ensemble - Old Crow Medicine Show , Valerie June, Welch, Kasey, Shane, Ruby Boots, Henry Wagons, Bernard Fanning and fellow guests performing a roof lifting version of Will The Circle Be Unbroken .
Legendary Texan trio The Dixie Chicks celebrate their touring and recording resurrection with an exciting new release celebrating their colourful career that began as street buskers.
Their double CD is accompanied by a marathon 22 song live concert DVD filmed during their 2016 Canada and U.S. tour - their first in a decade before returning here in April this year.
The trio embraces country with a bluegrass tribute to late pioneer Bill Monroe on DCX-MMXV1.
Yarraville singer-signwriter David Baird and Williamstown pianist and singing lawyer Patsy Toop have illustrated their sixth album The Night Of Our Life with stunning video clips.
The duo, who perform and record as The Long And Short Of It , won international acclaim for their indie CDS and charity work.
Dave and Patsy also re-invest their talents into local studios and the Seaworks arts complex in the historic suburb of Williamstown.
Four times wed Arkansas born singing actor and TV host Glen Campbell died at 81 on August 8 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.
Final album Adios , produced by Carl Jackson and released in June, has duets with guests including Nine Stone Cowboy Willie Nelson, now 84.
Acclaimed 2014 documentary Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me featured his final 2012 tour and his last recorded song, the Oscar nominated I'm Not Gonna Miss You.
The seventh of 12 children of a Delight cotton share farmer was a famed session musician before he became a major international star with several Australian tours.
His 70 albums produced 80 plus hits on pop and country charts with sales exceeding 45 million units.
Glen also won six Grammys from 17 nominations and was a major mentor for expat Australasian superstar Keith Urban and helped land Georgian Alan Jackson his first publishing and recording deals with expats Barry and Jewel Coburn.
He starred with John Wayne in 1969 movie True Grit and sang the film theme song, nominated for an Oscar.
LIAM GERNER FINDS A BUDDHIST GIRL IN A BAPTIST TOWN
Adelaide refugee Liam Gerner has made some amazing discoveries during his overseas odysseys that have fuelled his two acclaimed albums.
Gerner, now 33, recounted the hilarious tale of two elderly drug mules, both 69, who crashed their Winnebago into a Texas judge's home in their ill-fated retirement road song Hank & Tammy on his debut disc Land Of No Roads .
Now, the former Mt Barker dairy hand has found a Buddhist Girl in A Baptist Town on a trip from Nashville to the Carolinas on his second album with the Sunset Pushers .
Darren Coggan enlisted fellow TV host and country star Felicity Urquhart to perform on his acclaimed sixth album The Wide Horizon.
Coggan, 44, is also joined by his pianist sister Naomi on the disc that includes a song about Ned Kelly penned by his former Wagga Wagga drama teacher Ken McBeath.
The singer, star of the Cat Stevens tribute show Peace Train , celebrates his Scottish roots and depicts drought decimation of the third generation family farm in his song Hughie .
Gippsland born bluegrass duo The Davidson Brothers worked with top shelf studio musicians in Nashville on their acclaimed eighth album All You Need Is Music .
They launched it at the Longhorn Saloon - dubbed the BBQ pub with no kitchen - in Carlton in April.
Now they perform another Victorian gig at the Union Hotel on the mean streets of Brunswick on July 8 en route to the famed Gympie and Deni Ute Musters.
NU COUNTRY TV CHANNEL 31/44 FREE TO AIR RESURRECTION
The Federal Government has belatedly extended the Channel 31/44 licence on free to air Community TV until December 31, 2017, after a media and community backlash.
This means our Nu Country TV show on Saturday June 24, and repeats, were not our last appearances on that spectrum.
We will advise the timeslots of our new Series #33 episodes, hosted by Mid Pacific Bob Olson and filmed and edited by Laith Graham, when Channel 31 updates its roster.
We're indebted to loyal and creative web mistress Anne Sydenham, who celebrates 14 years in our engine room, and fellow volunteer Laith who has filmed and edited more than 160 episodes since taking the reins in December 2013 from Blaize Warden for Series #21.
Laith also teamed with expatriate Californian academic and Northcote secondary school mathematics teacher Mid-Pacific Bob Olson, who graduated from being a Nu Country FM DJ in the nineties, to become our TV show host and treasurer.
We will introduce more comedy, Tex-Mex, bluegrass, western swing and indie country roots singer-songwriters in our Behind Bars segments because of your lavish praise.
Kentucky coal-miner's son Chris Stapleton, West Virginian Brad Paisley and legendary star Hank Williams Jr headlined our Series #32 finale with Texan singing actor Rodney Carrington and late Georgian comedian Tim Wilson.
We value your loyalty and support dating back to our Nu Country FM radio debut in 1994 and appreciate your input on our future.
Nu Country TV is a highlight of C 31 streaming on Digital 44.
Viewers can access previous Nu Country TV shows at the same link.
ZAC BROWN BAND HONOURS FAMILY AND FRIENDS
Grammy winning Georgians the Zac Brown Band topped the U.S. Billboard charts with their eighth album Welcome Home shortly after their third Australian tour in April.
The eclectic octet is joined by Texan Kacey Musgraves and Pharrell Williams on the 10 track album produced by Dave Cobb at two Nashville studios.
Brown, 38 and father of five, reached back to his rural roots for inspiration for the acclaimed disc.
Melbourne roots country band Raised By Eagles exercise strident social comment on their third album I Must Be Somewhere that they will promote on a winter tour.
Major singer-songwriters Luke Sinclair and Nick O'Mara wrote 10 new tunes for the disc.
The cream of American nouveau outlaws and stone country icons combine on the 21 track CD-DVD compilation Outlaw - Celebrating The Music Of Waylon Jennings .
They include Octogenarians Willie Nelson, Bobby Bare and Kris Kristofferson, Texans Lee Ann Womack and Robert Earl Keen and young guns diverse as Chris Stapleton, Jamey Johnson, Kacey Musgraves, Sturgill Simpson and Alison Krauss.
Waylon's widow Jessi Colter and their son Shooter Jennings also perform.
BRAD PAISLEY AND JOHN FOGERTY COMBINE FOR LOVE AND WAR
West Virginian guitar-slinger Brad Paisley has out-gunned Shotgun Willie Nelson with the number of video clips released to promote his 11th album Love And War .
All 15 songs by Paisley , 44, are available as streaming videos.
Brad wrote the powerful Vietnam War social comment title track with former Creedence Clearwater singer and duet partner John Fogerty.
Paisley also collaborated with Whispering Bill Anderson, Mick Jagger and hip hop honcho Timbaland on other songs and revamped an historic Johnny Cash poem.
The singer also includes a timely Internet warning satire selfie#theinternetisforever .
CLICK HERE for our Brad CD feature in The Diary.
OCTOGENARIAN WILLIE NELSON STILL NOT DEAD YET
Texan singing actor Shotgun Willie Nelson enlisted a punchy posse of peers for his latest album God's Problem Child that has been promoted with five new video clips on Nu Country TV .
Willie, now 84, honours late duet partners Merle Haggard and Leon Russell with a little help from Tony Joe White and Jamey Johnson.
The Redheaded Stranger wrote seven of the 13 new songs with long-time producer Buddy Cannon including his parody of Internet trolls announcing his premature death in Still Not Dead Yet .
Melbourne bluegrass band Mustered Courage suffered a great bluegrass CD train robbery on the eve of their performance at the Powercorp Country Music festival at Yarra Park as a curtain raiser for the Essendon-Geelong country game at the MCG.
“We had all these CDS but they were stolen on the train,” guitarist Julian Abrahams told the huge crowd, “it was bad luck for the thieves, all they got in the case were bluegrass CDS.”
Mustered Courage , Lee Kernaghan, Sara Storer, Shannon Noll and Michelle Gardiner performed in Yarra Park with former country music singing Geelong footballer and latter day Federal National Party MP Damian Drum representing his Victorian electorate at the concert.
Drum inspected the SES, CFA, Food Bank, VFF, Case, Deni Ute Muster and local farm produce stalls before 2008 Australian Of The Year Kernaghan OAM and Storer's trio performed inside the MCG.
Grammy winning Georgian born Zac Brown and East Ringwood bred duo The Pierce Brothers raised the roof of Melbourne 's Margaret Court Arena with a marathon concert on April 19.
Brown's dynamic octet performed 25 songs in the mid-week musical soiree to an enthusiastic audience including Melbourne Storm NRL star Billy Slater.
Zac's show followed his appearance with septuagenarian singing sailor, pilot and duet partner Jimmy Buffett at the 28 th Byron Bay Blues festival at Easter.
Brown and band also previewed their seventh studio album Welcome Home , due for release on May 12.
Cronulla singer-songwriter school-teacher Luke O'Shea and long-time mate John Krsulja turned ashes into gold when they wrote Old Man's Shed about paternal pride.
Their song about a proud fix-it father whose craft was perfected in his backyard shed won 2017 Heritage Song Golden Guitar at the 44th Australian country music awards in Tamworth in January.
It was the seventh Golden Guitar for O'Shea, 47 and father of three, who shared the award with Krsulja - host of song-writing workshops and concerts at his DAG Sheep Station retreat at Nundle near Tamworth .
The song is on Luke's sixth album Caught Up In The Dreaming.
Texan troubadour Miranda Lambert is indebted to songwriter dad Rick, new beau Anderson East and vast cast of fellow singer-songwriters for igniting her seventh album The Weight Of These Wings - a 24 track double disc.
They include Waylon Payne, Brent Cobb, Adam Hood, Jack Ingram, fellow Pistol Annies singer Ashley Monroe and Natalie Hemby with whom Miranda wrote 10 songs here.
Texan Waylon - son of the late Sammi Smith and Willie Nelson guitarist Jody Payne - and Ashley penned vitriolic kiss-off tune To Learn Her.
Miranda, 33, says the album is not a heartbreak disc despite divorce from fellow singer Blake Shelton in July 2015 after their four year marriage.
The album has already produced two videos - Vice and We Should Be Friends - featured on Nu Country TV .
Veteran band The Bushwackers celebrates its 46th anniversary with release of 24 th album The Hungry Mile.
The eclectic roots music band that has featured 90 members in its colourful career joins Harmony James and Luke O'Shea by including a coal fracking protest song Leave It In The Ground .
It also pays homage to late Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in Giant Of A Man , pioneer bush band songwriter John Meredith in Dennis O'Reilly and The Backblock Shearer , post war migrants in Dirt Under My Nails and depression era dock workers in the title track.
They also feature a 25 member celebrity choir on Waltzing Australia , dream of a Republic Day and inject folksy humour into Another Trip To Bunnings .
Mo Pitney, one of the young guns keeping the traditional country flame burning, scored wide exposure on Nu Country TV with his organic videos.
Now, aged 24, his debut album Behind This Guitar , has been released in Australia by Sony-Curb .
Pitney co-wrote 10 of the 12 songs with artists diverse as Whispering Bill Anderson and frequent Australian tourist David Lee Murphy and honours his late hero Merle Haggard.
Tennessean Kenny Chesney eulogised a tiny Texas bar adorned by the memories of a young soldier killed in the Vietnam War on his 17th album Cosmic Hallelujah.
Chesney, 48, performs Jesus And Elvis - a song that celebrates the serviceman’s memorial created by his mother Frances Lala in her small Austin bar - Lala’s Little Nugget.
The song - written by Matraca Berg, Allison Moorer and Hayes Carll - is a highlight of the album that also features his Grammy nominated 29 th #1 hit with Pink on Setting The World On Fire.
NU COUNTRY TV HOST AND BENEFACTOR KACEY JONES RIP AT 66
Acclaimed singer-songwriter, comedienne, producer, Nu Country TV host and showcase headliner Kacey Jones has died at 66 on the first day of spring in Nashville.
In 2014 Kacey was diagnosed with Stage 3 colorectal cancer - instead of chemo, radiation and surgery she opted for alternative, holistic therapies.
She launched a Go-Fund-Me account to pay for these and entered hospice care early in August.
Despite chronic pain she was well enough in 2015 to compete on TV's America's Got Talent where she performed her timely parody Donald Trump's Hair - title track of her 2009 album - that we also featured on Nu Country TV .
Kacey and fellow singer-songwriter Becky Hobbs performed our showcase at the Noise Bar at the historic Railway Hotel , in Brunswick on February 1, 2008, with local artists the Bona Fide Travellers .
Their concert was featured on Nu Country TV just two years after she hosted our TV show from Austin, Texas, in 2006 while performing the annual Mickey Newbury festival with singing actor Waylon Payne.
Expatriate Australasian superstar Keith Urban's appearance with John Mellencamp at the 49th CMA Awards in Nashville on November 4 last year was tinged with sadness.
It was just a month before his major musical influence - his father Robert - died on December 5 after a long battle with cancer while he was making his 10th album Ripcord .
The Urban patriarch, who died at Mountain Creek near Caloundra on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, moved to Australia from Whangarei in New Zealand with his wife Marienne and their two sons Shane and Keith and settled in Caboolture.
“My dad is the catalyst for me living in America,” revealed Urban, 48, who honoured his dad in new song Blue Ain't Your Colour.
< Keith & Bob Urban
Keith will perform the song from Ripcord when he headlines the Deni Ute Muster on September 30 and returns in December for a national tour with Carrie Underwood.
Expat South Londoner Mark Lucas & The Dead Setters return to Nu Country TV during Series #33 that returns to Channel 31/ Digital 44 in spring.
Lucas has release his seventh album The Continental Drift that features a hefty dose of social comment tunes about adoptive home city Sydney and way beyond.
If
you miss Nu Country TV live on C 31 Saturday 10.30 pm or Monday
2.30 pm and midnight and Thursday at midnight there is another
way to see the show at your leisure.
Visit the Channel 31 programs web page and Click on the Nu Country
logo and follow the link to Catch-Up TV.
You
can also follow Nu Country TV on Facebook - courtesy of gig guide
collator Annie Christophers and our loyal public officer Denise
Kuhl.
They will post photos of their overseas festival tours and local
concerts they attend.
You can interact live with them at Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/NuCountryTV
The
Nu Country TV show has been added to the C 31 streaming list.
Nu Country TV also returned to C 31 - Digital 44 - in South Australia
on Thursday October 11.
The far-reaching Adelaide station screens Series #18 at 9.30 pm
each Thursday.
WIN
DIERKS BENTLEY NEW CD
We
have even more exciting news - Dierks Bentley's seventh album
Home on the eve of his second Australian tour.
EMI promotions ace Bianca O'Neill gave us Dierks huge selling
album prizes shortly before it debuted at #1 on Billboard
on its U.S. release
The album features the Bentley hits Am I The Only One,
Gonna Die Young and his duet with Karen Fairchild of Little
Big Town on When You Gonna Come Around.
Bentley
wrote the title song with Brett Beavers and Dan Wilson about
the shooting of Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords by a mass murderer
in their home state Arizona.
U.S.
President Barack Obama has also adopted Home - featuring
expat Adelaide guitarist Jedd Hughes - as a personal song
in his new campaign.
Bentley, 36, arrived in Nashville at 19 and had big hits before
releasing his acclaimed bluegrass album Up On The Ridge.
All you have to do to win Home is become a member of
Nu Country TV or renew your membership.
EMI Records Promotions ace Bianca O'Neill has donated copies of the hot albums by North Carolina young gun Eric Church.
Eric, 37, topped the all genre Billboard Top 200 on debut with his third album Chief and 5th album The Outsiders that we feature in Series #25 of Nu Country TV .
You can help Nu Country TV survive and triumph on C 31 and win the Chief CD as a token of our appreciation
Nu
Country TV beams into Phillip Island, West Gippsland, Geelong &
the Surf Coast, Bellarine Peninsula, north to Mt Macedon and east
to the Dandenongs.
We're
also featured on C 31 in South Australia - home state of expatriate
Greencards multi-instrumentalist Kym Warner and Nashville recording
artist Jedd Hughes.
Golden
Guitar winner Beccy Cole, Jake Nickolai and 2000 Star Maker winner
Cat Southern also earned their stripes in home state South Australia.
This
means 750,000 viewers plus for videos, interviews and live gig footage
weekly.
Please
send your video clips in mini-DV or DVD-R format to Nu Country -
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We'll
keep you up to date on country music through our concert reviews,
features in our Diary and tours in TonkGirl's Gig Guide.
The
ABC has added Dig Country to its on-line jazz and roots radio
stations.
Adelaide bluegrass and roots country expert Richard Porteous
and peers have created a joyous sound that is reminiscent
of Nu Country FM in its halcyon days.
COLIN
WEIDNER
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EDWARDS
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9.30 pm to midnight
[full on country] Now streaming live
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Foot High And Rising with Myles O'Neil Shaw PBS - 106.7
FM - Monday 1-3 p m.
3RPP
Mornington Peninsula Radio
Monday 7-9pm Country Mix with Ken Brown
Saturday 7-9pm Kool Country
Barbara Kuhl
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