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       DAVE'S 
        DIARY - 20 JULY 2011 - PREVIEW EPISODE 7 - SERIES 16 
      TEXAN 
        TURNS THE TABLES ON NU COUNTRY TV  
      Texan honky 
        tonker Sunny Sweeney returns to Nu Country TV this Saturday - July 23 
        - at 10.30 pm with her latest video clip. 
         
        Singing actor Gwyneth Paltrow also showcases the video for the title track 
        of her movie Country Strong. 
         
        Her co-star Tim McGraw debuts the video for his recent single on a show 
        edited by Ashley Hall. 
         
        Frequent Australian tourist - New York born Kieran Kane - reprises a video 
        filmed on the mean streets of Brunswick. 
         
        And fellow native New Yorker Randy Montana makes his debut on Nu Country 
        on a show that is repeated on Friday at 2.30 a.m. 
         
        Ezra Lee, who played Jerry Lee Lewis in the Australian stage show The 
        Ultimate Rock 'N Roll Jam Session, also debuts. 
      SUNNY 
        SWEENEY - FROM A TABLE AWAY  
      
         
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             Sunny 
              Sweeney harvests hay from heartbreak of divorce on her second album 
              Concrete. 
               
              The Longview born singer reprised songs from her recent EP for the 
              album, produced by Brett Beavers whose clients include Dierks Bentley 
              and Catherine Britt. 
               
              Sweeney, 34, performs in the video for her first Top 10 single From 
              A Table Away - that captures the eternal triangle from the eyes 
              of the other woman. 
               
              It's not her former husband who scored her dog Merle in the divorce 
              - Sweeney lost Merle but kept her other dogs Dolly and Nash.  
               
              She has since released another single Staying's Worse Than Leaving. 
               
              Sunny also performed a duet with Waylon Jennings widow Jessi Colter 
              on Good Hearted Woman on the third tribute disc to the late Texan 
              outlaw. 
            She 
              recorded expatriate Van Diemen's Land diva Audrey Auld tune The 
              Next Big Nothing on her 2007 debut album Heartbreakers Hall 
              Of Fame.  
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      CLICK 
        HERE for a Sunny interview in the Diary on March 27, 2011. 
       KIERAN 
        KANE ABLE ON BRUNSWICK TABLE  
      
      Kieran Kane 
        and some Aussie mates helped make his video for his song Anybody's 
        Game a true international effort on his 10th tour down under. 
         
        They filmed the video in Brunswick with help from son Lucas and other 
        touring partners Kevin Welch and Fats Kaplin. 
         
        Anybody's Game is from Kane's seventh solo album Somewhere Beyond 
        The Roses. 
         
        Kane, 61, also released four albums with Jamie O'Hara as The O'Kanes and 
        others - including a live disc - with Welch, Kaplin and the Dead Reckoners. 
         
         
        Kane, Lucas and David Francey returned here earlier this year for gigs 
        and sold paintings, photos and CDS at a local art gallery. 
         
        They are now touring the U.S. as a trio - Go Jane Go.  
         
        CLICK HERE for a Kieran 
        Kane feature interview from the Diary on July 25, 2006.  
       TIM 
        MCGRAW - AT WAR  
      
         
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          Louisiana 
            born singing actor Tim McGraw has been performing concerts in the 
            U.S. with a broken foot after a stage accident. 
             
            McGraw, 44, is also locked in a protracted legal battle with record 
            label Curb over the release of his 11th studio album Emotional 
            Traffic. 
             
            McGraw says Emotional Traffic is his "absolute last album" 
            with Curb and while it has been finished for 12 months a release date 
            has yet to be issued. 
             
            "All the songs have been done for a long time, and the label 
            has had it," McGraw said. 
             
            "It's the last album that they have of mine, so they're trying 
            to hold on to it as long as they can." 
             
            Instead Curb released seven greatest hits album by McGraw - husband 
            of singing actress Mississippi born singing actress Faith Hill. | 
         
       
      McGraw performs 
        in the video this week for Felt Good On My Lips - it was set to 
        be on Emotional Traffic but was added to his latest greatest hits 
        album. 
         
        McGraw, father of three daughters, has also made eight movies including 
        Country Strong with Gwyneth Paltrow - wife of Coldplay singer Chris 
        Martin.  
         
        He has since made another new movie Dirty Girl but pulled out of 
        South African filmed Denzel Washington movie Safe House - because 
        of tour commitments.  
         
        CLICK HERE for our exclusive 
        Tim McGraw interview in the Diary on May 25, 2010  
      GWYNETH 
        PALTROW 
      
      Gwyneth Paltrow 
        changed genres when she played the singing spouse of Tim McGraw in Country 
        Strong. 
         
        She performs in the title track of the movie in which McGraw played her 
        husband-manager. 
         
        The movie opened in the U.S. in December but you don't have to visit a 
        theatre to see it here. 
         
        It's already in local video stores. 
         
        Gwyneth and Tim also performs a duet Me And Tennessee in the movie 
        that features acclaimed singer-songwriter and guitarist Jim Lauderdale 
        in the house band in the final scene. 
         
        Jennifer Hanson, Tony Martin and Mark Nesler penned the title track and 
        Martin was the sole writer on Me & Tennessee - two of three 
        songs that Paltrow performs in the movie. 
         
        Fellow cast members Garrett Hedlund and Leighton Meister also feature 
        on the soundtrack. 
         
        Other artists included are Faith Hill, Ronnie Dunn, Trace Adkins, Lee 
        Ann Womack, Hank Williams Jr, Sara Evans, Patty Loveless and Chris Young. 
         
         
        Further info - www.gwyneth-paltrow.org 
         
       BILLY'S 
        BOY RANDY  
      
         
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          Randy 
            Montana - son of hit writer Billy Montana - debuts on Nu Country with 
            the video for his song Love Has A Thousand Faces. 
             
            The singer performed in the video filmed in heavy traffic at a busy 
            city intersection. 
             
            It's on his self-titled debut album that features harmonies by Emmylou 
            Harris on his song Last Horse. 
             
            Randy, 25, wrote most of the songs - he penned Love Has A Thousand 
            Faces with Tim McGraw hit writer Tom Douglas. 
             
            Montgomery Gentry, performing at the Gympie Muster in August, also 
            recorded Randy's song Can't Feel the Pain. | 
         
       
      Randy's dad 
        Billy wrote Garth Brooks' hit More Than a Memory, Sara Evans' Suds 
        in the Bucket and Grammy-nominated Jo Dee Messina hit Bring on 
        the Rain. 
         
        Randy was born in Albany, New York, and moved with his family to Nashville 
        in 1988 when Billy signed a record deal with Warner Bros.  
         
        "I always grew up around music, watching him do it," Randy says. 
         
         
        "He was always playing gigs or writers' nights. I kind of grew up 
        next to a stage. Anytime the family got together, the guitars came out. 
        We grew up listening to Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers 
        and Jackson Browne for road trips. I grew up around that stuff, listening 
        to that, and I think that's a pretty good place to start."  
         
        He started playing guitar at age 10, writing songs at age 16 and performed 
        his first song publicly at one of his father's writers' nights at age 
        17.  
         
        Randy was a high school quarterback and goalkeeper in soccer, landed a 
        football scholarship but instead opted to play college soccer.  
         
        After a year at Nashville's Trevecca Nazarene University he transferred 
        to Middle Tennessee State University but left after two years for music. 
         
        He worked roofing houses, waiting tables and bartending while writing 
        songs until he landed a Sony publishing deal in 2008.  
         
        Randy's inspirations included Steve Earle, Chris Knight, Hank Williams, 
        Jr., Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Wallflowers and Counting Crows. 
         
        Further info - www.randymontana.com 
         
      EZRA 
        LEE - PIANIST - NOT SUB MARINER  
      Newcastle 
        pianist Ezra Lee played Jerry Lee Lewis in stage show The Ultimate 
        Rock 'N Roll Jam Session.  
      
         
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          So 
            it's fitting he debuts with his live footage of Rock' N Roll Piano 
            Man. 
             
            Fellow cast members included James Blundell, Dave Larkin, Dave Folley 
            and Nick Barker. 
             
            Ezra, 23, cut his debut solo album in 2009 at Graham Thomas's Preston 
            studio in the North-western Melbourne suburb Pascoe Vale. 
             
            Lee went on the road at 15 and performed with Johnny Green's Blues 
            Cowboys for six years. 
             
            He also guested on albums by The Re-Mains and Neil Murray. 
             
            The pianist shares stage name with an American soldier who commanded 
            the Turtle submarine on September 6, 1876, when it launched a strike 
            on British Admiral Richard Howe's flagship HMS Eagle in New York Harbour. 
             
            Although Sgt Ezra Lee didn't sink the Eagle his commander - George 
            Washington - rewarded him with a long career in the Secret Service 
            until he died on October 29, 1821, and was buried in Duck River cemetery 
            in Old Lyme, Connecticut.  | 
         
       
      The Newcastle 
        born Ezra Lee has not emulated the historic submariner but his publicity 
        photos were taken at Childers Cove near Port Campbell on the Victorian 
        Shipwreck Coast. 
         
        Ezra is the son of Ed Matzenik - pedal steel guitarist in a Sydney version 
        of outlaw country band Hit & Run that featured Wild Cherries and Virgil 
        Brothers singer Dan Robinson, born in 1947 due west of Childers Cove at 
        Warrnambool. 
         
        Rod Coe - bassist and producer for late Slim Dusty and daughter Anne Kirkpatrick 
        - and expat Scot guitarist Mick Liber of Python Lee Jackson also played 
        in Hit & Run. 
         
        Further info - www.myspace.com/theezraleeshow 
         
       JACKSON 
        AND LAMBERT PRIZES FOR TOURS  
      There's great 
        news for fans of Georgian born superstar Alan Jackson and quadruple CMA 
        Award winning Texan star Miranda Lambert. 
         
        We have the duo's latest CDS as prizes for viewers who renew Nu Country 
        TV memberships or become members. 
         
        Sony-BMG promotions chief Emma Smith also gave us Miranda's new DVD - 
        Revolution: Live By Candlelight. 
         
        Alan's 34 Number Ones features his biggest hits including his duet 
        with Zac Brown Band - As She's Walking Away. 
         
        The bonus tracks also include his cut of the late June Carter Cash-Merle 
        Kilgore written Johnny Cash hit Ring Of Fire and rare track Look 
        At Me. 
         
        Emma also donated the newly wed Miranda's huge selling 4th CD Revolution. 
         
        And as a bonus there is Miranda's new DVD featuring rare acoustic performances 
        of six songs White Liar, The House That Built Me, Love Song, Heart 
        Like Mine, Love Is Looking At You and Rolling Stones country classic 
        Dead Flowers. 
         
        Jackson played Rod Laver Arena on Friday March 4 before headlining CMC 
        Rocks The Hunter on March 5 and 6.  
       WIN 
        KEITH URBAN CDS ALSO 
      Expatriate 
        Australasian superstar Keith Urban returned for a triumphant tour with 
        chart-topping mates Lady Antebellum in April. 
         
        And Keith's long time record company EMI-Capitol has great news for Nu 
        Country TV viewers. 
         
        Promotions ace Bianca O'Neill donated autographed copies of his huge selling 
        ninth album Get Closer. 
         
        She has also donated new compilation The Very Best Of Slim Dusty 
        and CMAA Winners - 2011. 
         
        All you have to do to win Jackson, Lambert, Urban and Dusty CDS or the 
        Lambert DVD is become a member of Nu Country or renew membership.  
         
        It costs just $20. 
         
        Please send a cheque or money order made out to Nu Country Music to us 
        at P O Box 625 - Northcote - 3070. 
         
        We also now have electronic banking for membership payment and renewal. 
         
        But email us first at music@nucountry.com.au 
        as stocks are limited. 
         
        Other prizes on offer include - 
        Taylor Swift - 2ND CD Fearless. 
        Tim McGraw Southern Voice Tour CD with 11-bonus video clips. 
        Dierks Bentley - Feel The Fire.  
        Felicity - Landing Lights  
        Slim Dusty Sittin' On 80 Boxed Set  
        The Very Best Of Slim Dusty 
        Steve Forde - Guns & Guitars 
        Catherine Britt - Little Wildflowers. 
        Mike Brady - Country To Country. 
        CMAA Winners 2011 and other compilation CDS.  
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