DAVE'S DIARY - 21/12/13 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 4 - SERIES 21

ASHLEY MONROE AND CHRIS YOUNG HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV

Pistol Annies singer Ashley Monroe returns to Nu Country TV solo in a headlining role on Christmas Day - Wednesday December 25 - at 10 pm on Channel 31.

Monroe and fellow Tennessean Chris Young showcase their new videos in a show repeated Monday 5.30 am and 2.30 pm and Tuesday at 1 am.

Shotgun Willie Nelson, 80 and mourning the death of his mentor Ray Price at 87, joins fellow Texans Asleep At The Wheel in Behind Bars in the show edited and filmed by Laith Graham.

Former Qantas accountant Amber Lawrence and Mornington Peninsula band Wilful Damage also perform on the 21st series Christmas show.

Nu Country TV has been added to the C 31 streaming list.
Just follow this link on your computer or mobile phone - http://www.c31.org.au/program/view/program/nu-country-tv

WEED INSTEAD OF ROSES FOR MONROE

Ashley Monroe highlights her romantic gift choice in her new video for Weed Instead Of Roses from her second solo CD Like A Rose.

Life has changed dramatically for Monroe, now 27, since she wed Chicago White Sox pitcher John Danks in October.

Blake Shelton officiated at the wedding at Blackberry Farm - the same locale where Texan Kelly Clarkson was hitched four days earlier.

Monroe's fellow Pistol Annie - Miranda Lambert - was her maid of honor.

The singer's CD has shared radio waves with the Pistol Annies second CD Annie Up featuring the Hush-Hush video in which Jim Lauderdale played the preacher.

CLICK HERE for an Ashley Monroe feature in The Diary on May 27, 2013.


CHRIS YOUNG AGAIN ON KEITH WHITLEY'S GUITAR

Tennessean Chris Young returns to Nu Country with the video for a song he wrote on the late Keith Whitley's guitar.

Aw Naw is on Young's fourth album AM that he released in spring.

The guitar may be luckier for Young that Whitley who died at 33 in May, 1989, with a blood alcohol reading of 4.77 %

Chris, 28, is still driving his 1996 Ford F150 truck that took him to gigs a decade ago.

Young has topped the charts frequently in his colourful career that brought him to the fourth CMC Rocks The Hunter festival in 2013.

CLICK HERE for a Chris Young CD review in the Diary on October 2, 2013.
CLICK HERE for a Chris Young feature in the Diary on January 9, 2013.

SHOTGUN WILLIE JOINS ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL BEHIND BARS

Willie Nelson joins fellow Texans Asleep At The Wheel in their video for You Pretty Woman in this week's Behind Bars segment.

The singer is mourning the death of trail blazer Ray Price who died on December 16 at 87 after a two year battle with pancreatic cancer.

Price gave Willie a big break as bassist in his embryonic sixties band the Cherokee Cowboys.

Willie returned the favour by hiring Price to play at his annual July 4 picnics where Asleep At The Wheel was also a regular fixture.

You Pretty Woman is on the classic album Willie & The Wheel.

Asleep At The Wheel also performs the video for its wry tune Am I Right Or Amarillo from its 2008 album Reinventing The Wheel.

The Wheel's live video features a backdrop of diverse locales on famed Route 66 that runs through Amarillo.

The band has performed for 44 years, moved from San Francisco to Austin where
co-founder pedal steel guitarist Lucky Oceans, now 62, played with them.

As member of Asleep at the Wheel he won the Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental in 1978 for the band's remake of Count Basie's One O'clock Jump.

In 1977 Oceans, real name Reuben Gosfield, met Christine Haddow - a young Australian photographer from The Boston Globe whom he married in 1979.

They moved to Fremantle where they had a daughter, Leela.

Oceans released solo albums Lucky Steels the Wheel in 1982 and Secret Steel in 2005 and discs with his Australian bands including Dude Ranch and the Zydecats and also hosts ABC TV and radio show The Planet.

In 1993 he won a second Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo with Asleep at the Wheel for the band's collaboration with Lyle Lovett on Blues for Dixie from the 1993 album A Tribute to Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.

CLICK HERE for a Willie & The Wheel feature in the Diary on July 4, 2009.

AMBER LAWRENCE

Amber Lawrence gave a new meaning to a citizen's arrest in her video for Pretty Little Liar that she wrote with Sam Hawksley for her latest album 3.

The video reveals an assertive gun toting woman turning the tables on a reckless Romeo whom she outshoots and handcuffs to a wall after a fierce pistol battle.

Amber and fellow artist Jason Owen showcased their albums on a national tour that included Victorian regional areas as well as the capital cities.

They also play the 42nd Tamworth Country Music festival in January.

Amber, now 35, overcame personal tragedies in recent years as she pursued her career that followed a stint as an accountant for Qantas.

When a Vietnam veteran saved Amber's life as a toddler she didn't reach for her crayon - three decades later she wrote Man Across The Street - also on 3.

Lawrence has vivid memories of that day she was rescued from meeting her maker.

She also recalls how her hero, a Vietnam veteran, was shunned on return from a horrific war.

And, like many other victims of those sixties jungle battles, the troubled trooper found solace in the booze.

"An actor played the role of The Man - the real man unfortunately passed away about 15 years ago," Lawrence told Nu Country TV.

"We filmed it in a friend's house in Maroubra in Sydney."

It's not the first time Lawrence turned tragedy into song - she wrote The Mile about 16-year-old jockey Sam McRae died in a racing accident.

The video for Amber's 2007 debut album title track was filmed at the famed Randwick Racecourse.

She also wrote Always Kiss Me Good Night about her father who died of leukemia in September 2008.

It was on her 2009 album When It All Comes Down - she wrote the title track during her grieving period.

Further info - www.amberlawrence.com

WILFUL DAMAGE

Mornington Peninsula band Wilful Damage performs this week in its video for Crossroads Again from its second album Raw Roots Rock.

The Paul Borg directed video features the band playing on an historic railway line and rocky outcrops on the edge of Port Phillip Bay at Mt Eliza.

Wilful Damage features singer-songwriter-guitarist Jason Lowe, lead guitarist-producer Simon Hart, bassist David Gibson, guitarist Kyall Wragge and percussionist Jarrod DeZilva.

The recording duo of Lowe and Hart met at art school and has operated for several years - their album Counting The Cost was honoured on 3RPP-FM with a two-hour special.

Wilful Damage headed towards a country vein as they began recording their third album - the band covered Ryan Adam's Firecracker and Johnny Cash's Wreck of Old 97.

Further info - http://www.reverbnation.com/wilfuldamage

HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR

We need your support as we celebrate our 21st series of Nu Country TV.

Australian record companies and artists have joined forces to ensure our survival.

We have new CDS by major artists you can win by becoming a Nu Country TV member or renewing your membership.

They include singing actors Willie Nelson and Tim McGraw, Voice judge Blake Shelton, Ashley Monroe, Brad Paisley, Gary Allan, Keith Urban, Toby Keith, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Carrie Underwood, Chris Young, Charley Pride, Slim Dusty, Adam Harvey, Troy Cassar-Daley and more.

We also have the latest John Denver all-star tribute album and DVDS by Miranda and fellow chart topper Lady Antebellum.

CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for full details.


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