DAVE'S DIARY - 15/1/2018 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 6 - SERIES 34
ROBBIE FULKS HEADLINES NU COUNTRY TV
Chicago singing satirist and bluegrass bard Robbie Fulks and his fiddler Shad Cobb headline Nu Country TV on Saturday January 20 at 9 pm on Channel 31/Digital 44.
The duo, fresh from their debut Australian spring tour, perform live in Behind Bars on the show hosted by Mid Pacific Bob Olson and repeated Monday at 3 pm.
Illinois born Mid-West Farmer's Daughter Margo Price also sings in Willie Nelson's chapel in his Texas movie town Luck on the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Fellow Illinois native Brett Eldredge and Nashville band Cadillac 3 return with their latest videos.
Warrandyte quartet The Teskey Brothers debut with scenic local backdrops and prolific singer-songwriter and producer Shane Nicholson visits Gosford Bowl in his return.
Nu Country TV is a highlight of C 31 streaming list on Digital 44.
Further info - https://www.c31.org.au/
FULKS AND COBB RIDE
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Robbie Fulks was upstaged when Out On The Weekend festival promoter Brian Taranto presented his fiddler Shad Cobb with a red super hero cape on stage mid performance at The Seaworks in Williamstown.
But Fulks proved his sartorial splendour when he fronts his band, replete with eye catching shorts, in this week's show in a live performance of Live I Ride at a WAMU bluegrass show in Washington, DC .
Live I Ride is on Gone Away Backward - 12 th of Fulks 13 albums since his 1996 debut disc Country Love Songs.
The Washington concert is a long journey from the wild mountains of Virginia and North Carolina where Fulks was raised.
So is the Cassowary Coast of far north Queensland that inspired a new song on the Fulks-Cobb tour.
“I can handle the giant bats, rats and other rodents but it was the Cassowary with the blue plumage and feathers that drove me over the line,” Fulks, resident of Chicago's mean streets for 34 years, told fans as he reached the climax of his set at the Out On The Weekend Festival.
“At 54 my life has lasted a long time but that Cassowary really drove me over the line.”
Fulks taught comedian Tina Fey to play ukulele at Old Town School of Folk Music when she needed to learn it for a TV sketch.
Robbie and actress wife Donna Jay Fulks have three sons including Nick - third place finalist on season 12 of The Amazing Race .
CLICK HERE for a Robbie Fulks Out On The Weekend review in our Concerts section on October 14.
MARGO PRICE DESPERATE AND DEPRESSED
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Former Illinois farm girl and chorister Margo Price returns with a live performance in the Luck chapel of love on Octogenarian Willie Nelson's movie town on his ranch near Austin , Texas .
Margo, now 34, and guitarist husband Jeremy Ivey front her quintet to perform Desperate & Depressed.
Margo and Jeremy once had good reason to feel sad - they hocked their wedding rings and cars to finance her first solo album at Sun Studios in Memphis.
Desperate & Depressed is on that album - Mid-West Farmer's Daughter.
She previously appeared on Nu Country with her video for Weakness - one of 12 songs she wrote for her second album All American Made , released on October 20.
Price is joined on her album by Shotgun Willie, now 84, and the McCrary Sisters.
Margo graduated from Willie's Luck chapel and played his July 4 picnics, Farm Aid and toured with him.
She played piano, sang in a church choir and studied dance and theatre in tiny Ohio town Aledo before moving to Nashville at 20.
Margo started Buffalo Clover with Jeremy and released three albums and fronted Margo & The Price-Tags whose members included Sturgill Simpson and Kenny Vaughan.
"I used to write story-songs, about a couple robbing a bank or whatever," says Price whose dad worked as a prison guard after having to sell the family farm when she was two.
"But I decided I'm going to go ahead and lay it all out on the line here. And it felt really good, really therapeutic."
Price, who once spent a weekend in gaol on drink driving charges, says the late Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings are her biggest heroes.
"A lot of times, people say, 'You're so much like Loretta or Tammy Wynette,'" says Price.
"But I feel kind of like one of the men. I'm like David Allan Coe. I've been to prison, man! I think that's what separated me from the Kacey Musgraves, stuff like that. There's not a lot of glitter or girly bows and stuff."
Price previously appeared on Nu Country with Hurting on the Bottle, Hands Of Time and It's Not Drink Driving If You Are Riding a Horse.
Further info - http://margoprice.net/
BRETT ELDREDGE DRIVES DUCK DYNASTY DAMSEL
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Brett Eldredge, now 31, takes a trip back in time in his new video for The Long Way.
But it's not to the Illinois town Paris where he was raised.
The video for the song, written by Brett and Matt Rogers, was directed by Jay Martin and shot outside Nashville.
Eldredge helped create the video that features him driving reality TV star Sadie Robertson of Duck Dynasty in a Chevrolet Impala.
Eldredge took The Long Way around her town to learn more about what made her who she is.
"My fans have never reacted to a video quite like this," Eldredge revealed.
"This is incredible. I think we all can relate to the feeling you get when showing off your hometown to someone you really care about, and this video captures that magic. Plus Sadie Robertson is such an amazing person and actress. She made this video extra special."
The Long Way is on his 4th disc - a self-titled album - that includes Castaway also featured on our show.
Brett's album, released in August, was his highest debuting CD with 45,000 sales.
Brett acted out peers' dreams - he locked up his younger brother in his Drunk On Your Love video - on a previous Nu Country show.
Eldredge performed as a cop and singer - trying to woo the same girl in a night on the town.
Brett has strong bluegrass links - his cousin Terry plays with the Grascals who also perform with singing actress Dolly Parton.
He debuted on Nu Country in 2011 with a war song dating back to 1943.
Eldredge took viewers inside a nursing home in Raymond - poignant tale of an employee mistaken by a patient with Alzheimer's for her deceased son, who was killed at war.
Further info - www.bretteldredge.com
CADILLAC 3 LEGACY
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Nashville band Cadillac 3 return with a humorous video for Dang If We Didn't from third album Legacy.
The trio and guests emerge from a pool party tidal wave with tugs of war and peace fuelled by booze and bravado.
They launched the album with a sold out show at the famed Ryman Auditorium on August 31.
The band began as the Cadillac Black six years ago before legal action.
"We couldn't get the trademark to Cadillac Black because there was a band called Black Cadillac ," says the band's lap steel/bassist/vocalist Kelby Ray Caldwell.
"Lawyers ruin all the fun."
The trio - Caldwell, drummer Neil Mason and guitarist Darren Johnston - were once in the band American Bang.
Johnston wrote You Gonna Fly for expatriate Australasian superstar Keith Urban and Southern Girl for Louisiana born singing actor Tim McGraw.
Further info - http://www.thecadillacthree.com/
TESKEY BROTHERS FIND LOUISA
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The Teskey Brothers debut in a sporting marathon of sorts where they jogged, sprinted and even tried their hand at basketball.
The quartet dodged rampant Roos and river rapids before winning a gruelling race finale for their belle in their video for Louisa from their third album Half Mile Harvest.
They recorded it in the Warrandyte home-built studio of brothers Josh and Sam Teskey at the gateway to the Yarra Valley.
Actor Chris Hemsworth is a fan of the band who graduated from playing St Andrews market to Melbourne zoo on January 26.
Singer Josh Teskey 29 and guitarist brother Sam 28, bassist Brendon Love, 29 and drummer Liam Gough, 31 - have performed together for more than a decade.
“We recorded our album in Warrandyte at Sam's analogue studio,” Josh revealed.
“He built it himself and has a lot of great equipment in there. He's a very experienced sound tech; it's his main job outside of playing music. The studio consists of two separate rooms and two vocal booths. Sam puts a lot of work into getting very nice room sounds.”
Further info - http://www.theteskeybrothers.com/
SHANE NICHOLSON GOSFORD GALLOP
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Queensland born Shane Nicholson proved a better singer and songwriter than two-stepper in his new video for I Don't Dance.
It's second single on the 41-year old singer's seventh album Love And Blood that follows Hell Breaks Loose.
The song was conceived on a country music cruise last year when the singer offered to pay a friend to dance with his girlfriend Emma rather than have to get up there himself.
“When we go out she loves to dance and I don't dance,” Nicholson revealed.
“She was slightly horrified that I paid someone else to dance with her.”
The video was filmed at Gosford City Bowl with a solo dancer - not Shane - and directed by Duncan Toombs and Josh Favoloro at The Filmery .
“My initial idea for the video was for me to recreate the entire final scene from Flashdance in a leotard and leg warmers” Shane joked.
“But the concept Duncan and Josh came up with was more my style. I was only on set for 25 minutes. Once again, those Filmery folks have mined gold!
Guest vocalists on the album are Nashville legend Buddy Miller, Josh Pyke, Andrew Swift, Fanny Lumsden and Imogen Clark.
Nicholson says the title Love and Blood “seemed to sum up what the album's about when I put all the songs together.”
CLICK HERE for a previous Shane feature in The Diary on August 24, 2015.
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support as we celebrate Nu Country TV's 34th series with Australian record companies and artists teaming to ensure our survival.
We have Blake Shelton's 12th CD If I'm Honest from Karen Black and Tony Midolo at Warner Music.
We also have other CDS by major artists you can win by becoming a Nu Country TV member or renewing membership.
They include singing actor Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Gary Allan, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church and more.
CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for full details.