DAVE'S DIARY - 17 JUNE 2019 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 4 - SERIES 40
TROY AND FELICITY HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV
Prolific Golden Guitarist-ARIA awards winners Troy Cassar-Daley and Felicity headline Nu C ountry TV on Saturday June 22 at 9.30 pm on Channel 31/44.
Texan outlaw Billy Joe Shaver and fellow Lone Star singer-songwriter Sunny Sweeney return to Behind Bars on the show, hosted by Mid-Pacific Bob Olson, and repeated Monday 7.30 am and Wednesday 9 pm.
Michigan singer Alan Turner and Californian trio Fairground Saints debut on the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Nu Country TV is a highlight of C 31 streaming list on Digital 44.
Further info - https://www.c31.org.au/
ABC-TV MYSTERY ROAD WRITER TROY LIVE IN TAMWORTH
 |
Grafton raised singer-songwriter Troy Cassar Daley returns with a live song in Tamworth . Troy , 49 and father of two, tells of the source of Shadows On The Hill, featured in ABC-TV series Mystery Road . It was inspired by a family gathering in Grafton last year when his cousin Matt Carter had terminal cancer. Troy invited his uncles and cousins on a trip to a bush camp to their traditional Gumbaynggirr land where they cooked fish and turtles from the nearby river - site of a 19 th century massacre of a local community. |
“One of the uncles asked us if we ever wondered why our grandmother wouldn't let us cross the river up there,” revealed Troy whose singing spouse Laurel Edwards is also a Brisbane 4KQ breakfast show host and TV presenter.
“She would always sing out to all of us ‘come back here, don't go over there, stay over this side, there's plenty of fish and turtles here.' That was apparently where the massacre finished upriver. Just not a good place, didn't feel good to her or anyone who went over there.
“This is no bullshit and I'm not trying to get all airy fairy on you but I'm spiritual and when we sat down and began to talk about that particular incident the wind came up. It was as still as anything and it came up and was going through these funny little pine trees there and it makes a noise, whispering all these funny noises.
“We all looked at each other and the hairs were coming up. OK, these old people know we are here, they know who we are, they know we are here with respect and they know we belong here. This is our country. This is where we came as kids and this is where all our ancestors have all come.
“We started talking about the only reason someone would have found out about that incident was that someone escaped and came and told people about it. Someone must have gone to the other camps and told them to escape before this happened to them. This story has been handed down orally for a long, long time.”
Troy 's song came to him as he drove to Brisbane with voices, words, chants and hand claps singing to him as he was driving with the heavy emotions of paying tribute to his cousin forcing tears.
On Troy 's arrival home his mother Irene handed him a letter written by his cousin before he died.
“The letter was scribble about the song, just about the song,” Troy explained.
“He said ‘I can't stop playing it. I don't want to spoil it by over playing it because I'll get sick of it but every-time I start it, I'm right back there at the fire again.'”
Shadows On The Hill is one of two new songs on his 42 track Greatest Hits CD that he promotes on a national tour with daughter Jem, just 17.
Troy , winner of six ARIA Awards, 37 Golden Guitars and two APRA Song Of year awards, was also a Nu Country TV host.
His mum Irene worked train buffet cars when they lived in Grafton and his dad Tony Cassar died at 75 on April 1 this year.
Tony arrived in Australia from Malta as an eight-year-old, speaking very little English and left school to work in a factory.
Jimmy Barnes recently recorded Troy song Shutting Down Our Town for his new album My Criminal Record.
In 2005 Troy and Jimmy hit with their duet of Leonard Cohen's Bird On A Wire .
It won vocal collaboration at the 2006 Golden Guitar Awards.
CLICK HERE for our Troy CD feature in The Diary on September 9, 2016.
ABC RADIO HOST FELICITY REVERTS TO TWO WHEELS
 |
Felicity Urquhart combines her talents on guitar and motor bike in her flashback to a different era.
Felicity, now 43, was a Nu Country TV host before her presenter role on Seven Network Sydney Weekender.
She has also hosted ABC radio Saturday Night Country since 2010.
The singer-songwriter has won eight Golden Guitars and released two acclaimed CDS with Lyn Bowtell and Kevin Bennett
This week she revives Two Wheels from 2009 solo CD Landing Lights .
Felicity's seventh CD Frozen Rabbit was released a month before the sudden death of her husband - prolific producer-guitarist-photographer-graphic artist Glen Hannah on Tuesday May 28
The Indiana proposal by Glenn, 2017 Musician of the Year at Tamworth's Golden Guitar Awards, to Felicity fuelled New Harmony - entrée song of 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.
"Today we say goodbye to my darling Glen," Felicity said in May 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 and her extended family.
CLICK HERE for our Frozen Rabbit CD feature in The Diary on April 29.
ALAN TURNER ON A TENNESSEE TWISTER
 |
Michigan minstrel Alan Turner and his Steel Horse Band ride a Tennessee Twister on his Nu Country debut.
They proved it was an ideal locale for drying their washing and parking their tractor to protect their hay.
“It's a twist on words,” Turner revealed.
“It's about a girl who blows into your life, makes a mess, and leaves you in a trail of dust, like a tornado.”
Turner hails from south east Michigan and, aged six, was taught to read music and play piano by his Sunday school teacher mother.
His love for music was passed on from his dad - Canadian singer /songwriter Stanley Turner who died at 54 in 1977.
Turner landed support roles with Keith Anderson after he won a radio station singing quest.
He opened for Lynyrd Skynyrd , Kenny Rogers, Glen Campbell, John Michael Montgomery, Montgomery Gentry , Eli Young Band, Jason Michael Carroll, Brandi Clark, Oak Ridge Boys , David Lee Murphy, Craig Morgan, Eric Paslay, Blackberry Smoke and Lonestar.
Turner performed the Grand Ole Opry as part of a tribute to bluegrass legend, Dr. Ralph Stanley.
Tennessee Twister is on his fifth album Renegade Road .
Further info - https://www.facebook.com/alanturnercountry/
TEXAN COP'S WIFE SUNNY SWEENEY BACK BEHIND BARS
 |
Texan singer-songwriter Sunny Sweeney returns to Behind Bars with a satirical live song.
Whiskey Richard is not related to the classic Whiskey River.
It's her humorous tune on a male's shortcoming but not based on husband Jeff - an Austin police sergeant
Sunny, now 42, performed Whiskey Richard live on Texas Red Dirt Roads Radio TV show at the Magnolia Motor Lounge in Fort Worth - the famed Cowtown.
Sweeney appeared on Nu Country with autobiographical song Bottle By My Bed .
Sunny and Jeff tried to have a baby with fertility treatment but she suffered miscarriages.
Sweeney envies her Bottle By My Bed co-writer Lori McKenna, now 50 and a prolific mother and songsmith, who has five children and released 11 albums.
Sunny and Massachusetts based dual Grammy winner Lori also wrote Nothing Wrong With Texas for her fourth album Trophy.
Sweeney recorded The Next Big Nothing , penned by late Tasmanian Audrey Auld, on 2006 debut CD Heartbreaker's Hall Of Fame .
CLICK HERE for a Sunny Sweeney feature in The Diary on March 27, 2011.
BILLY JOE SHAVER HOT GOSPEL BEHIND BARS
 |
Fellow Texan Billy Joe Shaver performs hot gospel live with his late son Eddy on guitar in Behind Bars.
They performed You Can't Beat Jesus Christ on famed TV show Austin City Limits.
It's on his sixth live CD in his 27 plus album career.
Shaver, 79, last toured here in 2002 with singing Texan crime novelist Kinky Friedman
Thrice wed Billy Joe was also in three movies with octogenarian actor-director Robert Duvall and two with Kentucky born singing actor Billy Ray Cyrus.
Shaver was also the subject of the 2004 documentary A Portrait of Billy Joe directed by Oscar winner Duvall's wife Luciana Pedrazzi.
Billy Joe and The Kinkster appeared in Nu Country - the Nick Brenner directed ABC TV documentary about the radio station that gave birth to Nu Country TV.
CLICK HERE for a Billy Joe Shaver feature in the Diary on February 23, 2015.
CLICK HERE for the Billy Joe movie feature in The Diary on March 24, 2004.
FAIRGROUND SAINTS HOMAGE TO CALIFORNIA
 |
West coast trio Fairground Saints debut with their homage to their home state.
The trio hail from the Californian west coast and moved from Santa Barbara to Nashville to pursue music.
Elijah Edwards, Meg McAllister and Mason Van Valin landed a Sony Music deal two weeks after hitting Music City .
The trio released its self-titled debut album for Verve in 2015
They filmed their video for California in Santa Ynez and Santa Barbara.
“There's so much about this song that just feels right,” they revealed.
“It was written by our good friend and producer, Marshall Altman. From the first time we heard it, we knew it was a song that encapsulated who we are, what we want to say, and fondly reminds us of where it all started for our band.”
It's on their new EP Magic .
Van Valin plays acoustic and electric guitar, McAllister percussion and multi-instrumentalist Edwards is on guitar, keys, mandolin, lap steel and dulcimer.
Further info - https://www.fairgroundsaints.com/
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support as we celebrate Nu Country TV's 40th series with Australian record companies and artists teaming to ensure our survival.
You can win Kip Moore's third album Slowheart , thanks to EMI promotions chief Dave Parker, and 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 Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Gary Allan, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church and late larrikin legend A.P. Johnson.
CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for full details.