DAVE'S DIARY - 24 JUNE 2019 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 5 - SERIES 40

TEXAN HAYES CARLL HEADLINES NU COUNTRY TV

Texan singer-songwriter and Australian tourist Hayes Carll headlines Nu C ountry TV on Saturday June 29 at 9.30 pm on Channel 31/44.

Geelong singing DJ Nathan Seeckts and former Aussie child pop star and actor Marty Rhone debut on the show, hosted by Mid-Pacific Bob Olson, and repeated Monday 7.30 am and Wednesday 9 pm.

North Carolina Americana band Mandolin Orange also debut on the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.

Fellow North Carolina band Carolina Blue and Missouri minstrel Rhonda Vincent appear in a live bluegrass Behind Bars double shot.

Nu Country TV is a highlight of C 31 streaming list on Digital 44.

Further info - https://www.c31.org.au/

CARLL EXPOSES TIMES LIKE THESE

Texan troubadour Hayes Carll returns after recording and writing with singing spouse Allison Moorer.

Carll, now 43, toured here in 2012 with Hunter Valley singer Kirsty Lee Akers and played Northcote Social Club on Beer Can Hill.

Moorer last toured here as one of Texan Steve Earle's six ex-wives.

Hayes performs social comment video Times Like These from sixth album What It Is recorded in Nashville with session musicians and backing vocals by Moorer and Bobby Bare Jr.

"I find it frustrating. I believe we have more in common than what separates us,” Hayes says of the song.

“I still want to love and help my neighbour, even though we may not think the same way about some things, we still want to work, love our families and help each other."

This frustration is illustrated with "in times like these do I really need a billionaire, just taking up my time trying to tell how he's treated unfair?"

The album also includes Jesus and Elvis , written with Moorer and Nashville Songwriting Hall-of-Famer, Matraca Berg, and American Dreams in which he name-checks Harry Dean Stanton and Paris , Texas.

Carll also appeared last year with Canadian rodeo rider Corb Lund on Bible On The Dash from Corb's seventh album Cabin Fever.

His Nu Country videos included KMAG YOYO - title track of his fourth album.

" Kiss My Ass Guys, You're On Your Own is a military acronym," Carll revealed.

"It's about a young soldier in Afghanistan who has a morphine-induced hallucination about working for the CIA. He gets hit by an IED and stuff goes through his head as he's hanging on.

"I wrote the music first and then needed something intense to match it, so I thought of blasting through the desert on a Humvee and riding a spaceship on LSD. I didn't set out to write a war or protest song but it kind of came together that way."

Carll once sold vacuum cleaners and was inspiration for singer Beau Hutton played by Garrett Hedlund in Tim McGraw-Gwyneth Paltrow movie Country Strong .

He performed two Carll songs - Hard Out Here and Hide Me Babe - and Hayes sang Take Me Away.

Hedlund was also in 2004 McGraw film Friday Night Lights and played Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac movie On The Road.

Carll lives in Austin with Moorer and son Elijah - now 13 - who starred in his video for The Magic Kid from his fifth album Lovers And Leavers.

CLICK HERE for an exclusive Hayes Carll interview in the Diary on June 4, 2016.

NATHAN SEECKTS DRAWS BLOOD ON HERNE HILL

Geelong community radio DJ-singer-songwriter Nathan Seeckts debuts with his band on a popular walking path in Herne Hill - not heartbreak hill.

Nathan's wife rewarded him with a kiss in the rustic locale in his hometown.

The singer's shrinking band drove home his message about how fame can be fleeting in the fishbowl of entertainment and sport.

He used a flying football to illustrate his video for Old Blood from his debut album The Heart Of The City.

Seeckts also explores plight of rural childhood friends who drift apart in Three Soldiers and love of the Stax soul era's heartbreak anthems in his song Thunder And Rain.

The singer uses nightmares to illustrate Beast Beneath My Bed and cold reality of domestic violence in Sirens featuring Kiewa Valley born singer Gretta Ziller.

Equally credible is Moonlight Creek - tale of a local missing girl - inspired by a Gippsland trip.

Further info - http://www.nathanseeckts.com/

MARTY RHONE BRANCHES OUT

Former childhood pop and TV star Marty Rhone illustrates the latest stage of his long trip that began on the Tarax TV show when he was 13.

Marty, now 71, released his 50th anniversary CD in 2016 to showcase his love of country music.

Nostalgia is his strong suit on We Had A Good Thing Going from his first Nashville album.

It followed single Graceland on the Line - penned by Johnny Young and John St Peeters as a tribute to the late Elvis Presley.

"This is certainly a change in tempo from my music history, which has been largely rock, pop music and musical theatre,” revealed Marty who was born in Surabaya , Indonesia .

“I'm absolutely loving it though, I'm so grateful to be working with incredible producers and songwriters, and we're really just getting started!"

Rhone shot his Graceland video in Blackwood, Daylesford and Melbourne.

His latest acting roles include fugitive assassin Henry in short film Snowmen and Master Long in award winning Marble by Chinese director Realm Choong.

From late 1987 to August 1990 he was business manager of a trio of brothers, Australian boxing champions - Dean (heavyweight), Guy (light heavyweight) and Troy Waters (junior middleweight).

Marty married Rosa Merola in 1976 and they have two sons.

Further info - http://martyrhone.com.au/

MANDOLIN ORANGE WOLVERINE DIET

North Carolina Americana duo Mandolin Orange prove why they have fans all over the world in their debut

Co-founders Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz write most of their songs.

Their video for The Wolves tells how an old woman survives a life of hardship and finds release and joy despite darkness and temptation.

The band expands its format, building on the acoustic duo arrangement by bringing in their touring band to help illustrate their story.

“Everything's so great/can't get better/makes me wanna cry,” Marlin sings, before Frantz joins in: “But I'll go out howling at the moon tonight.”

It's on sixth album Tides Of a Teardrop that follows Quiet Little Room, Haste Make/ Hard Hearted Stranger , This Side Of Jordan , Such Jubilee and Blindfaller .

Further info - http://www.mandolinorange.com/

CAROLINA BLUE RIDE RUSTY RAILS

North Carolina quintet Carolina Blue debut on Behind Bars 12 years after they began in their home state.

They perform their video for Rusty Rails from fifth album I Hear Bluegrass Calling Me, released on January 18.

The quintet performs on the railway track before mounting their stationary loco as a scenic stage.

Band founders Bobby Powell and Timmy Jones built a catalogue of original songs that explore the past, present and future of bluegrass.

Carolina Blue won the South Carolina state bluegrass championship at Reno Fest in 2011.

They have appeared on the hit TV show Song Of The Mountains and The Bluegrass Trail series on RFDTV.

Their repertoire includes Spring Will Bring Flowers recorded by 2014 International Bluegrass Music Association entertainers of the year Balsam Range.

Debut disc Bobby Powell & Tim Jones Nothing So Blue was produced by Steep Canyon Ranger Woody Platt and features Platt, Graham Sharp, Mike Guggino, Roy Chapman and Shannon Whitworth.

Others include Carolina Blue Live at Reno Fest (2011), self-produced Going Home Today (2016) - their first song on the charts.

Also 2017 Sounds of Kentucky Grass - their first #1 album on the Roots Music Charts.

Band members are Bobby Powell (guitar-vocals,) Timmy Jones mandolin-vocals, Reese Combs upright bass-vocals, James McDowell banjo-vocals, American and Canadian Grand Master Fiddle Champion Aynsley Porchak on fiddle - 2018 IBMA Momentum Instrumentalist winner.?

Further info - https://www.carolinablueband.com/

RHONDA VINCENT REIGNS

Missouri bluegrass queen Rhonda Vincent performs for a captive audience on her live return to Behind Bars .

Ashley Campbell, Carl Jackson and Rhonda's band join her on I'm Not Over You.

She began 50 years ago with her fifth-generation family gospel-bluegrass band - Sally Mountain Show.

Rhonda, aged 56, has made more than 20 albums and recorded with her band The Rage and brother Darrin.

She cut duet albums with Texan honky-tonk hero Gene Watson and Georgian star Daryle Singletary who died at 46 on February 12, 2018.

In 2018 Rhonda won her first Grammy in her 18-album career that also featured Shotgun Willie Nelson, 86, on her two-disc set Only Me.

She recorded with brother Darrin and Jamie Dailey as Dailey & Vincent on the title track of her 14th album Taken .

Rhonda & The Rage graced Nu Country with 2004 hit Kentucky Borderline that was revived on their new DVD.

She also featured vocal and video cameos by singing actor Dolly Parton in Heartbreaker's Alibi from her 12th album All American Bluegrass Girl .

The banjo-playing mother of two harmonised on three songs on Georgian superstar Alan Jackson's 18th album Freight Train including hit It's Just That Way.

It's one of three Top 5 hits co-written by expat Port Douglas singer-songwriter and Starmaker winner Kylie Sackley.

CLICK HERE for a Rhonda Vincent feature from the Diary on April 20, 2004.

HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR

We need your support in Nu Country TV's 40th series with Australian record companies and artists teaming to ensure our survival.

You can join Watling & Bates as members and win their 13 track CD Small Town Tales.

Also 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 if you become Nu Country TV members 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.

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