DAVE'S DIARY - 11 JUNE 2024 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 2 - SERIES 60
WILLIE NELSON AND KINKY FRIEDMAN HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV
Texan singing actor Willie Nelson and singing crime novelist Kinky Friedman headline Nu Country TV on Saturday June 15 at 9.30 pm on Channel 31/ Digital 44.
Fellow Texan Rodney Crowell returns to the show repeated Monday at 3 am.
Arkansas traveller Ashley McBryde and Lone Star state star Randy Rogers boomerang to Behind Bars on the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Former Jindabyne jackeroo Brad Cox and prolific Queensland born singer-songwriter Shane Nicholson also return.
Nu Country TV is a highlight of C 31 streaming list on Digital 44.
Further info - https://www.c31.org.au/
SHOTGUN WILLIE AND THE KINKSTER ENJOY A RESURRECTION
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Willie Nelson, who celebrated his 91st birthday on April 29 and young Kinky Friedman, now 79, kick off the Lone Star State seniors' celebration on this week's show.
They enjoyed a road resurrection that ended at Willie's movie town Luck outside Austin.
The duo visited Luck for time travel that honoured late family and friends including Kinky's dad Dr Thomas and his mother Minnie who operated Echo Hill vacation ranch at Medina near Kerrville.
They also remembered actor Tom Baker who died at 42 on September 2, 1982.
Baker starred in Andy Warhol film I, A Man (1967) and was close friend of Jim Morrison of The Doors.
He was portrayed by actor Michael Madsen in Oliver Stone film The Doors (1991) and by Bill Sage in the film about Valerie Solanas, I Shot Andy Warhol (1996).
Kinky dedicated his novel Elvis, Jesus & Coca-Cola to his friend Baker - the book plot features Baker's wake.
The Kinkster wrote Road-Kill - one of his 29 crime novels - about murders on and near Willie's famed bus Honeysuckle Rose.
Willie has released more than 100 CDS and DVDS including The Border released in May this year, appeared in 50 movies, telemovies and TV shows and won his 12 th Grammy in February of 2019, for his album Ride Me Back Home.
Resurrection is the title track of Kinky's Larry Campbell produced 18th album that features 11 new originals including the title track that features Willie as his duet partner.
CLICK HERE for a Kinky Friedman interview in The Diary on May 18, 2011.
CLICK HERE for a Kinky CD review in The Diary on November 30, 2015.
CLICK HERE for a Willie CD review in The Diary on August 5, 2019.
RODNEY CROWELL 56 FURY
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Dual Grammy winner and prolific singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell teamed with Billy Gibbons of Z. Z. Top on a guitar shop stage in his car celebration video.
They perform 56 Fury from Crowell's 21ST album Texas that features Willie, Lyle Lovett, Lee Ann Womack, Steve Earle, Ronnie Dunn, Vince Gill, Randy Rogers, Ringo Starr and many more.
"Having known and loved Billy Gibbons since the late seventies, I harbored the notion that we two hometown boys from Houston might someday stumble into a recording studio with just the right song,” Crowell, now 73, revealed.
“When I wrote 56 Fury I said to myself the time has come. And Billy agreed. Lord have mercy.”
Crowell was joined by fellow Texans Randy Rogers and Lee Ann Womack on previous video Flatland Hillbillies filmed in New Braunfels , Texas - home of the famed Gruene Hall built in 1878.
The album, co-produced by Ray Kennedy, focuses on Lone Star culture and regional music that formed Crowell's musical sensibility as a teenager in Houston.
Crowell was inducted into Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in Carthage , Texas, in August and recipient of ACM Poet's Award at 2019 ACM Honors in Nashville.
The ex-husband of Rosanne Cash last toured here in 2015 with Emmylou Harris.
CLICK HERE for that concert review on June 25, 2015.
CLICK HERE for a CD review in The Diary on June 1, 2014.
RANDY ROGERS CRAZY PEOPLE
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Fellow Texan Randy Rogers features a collage of fans and friends in his Crazy People video from 13th album Hellbent.
Randy, 45, recently fronted Nu Country with I'll Never Get Over You filmed at Freheit Country Store - an 1880's dance hall in New Braunfels south of Austin.
Randy promoted his album with fellow Texan Miranda Lambert.
Randy hails from Cleburne , Texas , and keeps traditional country alive at his Cheatham Street Warehouse in San Marcos.
He bought the venue that staged live country since 1974, including one of Randy's albums in 2000, from the family of late singer-songwriter Kent Finlay in 2015
Cheatham Street Warehouse has hosted songwriters open mic night every Wednesday for more than 40 years.
Guest artists include Randy, Hal Ketchum, James McMurtry, Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Billy Joe Shaver, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Ernest Tubb, Townes Van Zandt, Todd Snider, Terri Hendrix, Bruce Robison, Tish Hinojosa, Adam Carroll, Walt Wilkins, Will and Charlie Sexton.
“I still get butterflies when I step on that stage,” Rogers says.
“I'm going to make sure other songwriters and musicians, young and old, get to experience that same feeling for many years to come. That's my goal.”
Further info - http://www.randyrogersband.com/
ASHLEY MCBRYDE ONE NIGHT STANDARDS
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Arkansas ace Ashley McBryde returns to Nu Country TV in a dual role.
She sang and played Drake Hotel host in Nashville in a cheating scenario in One Night Standards - first of a three-part storyline from sixth album Never Will, released in May 2021.
"My manager, John Peets, and I had this idea to listen to the record and see what stories appeared, what threads of ideas were consistent in the songs we had gathered and what characters stood out," McBryde revealed.
"Low and behold, one night on the bus, Chris Harris (acoustic guitar, mandolin, harmonies) and I were having a few beverages after a show. I got out my sketch pad, and we wrote down each song from the record and each character. It looked like a crazy road map. It looked like a child had drawn it.
"But there it was. A way to connect every song and every video. I showed it to Peets, and we put it in director Reid Long's hands. And the rest is history."
Ashley, now 40, is one of eight children of a Mammoth Springs farmer and preacher.
She played the 2019 CMC Rocks Queensland festival and St Kilda Palais with North Carolina nouveau outlaw Luke Combs.
One Night Standards follows her fifth album Girl Going Nowhere.
She wrote Girl Going Nowhere the day after Texan mentor Guy died at 74 on May 17, 2016.
Ashley rides in the slipstream of Ray Wylie Hubbard, David Allan Coe and late Texans Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark.
She recruited her three young godsons in her American Scandal video honoured her dad in Radio Land and debuted Behind Bars in aptly titled A Little Dive Bar In Dahlonega.
Ashley wrote it with Nicolette Hayford and Jesse Rice about a Georgian honky-tonk in a town of 5,200 people.
She released debut EP in 2006 before four indie albums led to her two produced by Jay Joyce.
“This CD is a collection of loose ends and lullabies,” Ashley explained.
“Each tune is a tiny little confession. Call it an occupational hazard. My dirty laundry is sometimes your entertainment and sometimes yours is mine.”
CLICK HERE for Ashley's concert review in The Diary on March 13, 2019.
Further info - http://www.ashleymcbryde.com/
SHANE NICHOLSON SURVIVAL COST
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Prolific Queensland born singer-songwriter producer and 10 time Golden Guitarist Shane Nicholson plays guitar while a mate paints floors in his latest video.
The High Price of Surviving is on the 47-year-old's 11th album - he released two with former singing spouse Kasey Chambers.
He wrote it during a writing retreat at Dag Sheep station in Nundle in 2018, that he attends each year as a tutor, with young Queensland songwriter Leyon Milner.
“Leyon is a true talent,” Shane revealed.
“His musical sensibility hit me straight in the gut as soon as he began to sing. I was an instant fan. We bashed the song out in a few hours and then went for lunch. It was only later that the full power of the song became apparent.”
Shane has won 3 ARIA Awards, 15 Golden Guitars and two APRA Awards and was an on-camera music producer in ABC/Fremantle Media's television production The Recording Studio - a 10-part series that ran from April 2019.
CLICK HERE for a Shane feature in The Diary on August 24, 2015.
BRAD COX SNOWY MOUNTAINS FIRE SURIVIVOR
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Former Jindabyne jackeroo Brad Cox returns after surviving a Snowy Mountains mega-fire.
Brad, now 29, once worked in the Northern Territory as a stockman and filmed his Give Me Tonight video on an east coast tour.
It was on the 39th Tamworth Starmaker winner's second album produced by Matt Fell.
He wrote Give Me Tonight with good friend and frequent collaborator, Joe Mungovan.
“I was in the backroom minding my business/watching the world pass by/headed for the bar to order me another when your red dress caught my eye”, Brad revealed.
“Joe and I were kind of sitting in a room one day and ready to write a song. We just got to chatting at how so many times in life you meet people in passing and ninety-nine percent of the time you never really see them again. And how we all have those experiences that we try to replicate, and they never really happen.
“It was relatively fictional in a sense. Joe and I just got to yarning, and I was looking through a book and away we went. We just built a story from there.”
Brad opened 2018 shows for Brett Eldredge, Jon Pardi, Randy Houser, Adam Eckersley and Brooke McClymont and headlines his own concerts.
He released his third album Acres last year - his self-titled debut album featured Red Light, Too Drunk to Drive, Lake House , Rusty Strings, anthemic Water On The Ground and earned him two Golden Guitar nominations.
CLICK HERE for a Brad Cox CD review in The Diary on September 3, 2018.
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support in Nu Country TV's 60TH series with Australian record companies and artists teaming to ensure our survival.
You can join Nu Country TV and win Kip Moore's third album Slowheart , Blake Shelton's 12th CD If I'm Honest and a brace of Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, George Jones, Merle Haggard and Highwaymen CDS.
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 details.