NU COUNTRY RECORD LABEL

A P JOHNSON AND DEAD LIVERS

We have great news for music fans - another relaunch of the popular boutique Nu Country Records label.

Nu Country TV originally released two CDS on the label - the Dead Livers Greatest Misses and A.P. Johnson's Greatest Hits & Ex-Misses.

The discs, featuring original tunes by two pioneer outlaw icons, are available again through our web page.

Dead Livers bassist Michael Schack has revamped the liner notes and created a new front cover slick and illustrations for the band's debut disc.

The band, now celebrating 31 years in the saddle, is a regular fixture at the historic Stump Hotel in Port Fairy, the annual folk festival and other locales on the Shipwreck Coast of Victoria.

Schack lives in the Koroit satellite suburb of Yarpturk and former Monivae College band-mate and singer Marty Atchison resides further west on the coast at Portland.

The duo also fronts the band on its regular forays into the Victorian bush and the big smoke of Melbourne and suburbs.

The Dead Livers are scheduled to play a 50th birthday party at the famed Oakleigh Bowling Club in July of 2009.

Greatest Misses features 13 tracks including a duet with Johnson and expatriate Kiwi singer Peter Caulton and a bonus tune by the Lamington Brothers.

The Dead Livers disc was cut at Richmond Recorders and Yarra Bank Studios in 1979, 1980, 1981and 1982 and later adorned with photos by Karpik.

HEAVEN, HELL OR THE FLOWERDALE PUB

Johnson's album features 15 raunchy tracks he wrote long before his premature death in October of 1995 on the eve of a tour by The Highwaymen.

The Johnson collectors' item - recorded in 1982 - featured artwork and photos by former Nu Country treasurer John Karpik and was restored and mastered by Dead Livers dual guitarist and Nu Country technician Rodger Delfos and Rowan Matthews.

Ironically, the Johnson CD underwent a renewed surge of interest during the recent Victorian bushfires when the historic Flowerdale Hotel survived the horrific holocaust and became an island in the embers.

Johnson's popular song Heaven, Hell Or The Flowerdale Hotel took on a whole new meaning as a whole new generation of patrons were introduced to the characters who frequented the pub and were name checked in the song.

The singer regaled listeners with tales about the publican and generations of drinkers in his watering hole - now an even more popular community hub as the rebuilding of the district takes place.

Nu Country presented Danielle Green - the ALP state member for Yan Yean - with Johnson's CD at the Whittlesea Country Music bushfire benefit on Saturday April 4.

Green, raised on the Shipwreck Coast at Warrnambool, is also a Dead Livers fan.

She planned to raise the spirit of bushfire survivors by presenting the CD to the juke- box at the Flowerdale Hotel.

Green also bought a copy of the Vinnies After The Fire CD featuring Kevin Welch's song Marysville and former Goanna singer Shane Howard's bushfire inspired song Carry Me.

Ross Buchanan, who lost a son and daughter in the Kinglake fire, also recorded a new song Salty Years for After The Fire.

Nu Country also presented him with A P Johnson's CD as he helped promote and sell After The Fire in the fire ravaged Yarra Valley.

REACHING TO THE WESTERN SKY

Both releases are available from Nu Country and The Last Record Store in the inner
Melbourne suburb of Collingwood. The collectors store is at 304 Smith St - Phone 94162000.

You can also purchase both CDS by mail order.

Please send a $15 cheque or money order for either CD - made out to Nu Country Music - at P.O. Box 625, Northcote, 3070.

And we have copies of Dead Livers second CD, Reaching To The Western Sky, for just $20 including postage.

You can also buy both Dead Livers albums through the band's web page -
www.geocities.com/Nashville/6385

A. P. JOHNSON GREATEST HITS AND EX-MISSES

Track Listing

CLICK HERE for an A P Johnson feature.

DEAD LIVERS GREATEST MISSES

Track Listing

DEAD LIVERS REACHING TO THE WESTERN SKY

Track Listing

CLICK HERE for Dead Livers feature.

BARRY & JEWEL COBURN
NU COUNTRY BENEFACTORS

Barry and Jewel on their wedding day

Johnson's CD was recorded at the Yarra Bank studio of famed expatriate Australasian superstar manager, publisher and tour promoter Barry Coburn. Coburn ran the Spurs cowboy bar circuit in Moorabbin, Campbellfield, Canberra and Geelong from 1980-3. He promoted tours of New Zealand by The Eagles and Australian visits by Emmylou Harris, Flying Burrito Brothers and rock acts diverse as Roxy Music and Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan. Coburn and wife Jewel - an Australian born Hollywood child and teenage movie star and award winning country singer - also ran management and publishing companies in Melbourne. Among clients were Seekers singer Bruce Woodley and Coburn's fellow expatriate Kiwis Brent Parlane, Peter Caulton and Queenslander A. P. Johnson.

Johnson, former rodeo rider and singing roadie for RCA act Moose Malone was one of many progressive writers in Coburn's South Yarra stable.

One of Johnson's comedy songs, I Love You Just Like A Pie, was also featured in the cult Australian movie Next Of Kin.

Barry and Jewel met at the famed Wandong Country Music festival before eloping to Coburn's South Island hometown of Christchurch and marrying in the chapel of his old school.

Barry co-managed Ms Harris with Eddie Tickner of Byrds fame on his arrival in the U.S. in 1984 and also handled the careers of artists diverse as Lacy J Dalton, Holly Dunn, Mark Germino, Marty Stuart, Duane Eddy & Joe Louis Walker before guiding Alan Jackson to superstardom.

He later managed Suzy Bogguss, George Ducas, BR5-49 and Diamond Rio before he became CEO of the Nashville division of prestige label Atlantic.

Barry and Jewel still operate their thriving Ten-Ten and Coburn Music Publishing companies.

Clients include fellow expatriate Australasians Keith Urban and Tim Finn, former Saltbush pedal steel guitarist Mark Moffatt and U.S. hit writers Robert Ellis Orral, Bobby Huff, Tia Sellers, Angela Kaset, Mary Gauthier, Angaleena Presley, Nicky Chinn and Irish singer Paul Brady.

They also have tunes in their catalogue by Harley Allen, Tim Nicholls, Nathan Bell, Zack Turner, Mark Irwin, Wayne Hancock, Jeff Black, Chuck Mead, Stacy Earle, Odie Blackmon, Cory Mayo, Mark Moffatt and Anna Wilson.