Dead Livers greatest misses re-mastered
We have more great news for music fans – a revamp of the popular boutique NuCountry Record label with a re-mastered release of the Dead Livers Greatest Misses CD.
The original Greatest Misses and Dead Livers second CD Reaching To The Western Sky and the late A.P. Johnson’s Greatest Hits & Ex-Misses launched the label two decades ago with original tunes by the pioneer outlaw icons.
Lost In Suburbia guitarist Peter Bird has now remastered the Greatest Misses CD with new versions of Holy Mary and Loretta and previously unreleased demo track of singer Marty Atchison’s song Riding On A Bus.
Dead Livers bassist Michael Schack also revamped the liner notes and created a new front cover slick and illustrations for their discs.
The band will re-launch its new CD at its 40th anniversary celebration gig at the Velvet Room at Thornbury Theatre – 859 High St , Thornbury, on Saturday May 12.
Bookings – https://www.stickytickets.com.au/66422/the_dead_livers_40th_anniversary_celebration.aspx
That follows being a regular fixture at the historic Stump Hotel in Port Fairy, annual folk festival and other locales on the Shipwreck Coast of Victoria.
Schack lives in Koroit satellite suburb Yarpturk and former Monivae College band-mate and singer Marty Atchison resides further west on the coast at Portland.
They front the band on regular forays into the Victorian bush and big smoke of Melbourne and suburbs.
The Dead Livers disc was cut at Richmond Recorders and Yarra Bank Studios in 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1982 and later adorned with photos by former Nu Country treasurer Kip Karpik.
Their new version features cover designs by Veronica Jacobson and photos by John Hay and Colin Schack.
The Dead Livers Greatest Misses and Reaching to The Western Sky, for just $20 including postage, are available from Schack at mschack15@gmail.com .
Digital downloads are available at https://www.facebook.com/deadlivers/.
The original Greatest Misses also featured a duet with Johnson and expatriate late Kiwi singer Peter Caulton on I’d Love To Have A Smoke With Malcolm and bonus tune by the Lamington Brothers .
Sadly Caulton, who was hosting a country music show on 3RRR-FM when he and A.P. wrote the second Duncan parody, died on March 13, aged 71, after a heart attack in Forrest Hill, Auckland , New Zealand .
CLICK HERE for our Caulton obituary in The Diary.
The Dead Livers Greatest Misses and Reaching to The Western Sky, for just $20 including postage, are available from Schack at mschack15@gmail.com
Digital downloads are available at https://www.facebook.com/deadlivers/.
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.
GREATEST HITS AND EX-MISSES PRICE REDUCTION
A P Johnson’s CD is available from Nu Country TV.
You can also purchase them by mail order.
We furnished patrons of the A.P. Johnson 20th anniversary tribute show at the Rainbow Hotel with copies of his Greatest Hits And Ex-Misses at a reduced price in recognition of their support.
We have also reduced the mail order price to $10 to cover postage.
Please send a $10 cheque or money order made out to Nu Country Music – 45 Ferndale Rd , Glen Iris – 3146.
We also have electronic banking available – please send your request to music@nucountry.com.au
Track Listing
1 – Never Tie A Chook’s Legs Together
2 – Rough As Guts
3 – Riley The One Legged Racehorse
4 – Heaven, Hell Or The Flowerdale Pub
5 – I Love You Just Like A Pie
6 – Tamworth R.I.P.
7 – Toowoomba Moon
8 – Murwillumbah
9 – Condong, Pearl By The Tweed
10 – Peanut Memories
11 – The Highs Don’t Roll So Well
12 – I Want You To Know
13 – This Town Will Remember
14 – Sitting On My Face
15 – Heaven Help The Ladies
CLICK HERE for an A P Johnson feature.
DEAD LIVERS GREATEST MISSES
Track Listing
1 – I’d Love To Have A Joint With Willie – Dead Livers – (David Dawson-Alexander)
2 – I’d Love To Have A Smoke With Malcolm – Peter Caulton & A.P. Johnson – (Caulton-Johnson-Alexander)
3 – Keep On Rolling – Lamington Brothers – (Bill Jackson)
4 – Grandpa Take Me To The Cricket – Dead Livers – (Marty Atchison)
5 – Ballad Of A Dead Liver – Dead Livers – (Marty Atchison)
6 – Hard Doing Ken – Dead Livers – (Marty Atchison)
7 – Mediterranean Moonlight – Dead Livers – (John Berto)
8 – Star Of The West – Dead Livers – (Michael Schack)
9 – Up & Down The Line – Dead Livers – (Marty Atchison)
10 – Telegraph & Data Man – Dead Livers – (Michael Schack)
11 – Holy Mary – Dead Livers – (Marty Atchison)
12 – Prairie Dog – Dead Livers – (John Berto)
13 – Stud Like Me – Dead Livers – (Marty Atchison)
DEAD LIVERS REACHING TO THE WESTERN SKY
Track Listing
1 – Lucky Tonight – (Marty Atchison).
2 – Sunshine – (Marty Atchison).
3 – Rosemary (Marty Atchison).
4 – Standing Room Only (Michael Schack-Peter Bird).
5 – What’s In It For Me (Marty Atchison)
6 – Old Man On A Bar Stool – (Michael Schack).
7 – Daydreaming (Marty Atchison).
8 – Star Of The West (Michael Schack)
9 – Number 10 (Marty Atchison).
10 – Dear Oh Dear (Marty Atchison).
CLICK HERE for Dead Livers feature.
BARRY & JEWEL COBURN NU COUNTRY BENEFACTORS
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.
