PREVIEW OF EPISODE 2 - 8 OCTOBER 2003
DWIGHT
YOAKAM DEBUTS ON NU COUNTRY TV
When Dwight
Yoakam recently played in Texas the local police and Texas Rangers were
flooded with noise complaints.
There will be no problems when Dwight performs Back Of Your Hand from
his 17th album Population Me on Nu Country TV on Saturday October 11.
Yoakam, 46, recorded the song, written by a fellow actor Gregg Lee Henry,
after it was brought to the set of his recent movie Hollywood Homicide.
AND
WAKES THE DEAD IN DALLAS
But it was down south in Texas that Dwight and his band made headlines
with their turbo tonking at a noisy charity concert.
Yoakam played the 30th annual Cattle Baron's Ball in Allen on 500 acres
of prairie land that border suburban Plano neighbourhoods.
The largest fund-raiser in the nation for the American Cancer Society
generated more than $1.5 million for research.
And plenty of irritated neighbours kept awake past 1 a.m.
This gala brought out the cream of Dallas VIPs - people such as Dr Pepper
and Deja Blue bottler Jim Turner and his wife, Julie, who provided more
than $75,000 in underwriting for the event, actress Janine Turner and
country singer Rudy Gatlin.
More than 2,500 guests arrived at the site by driving down a winding,
tree-shaded road, but the party was held in open pasture on Frances Williams'
family farm.
Mrs. Williams died of a brain tumour last year.
Her daughter, Amy Williams Monier, said she thought her family's farm
was perfect for the ball.
"I was actually really surprised to hear about the complaints,"
Ms. Monier said, "the field is in the middle of our property ...
literally in the middle of 500 acres."
The Cattle Baron's Ball has raised more than $20 million over the years
but never before with such free publicity.
It was still daylight Saturday when Robert Earl Keen took the stage with
his musicians.
Keen performed his hits tunes such as The Road Goes On Forever and Melbourne
singer Joe Dolce's tune My Home Ain't In The Hall Of Fame.
But it was well after 11 p.m. when Yoakam cranked up his band with hits
like Guitars, Cadillacs and Thousand Miles From Nowhere.
And, with supreme irony the crowd sang along to "I'm a thousand miles
from nowhere, time don't matter to me."
CLICK HERE for a story on Dwight's new album.
ADAM HARVEY PREVIEWS VICTORIAN
TOUR
 |
Geelong born Adam Harvey, making a triumphant tour of his home state with Beccy Cole in November, performs When Lonely Met Love from his fifth album Cowboy Dreams (ABC-Universal.)
|
BARB
WATERS AND LISA MILLER LIVE AT CWA
 |
Myrtleford born Barb Waters also performs a liver version of her song My Brother's First Girlfriend on this week's show.
|
| Also
on the CWA bill and our show is Lisa Miller performing Have A Little
Mercy. Lisa supported English folk rocker Billy Bragg on his recent Victorian tour and is about to release her fourth album, Version Originale. The former Truckasaurus singer also includes a duet with Tim Rogers on her new disc. |
 |
CLICK HERE for Barb Waters bio and CD review - August 13.
MICHAEL
CARR - WIFE'S AWAY
Michael Carr, touring and writing partner of Melinda Schneider, graces
the screen with When the Wife's Away from his self titled debut Compass
Bros album.
The son of sixties rocker and ABC TV Play School pianist Warren shows
why he won acclaim on his recent Victorian tour with Melinda, Brendon
Walmsley and Jim Haynes.
Carr wrote He Still Calls Her Angel for Melinda's second album Happy Tears
and duets with her on his tune Wearing White.
Nu Country
TV host Paul Hicks also interviews Red Rivers who performs a live cut
of his album title track Quarter Mile Down.
Paul caught Red, now touring overseas, on a recent visit to Melbourne.
Four album veteran Red tells Paul all about his songs, travels and colourful
career.
CLICK HERE for details of his overseas tour from the Diary on June 19.
SHEL SILVERSTEIN AND NED KELLY
IN GURU
The late
former Playboy cartoonist and prolific playwright, children's author,
hit writer and singer Shel Silverstein is featured in Ask The Guru this
week.
CLICK HERE for the Shel saga in our diary on October
6.
DWIGHT - STITCHES NOT RINGS ON FINGER
Kentucky
born colt Dwight Yoakam bleeds for his art - not just his music but his
movies.
The singer took a bath at the box office for his directorial debut in
'South Of Heaven, West Of Hell.'
But it was while filming latest movie 'Hollywood Homicide' with Harrison
Ford and John Hartnett that he crashed, burned and bled.
"At the end of a car crash and gun battle with Harrison and Josh
I got hooked around the arm by an extra and fell into a steel pedestrian
barricade on Hollywood Boulevard in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre,"
Yoakam revealed on the eve of the release of his 17th album 'Population
Me' (Electrodisc-Audium.)
Yoakam, 46 and wearing finger stitches, returned to the set where he is
an ex cop and security boss for a rap grifter.
The singer, in danger of typecasting, is a shonky tonker in the movie
that premiered on June 13.
"I'm a bad guy again but I dress better," says Dwight, born
in the same Pikeville hospital but three months ahead of Patty Loveless.
"Films are miracles in no minor way when they come to fruition at
all."
Ironically the miracle here was aptly named forlorn single 'The Back Of
Your Hand' by actor Gregg Lee Henry - a friend of cast actor Bruce Greenwood.
''Gregg stopped by to pick up some CDs from Bruce because Bruce and Gregory
perform together and Bruce produced some demo sides on Gregg,'' Yoakam
says.
Greenwood later played the CD for Yoakam.
"Four or five songs in, The Back of Your Hand came by,'' Yoakam says.
''By the chorus -- 'Take a look at where I stand, pick a number from one
to two' - I was hooked. I was like, 'That's a good song. You think he
would let me record that?'
Yoakam delved deep into personal turmoil, including his split from fellow
actor Bridget Fonda, to fuel songs on this 35 minute disc.
"I know I was being influenced by other changes in my life at the
end of 2002, the first third of 2003, on a personal level. There were
transitions and changes in my life. I don't journal my life. I don't find
it interesting. I know there are writers that do that. It's just not my
thing. I'm writing from a place where I'm not sure what it refers to."
Yoakam took the title track from a pit stop in his troubled mind.
"The title is for me a thesis statement of what the song is,"
he says, 'in some ways the song seems to be about the need to care about
and watch out for one's self first."
"This place will tell you lies/With each passing shadow that goes
by/But there's only one or two, at most just three/More likely none that
I still see."
So what else do you get for your buck from the world's best Buck soundalike?
The disc is kick started by 'The Late Great Golden State', penned by Mike
Stinson, and a harmonious homage to the much maligned Eagles which segues
into 'No Such Thing.'
Then there's the wry word play of 'Fair To Midland' - a Texas road song
dripping with pathos primed imagery and the optimistic 'An Exception To
The Rule' and starkly bleak 'Stayin' Up Late.'
'I'd Avoid Me Too' is a retro self-deprecating dancehall shuffle with
upright bass, pedal steel and drums.
'If Teardrops Were Diamonds' is a haunting duet with Shotgun Willie Nelson
where they daub the morphing of teardrops into precious stones that pave
a highway and erect a mountain.
A joyous peak is a cover of Bacharach-David tune 'Trains And Boats And
Planes.'
Yoakam, once again proves to be a cool conduit with roots country, with
major help from long time producer Pete Anderson and band featuring fiddler
Scott Joss and Gary Morse on pedal steel, banjo and dobro.
So what else is Dwight doing to keep the dingoes from his Malibu doors?
He is making 'Three Way Split' in California.
"That's a very small independent and austere film which has proved
to be the most fun and invigorating."
Is it hard for a private life?
"I used to be able to get away with being anonymous by not wearing
my cowboy hat, but that's less the case in the last five years."
But not here in the unlucky radio country where minimal airplay reduces
chances of a return tour.