DAVE'S DIARY - 18 MARCH -PREVIEW OF EPISODE 11 - SERIES 3

KEITH URBAN LOGIES AND AWARDS

Keith Urban - Live in Melbourne Photo by Linda Di Nola

Expatriate Australasian country superstar Keith Urban added another surrogate radio exposure avenue on his triumphant tour here in February. The chart topping singer, who scored major footage on the Nine and Ten Networks, was booked to appear on The Logies in April. Urban, 38, also features in an interview on Nu Country TV on Saturday March 19 at 8 p m. The show will be repeated on Tuesday at 3 pm on C 31. Urban toured nationally with Sam Hawksley to promote You're My Better Half - his latest #2 Billboard chart single from his huge selling fifth album Be Here. And, despite receiving minimal commercial radio airplay here, his audience at the St Kilda Palais concert, was word perfect on most of his original songs.

CLICK HERE for a concert review from the Diary.

MARCIA HOWARD AND BROTHER DAMIAN

Marcia Howard

Former Goanna singer Marcia Howard and Grafton born country star Troy Cassar-Daley were among many artists who joined her elder brother Shane on stage at the 29th Port Fairy Folk Festival last weekend. The Howard clan was among the highlights of star-studded four-day festival with a crowd of 60,000 plus validating the eclectic booking of promoter Dr Jamie McKew. But it was another brother Damian of Ploughboys fame who duetted with her at the launch of her second solo CD Burning In The Rain at the Cornish Arms in Brunswick.

Fellow Shipwreck Coast born videographer Carol Taylor captured The Howard magic on Love Will Also Lead You Home - a tune Marcia wrote with Shane and Damian.

Marcia also joins recent Nu Country TV guest singer-songwriter Neil Murray at Lake Bolac Eel Festival on Saturday April 2 and Apollo Bay festival - April 22-24.

Howard and her Warrnambool guitarist John Hudson also plan a tour of Ireland and Canada from June 15-July 2.

CLICK HERE for Marcia Howard CD and live reviews from the Diary.

GRAEME CONNORS CYCLONE SEASON

Award winning Queensland country singer-songwriter Graeme Connors has songs for all seasons - especially autumn. With perfect timing producer-director Peter Hosking chose Connors original Cyclone Season for this week's episode. Connors, discovered by Kris Kristofferson at 19 as support on his 1974 tour, is one of the most prolific Australian songwriters. < Graeme Connors

The Mackay born father of five, now 50, has released 14 albums and penned a brace of songs covered by artists diverse as Felicity, Adam Brand and the late Slim Dusty.

CLICK HERE for a Connors interview and CD review from the Diary.

CARTER & CARTER RETURN HOME

Carter & Carter

Ringwood duo Carter & Carter performs its APRA award winning original song Lead Me Home this week. Merelyn and David Carter also won a Tamworth Golden Guitar in 2003 for their tune Candlelight And Kisses from second album Every Minute. "As a young adult I went through a divorce with two young kids," Merelyn says of the source of Lead Me Home. "I always wanted to write about it but when I first started off it looked like being an I hate men song. Clearly I don't hate men. It comes out to be a song about moving from a dark place in your life to a much brighter place and that's exactly what I've done in my life.

I'm now tripping around the country singing with my lovely new husband."

Carter & Carter has since released its third album Acoustic Gospel.

CLICK HERE for a Carter & Carter story from the Diary on December 15, 2003.
Further info contact www.carter-carter.com

TIFT MERRITT WARNS OF VIRGINIA

Texas born Tift Merritt was nominated for a 2005 Grammy for her second solo album Tambourine. It was the career pinnacle for the singer, now 29, who was born in Houston but moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, when she was two. Tift performs her original song Virginia, No-One Can Warn You from her debut solo disc Bramble Rose. Producer Ethan Johns plays ukulele on the song - a highlight of this week's episode of Nu Country. CLICK HERE for a Tift Merritt story from the Diary on February 29, 2005. < Tift Merritt

NED SUBLETTE A TEXAN GHOST RIDER

Fellow Texan born singing actor Ned Sublette debuts with a quirky version of classic western song, Ghost Riders In The Sky. Ned, now 53, was born in famed Panhandle town Lubbock and graduated from the University Of New Mexico before heading to New York in 1976. In 1982 he started The Ned Sublette Band. "It wasn't country punk," he quipped, "because all the musicians could really play." < Ned Sublette

By the mid-80s he gravitated toward the salsa scene; his Latin taste led him to Cuba in 1990 and enabled him to create cowboy rumba.

The infectious music - fusion of rumba and western - landed Ned an historic deal with Rykodisc for his Cowboy Rumba album.

"So Cowboy Rumba is 15 years of my life compressed into an hour of playing time," says the singer who also appeared in 2001 Sci-Fi movie The American Astronaut.

"It's the album I thought I'd never get to make."

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