DAVE'S DIARY - 25 MARCH 2006 - PREVIEW EPISODE 11 - SERIES 5
GREENCARDS HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV
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Expatriate
Australian bluegrass band Greencards headline this week's episode
of Nu Country TV - Tuesday March 28 - at 9 p m. The acclaimed trio perform in a video for their tune Time - a highlight of their second album Weather And Water. They supported Shotgun Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan on a 2005 U.S. tour and return home to play the 17TH East Coast Blues and Roots Music fest at Byron Bay at Easter. Such a prestige support role is further proof of the international success of the Aussie posse ignored by radio, TV and the media in their homeland. Greencards have joined the fast growing expatriate army headed by superstar Keith Urban, Sherrie Austin, Jamie O'Neal, Catherine Britt, Kylie Sackley and many more musicians & writers making a huge impact in the most lucrative, competitive music market in the world. |
ARIA award
winning Surf Coast born and bred singer-guitarist Mia Dyson, who also
plays Byron Bay, hosts this week's episode - repeated on Friday at 3.30
p m.
Greencards, who also plan to tour NSW and Victoria, are lucky to be alive.
Their van rolled over at 2 am on December 8 after hitting ice returning
to Austin from a gig at the Third Floor Cantina in Bryan, Texas.
The van slid
off the road and the trio suffered "a few bumps and bruises,"
according to a Dualtone Records publicist.
"The band and equipment appear to have made it through the accident
unscathed."
Greencards mandolin player Kym Warner was born near Adelaide and singing
spouse Carol Young hails from Dorrigo near Coffs Harbour on the NSW north
coast.
FROM DORRIGO TO SAN ANGELO
The duo left
here in 2001 and played in country bands in San Angelo and Abilene in
West Texas for six months.
They formed Greencards with UK fiddler Eamon McLoughlin in Austin and
cut their 2004 debut disc, Movin' On.
They then moved to Nashville in 2005 and made Weather and Water whose
title track was penned by fellow expatriate South Australian singer-guitarist
Jedd Hughes.
Hughes, 24, earned his stripes as guitarist in the bluegrass band of the
other Kentucky coal miner's daughter Patty Loveless - also a country star
with longevity.
Jedd then released debut solo disc Transcontinental on major label
Mercury.
Kym - son of veteran bluegrass musician Trev - and Jedd are graduates
of the tertiary music course at South Plains College in Levelland near
Lubbock, Texas.
"The title track is a song that Jedd sent us funnily enough after
watching a Bob Dylan movie called Masked & Anonymous," Warner
says.
The Greencards wrote 10 of the 12 songs on the disc produced by Gary Paczosa
- engineer of albums by Alison Krauss, Nickel Creek, Dixie Chicks, Duhks
and The Chapmans.
Their video of Time has already enjoyed healthy rotation on CMT
and Aussie Pay TV channel CMC.
"We made the video clip at an old ice skating rink at Lebanon near
Nashville," Kym told Nu Country.
"All the local kids came to the rink for the video directed by Roger
Pistole from the West Coast."
CLICK HERE for a Greencards
feature from The Diary on August 2, 2005.
CLICK HERE for a Jedd
Hughes feature from The Diary on January 20, 2005.
ALISON KRAUSS
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Bluegrass
superstar Alison Krauss also returns to Nu Country TV with the title
track of her 1992 album Every Time You Say Goodbye. Alison and Union Station recorded the John Pennell hit on several albums and 2002 live concert DVD at Louisville Palace in Kentucky. Krauss, just 34, has now won 20 Grammies after scoring three at the 48th anniversary show in February. |
Alison and
her stellar band Union Station won the country Grammy for her 2004 disc
Lonely Runs Both Ways - her 11th album.
Krauss and Union Station also won for country performance by a duo or
group with vocal for Restless and country instrumental performance
for Unionhouse Branch.
The multi-instrumentalist, who signed her first record deal with Rounder
at 14, has also produced three albums for the Cox Family and two for Nickel
Creek.
She also produced veteran singing actor and TV host Reba McEntire's 2001
single, Sweet Music Man.
CLICK HERE for an
Alison Krauss story from the Diary on January 23, 2005.
GILLIAN WELCH
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Gillian
Welch and David Rawlings won a fanatical following on their Australian
tour in 2004. Welch, 38, and Rawlings have released four CDS and a live DVD since debuting with Revival in 1996. The duo delayed their return to Australia, planned for 2005, to finish their fifth album. Welch and Rawlings follow in the slipstream of a vast army of country artists to cut songs about the late country and rock legend Elvis Presley. That list includes Patty Loveless, Emmylou Harris, Faith Hill, Leon Russell, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Elliott Murphy, Warren Zevon, Greg Brown, The Tractors, Confederate Railroad and Bellamy Brothers. Comedic country cuts include Fred Koller penned Pinkard & Bowden tune Elvis Was A Narc and Ray Stevens I Saw Elvis In A UFO. |
They perform
Elvis Presley Blues on Nu Country TV from their live 2002 DVD The
Revelator.
CLICK HERE for a Gillian
Welch story from the Diary on October 10, 2004.
MATT WALKER AND ASHLEY DAVIES
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Host
Dyson, promoting her second album Parking Lots, has also chosen fellow
roots artists Matt Walker and Ashley Davies for her Byron Bay preview
episode. The blues duo have toured the U.S. and Europe and perform Technological Advances from their self titled 2005 album. Walker and Davies collaborated on 1995 debut disc Live At The Rainbow, I Listen To The Night (1997), Soul Witness (2000) and Live At The Continental (2001). Further info - www.mattwalkerandashleydavies.com CLICK HERE for a Mia Dyson feature from the Diary on January 12, 2006. |
SIME NUGENT RETURNS
Mia and producer
Sofie B selected a Sime Nugent-Angie Hart duet on Into The Trees
from Nugent's 10th album Broke And Banned.
Former Frente singer Hart guests on the album by Nugent who won acclaim
beyond home state Victoria on national and international tours in a 14-year
performing career.
Singing actor Hart joined pop group Frente at 17 and cut two albums before
moving overseas and forming new band Splendid in Los Angeles.
Nugent - son of Irish musicians - has performed at festivals diverse as
Queenscliff and Port Fairy.
He has cut discs with bands including first group Sedan, which featured
members of Jet and the Pete Murray band.
BERNARD FANNING
Former Powderfinger
singer Bernard Fanning performs a video for Songbird - second single
- from his solo album Tea And Sympathy.
Fanning, expanding his talent into roots music, performs with Greencards,
Dyson and many more at Byron Bay over Easter.
Further info - www.bernardfanning.com