DAVE'S DIARY - 29/8/07 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 12 - SERIES 8
BIG & RICH HONOUR WAR HEROES
 |
Superstar
duo Big & Rich and country legend George Jones honour war heroes
from recent international conflicts on Nu Country TV on Saturday -
1st September. Big & Rich recruited Rhodes Scholar and former helicopter pilot Kris Kristofferson to introduce its video for 8th of November - an award winning song about wounded, long retired Vietnam War veteran Sgt Niles Harris. The Purple Heart winner was a 19-year-old army private when shot in a jungle battle on November 8, 1965, during the Vietnam War. Big Kenny Alphin, 49, and former Lonestar singer John Rich, 39, met Harris when they played his tavern in Deadwood, South Dakota, and became immediate friends. The duo was honored for its song with the President's Award for Excellence in Arts at Vietnam Veterans of America's 13th biennial National Convention in Springfield, Illinois. |
8th Of
November was a hit for the Muzik Mafia duo on its 2005 album Comin'
to Your City.
After performing the song at the convention's opening ceremonies, Big
& Rich invited the wheelchair bound Harris onstage, where he was honored
with a Vietnam Veterans Of America Achievement Award.
Big Kenny thanked Harris for "coming into our lives with this amazing
story that became this amazing song. Without you, we never would have
written 8th Of November."
Harris replied "John and Kenny are genuine artists and true friends,
who not only embraced the 173rd Airborne veterans but embraced all veterans
across the US."
Big & Rich revolutionised Nashville's mainstream at the start of the
new millenium by injecting rap and hip-hop into their music.
The duo is also pro-active in the huge success of Redneck Woman Gretchen
Wilson, Cowboy Troy and Florida born stone country singer John Anderson's
latest disc Easy Money.
The song airs on Nu Country on Saturday at 8 p m and is repeated Monday
at 6.30 am and Thursday at 2 am.
Big & Rich has since released third album Between Raising Hell
And Amazing Grace that enjoyed huge sales after scoring a #1 hit Lost
In The Moment.
CLICK HERE for
a Big & Rich CD review from the Diary.
CLICK HERE for a previous
Big & Rich feature from the Diary on July 18, 2006.
GEORGE JONES REMEMBERS HEROES
 |
Texan
legend George Jones also honours fallen heroes with a video for Jamie
O'Hara song 50 Million Names. The song is on Cold Hard Truth - the 1999 album by Jones who turns 76 this month. O'Hara, who penned Jones' album title track, previously released the song as a single on his first solo disc Rise Above It in 1994. The video features the War Memorial in Washington - inspiration for the Iris De Ment tune There's A Wall In Washington on her third album The Way I Should. O'Hara was a member of eighties hit duo The O'Kanes with Kieran Kane - frequent Australian tourist with Kevin Welch. |
The O'Kanes
released three acclaimed albums before O'Hara and Kane embarked on solo
careers.
Jones was recently honoured with George Jones University established in
his name in Civil War town Franklin.
But The Possum is accident-prone - he crashed his car into a bridge a
few moons back and broke a wrist in a fall in his studio less than a year
after a pneumonia bout.
The singer recently released a double DVD with bonus CD - George Jones
& Friends 50th Anniversary Tribute Concert at the Roy Acuff Theatre
in Nashville.
The concert featured artists diverse as Alan Jackson, Aaron Neville, Trace
Adkins, Connie Smith, Emmylou Harris, Amy Grant, Tanya Tucker and Wynonna.
Other recent releases include lauded 2006 duet disc with Merle Haggard
- Kickin' Out The Footlights...Again and George Jones and Friends
- God's Country.
The Jones CD flood includes 11 compilations already released this year.
George is now driving Keith's Urban's former 1994 Chevy Impala that Urban
traded in for a Bentley.
"I paid too much for it, but it was Keith Urban's and I said, 'I
want it,' " Jones joked.
"He's supposed to come by and autograph the dash for me."
CLICK HERE for a Jones
feature in The Diary on February 25, 2006.
ALISON KRAUSS AND JOHN WAITE
 |
Illinois
born former child prodigy Alison Krauss returns to Nu Country this
week on a video duet with John Waite who made his name with seventies
English pop band the Babys. The 20-time Grammy winner joined with Waite for two songs on her compilation CD A Hundred Miles Or More - A Collection that also features rare new material. Krauss, 36, recently finished recording a duet album Raising Sand with Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin. |
The album, Krauss's 13th, will be released by Rounder on October 23, was produced by T Bone Burnett and recorded in Nashville and Los Angeles.
Krauss said
the genesis of the project came from her collaboration with Plant during
a Leadbelly tribute at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where she and the
Led Zeppelin vocalist sang together for the first time.
CLICK HERE
for a review of the new Krauss CD from The Diary.
CLICK HERE for a previous
feature on Krauss from the Diary on January 23, 2005.
TRACE ADKINS LOVES COUNTRY GIRLS
 |
Former
Louisiana petroleum engineer and oil rigger Trace Adkins performs
a video of Ladies Love Country Boys from his eighth album Dangerous
Man. The father of five daughters reached #1 on country charts in February with the song written by Jamey Johnson, George Teren, and Rivers Rutherford. Adkins, 45 and thrice wed, gave up oil drilling for music in the nineties after earning a degree at Louisiana Technical College. The baritone has had more luck with women since marrying third wife Rhonda - a former record company publicist. His second wife shot him in the heart and lung on the final day of their marriage in 1994. |
At 6 ft 6
and a former sports star Trace was a big moving target.
It's all in his book A Personal Stand: Observations and Opinions of
a Freethinking Redneck.
It's scheduled for an October 23 release by Villard Books - an imprint
of Ballantine Books.
"This book has been knocking around in my head for a while now,"
Adkins said.
"It's not exactly a memoir, but more of a look at the state of the
country as I've seen it through the lens of my admittedly colorful life."
Book topics include the environment, immigration and the war on terror,
according to a press release.
Adkins dedicated his 1996 debut disc Dreamin' Out Loud to his brother,
Scott, who was killed in a truck wreck at 21.
"He wrecked his truck and it killed him when he was 21. He was a
great, great, great kid.
He was my first fan," says Adkins.
CLICK HERE for an Adkins
story from the Diary on August 2, 2006.
SARA TINDLEY RIDES ON HIGHWAY ONE
 |
Sara
Tindley has vivid memories of her childhood on a farm near Camperdown
on Highway 1 in the Western District of Victoria. |
Tindley,
mother of a 10-year-old daughter, now lives in the tiny town of Meershaum
Vale near Ballina, also near Highway 1, on the north coast of NSW.
Tindley toured the outback in 1993, hit Byron Bay in 1994 and landed Staying
In The Shack in Sea Change in 1997.
CLICK HERE
for a Tindley CD review from the Diary.
MELINDA SCHNEIDER AMERICANA FINALIST
Prolific Golden Guitar winner Melinda Schneider returns to Nu Country with the title track of her fourth album Stronger.
Melinda wrote
three of the album's songs with East Nashville singer Elizabeth Cook.
Cook and Schneider have been nominated for an Americana award for Sometimes
It Takes Balls To Be A Woman - title track of Cook's fourth album
produced by Rodney Crowell.
Melinda, 36, also included the song on her Biff Watson produced album
that featured the Cook-Schneider co-writes Men In Trucks and Rest
Your Weary Mind.
CLICK HERE for
a Melinda story from the Diary on August 9, 2006.
JASON BOLAND PREVIEW
 |
We
also feature a preview for Series #9 in December with cameos by latter
day Texan hell-raiser Jason Boland & The Stragglers and Billy
Joe Shaver. Boland was born in Harrah, Oklahoma and raised in nearby Stillwater - launch pad for semi-retired superstar Garth Brooks. Ironically the singer, who spent time in rehab in 2005, is promoting fifth album The Bourbon Legend. |
Former Dwight Yoakam guitarist Pete Anderson produced the disc and wrote songs with the former University Of Oklahoma student who played the same Okie circuit as Brooks in his student days.
Boland, 33,
has been co-writing with Texan Sunny Sweeney who is touring here in January
with Dallas Wayne and Becky Hobbs.
Shaver, 68 and on bail for shooting a man outside Papa Joe's Texas Saloon
at Lorena near Waco, has just released new gospel album Everybody's Brother
on Compadre Records in Houston.
CLICK HERE for a Boland
feature from the Diary.