DAVE'S DIARY - 8/6/09 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 1 - SERIES 12
BRAND KARMA REWARDED
It's fitting
Adam Brand headlines the premiere of Series 12 of Nu Country TV on Saturday
June 13 at 9.30 p m on C 31.
Brand worked incognito behind scenes at Whittlesea and Kinglake emergency
relief centres after the devastating Black Saturday bushfires.
And he returned on April 4 to headline a major bushfire relief festival
at Whittlesea Showgrounds.
Meanwhile the singer was flown to Nashville by major record label BMG-Sony
to perform a showcase for them.
Now Brand has been offered a recording deal with the label that was once
home to fellow Whittlesea headliner Catherine Britt.
Brand shares billing on Nu Country with fellow Compass Bros stable mates
Sunny Cowgirls, country pop stars Rascal Flatts and Chuck Wicks, Keith
Anderson and David Frizzell.
The show is repeated in Victoria on Wednesdays at 3.30 p m.
BRAND
NEW CD
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Brand
performs the video for the title track of 8th album Hell Of A Ride
this week. Adam, 39, cut his new disc in Nashville with revered producer Richard Landis and A team session players. He wrote several new songs in a hunting cabin owned by late legendary songwriter Harlan Howard. Brand stayed in the cabin near the famed Jack Daniels whiskey distillery with fellow writers Travis Meadows and Mark Stephen Jones. Ironically, the Lynchburg cabin and distillery are in a dry county. Brand performed in Melbourne last week on a national tour to promote his new disc. CLICK HERE for an exclusive interview with Adam about his Nashville sojourn and album in our Diary on March 31, 2009. |
SUNNY COWGIRLS
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Brand,
who spent much of his childhood at Wallington and Colac in Victoria,
joins the Sunny Cowgirls on the video for their single Someday
from their third album Dust Will Settle. The album bonus track was a 1965 single for Tony Barber - guitarist-songwriter for Billy Thorpe's pioneer band The Aztecs. It was released on the label Everybodys - recording arm of the Clyde Packer pop magazine of the same name. Radio resisted the song because it was perceived as a promo tool for the magazine so the label changed name to Spin and the song peaked at #7 on charts. That was long before Sunny Cowgirls Sophie and Celeste Clabburn were raised on a farm near Dunkeld in the shadows of the majestic Grampians in northwest Victoria. The sisters made a documentary, released to coincide with Dust Will Settle. |
It includes
interviews, footage of the girls as children, excerpts from video clips,
and chats with manager Mark Donohue and label boss Graham Thompson.
It has been has been aired on CMC and will be released later in the year.
The girls began performing as small children, forming a band with the
name of Big Dick and the Strokers (their father's name is Richard), and
jamming for friends and family.
The family moved farming operations to West Australia and the sisters
chose NSW as their musical launch pad.
The sisters penned all 14 tracks on the album - there are nine from Sophie
and five from Celeste.
Ten Bucks In The Glovebox was co-written with fellow bush born
Victorian Peter Denahy.
Further info - www.sunnycowgirls.com
RASCAL FLATTS
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Chart topping
country pop stars Rascal Flatts return to Nu Country with the video of
their hit Here Comes Goodbye.
It's from their Dan Huff produced sixth album Unstoppable.
Rascal Flatts began 11 years ago when Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney
were touring as Chely Wright's sidemen.
Ohio born DeMarcus and cousin Gary LeVox also had their own band.
One night in Nashville Rooney went to hear DeMarcus and LeVox play.
When their guitarist didn't show up Rooney sat in and joined the band.
Since then they have sold 20 million records plus and earned $60 million
in just one year - 2008.
Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx sang with the trio on She Goes All The
Way on previous album Still Feels Good.
Oklahoma born Rooney is husband of 2005 Playmate of Year Tiffany Fallon
whom he wed in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in April of 2006.
The Florida born Miss Georgia of 2001 played a femme fatale in Oklahoma
star Toby Keith's video Who's Your Daddy?
Further info - http://www.rascalflatts.com/
CHUCK WICKS ALL HE WANTED
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Prolific
young singer-songwriter Chuck Wicks returns to Nu Country with All
I Ever Wanted - one of his 10 original songs on debut album Starting
Now. Chuck hails from a Delaware spud farm and dates fellow singer Julianne Hough - a Dancing With The Stars champ. Chuck, 29, grew up in Smyrna and was tipped $50 by superstar Kenny Chesney for parking his car in a previous career as valet. Adam Brand recorded a Wicks song Get On Down The Road on his seventh album Blame It On Eve. It was a collaboration with frequent Australian tourist David Lee Murphy and Rivers Rutherford. RCA signed Wicks to a development deal six years ago after he left Florida Southern College and moved to Nashville. |
But instead
of a contract, the deal led to a valet parking job at Fleming's Steak
House.
"I would work there, and I would write during the day," Wicks
said.
"I didn't have a publishing deal or anything anymore, so my only
source of income was parking cars and then writing. And the weird thing
was it was a blessing, because through that development deal I was able
to establish great relationships with songwriters. Some of the best songwriters
in the world took me under their wing. I had a lot of motivation and a
lot of great people helping me steer the ship and helping me figure this
out."
Now, instead of parking cars for Paisley, he has been touring with him
to promote his album desked by Rascal Flatts producer Dan Huff and Monty
Powell.
Further info - http://www.chuckwicks.com/site.php
KEITH ANDERSON
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Oklahoma
singer Keith Anderson turned tragedy into triumph when he recorded
his second album Come On. Anderson debuts on Nu Country TV with a song inspired by his mother Janice dying from cancer. Anderson, 41, wrote I Still Miss You about the aftermath of her tragic passing. He earlier quit baseball after suffering an arm injury trying out with the Kansas City Royals The singer topped his uni class when he graduated with an engineering degree and chose the safer confines of music ahead of sport. But music was not a safe haven for Anderson. He underwent vocal surgery this year and cancelled several concerts. Anderson says the surgery helped him heal not only physically, but also spiritually and mentally. |
"I feel better than I've felt in years! It was something I knew I'd have to do, but it was still scary," Anderson said.
"I had
a vocal cord that usually by the end of year, when it had been used and
used and used, would give me problems. Once every year or two, I would
have an internal bleed, where the vessel busts and it swells up and you
can't sing, you can barely talk, and you have to let it rest. So there's
a procedure that's considered minor, because they're not cutting the cord.
But you know anytime you have surgery, especially if it's on you, it's
not minor! There are three weeks of not talking right after surgery. You
can't clear your voice, sneeze or cough."
Not quite as dramatic as the fate of Lisa Renee Davis who was a dancer
in Anderson video Picking Wildflowers and Jason Michael Carroll's
prophetic video I Can Sleep When I'm Dead.
Davis, a model-actress, was murdered on March 10 near a church in West
Memphis suburb Lakeland.
Her 21-year-old killer shot himself and died shortly after police were
called to his home.
She was also an extra in the Justin Timberlake film, The Open Road.
CLICK HERE for a Keith
Anderson feature in the Diary.
DAVID FRIZZELL LONG BLACK VEIL
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Texan
icon David Frizzell also performs a live version of the Danny Dill-Marijohn
Wilkin classic Long Black Veil. Frizzell's late brother Lefty recorded the song before he died at 47 in 1975. It's on a live concert DVD by Frizzell, 67, and Jett Williams, 56, performing classic songs of Lefty and Hank Williams. Joe Sun, who toured here in 1989, and the late Johnny Cash are among a vast cast of artists who also recorded the murder ballad. Frizzell, a younger brother of late legend and Golden Gloves boxing champ Lefty, had a huge 1982 hit I'm Gonna Hire A Wino To Decorate Our Home before another smash duet with Shelly West on You're The Reason God Made Oklahoma. Famed actor-director Clint Eastwood used You're The Reason God Made Oklahoma in his movie Any Which Way You Can and another in Honky-Tonk Man. |
That was
long after Frizzell left home at 12 to perform and tour with Lefty.
By his 18th birthday, Frizzell began recording country and rockabilly
albums for Columbia Records.
Although a four-year hitch in the military slowed his career, Columbia
immediately re-signed Frizzell after his discharge.
The singer recorded Larry Cordle-Larry Shell parody Murder On Music
Row in 1999 before fellow Texan George Strait and Georgian superstar
Alan Jackson.
CLICK HERE for a
David Frizzell feature from the Diary on December 30, 2008
WIN BROOKS & DUNN CDS
Sony-BMG
has also given us extra copies of the Cowboy Town tour souvenir
CD and bonus Greatest Hits CD.
Viewers who become members or renew membership for just $22 including
postage can win the double CDs.
Please email us at music@nucountry.com.au
with your pledge.
Important note - please email first - don't send your membership until
you have been confirmed as a winner.
Brooks & Dunn have sold more than 30 million album since releasing
their debut disc in 1991.
TAYLOR SWIFT FEARLESS CD OFFER
Universal
Music has donated copies of teen sensation Taylor Swift's huge selling
second album Fearless to Nu Country TV.
Viewers who become members or renew their membership can win the Fearless
CD.
Swift, 19, played capacity audiences on her debut Australian tour in March
and plans to return in 2010.
Please email us at music@nucountry.com.au
with your pledge.
Important note - please email us first.
Don't send membership cheque until you have been confirmed as the winner.
WIN
FELICITY URQUHART AND TROY CASSAR-DALEY
You can win autographed copies of the acclaimed new CDS by Felicity and
Troy Cassar-Daley.
Felicity's sixth album Landing Lights is available here in shops
on Shock.
Troy's seventh CD I Love This Place is on Liberation - the new
recording home of Kasey Chambers and singing spouse Shane Nicholson.
All you have to do is become a member of Nu Country TV or renew membership.
It only costs $22 and includes postage.
Please email us first at music@nucountry.com.au
and let us know which CD you would like.
We will then send you the CD on receipt of your cheque or money order
made out to Nu Country Music.
WIN CATHERINE BRITT CDS
MIKE BRADY TOO
We have Catherine
Britt's third CD Little Wildflower for viewers who wish to become
members or renew membership.
Catherine, Adam Brand and Mike Brady were among artists who donated their
talent to the Whittlesea Bushfire benefit on Saturday April 4.
Brady donated autographed copies of his Country To Country CD to
viewers who become members or current members who renew their membership.
Mike was also a VIP guest host of Nu Country TV during our eighth series.
So for your membership you can win Mike's CD Country To Country
or Catherine Britt's Little Wildflower CD.
WIN JASMINE RAE & STEVE FORDE CDS
We have the
following CDS for viewers who email our web page and pledge $22 membership
at music@nucountry.com.au .
Telstra Road To Tamworth winner Jasmine Rae's debut CD Look It Up.
We also have Steve Forde's fifth album Guns & Guitars.
Both Rae and Forde performed at the CMC Rocks The Snowy festival at Thredbo.
Jasmine also supported Brooks & Dunn and Bentley on some of their
Australian concerts.
KACEY JONES CD, DVD, POSTER & TEE SHIRT PRIZES
Internationally
renowned country comedienne, singer-songwriter and producer Kacey Jones
has given us a box of autographed merchandise for viewers and members
who renew their membership.
A highlight is her acclaimed tribute disc Kacey Jones Sings Mickey
Newbury that is scheduled for Australian release in July.
We have autographed collectors' copies of the CD for viewers who want
to become members of Nu Country TV.
She also autographed tee shirts and posters for Nu Country members.
For your $22 membership and postage you can take your pick of Kacey memorabilia.
We have limited supplies so please email us at music@nucountry.com.au
first.
WILLIE NELSON EXCLUSIVE BOOK
We also celebrate
Shotgun Willie Nelson's 75th birthday on April 30 with a special giveaway
of his collectors' book.
We have limited stock of Willie Nelson - The Collected Writings Of
A Living Legend - The Facts Of Life And Other Dirty Jokes.
The book, featuring yarns, jokes and Willie Nelson song lyrics, is the
latest addition to out prize treasure trove.
It's available for viewers wanting to become members or current members
wishing to renew their membership.
Please email us at music@nucountry.com.au
for a chance to win a copy of this book with your membership.
TANIA KERNAGHAN AUTOGRAPHED CDS
Tania Kernaghan
offered autographed copies of fourth album Higher Ground to viewers
who either become new members or renew their membership.
The album was produced in Santa Monica, Franklin, Nashville and the Gold
Coast with Daniel Kresco.
Tania recorded 11 songs written by younger sister Fiona and producer Kresco
on the acclaimed disc.
If you wish to be rewarded for membership with Tania's new CD please email
us at music@nucountry.com.au.
We also have other CDS in our library as rewards for your valued membership
- we rely on membership for our survival.