DAVE'S DIARY - 6/7/09 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 5 - SERIES 12
TRACES OF HUMOUR - HERE AND ABROAD
Thrice wed
Louisiana singer Trace Adkins and Hunter Valley vamp Kirsty Lee Akers
add a dash of humour to Nu Country TV this Saturday - July 11 - at 9.30
p m on C 31.
Adkins and a vast cast of celebrities illustrate the pitfalls of marrying
for money while Akers fires new lead into the historic shotgun wedding.
Arizona born chart-topper Dierks Bentley, who toured here with Brooks
& Dunn, is front and centre of his latest hit Sideways.
And, unlike his recent appearance at the CMT awards with his faithful
dog Jake, is joined by humans.
Kellie Pickler also returns to Nu Country without pets - a Marmoset monkey,
cat, dog and python.
And Grampians raised sisters Sophie and Celeste Clabburn dance on a different
river - The Darling - in the Sunny Cowgirls new video.
ADKINS - X MARKS THE G SPOT
 |
Trace
Adkins, father of five daughters, is the perfect vehicle for politically
incorrect video for new single Marry For Money. Adkins' second ex-wife shot him in the heart and lung on the last day of their torrid marriage. Marry For Money is the antithesis of the sugar daddy stereotype. It's a humorous homily about a man who, after an ugly divorce, sets out to marry a rich woman, whether he loves her or not. Thrice wed Adkins character suffers a painful ending when his geriatric sugar mama springs him on the dining table with the maid. The video climax finds the maid decamping and the gardener squiring the lady of the house. "That's what I love about this song. The jokes are endless," Adkins, now 47, revealed. |
"I'm really looking forward to reaction to this video. It's going to be controversial and politically incorrect; it's going to hurt peoples' feelings and make people mad, and I love that! Let's do it!"
Marry
For Money is on Adkins 10th album, not so cryptically titled X.
"Somebody said, 'This might make some people uncomfortable.' And
I said, 'Listen to the song! Let's start from there, OK!," Adkins
added.
"It's not the most sensitive piece I've ever recorded.'"
Akins recently appeared on The Celebrity Apprentice, sang You're
Gonna Miss This in The Young And The Restless and acted in spoof movie
An American Carol.
Trace appeared previously as a Satanic character in independent movie
Trailer Park Of Terror and released his autobiography A Personal
Stand: Observations and Opinions from a Freethinking Roughneck.
Adkins, like Billy Joe Shaver, suffered a digit injury in his pre-music
career - he was a roughneck on an oilrig in the Gulf Of Mexico.
"When I cut if off I knew immediately my guitar-playing days were
over," Adkins recalled.
"But I had the doctor reattach it so it was curved so that I could
at least suspend a D chord, I think that's the way I put it. He fused
the joints together and pinned it together so I can do that but I can't
reach up the neck with it anymore, but luckily I don't make a living being
a great guitar player."
CLICK HERE for
a review of X in The Diary.
KIRSTY LEE AKERS
 |
Hunter
Valley singer Kirsty Lee Akers emulated Adkins in her video for new
single Knocked Up. She utilised her band and friends to illustrate the video for the song, also on the debut CD by former Trick Pony singer Heidi Newfield. Akers cronies turn a once taboo subject - parodied by Chad Morgan four decades ago - into one of the most hilarious local clips. Kirsty's character falls for a guitarist with a wig, is married by an Elvis impersonator celebrant and given away by a granny on a motorised cart. The climax, so to speak, is the celebrant dancing with the granny who has arisen from her cart. And the diminutive diva, star of the 2008 Geelong Stampede, is credible in her acting role - her mother gave birth to her when she was 16. |
The song,
penned by Angaleena Presley, is on the singer's second album Better
Days.
Presley, a writer for the Nashville publishing company of expat Australasian
Barry Coburn and singing spouse Jewel Blanch Coburn, also wrote songs
for Akers debut disc Little Things.
Kirsty, now 21, also performed at the 2009 CMA Festival in Nashville with
a brace of other Australian artists.
She performs Tara Festival of Culture and Camel Races - August 1 - and
Deniliquin Ute Muster on October 2-3.
Akers, 2007 Tamworth Starmaker Quest winner at 18, and 2008 new talent
Golden Guitarist, penned four songs on her new album.
Her collaborators included Trey Bruce - son of Ed and Patsy Bruce who
wrote Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys - and Sydney
singer Mike Carr.
CLICK HERE
for an Akers review in the Diary.
DIERKS BENTLEY
 |
Arizona
born Dierks Bentley proves why he scored wide acclaim for his Australian
tour with Brooks & Dunn in May. Bentley, 33, performs in a semi-concert setting for the video for seventh #1 hit single Sideways from his fifth album Feel That Fire. The singer, raised on outlaws and bluegrass music in Phoenix, once lived in hotels when in Nashville because he was on the road so often. Now the singer lives with his wife Cassidy, their baby daughter and two dogs in a three-story home in the suburbs of Guitar Town. But it was Bentley's elder dog Jake - not his wife - who accompanied him to the recent CMT Awards. And he has one distinct memory of his Australian tour. |
"One thing that got cemented for me is that Ronnie Dunn is one of the best singers of all time, in any genre of music," Bentley said. "The fact that he can stay out and drink tequila until 4 or 5 in the morning and then sing that way, that's incredible."
CLICK HERE for a Dierks Bentley feature from the Diary on April 26, 2009.
KELLIE PICKLER
 |
North
Carolina chanteuse Kellie Pickler performs the video for Don't
You Know You Are Beautiful from self-titled second album on Nu
Country. Her album also includes the Catherine Britt song Lucky Girl that was also on Britt's third album Little Wildflower. It's a welcome change of karma for Pickler from tiny town Albemarle whose mother abandoned her at the age of two and her father Bo spent time in gaol. That inspired a previous song I Wonder. Pickler's cyberspace identity was also stolen after she recently adopted a Marmoset monkey. But the singer has some solace at home - her menagerie includes a Chihuahua Moo, Moo - a cat Pickles and a python she adopted last year. |
But her luck
changed at the recent CMT Awards in Nashville.
"Did y'all see my earrings fly off?" she asked backstage.
"My earrings flew off, but the fans gave them back to me!"
Kellie's left earring wound up in the front row at the Sommet Centre but
was returned to her by her performance's end.
Pickler may have lost her lunge at American Idol but earned healthy writing
royalties with Taylor Swift on The Best Days Of Your Life.
Since topping charts Kellie has been reunited with her mum and dad Bo
who did time in a Florida prison for some illegal knife tricks.
Pickler, an American Idol loser, Kellie battled depression because of
family problems and split with hockey star Jordin Tootoo.
More info - www.kelliepickler.com
SUNNY COWGIRLS DANCING ON THE DARLING
 |
The
Sunny Cowgirls return to the show with their aquatic video for Dancing
On The Darling. It's a far cry from where 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 third CD 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.
Further info - www.sunnycowgirls.com
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.
We also have other CDS in our library as rewards for your valued membership
- we rely on membership for our survival.