DAVE'S DIARY - 26/12/11 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 4 - SERIES 17
OSCAR WINNER ON NU COUNTRY TV
Oscar winning
singing actor Jeff Bridges and Eric Church headline Nu Country TV this
Wednesday - December 28 - at 10 p m on C 31.
Bridges, 61, has just released his second album in a career dating back
to the fifties.
Expatriate Australian duo O'Shea also returns to the show as a prelude
to appearing at the 40th Tamworth Country Music Awards.
And Londonderry diva Jayne Denham showcases her new video clip on the
eve of her return to Red Hill Country Music Festival on Sunday January
8.
Former Hootie & The Blowfish singer Darius Rucker also returns to
the show, edited by Ashley Hall.
Melbourne quintet Little John makes its debut - all are reprised when
the show repeats on Tuesday at 2 am.
JEFF BURNS NO BRIDGES
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Veteran
actor Jeff Bridges won an Oscar for his powerful portrayal of Bad
Blake in the 2009 Crazy Heart movie. Now, aged 62, he has released his second solo album produced by fellow Oscar winner T Bone Burnett. Bridges utilised talents of Texan T Bone, 64, and mature aged go-go boy in the video for What A Little Bit Of Love Can Do from his self titled album. Texans Gary Nicholson and the late Stephen Bruton - co-producer of the Crazy Heart soundtrack - wrote the entrée song, also the first single. Fort Worth born Bruton, who died of cancer at 60 in May, 2009, at fellow Cowtown refugee Burnett's Los Angeles home also wrote Nothing Yet, featuring Rosanne Cash. |
The prolific
writer coached Bridges on guitar for his Crazy Heart role - reportedly
a composite of Billy Joe Shaver, Kristofferson and the late Waylon Jennings.
Bridges wrote Falling Short and Tumbling Vine and collaborated
with Burnett on Slow Boat for the disc.
Burnett and New Mexico born Ryan Bingham also shared an Oscar for writing
The Weary Kind from Crazy Heart.
Jeff, son of late movie and TV star Lloyd and Dorothy Bridges, debuted
aged two, with his big brother Beau in his mother's movie The Company
She Keeps in 1951 and Lloyd's Sea Hunt TV series.
He has since appeared in 80 movies and TV series - he starred in Larry
McMurtry movie Texasville and 1998 film The Big Lebowski
that also featured country music including the late Texan Townes Van Zandt
on its soundtrack.
Other more recent movies include Sea Biscuit, The Men Who Stare At
Goats, True Grit and Tron: Legacy.
Bridges also released his debut solo album Be Here Soon in 2000.
Further info - www.jeffbridges.com/
ERIC CHURCH A HOME BOY
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North
Carolina country star Eric Church debuts on Nu Country TV with the
video for his satiric social comment song Homeboy. Church, 34, filmed his video about a young brother who goes off the rails at the old Tennessee state prison. It's the same gaol where the late Porter Wagoner filmed his video for the Johnny Cash song Committed To Parkview. Homeboy is on Church's third album Chief - it sold 145,000 copies in its first week. Although the song is about a young rural raised brother running off the rails in the city the singer says it's not specifically about his brother. |
"This
song is about one brother helping the other brother realise he's on the
wrong track and that if he doesn't change his ways, he's going to end
up in a much worse place," Church revealed.
"I do have a brother. He's been arrested. But it wasn't really about
him, quite honestly. I knew a lot of people who have been on the path
they shouldn't have been on. I think we can all relate to that."
Church also name checks the late Waylon Jennings in Like Jesus Does
and Johnny Cash in Country Music Jesus - a satiric swipe at critics
exposing faux outlaws.
CLICK HERE for a Church
feature in the Diary on October 18 2011.
O'SHEA OK
Expatriate Australian duo O'Shea returns here in January to promote its debut Sony-BMG CD Mr And Mrs.
 |
Queensland
born Mark O'Shea and South Australian born singing spouse Jay perform
their video for single Meant To Be on this week's show. |
Mark's debut
album landed him two Golden Guitars for Best New Talent and Video.
Shortly after becoming engaged the duo's careers took them to different
parts of the world.
Jay's Aussie Open Singing Championships $75,000 prize enabled her to move
to London for a Warner Chappell publishing deal.
She penned a #1 pop song in Europe and toured as a backing vocalist for
Australian rock legends, INXS.
But it wasn't until marrying and moving to Nashville in 2007 they made
music together.
They recorded EP Live At The Blue Bar Version 2.0, and toured with
Phil Vassar, Jimmy Wayne, Sara Evans, Oak Ridge Boys and Gretchen Wilson.
Jay and Mark write songs individually and as a duo with hit-makers Dave
Berg, Tim Nichols, Warren Brothers and Shawn Colvin.
Further info - http://www.facebook.com/therealoshea
JAYNE DENHAM - FARMER'S WIFE
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Londonderry
singer Jayne Denham returns as one of the headliners of Red Hill Country
Music Festival on Sunday January 8.
Denham is promoting her video Farmer's Wife from second album Shake
This Town.
Jayne's video pays tribute to the long-suffering rural spouses who share
hefty workloads with the sons of the soil.
The characters' roles on quad bikes and ride-on mowers may seem fun for
suburban sisters.
But they also practice bovine castration, fencing and feeding and suffer
fire, drought, floods, suicide and exorbitant fuel prices.
Luckily Jayne has a trucking company as sponsor to ferry her to gigs and
adorn her video clips.
Click Here
for a Denham story from the Diary on August 17, 2009.
DARIUS RUCKER
Former Hootie
& The Blowfish singer Darius Rucker is home in a library - even if
the blonde model appears to be leaving home in his new video I Got
Nothing.
The song is the third hit from Rucker's third album Charleston, South
Carolina, 1966 - named after his hometown.
 |
"I
love that song," Rucker, 45, revealed. Rucker
co-wrote all 11 songs on the 2010 album. |
Rucker has
good reason to nurture children - his dad was absent from his own childhood
in South Carolina.
The singer performed with The Blowfish at the wedding of golf champ Tiger
Woods and solo at the funeral of the golfer's father.
Now, with more than two million albums sold, his soulful country is sweet
solace.
Rucker hopes to emulate success of his former band that sold more than
25 million albums in their 22-year career that started at college in South
Carolina in 1986.
When Rucker scored with Don't Think I Don't Think About It he was
the first Afro-American to top country charts solo since Charley Pride's
29th smash Night Games in 1983.
The late Ray Charles was the last black artist to have a No. 1 country
single - duet with Willie Nelson on Seven Spanish Angels in March
1985.
More info - www.dariusrucker.com
LITTLE JOHN - BIG HANDS
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Melbourne
quintet Little John debuts on Nu Country with new single Put Your Hands
On Me.
Redfish bluegrass singer John Dickson fronts the band, formed in 2009.
The country folk gospel group cut its album on Saturday afternoons in
a backyard studio in Preston - home of the VFL Bullants.
Little John also features double bassist Brooke Penrose, guitarist Damo
Hooper drummer Bill Deeble and Greg Field on mandolin and fiddle.
Further info -
www.myspace.com/littlejohnmusician
JACKSON
AND LAMBERT PRIZES
There's great
news for fans of Georgian born superstar Alan Jackson and quadruple CMA
Award winning Texan star Miranda Lambert.
We have their latest CDS as prizes for viewers who renew Nu Country TV
memberships or become members.
Sony-BMG promotions chief Emma Smith also gave us Miranda's new DVD -
Revolution: Live By Candlelight.
Alan's 34 Number Ones features his biggest hits including his duet
with Zac Brown Band - As She's Walking Away.
The bonus tracks also include his cut of the late June Carter Cash-Merle
Kilgore written Johnny Cash hit Ring Of Fire and rare track Look
At Me.
Emma also donated Miranda's huge selling 4th CD Revolution.
And as a bonus there is Miranda's new DVD featuring rare acoustic cuts
of six songs White Liar, The House That Built Me, Love Song, Heart
Like Mine, Love Is Looking At You and Rolling Stones country classic
Dead Flowers.
WIN KEITH URBAN CDS
Expatriate
Australasian superstar Keith Urban is recovering from throat surgery.
To celebrate, Keith's record company EMI-Capitol has great news for Nu
Country TV viewers.
Promotions ace Bianca O'Neill donated autographed copies of his huge selling
ninth album Closer To You.
She also donated new compilation The Very Best Of Slim Dusty and
CMAA Winners - 2011.
All you have to do to win Jackson, Lambert, Urban and Dusty CDS or the
Lambert DVD is become a member of Nu Country or renew membership.
It costs just $20.
Please send a cheque or money order made out to Nu Country Music to us
at P O Box 625 - Northcote - 3070.
We also now have electronic banking for membership payment and renewal.
But email us first at music@nucountry.com.au
as stocks are limited.
Other prizes on offer include -
Eric Church - Chief
Luke Bryan - Tailgates & Tanlines.
Taylor Swift - 2ND CD Fearless.
Tim McGraw Southern Voice Tour CD with 11-bonus video clips.
Felicity - Landing Lights
Air Supply singer Russell Hitchcock - Tennessee - The Nashville Sessions
CD and DVD
Slim Dusty Sittin' On 80 Boxed Set
The Very Best Of Slim Dusty
Catherine Britt - Little Wildflowers.
Various compilation CDS.