DAVE'S DIARY - 25 MAY 2015 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 13 - SERIES 26
SHOTGUN WILLIE NELSON AND MERLE HAGGARD HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV
Shotgun Willie Nelson, 82, and young former convict country star Merle Haggard, just 78, headline Nu Country TV Saturday May 30 at 10.30 pm on Channel 31, Digital 44 with their humorous dope parody It's All Going To Pot.
Canadian Jess Moskaluke, who turns 25on June 4, joins her elders with a warning about cheap wine and cigarettes on the show hosted by Mid Pacific Bob Olson and filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Texans Wade Bowen and Randy Rogers continue the satirical theme with a music industry spoof in Behind Bars in a program repeated Monday 5.30 am and 2.30 pm and Thursday 2.30 am.
North Carolina baritone Ray Scott goes one better with booze antidote Ain't Always Thirsty and teenage tourists Maddie & Tae return three months after their debut Australian tour.
Sydney singer-songwriter Nick Payne reminds us of sin city's convict roots in an innovative live performance.
Nu Country TV is a highlight of C 31 streaming list on Digital 44.
Just follow this link on your computer or mobile phone - http://www.c31.org.au/program/view/program/nu-country-tv
WILLIE & MERLE ON THE POT AGAIN
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Shotgun Willie and Merle Haggard exude road weary humour with their video for It's All Going To Pot from their third duet album Django And Jimmie.
The duo act out their herb superb satire in a quirky collage of live and studio footage.
They showcased it on Jimmy Kimmel Live in Austin in March before its release on April 20.
The memorable lyrics include “It's all going to pot/whether we like it or not/as far as I can tell/the world's gone to hell/and we're sure gonna miss it a lot.”
Both are well qualified to sing of their favourite booze surrogate.
Merle's promoter hired a smoking carriage on his outback train during his 1996 Aussie tour.
And Nelson was feted during his 1981 tour with Dead Livers hit I'd Love To Have A Joint With Willie that became the Texan grandfather's pre-concert warm-up song on their public address system.
Your diarist declares his vested interest here - he wrote the lyrics with Dead Livers singer Marty Atchison and landed the story on front pages of national newspapers.
Django And Jimmie is the duo's sequel to Seashores of Old Mexico in 1987, Pancho & Lefty in 1983 and trio disc with the late Texan Ray Price Last of the Breed in 2007.
Their previous project topped Billboard country charts for seven non-consecutive weeks from April-October of its release year.
According to Haggard the new record boasts “new songs, a couple of classics, and Willie sang like he was a teenager.”
Eight of 14 tracks were co-written by either Haggard or Nelson.
“The title track is about Django Reinhardt and Jimmie Rodgers,” Nelson explained.
“Both of those guys were very influential in both of our careers.”
Django and Jimmie is Nelson's sixth studio album for Legacy since signing with the label in 2012.
“It's really good; I think it's the best one we've done,” says Haggard.
“We didn't really do any swing, per se, we just did straight-ahead songs that we felt good about.”
Even though Nelson was victim of recent death hoaxes he's very much alive and well.
He launched his own line of marijuana and related products called Willie's Reserve .
Merle recently graduated from Bakersfield High School 60 years after attending his last class as a truant.
He was also awarded an honorary doctorate by the California State University in Bakersfield in 2013.
Merle was a decent student until 8th grade when he began to act up.
At the behest of older sister Lillian Haggard, Merle was sent to Juvenile Hall in an attempt to scare him straight.
Sadly the Juvenile Hall assignment aided little Merle's downward spiral.
Soon he was committing petty theft, and breaking out of jail an incredible 17 times in and around Bakersfield before being sent to San Quentin despite not committing a major crime.
On one occasion he broke into a Bakersfield restaurant through the back door kitchen when it was still serving refreshments.
In San Quentin he turned 21 and was inspired to start a country career after watching one of Johnny Cash's famed prison concerts.
After Merle left San Quentin, he never committed another major offense.
California Governor Ronald Reagan pardoned Haggard for all crimes and expunged his criminal record in 1972.
CLICK HERE to win a Willie Nelson CD on our membership page.
CLICK HERE for a recent Willie feature in The Diary on January 21.
CLICK HERE for a Merle feature in The Diary on June 14, 2010.
JESS CHEAP WINE & CIGARETTES WARNING
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Canadian chanteuse Jess Moskaluke debuts with her video featuring a moving metaphor for addiction to love.
The Saskatchewan songbird's tune Cheap Wine & Cigarettes is on her aptly titled debut album Light Up The Night.
In September 2011 she won the New Artist Showcase Award at Canadian Country Music Association Awards and represented Canada at the Global Artist Party at the 2012 CMA Music Festival.
Her debut single Catch Me If You Can was released on June 4, 2012 and followed by an EP of the same name.
Second single Hit N Run reached top 40 on the Billboard Canada Country chart in 2013.
Jess, 25 on June 4, was named Female Vocalist of the Year at the 2013 Saskatchewan Country Music Association Awards - her single Good Lovin ' reached top 20 on the Billboard Canada Country chart.
The album Light Up the Night was released on April 15, 2014, with Cheap Wine and Cigarettes and Used both released as singles.
Further info - http://www.jessmoskaluke.com/
WADE BOWEN AND RANDY ROGERS
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Texan troubadours Wade Bowen and Randy Rogers hammer home their message in their new video Standards.
It's an answer to critics who claim Bowen and Rogers sold out when they left Texas for Nashville.
They rejected record company pressure to cut clichéd hits about dirt roads.
It's on their joint album Hold My Beer , Volume 1.
“Tell me how can I sell out if I barely sell at all / you won't see my name on the Billboard, but every night I pack the dance floor,” they sing, “there's your answer / I don't have hits, I've got standards.”
The video, shot in Nashville and Austin , was directed by twin brother duo Matt and John Edde, who have also directed videos for Jon Pardi, Maddie & Tae, Hunter Hayes, Big & Rich, Brett Eldredge, Jamie Lynn Spears and more.
They also directed Rogers videos for Trouble Knows My Name and Satellite but this clip is their first with Bowen.
“I think that they are both such funny and awesome people individually,” Matt Edde revealed.
“When you get them together, the chemistry and authenticity of their friendship really translates on screen.”
The Texas Tech University graduate Bowen hails from Waco - hometown of Steve Martin and where Billy Joe Shaver hangs his hat.
He last appeared on Nu Country with When I Woke Up Today from his self-titled seventh album, released in October.
Rogers also showcased his previous video for Interstate from fifth album Burning The Day.
Randy was born in Cleburne , Texas , and learned piano from his grandmother at the age of six and guitar at 12.
His band recorded debut album, Live at Cheatham Street Warehouse - a famed music hall in San Marcos , Texas - and in 2002 released Like It Used to Be on indie label Downtime.
Sixth album T rouble in 2013 was followed by Home Made Tamales Live at Floore's Store in April, 2014.
Further info - http://www.randyrogersband.com/
Further info - http://wadebowen.com
RAY SCOTT – DRINKING ANTIDOTE
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North Carolina baritone Ray Scott reveals his drinking woes in his video for new single Ain't Always Thirsty from his self-titled fourth album on his Jethropolitan label. The video was shot in a dark motel in East Nashville - it was a product of Scott's painful divorce and written with Stephen Paul Jones. Scott said, that despite the bevy of beauties adorning his motel bed, it was harder to film than Drinkin' Beer when he showed some leg in a mini skirt. The singer, born Carlton Ray Scott, Jr in Semora , North Carolina , started his first band at 19 and moved to Atlanta , Georgia , where he received an associate's degree at the Music Business Institute. Scott later moved to Raleigh , North Carolina , and started another band before moving to Nashville. His first two hits as a songwriter were A Few Questions by Texan Clay Walker and Pray for the Fish by Randy Travis. |
He signed to Warner Brothers in 2005 and released My Kind of Music album that produced three singles - My Kind of Music, Gone Either Way and I Didn't Come Here to Talk.
Scott released second album Crazy Like Me in 2008 and third disc Rayility in 2012.
“Every song is like a separate vignette in both subject matter and production, but it also exists as a complete body of work,” Ray says.
He wrote Drinkin' Beer with Tony Mullins, murder ballad Papa And Mama and Tijuana Buzzkill eight years ago.
“It's a true story, right down to having my foot peed on by a Mexican guy,” Scott says.
Further info - http://rayscott.com/
MADDIE & TAE DYE FLY
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Teenagers Maddie Marlow and Tae Dye strut their stuff in their video for Fly that they performed on their March Australian tour with Lady Antebellum and Kristian Bush.
Maddie & Tae debuted on Nu Country with Girl In A Country Song - their parody of the generic Bro-Country fad clogging U.S. charts and corporate country radio.
They wrote Fly for their EP All About That Bass featuring more of their original songs, out in November.
Maddie, 19, hails from Sugarland , Texas , and Tae, 18, is from across the border in Ada , Oklahoma - same hometown Blake Shelton was discovered by late hit writer-publisher Mae Boren Axton.
Mae wrote Elvis Presley hit Heartbreak Hotel and was mum of the late singing actor Hoyt Axton.
Maddie and Tae met at 15 in Dallas through a vocal coach and moved to Nashville after graduating from high school.
They teamed with songwriter Aaron Scherz and signed with Big Machine Records imprint Dot.
The duo wrote debut single, Girl in a Country Song , with Scherz, who produced it with Dann Huff who also worked with expat Australasian superstar Keith Urban and other major acts.
They originally signed with Big Machine publishing and wrote every day.
By the time they turned in Girl in a Country Song , they had penned about 200 songs.
“We were writing the song thinking that no one was gonna hear it. It was just going to be a song that we played at writer rounds, maybe on a Nashville street corner,” Dye revealed recently.
“But we turned it into our publishing team at Big Machine , they called two days later and said ‘Hey, so yeah, Girl in a Country Song is gonna be your first single, and you're getting signed to Dot Records . Good luck.' It was crazy.”
“Maddie and I both have been singing since the age of three, and we pretty much knew from an early age that this was the career we wanted to pursue.
“When we met when we were 15 and 16, we knew that this was our passion. I think we started traveling back and forth to Nashville when we were 15 and 16. We definitely had to grow up fast and figure out what we wanted to prioritise in our lives.
I think pretty much both of us knew at an early age that singing and being an artist is the career that we wanted to pursue. You know, all your friends are like, in school and having school mind and we kind of had to grow up quick. We aren't very good at being teenagers. I think us ladies, we are complicated creatures. God made us so we're just special.”
The Bro-Country fad milked by artists diverse as Florida Georgia Line , Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean was easy to parody.
“We like to have options, and these songs don't really give us any options,” Dye said of Bro-Country .
“We're only good for looking good and all of that stuff. So, that's what really inspired this idea, and I think that's why so many people are connecting because women want to feel beautiful no matter what.”
Marlow added: “It's funny because when we get up on stage, people are like, 'Okay, we've seen this before. Two blond girls. Probably gonna sing about love and boys and all this kind of stuff. And we do get inspired by that and write about it. But there's a lot more to be said. It's all about what we're inspired by, all different things. The cool thing is, we're coming from a real place in everything. So no matter what we're discussing, it's definitely real."
Further info - http://www.maddieandtae.com/
NICK PAYNE REVISITS SYDNEY PENAL COLONY
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Sydney singer-songwriter Nick Payne revisits a penal colony via a trip in time to 1789 in his live video for Old Sydney Town from his forthcoming solo album.
The Dear Orphans singer-songwriter used modern bookcases to frock up his rollicking bluegrass ode to hardships of life in the colony of 1789 Sydney , this is an old time modal song combined with bluegrass banjo and dobro.
Co-produced with Lyn Taylor of Dear Orphans it was recorded in the lounge of band dobro player Jolyon Gray in June 2014.
Recorded live with only backing vocals and tambourine added later it was designed to capture spontaneity and energy from a live performance.
The album features 12 songs, divided into two sides.
Side A will be songs set in the present, produced with contemporary instrumentation and Side B songs will be set in the past produced with traditional acoustic instrumentation.
Co-writes with fellow country music artists Katie Brianna and Megan Cooper are already slated to embrace themes of hardship, revenge, death, peace, goodbyes and salvation.
Nick grew up in Sydney but has also lived in Wollongong , Dalby in Queensland , Gold Coast and back to Sydney in 2005.
He played piano at 8, was given a guitar at 12 Nick by his mum and quit piano!
In his final year of school Nick was in three-piece indie rock band The Caveman and is realistic about the quirks of the music industry.
“I'm a computer nerd working for an online travel insurance company,” Payne said of his day job.
Further info - http://www.dearorphans.com/
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support as we celebrate the 26th series of Nu Country TV .
Australian record companies and artists have joined forces to ensure our survival.
We have new CDS by major artists you can win by becoming a Nu Country TV member or renewing your membership.
They include singing actors Willie Nelson and Tim McGraw, Voice judge Blake Shelton, Ashley Monroe, Brad Paisley, Gary Allan, Toby Keith, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Chris Young, Charley Pride, Slim Dusty, Rosanne Cash and more.
We also have DVDS by Lady Antebellum.
CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for full details.