DAVE'S DIARY - 23 MARCH 2015 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 4 - SERIES 26
OUTLAWS ROGER AND WILLIE HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV
Chattanooga singer-songwriter Roger Alan Wade enlisted actor Johnny Knoxville to direct his tribute to late Texan outlaw Waylon Jennings on Nu Country TV this Saturday March 28 at 10.30 pm on C 31/Digital 44.
Waylon's old sparring partner Shotgun Willie Nelson returns with daughter Paula on a show repeated Monday 5.30 am and 2.30 pm, Wednesday 7.30 am and Thursday 2.30 am.
Oklahoma singer John Fulbright debuts in Behind Bars on the show filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Kentucky rebel Chris Knight returns with a song covered here many moons ago by Hunter Valley singer Mitchell Shadlow.
We celebrate the return of the AFL season with a video featuring flashbacks to the VFA career of champion full forward Gary Hammond who kicked many of his goals at the nearby Camberwell footy oval.
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
ROGER ALAN WADE WAYLON TRIBUTE
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Chattanooga tunesmith Roger Alan Wade recalls the first time he saw idol Waylon Jennings in a home video directed by his cousin - actor Johnny Knoxville. Knoxville starred in 2005 movie Dukes Of Hazard that featured the theme song performed by Waylon in the long running TV show. Wade, now 55, and Knoxville host Sirius Radio show One Big Ass Happy Family Jubilee. |
Knoxville also played infamous Gram Parsons body snatcher Phil Kaufman in the Grand Theft Parsons movie that detailed how Phil and little Aussie mate Michael Martin stole Gram Parsons body from Van Nuys airport after he died on September 19, 1973.
Kaufman and Martin gave Parsons a cut rate cremation at Joshua Tree in Mojave desert in a death pact made two months earlier at Byrds guitarist Clarence White's funeral.
Wade wrote Rhinestones In The Ashes for Grand Theft Parsons and other songs for Knoxville's Jackass movies in which he had cameos.
He recorded The First Time I Saw Waylon on his second album Stoned Traveller .
“Waylon Jennings came to town and man, I saw him and I thought ‘that's the coolest white guy I ever saw in my life,” Wade revealed.
“He come out there, walking that line and I thought, ‘That's what I'm going to do.” The next day I went and got me a real guitar and that's been, I guess that's been 25 years ago maybe 30. I ain't looked back since. Waylon was Elvis to me. Of course I love Willie, Kristofferson, Guy Clark, Johnny Cash and Dylan but Waylon as a performer and a singer, he was it for me. I was just out of high school working at a stove factory downtown. I was really pretty happy with it until I saw Waylon, then it was curtains on regular life.”
Wade is indebted to Waylon's son Shooter and Knoxville for the video clip.
“Shooter Jennings gave us some footage to use, some old stuff of Waylon and he just let us use it for nothing,” Wade recalled.
“It was really sweet of him. Knox and Dimitry came in and we shot it all in one day.”
Wade also performs a live version of Deguello Motel - third album title track that took its name from a motel in a John Wayne movie.
Roger amuses patrons of the famed Loveless Café near Highway 100 in Nashville with his tale about the night he spent in room 17 of the motel with his pet fish when told he could not bring canine companions.
"There's an old Mexican dirge this place is named after," Wade sings on his 2010 album.
"And I heard it once in a box office disaster/The Duke told his boys said, 'It means leave or die'/I don't know much Spanish but John Wayne don't lie."
Wade's song-writing successes, apart from his six albums, include Hank Williams Jr 1986 #1 hit Country State of Mind , and other songs cut by Waylon, Johnny Cash and George Jones.
Further info - https://www.facebook.com/RogerAlanWadeMusic
WIILLE AND PAULA HONOUR JOHN FOGERTY
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Shotgun Willie Nelson enlisted Paula - one of four daughters - in his family band as they celebrate John Fogerty in their live version of his classic Have You Seen The Rain? Nelson originally recorded the song on his duets disc To All The Girls . Willie's new autobiography It's A Long Story, My Life is out May 5 - five days after his 82nd birthday. |
The 400-page tome with New York writer David Ritz is an “unvarnished, complete story of Willie Nelson's life - the last word about his life-from the man himself.”
It embraces his time in Texas , Nashville and Hawaii , his legendary bus, drive to write music, women in his life, collaborations, and biggest lows and highs from bankruptcy to founding Farm Aid.
It also include stories from many of Willie's friends including his roadie Ben Dorcy who turns 90 in May.
Willie and author Bud Shrake published Willie: An Autobiography through Simon and Schuster in 1988 - it was re-issued by Cooper Square press in paperback in 2000.
The 320-page book also included many stories from Willie Nelson's friends and family.
In 2008's author Joe Nick Patoski published Willie Nelson: An Epic Life - a massive 567-page biography.
Willie's 2012 175-page Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die, Musings From The Road was released through Harper Collins in conjunction with Willie's album Heroes that included a song of the same name.
Willie's 30th Farm Aid concert that helps family farmers and raises awareness of locally grown organic foods returns on September 17.
CLICK HERE for a Willie and Bobbie Nelson CD review in The Diary on January 21.
CLICK HERE to win a Willie CD on our membership page.
FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR IN AUSTIN
Oklahoma born red dirt singer John Fullbright performs a live version of his song Gawd Above at the famed Threadgill's Café in Austin - second home of Willie.
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Fullbright, just 26, wrote the song with Dustin Welch - son of prolific tourist Kevin back here this month. It was in 2013 movie August Osage County and debut album From The Ground Up . Fullbright grew up and still lives in Bearden , Oklahoma (population 133) and credits his early success as a singer-songwriter to the state's nurturing, low-stakes musical atmosphere. "It's such a fertile place to try to be a songwriter, there's no judgment and no ego," Fullbright says of the Oklahoma renaissance that spawned young singer-songwriters John Moreland, Parker Millsap and Samantha Crain over the last few years. |
"There's no music industry out here, so why wouldn't you let someone jump on stage with a guitar if they wanted to? They're not going to take your gig, because there's no gig to take."
After spending much of his adolescence studying piano and playing shows in nearby Oklahoma City , Fullbright released From The Ground Up in spring 2012.
Six months later he was nominated for a Grammy.
Fullbright's second record Songs changes pace.
After Americana critics praised From the Ground Up for its "rootsy, greasy, blue-collar sound," Fullbright turned to piano for a different feel on Songs.
His new album is a quiet collection of stately ballads and ruminative torch songs that dispels rural troubadour mythology about his debut.
"The new album is different in a way," says Ashley Monroe, who has been a huge fan of Fullbright since Blake Shelton raved about the singer to her after discovering him on A Prairie Home Companion a few years back.
"But I get so lost in the songs that I don't pay attention to anything other than what he's saying and how he's singing. I couldn't say what instruments he's playing or anything, I just know I feel it."
Further info - http://www.johnfullbrightmusic.com/
CHRIS KNIGHT FRAMED IN KENTUCKY
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Kentuckian Chris Knight, now 54, resurrected Framed from his 1998 self-titled debut disc.
The song was also cut by Hunter Valley singer Mitchell Shadlow on his album One Of These Days.
Mitchell lived in Dublin from 2000-07 where he produced his album The Last Eleven Years that preceded All In The Raising .
Knight's graphic story songs have been hits for peers diverse as John Anderson, Lee Ann Womack, Gary Allan and Randy Travis.
He has written with Texan born troubadour Lee Ann Womack whose second husband Frank Liddell discovered Knight in the nineties.
Their collaboration You Lie When You Call My Name appears on his eighth album Little Victories.
Womack recorded several Knight songs on her eighth album The Way I'm Living including Send It On Down - the second single by Knight and David Leone.
Knight grew up in small western Kentucky town Slaughters.
CLICK HERE for Chris Knight CD reviews in the Diary on February 16.
GARY HAMMOND FOOTY METAPHORS
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Former champion Camberwell VFA full forward Gary Hammond returns with flashbacks of his footy career at the picturesque suburban oval and way beyond.
Hammond topped the VFA goal kicking many times during his colourful reign at the eastern suburbs team.
The spearhead swapped his boots for a microphone in his singing career that includes Fare Thee Well - a metaphor and tribute to his team-mates - from new album I Once Lived Here .
Gary is from small Victorian country town Gruyere, due south of Healesville.
Gruyere has no shops, hotel or post office, so it is more of an area than a town but a few miles down the road stands the magnificent old home of Dame Nellie Melba in adjoining town Coldstream.
Gary, a guitarist and pianist, recalls grandfather Eric singing in his church quartet.
He was once a member of the Bad Apple Bush Band in the Dandenong ranges in the mid 80's to 90's.
Further info - http://garyhammond.com.au/gh/
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.