DAVE'S DIARY - 13/4/2015 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 7 - SERIES 26
BLACKBERRY SMOKE DEBUTS ON NU COUNTRY TV
Georgian band Blackberry Smoke debuts on Nu Country TV Saturday April 18 at 10.30 pm on Channel 31/Digital 44.
Kentuckian Sturgill Simpson also returns to the show repeated Monday 5.30 am and 2.30 pm, Tuesday 4 pm, Wednesday 7.30 am and Thursday 2.30 am.
Bluegrass clans The Vincents and Cox Family perform Behind Bars in the show filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Texan Bruce Robison and singing spouse Kelly Willis also revive a Tom T Hall classic on the show featuring the return of expat Queenslander 8 Ball Aitken.
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
GEORGIANS LOST IN THE FOREST
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Blackberry Smoke debuts in a forest setting, replete with mountain metaphors for human struggles.
The quintet, discovered by fellow Georgian Zac Brown on his Southern Ground label, performs Too High from its fifth album Holding All The Roses.
Their Rounder Records debut was released eight months after live album DVD Leave a Scar: Live in North Carolina - a 22-track recording of an April, 2012 gig at Winston-Salem haunt Ziggy's.
"We were like, 'Well, hell, let's just film another show,'" lead singer Charlie Starr revealed of the DVD.
“We want to make a different record every time, if we can,” he explained of the new album.
“As a band, it's so enjoyable to learn how to use the studio because the studio's a different animal than playing live. We wanted to make a record with more textures, more tone, more light and shade, you know? And so that's what we did. I think we achieved that.”
“We want to always keep it fresh, not only for ticket buyers but for ourselves, so we're trying to incorporate new things. And with the new album is a whole new batch of songs that work their way into the show, but at the same time, we'll be pulling older stuff as well. We always try and keep it a nice mixture.”
The quintet played Nashville 's famed Ryman Auditorium on April 3 and have toured with Zac Brown Band, Eric Church, Z.Z. Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
On August 26, 2012, they performed charity benefit the Boot Ride with the cast of Sons of Anarchy , at the Happy Ending Bar and Grill in Hollywood .
Ole Smoky Tennessee Moonshine, Tennessee's First Legal Moonshine , also has a music partnership with Blackberry Smoke .
Further info - http://www.blackberrysmoke.com/
STURGILL SIMPSON PAINTS PROMISES
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Kentuckian Sturgill Simpson returns with his arty video for his evocative song Promise from his second album Metamodern Sounds In Country Music.
Sturgill, now 36, has lavish TV exposure from David Letterman and a surge of web page traffic after expat Australasian Keith Urban wore his tee shirt on American Idol .
He shares genetics with Texan chart topper Miranda Lambert, both children of former undercover narcotics cops.
The former U.S. Marine was born in Jackson in southeast Kentucky and moved to Versailles near Lexington .
Sturgill has toured with Zac Brown Band who returned in March with gigs at Byron Bay and St Kilda Palais on March 31.
The multi-instrumentalist train conductor in a previous life on Union Pacific , released Life of Sin with a live video at historic Nashville RCA Studio A.
Simpson made his network TV debut on July 14 on Letterman, playing Life of Sin, and performed Turtles All The Way Down on Jimmy Fallon on October 28.
He has also played Grand Ole Opry and opened for singing actors Dwight Yoakam and Shotgun Willie.
Further info - http://www.sturgillsimpson.com/
VINCENT FAMILY HONOUR WOUNDED SOLDIER
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Rhonda Vincent, her brother Darren and their mother Carolyn pay tribute to a wounded soldier in their live performance in our Behind Bars bluegrass double shot. Rhonda, 52, has made 16 albums since starting with Carolyn and Darren in their Missouri family band Sally Mountain Show as children. |
She also released two-disc set Only Me that combines her love of bluegrass and country and spent much of the year on the road performing those songs.
The singer-songwriter admits that, even after 25 years in music, she finds her new set of tunes challenging to sing every night.
"All of these songs, I found myself singing in a different way, and probably the songs on this album were more difficult than anything I've ever sang before," she said.
"And as I got on stage and started singing them, there's not just one song - I mean, it's almost exhausting when you start singing these songs with all of the turns and the twists and holding the notes out."
Shotgun Willie Nelson, 80, and Georgian singer Daryle Singletary, 41 and seven album veteran, also appear on Only Me .
CLICK HERE for a Vincent CD review in the Diary on September 25, 2006.
COX FAMILY WEARY
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Grammy winning Cox Family hails from Cotton Valley , Louisiana , and were in the O Brother Where Art Thou movie.
Their version of I Am Weary is on Down From The Mountain - a concert based on the movie
And their 1994 collaboration with Alison Krauss on I Know Who Holds Tomorrow won the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Album.
The Cox Family also shared a Grammy for the project Amazing Grace: A Country Salute to Gospel .
Their fifth album Just When We're Thinking It's Over , was released on Asylum in 1996.
The band comprises Evelyn Cox, 55, guitar, vocals, Lynn Cox 54, bass, vocals, Sidney Cox 29, banjo, dobro, guitar, vocals, Suzanne Cox 47, mandolin, vocals, Willard Cox 77 fiddle, vocals and Greg Underwood 47 bass, vocals.
BRUCE ROBISON AND KELLY WILLIS REVISIT HARPER VALLEY PTA
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Texan Bruce Robison and singing spouse Kelly Willis revive 1968 Tom T Hall classic Harper Valley PTA - originally a hit for Jeannie C Riley.
Harper Valley PTA is on their third duet disc Our Year.
They performed live in our Nu Country FM studio on Beer Can Hill four months before it burned down on June 26, 2000?
Bruce, 48, and Kelly, 46, are parents of four children - including twins.
He also wrote #1 hits Travelin' Soldier for the Dixie Chicks , Tim McGraw's Angry All the Time and Wrapped for George Strait .
Robison has since released eight solo albums dating back to 1996.
After 17 years of marriage, four children, and more than 15 albums, Bruce and Kelly cut Cheater's Game in 2013.
It was so invigorating they boomeranged with Our Year in May, 2014.
“When we decided to make Cheater's Game , I was like, "I'll either write 13 of them or none of them,” Robison revealed.
“I don't care which one it is." I just wanted to record great songs. I'm hoping my songs measured up, but I'm willing to go to the mat for the other tunes on Cheater's Game , whether it's a Dave Alvin song or a Robert Earl Keen song or a Razzy Bailey song or a Hayes Carll song. Those are great songs and I really feel like we brought something fresh to them. Our Year is a continuation with original songs, as well as songs like Tom T. Hall-penned Harper Valley P.T.A . and the Statler Brothers' I'll Go to My Grave Loving You."
It was worth it for Robison and Oklahoma born Willis and wed to high school boyfriend and Radio Ranch drummer Mas Palermo from 1989-1991.
Willis had a cameo in Tim Robbins' 1992 film Bob Roberts .
“We had waited so long to collaborate for Cheater's Game , but the feeling was that we had done all the hard work of putting the band together, finding our sound and knowing how it all worked,” Bruce explained.
“We had put in all the blood, sweat and tears - and we knew we were going to take a break from it - so we decided to go out with a bang with the new album. I'm really glad that we did, and we both feel that these two projects hang together as a moment in time.”
CLICK HERE for a Bruce Robison interview in The Diary on January 9, 2013.
CLICK HERE for a Kelly review in The Diary on March 30, 2004.
8 BALL AITKEN ADVICE TO HOUSE PESTS
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Expat Queenslander 8 Ball Aitken has some advice for house pests in his video for Shut The Front Door from his eighth album The New Normal .
Aitken is joined on stage by some beefy blondes with tatts and teats.
“The girls are friends of mine,” 8 Ball told Nu Country .
“They are cool as can be. They are going to be in my next video too which is called Seven Bucks An Hour in A Chicken Suit.”
CLICK HERE for The New Normal CD review in The Diary .
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.