DAVE'S DIARY - 17/8/2015 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 11 - SERIES 27
MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER AND TIFT MERRITT HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV
Quintuple Grammy award winner Mary Chapin Carpenter and Tift Merritt again headline Nu Country TV this Saturday August 22 at 10.30 pm on Channel 31/Digital 44 on the eve of their latest Australian tours.
Texans Rich O'Toole and Granger Smith also return to the show repeated Monday 5.30 am and 2.30 pm and Wednesday 7.30 am.
Gippsland born balladeer Gord Bamford appears after topping charts in adoptive homeland Canada .
And Kentucky duo Montgomery Gentry also return on the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
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
MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER HEADS SOUTH TO LOUISIANA
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Mary Chapin Carpenter travels back in time and down south to Louisiana in Behind Bars to celebrate with famed band B eausoleil in Down At The Twist And Shout .
She released it in June 1991 as third single from her 1990 album Shooting Straight in the Dark.
It reached #2 on Billboard and she performed it with Beausoleil pre-game at Super Bowl XXXI.
In 1992 Down At The Twist And Shout won Carpenter a Grammy for Best Female country vocal.
Alvin and the Chipmunks recorded a cover for their 1992 album Chipmunks in Low Places .
New Jersey born Mary Chapin, now 57, debuted here in 1991 with Louisiana born Lucinda Williams and Rosanne Cash at Dallas Brooks Hall in East Melbourne .
The five time Grammy winner returned in 2000 for a St Kilda Palais concert.
This time Mary Chapin and Texan born Tift Merritt make their Victorian debut at Ulumbarra Theatre in Bendigo on September 3.
They also play National Theatre in St Kilda, September 4, and famed Caravan Club in Oakleigh on September 5.
CLICK HERE for an exclusive historic interview with Mary Chapin and CD reviews in The Diary.
TIFT MERRITT STILL NOT HOME
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Houston born, North Carolina raised singer-songwriter Tift Merritt is a well-travelled troubadour. This week she heads north to the famed Newport folk festival to perform Still Not Home live in Behind Bars . Tift Merritt, now 40, left Houston when she was two and moved to Raleigh , North Carolina . She has since released seven albums, including two live discs and an EP with her former band the Two Dollar Pistols. Still Not Home is on her fifth album Travelling Alone , released on October 2, 2012. |
It was her first on Yep Roc Records and featured Eric Heywood on pedal steel, John Convertino of Calexico on drums, Marc Ribot on guitar, Rob Burger on keyboards and cameo by Andrew Bird.
Her music has appeared in TV series The L Word, Men in Trees, United States of Tara, Hart of Dixie and Switched at Birth and movies New in Town, Little Birds , and Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return.
Merritt is also a photographer - her first exhibition, Other Countries, ran at The Mahler Gallery in Raleigh , North Carolina in May 2009.
She enrolled at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to study creative writing.
She met husband Zeke Hutchins who decided instead to become a school teacher during his band's hiatus.
Merritt and Hutchins formed a band and he set up his drum kit in the kitchen of their farmhouse - they practiced songs at her piano.
In 2009 Tift married Zeke - her drummer and her long-time partner - in New York City where they now live.
CLICK HERE for a Tift CD review in the Diary on February 21, 2005.
RICH O'TOOLE JADED
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Fellow Houston born singer-songwriter Rich O'Toole returns to Nu Country with his hi-tech video for Too Good To Call from his fifth album Jaded, released in June, 2014 . The singer, 31, showcased a fine line in hash tags - not hash browns. The College Station raised singer-songwriter honoured famous late uncle Hank Cochran in his song title-checking previous video for Uncle Hank. Rich used Cochran song titles to illustrate a story of past love in Uncle Hank on the song penned with Chris Monteverde and Suzi Cochran - nephew and widow of late-song-writing legend Hank. |
Hank died at 74 in 2010 after writing more than 50 hits for peers diverse as Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, Ray Price and George Strait.
Rich wrote the Jaded title track with actor Evan Gamble when they escaped to Palm Springs to ride out the painful sense of defeat they felt after enduring similar breakups.
O'Toole toured to promote Jaded, directed by Oden Roberts, whose movie, A Fighting Season, came out this year.
O'Toole released debut album, Seventeen , in 2007 and second album In a Minute or 2 , on October 21, 2008.
His third album Kiss of a Liar featured the duet with Josh Abbott titled Ay Dios Mio and cover of Wilco song Casino Queen with guest Pat Green and fourth album Brightwork on his label, PTO Records .
CLICK HERE for a Jaded Review in The Diary on March 16, 2015.
GRANGER SMITH MILES AND MUD TYRES
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Fellow Texan Granger Smith escaped office metrosexual chains for the Lost Highway in his video for Miles And Mud Tyres.
Life in the slow lane down home beats the fast lane any time for a sharp shooter with a gun and brunette.
It's on his eighth album Dirt Road Driveway that peaked at #15 on Billboard.
His latest single Backroad Song was featured in the U.S. ABC-TV hit series Nashville in June.
Granger, also known as Earl Dibbles Jr, hails from Dallas and was signed to a contract at 19 when he moved to Nashville .
He has performed three times at the White House, and in 2008 he travelled to perform for soldiers in Iraq and Kuwait .
Granger discovered his alter ego when he and his brother were playing with a camera at the family ranch and popularised it in his tune The Country Boy Song .
He discovered music at Lake Highlands High School in Dallas and Texas A & M where he earned a Bachelor's degree.
Granger stayed in Nashville five years but lives back in Texas with actress wife Amber whom he met in one of several of his videos she appeared in.
He signed with Broken Bow Records last week and will record his ninth album with Frank Rogers who also produced Brad Paisley.
Further info - http://www.grangersmith.com/
GORD BAMFORD UNREAL
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Alberta singer Gord Bamford performs in the video for Unreal from his sixth album Country Junkie. Gord was born in Traralgon in the heart of Gippsland but left for the high country of Alberta in Canada at the age of five with his singer mum Marilyn. Now, 39, he's nominated for six gongs at this year's Canadian music awards. He returned in August, 2014, to perform at the famed Gympie Muster. |
Gord released 2001 debut album, God's Green Earth , on his GWB Records before heading to Nashville in 2003 to write with Steve Fox, Tim Taylor and Byron Hill who co-produced his second album Life Is Good.
He wrote 10 of 11 songs - six singles included top 20 hits My Heart's a Genius, All About Her, Life Is Good and I Would for You - and opened shows for Tim McGraw, Kenny Rogers, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Don Williams and Terri Clark.
His third album Honkytonks and Heartaches produced by Byron Hill, was released on September 25, 2007 - first single, Blame It On That Red Dress , was Gord's first top 10 Canadian hit.
Gord's fourth album, Day Job , was released in April 2010, with four singles - Day Job, Put Some Alcohol On It , My Daughter's Father and Hank Williams Lonesome .
Fifth album Is It Friday Yet ? in 2012 had five singles - Is It Friday Yet?, Leaning on a Lonesome Song, Disappearing Tail Lights, Farm Girl Strong and Must Be a Woman .
Bamford's sixth album, Country Junkie , was released in October 2013 and Christmas in Canada, in November 2013.
Further info - www.gordbamford.com
MONTGOMERY GENTRY SPEED
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Kentucky duo Montgomery Gentry returns with the vide for Speed from their eighth album Folks Like Us.
They sing of life way beyond the big smoke in their rural roots in a 26 year career.
It's the Kentucky duo's first album since Rebels On The Run in 2011.
Eddie Montgomery, now 51 and brother of fellow country star John Michael Montgomery, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2010.
He recovered a month later but was served divorce papers by wife Tracy at his Montgomery's Steakhouse in Harrodsburg , Kentucky .
It closed abruptly in 2013.
The couple had four children and were married for over 20 years.
Partner Troy Gentry, now 48, also had bad karma in 2004 when he bought a black bear from Minnesota Wildlife Connection and shot it from inside an electrified enclosure, commonly known as a "canned hunting.”
On November 27, 2006, Gentry pleaded guilty to falsely tagging a bear he killed in a fenced enclosure.
Troy was fined $15,000 and banned from hunting, fishing and trapping in Minnesota for five years.
He forfeited the stuffed bear and his bow long before Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer shot popular protected lion Cecil in Zimbabwe on an illegal $50,000 hunt.
The duo revealed the secret to their long-standing friendship.
"We don't talk," Eddie Montgomery joked recently.
"I guess it's just the friendship that developed before coming to town," Troy Gentry explained.
"We know what buttons to push, what not to push, when we can dig a little harder or when we need to back off and give each other some space. It's like any other relationship - knowing how to respectfully treat your partner."
"Be open-minded. And, first and foremost, you have to respect your partner. You can't get respect unless you give it first."
CLICK HERE for a Montgomery Gentry CD review on January 29, 2007.
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support as we celebrate the 27th series of Nu Country TV.
Australian record companies and artists have joined forces to ensure our survival.
We now offer Angels And Alcohol - the 20th album by Georgian superstar Alan Jackson.
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, Charley Pride, Slim Dusty and more.
We also have a Lady Antebellum DVD.
CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for full details.