DAVE' S DIARY - 13 JULY 2015 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 6 - SERIES 27
SONS OF PREACHERS HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV
Dual Australian tourists and sons of preachers Love And Theft headline Nu Country TV Saturday July 18 at 10.30 pm on Channel 31/ Digital 44.
The duo is joined by Missouri minstrel Tyler Farr and California kid Jon Pardi in a show warning of the perils of drinking.
Aptly named Texan band Whiskey Myers sing of being raised on a prison farm in Behind Bars on the show repeated Monday 5.30 am and 2.30 pm, Wednesday 7.30 am and Thursday 3 a.m.
Michigan singer Whitey Morgan revives the late Texan troubadour Townes Van Zandt's prophetic Waiting Around to Die on the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Another Texan Granger Smith reveals his preferred attire when he goes to God in his video for Bury Me In Blue Jeans .
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
LOVE AND THEFT AND WHISKEY
 |
Nashville sons of preachers Love And Theft return to Nu Country with a biblical parable they sang on their second Australian tour.
Stephen Barker Liles and Eric Gunderson - both 31 - warn of how hard liquor destroys marriage and families in their hit from their new indie disc.
Whiskey On My Breath is title track of the third album by the band who played the seventh CMC Rocks The Hunter festival in 2014.
It followed Night That You'll Never Forget on Sony .
Eric married Emily Hagar in 2010 and flew home from another CMC festival for the early birth of son Camden William on March 10, 2013.
Love and Theft formed as a trio in 2006 in Nashville with Brian Bandas who sang lead and played guitar.
All three grew up in church, moved to Nashville around the same time and were introduced by songwriter Robert Ellis Orrall.
They rehearsed for six months before playing shows and auditioned for several labels until Lyric Street signed them to Carolwood .
They went back to day jobs until contracts worked out.
Liles worked at Blockbuster , Gunderson did tiling and Bandas toiled at an Irish bar and all three parked cars at Maggiano's restaurant in Nashville .
"That was a real balancing act that year," Bandas said.
"We were writing a lot and knew that we were going to take this to the next level in a matter of time. We were trying to make sure once the time came we were ready. When we weren't working our crappy normal jobs, we were writing and rehearsing. We played a lot in Nashville for a year."
Their top ten chart debut was Runaway from debut album, World Wide Open , released on August 25, 2009.
Love and Theft became a duo in 2011 when Bandas left, moved to RCA and released Angel Eyes - their first #1 single.
Top 40 hits Runnin' Out of Air and If You Ever Get Lonely both appeared on their second album.
Liles was engaged to Jenna Michelle Kennedy on May 28, 2013 - on August 28, 2013 they had their first child before a June 2014 wedding.
CLICK HERE for an exclusive interview with the band in The Diary.
TYLER FARR WALKS INTO A BAR
 |
Missouri minstrel Tyler Farr extends the hard liquor theme in his new honky tonk temptation tune. A Guy Walks Into A Bar from Farr's second album Suffer In Peace that peaked at #7 on Billboard. It follows previous video Whiskey In My Water from debut disc Redneck Crazy that reached #28. The singer, now 31, explored the allure of hard liquor in the basement of his favourite distillery before driving his trusty truck on a dirt road. In the video for that album's title track his character parked his Silverado on his belle's lawn with the headlights on her boudoir. |
Video guests were fellow artists Colt Ford, Lee Brice and Willie Robertson from the Duck Dynasty TV show.
Darius Rucker also snagged Duck Dynasty stars for his video of Wagon Wheel - the song penned by Bob Dylan and updated by Old Crow Medicine Show when they recorded it.
Farr also co-wrote songs Hey Y'all for Colt Ford and She's Just Like That for Joe Nichols.
In early 2012 Farr released debut single Hot Mess that he co-wrote with Rhett Akins and moved to Columbia to release second single Hello Goodbye .
CLICK HERE for a Tyler Farr review in The Diary.
JON PARDI AT THE WHISKEY BENT SALOON
 |
Californian Jon Pardi visited Whiskey Bent Saloon in Nashville to film the video for his third single What I Can't Put Down from debut album Write You A Song .
Pardi, 30, got breaks touring with Arizona bluegrass and country star Dierks Bentley who played St Kilda Palais with Aussie country king Lee Kernaghan on March 13, 2012.
Unlike concert guests - Carlton footballers Andrew Walker and David Ellard and St Kilda captain Nick Riewoldt - Pardi kicks different goals.
His energetic video for second single Up All Night was his first Top 10 hit.
The singer toured as opening act for label-mate Dierks, Eric Church, Gary Allan and Alan Jackson before debut single Missin' You Crazy debuted peaked at #29 in 2012.
What I Can't Put Down preceded When I've Been Drinkin on September 22, 2014.
Pardi grew up in Dixon but ignited his career at Butte Junior College in Chico where he started Northern Comfort and moved to Nashville on February 23, 2008, with his dog, PA system and $7,000 savings.
He used a credit card to pay for lifeguard training to earn money until he landed a publishing deal 18 months later.
Two early collaborations Write You a Song and Fighting The Fool landed him his contract.
Further info - http://www.jonpardi.com/welcome.html
WHISKEY MYERS MOONSHINERS
 |
Texas band Whiskey Myers sings of being raised on a prison farm in their video for Ballad Of A Southern Man in Behind Bars.
They reveal family moonshining led to a childhood Behind Bars with Bibles as their metaphoric pillows.
They hail from Palestine in Texas - not the Gaza Strip - and have performed Willie Nelson July 4 picnics.
Ballad of A Southern Man is on their second album Firewater.
The band previously appeared ion Nu Country with its video for Anna Marie - a flagon-toting damsel disarms her captors with a smile and a pistol after being hijacked.
Band guitarists and singers Cody Cannon and Cody Tait began writing music together in Elkhart and added rhythm guitarist John Jeffers under the name Lucky Southern .
The trio moved to Tyler where drummer Jeff Hogg - slaving away painting railroad cars - saw them play an acoustic set that cried out for someone to sit in on percussion.
Cannon enlisted cousin Gary Brown - a real-estate appraiser who had never played bass before.
Whiskey Myers roots extend back two previous generations.
Cannon and Jeffers played baseball together in Elkhart .
Cannon says Jeffers grandfather - "one of those wild-ass biker dudes" spent much of his life on the road but left an acoustic guitar at home for 16 year-old Cody to learn on.
Jeffers' father taught John and pal Cody their first guitar chords and they became obsessed with music.
The band released 2008 debut album Road Of Life before second disc Firewater on Wiggy Thump Records in 2011.
Further info - www.whiskeymyers.com
WHITEY MORGAN WAITING AROUND TO DIE
 |
Michigan singer-songwriter Whitey Morgan debuts on Nu Country with a prophetic song by late Texan Townes Van Zandt who tipped back whiskey and vodka chasers at Paul Madigan's Druids lodge in Brunswick in 1990.
Whitey And The 78s exhume Townes classic Waiting Around To Die, with spade and gun in hand, in his video for the song from his third album Sonic Ranch.
Townes died at 52 on New Year's Day in 1997 - just 54 years after mentor Hank Williams went to God at 29 in 1953 in the back seat of his Cadillac.
But long before Townes decamped he mastered shot glasses and songs at Madigan's in Brunswick on September 22 and 23, 1990.
Whitey Morgan and the Waycross Georgia Farmboys debuted in 2005 with an EP before releasing debut album Honky Tonks and Cheap Motels in 2008.
Whitey, born Eric Allen, changed his band name to Whitey Morgan And The 78s for self-titled 2010 Bloodshot Records second album and Sonic Ranch in May this year.
Other band members are Brett Robinson on pedal steel guitar, guitarist Joey Spina, bassist Alex Lyon and drummer Tony Dicello.
More info - http://whiteymorgan.com/
GRANGER SMITH – BLUE JEANS BURIAL
 |
Texan troubadour Granger Smith reveals he wants to be buried in blue jeans in his video showing his love of fishing. Bury Me In Blue Jeans is on Smith's 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 now lives back in Texas with actress wife Amber whom he met in one of his videos.
She has featured in several of his music videos and they have a daughter, London , born in October 2011, and son, Lincoln Monarch Smith, born January 7, 2014.
Further info - http://www.grangersmith.com/
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 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 a Lady Antebellum DVD.
CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for full details.