DAVE'S DIARY - 22/2/2016 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 13 - SERIES 29
EXPAT SOUTH AUSTRALIAN BLUEGRASS ACES HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV
Expatriate South Australian bluegrass singer-songwriters Kristy Cox and Travis List headline the Nu Country TV Series #29 finale this Saturday February 27 on Channel 31/ Digital 44 at 9.30 pm.
Fellow Australian roots country artists - Hunter Valley singer Kirsty Lee Akers and Broome export Ruby Boots – join them on the show repeated Monday 2.30 pm, Wednesday 7.30 am and Thursday 3 am.
Texan Kyle Park returns to the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Florida Georgia Line also appears on the eve of its Melbourne debut with Jason Aldean at Margaret Court Arena on Tuesday March 8.
Pittsburgh family band The Stickers debut Behind Bars with Floridian bluegrass family quintet Trinity River Band.
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
KRISTY AND TRAVIS - FROM ONE TREE HILL TO NASHVILLE
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Mt Barker born Kristy Cox and singing spouse Travis List from nearby One Tree Hill in the Adelaide Hills duet on a pure country heartbreaker in their video filmed in a Nashville bar.
The duo drown nocturnal heartache in I've Got One Of Those, Too from Travis's fourth solo album This Corner.
Their song tells of trying to mend a broken heart and taking the leap to fall in love again.
Kristy won the inaugural 2015 bluegrass Golden Guitar for One Heartbreak Away from her album Living For The Moment on North Carolina bluegrass label Pisgah Ridge - at the 43rd Australian Country Music Awards in 2015.
She and Travis met when she was just 11 and call Nashville home when not touring here.
“Travis and I have known each other since I was eleven years old,” revealed Kristy who has since released five solo albums.
“We grew up in the same South Australian country music community. He went to Nashville nine years ago and I moved over a couple of years ago. We were just talking and said we should go back to Adelaide and put on a show in Adelaide - neither of us had played in Adelaide for a while. And that just kind of formed into a whole tour that's pretty exciting. We just kept booking shows and it's been going really well.”
This Corner was released in October and was produced by award winning songwriter Jerry Salley and features Brent Mason on guitar and Kevin Grant on bass.
Highlights include Just The Kind Of Woman - tale of a man losing the love of his life but not able to get her back - and Like a Chicken With His Head Cut Off .
Travis has performed on stage since the age of seven, first touring with the family band and later with his sister for five years.
He performed solo, fronted South Australian bands and graduated from Australian Country Music College in 2003.
Kristy and Travis share South Australian roots with fellow expats Jedd Hughes and Kym Warner of Greencards.
Other home state exports include Kasey and Bill Chambers and Beccy Cole.
“Kym Warner's father Trev was one of the founders of bluegrass in Australia and he still lives in Adelaide,” added Kristy whose albums Breaking New Ground and Miles & Timezones were also produced by Jerry Salley.
“Bluegrass music has a pretty heavy following in Adelaide and lots of pickers. It's great. It's just getting bigger and bigger and bigger every year.”
Salley hired Music City bluegrass session serfs diverse as Bryan Sutton, Randy Kohrs, Andy Leftwich, Alecia Nugent, Cody Colby and Scott Vestal for her albums.
Further info - www.kristycox.com
KIRSTY LEE AKERS BURNS
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Hunter Valley fireball Kirsty Lee Akers returns to our show with her humorous video for I Miss You Most from her fourth album Burn Baby Burn .
Akers, 27, showcases her singing and driving that leads her male suitor to a motel.
The album is her first in four years since Naked that scored three Golden Guitar nominations.
Trey Bruce - son of late famed songwriters Ed and Patsy Bruce who toured here in the seventies after writing Waylon & Willie hit Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys - produced Kristy's album with Glen Hannah.
Glen is also a renowned songwriter, musician, artist, designer and singing spouse of Felicity Urquhart who hosts ABC Saturday Night Country .
Akers wrote with Trey, Salley, Byron Hill, Jeremy Spillman and Pistol Annies singer Angaleena Presley on 11 new songs.
“This album has been a long time in the making for me, I finally feel like all of the pieces of the puzzle have fallen into their right spots and I have the perfect team around me to help bring this album to the world,” confessed Kirsty who lives in Nashville when not touring here.
“I haven't released a new album in four years so I've got plenty to say. I try to be as honest as I can get away with when writing, so lots of these new songs are my stories. My producer Trey Bruce and I have been writing together since 2007. He makes me believe in myself more as an artist. We have eight years of songs we can choose from and I can't wait for them to come to life on this new album.”
She showcased her album at the Family Hotel in Tamworth at a preview concert.
“I had such a great time performing all of new songs! I love Tamworth so I knew that's where I wanted to showcase the album for the first time. I was so happy that people genuinely seemed to love the new tracks, I could have played all night.”
The new single scored wide exposure on CMC, ABC and community radio.
"I was blown away by the support that CMC gave me. I would love to hear feedback from every radio host in this country. We have put so much effort into the new record and I'd love to know people's thoughts. I just can't wait till it's all out there!"
When I Miss You Most is on Maven Records/Sony.
CLICK HERE for a Kirsty feature in our Diary on August 23, 2011.
CLICK HERE for a Hayes Carll-Kirsty Northcote Social Club concert review on August 25, 2012.
RUBY BOOTS COLA & WINE
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Ruby Boots colourful career began when she wrote songs as Bex Chilcott while chipping pearl shells on a trawler near Broome.
Ruby takes us on a trip to Nashville where she played the Americana festival with Melbourne band Raised By Eagles and other Australian artists for her Cola & Wine video from debut solo album Solitude .
"This clip all comes down to local Nashville director Mick Leonardi,” Ruby revealed of a video that showcases her on Lower Broadway and other Music City landmarks.
“When Lee my guitarist and I set out to make a clip for Cola and Wine with Mick whilst we were on tour in America last year, we didn't expect to bond so quickly with him, but he's a total riot and we did and he suggested we try and shoot another clip whilst we were in town in this cool space he had access to. Video has always been the most challenging part of what I do so doing something spare of the moment with a new found element of trust with Mick felt really right.”
They have since made several more videos including Middle Of Nowhere conceived after a slow burning journey to Utah on a writing trip with fellow West Australian born Vicki Thorn of The Waifs.
“I was tired, jetlagged, emotionally drained, and scared out of my wits - the latter mainly because I had no idea what I was walking into,” Ruby recalled.
“I knew Vikki lived on an isolated farm in Utah somewhere, and that we were setting out to write a few songs, and that's where my knowledge ended. I hadn't even bothered to find out an address and was nearly refused entry into the country at customs! After meeting my new, tiny-framed yet big-voiced friend Vikki in Salt Lake City, we drove to the farm - a drive that proved to be highly entertaining. In the final leg I succumbed to my jetlag daze and passed out, later waking up in the total darkness of the driveway on a very isolated property, about a twenty minute drive to the nearest sign of civilization a lonely petrol pump. Welcome to the middle of nowhere" Vikki said.
“ Middle Of Nowhere is a song that encapsulates its surroundings: written on a farm in the remote southern parts of Utah, the song is about bravery, facing fears and the pits and falls we all endure getting there - and of course the reward of coming out the other end!
“We shot it at midnight and worked through to the morning, although it robbed me of the sleep I probably could have done with for our live filmed performance on Nashville's Music City Roots the next day, I wouldn't trade it for a second. I'm so glad that Middle of Nowhere has found a home with this clip and that it's getting the love it deserves.”
Ruby plays the famed 40th Port Fairy folk festival from March 11-14 before heading to Borneo and the U.S.
CLICK HERE for a Ruby CD review in The Diary on April 27, 2015.
KYLE PARK BLUE ROOF SESSIONS
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Texan Kyle Park proved shopping is a health hazard but can have a happy climax in his latest video. What Goes Around, Comes Around is on the Austin singer's fifth album The Blue Roof Sessions . Park previously appeared with videos for Turn That Crown Upside Down, Long Distance Relationship and George Strait tribute Fit For the King. |
While in college in San Marcos Kyle often sang with Strait's Ace In The Hole band.
Kyle 30, was born in Austin and raised in Leander - a small country town north of Austin.
Park started playing guitar at 14, wrote his first song and performed live the next year and debuted on KVET FM Austin at 17.
He self-released first album, Big Time , in 2005 and second album Anywhere in Texas in 2008, third album Make o r Break Me in 2011 and Beggin' for More in 2013.
Further info - www.kylepark.com
FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE SIPPING ON FIRE
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Florida Georgia Line returns with its video for Sipping On Fire from the duo's second album Anything Goes.
The duo debut at Margaret Court Arena on Tuesday March 8 with Georgian Jason Aldean before playing Sydney and CMC Rocks Queensland in Ipswich.
Christians Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley precede all concerts with prayers and are recording a third album to follow Anything Goes .
“We've been writing quite a bit,” Hubbard reveals.
“We've got a ton of songs we can't wait for people to hear. We just got back into the studio with Joey Moi, our producer, and are starting to bring those songs to life. It's a fun process for us.”
Although Hubbard and Kelly are prolific songwriters, they won't insist on writing their entire album.
“We've written most of them but we're never opposed to outside songs,” Hubbard says.
“We're always listening to songs. We always say, ‘better is better.' If a song comes in that we didn't write, but we feel like we would have wrote it, we'll cut it. We've fallen in love and singled songs that we haven't written several times. We try not to put ourselves in any kind of box and say, ‘We have to write the whole album,' but we definitely write the majority of it.”
Further info - http://floridageorgialine.com/
THE STICKERS COUNTRIFIED
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The Stickers - the three Wodarek brother from Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania - debut Behind Bars in their humorous video for Countrified from their second album Country Proud.
The moral of their story - be careful handling pipes, shotguns and feeding out hay with a city girl, especially near an outdoor loo.
Joe, John and Jim Wodarek hail from Western Pennsylvania.
The brothers perform and record as a quintet.
The Stickers self-titled debut CD was recorded at Curb Studios, Nashville, with singles Girl In A Pickup Truck, You Put the Woo In Me, She Don't Like A Thing, Young Wild & Free, One More Shot Of Whiskey and Calling On all Angels.
They have appeared live with Zac Brown, Alan Jackson, Little Big Town , Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton, Trace Adkins, Justin Moore, Phil Vassar, Hank Williams Jr and more.
Further info - http://www.thestickers.com/
TRINITY RIVER BAND HEARTSTRINGS
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Floridian family bluegrass quintet Trinity River Band return with their video for Heartstrings - title track of their fifth album. They previously performed their live video for sixth album title track You Can't Walk All Over Me. Singer Sarah Harris and bassist sister Lisa featured in a turkey hunt in Kentucky on TV show Bloodlines in the Bluegrass Babes episode. The family band hails from Callahan, Florida, and began playing local churches in early 2008 before full-time touring in 2011. |
Members are Mike Harris (Guitar, Lead & Harmony Vocals); Lisa (Bass, Harmony Vocals); Josh (Banjo, Dobro, Harmony Vocals); Brianna (Fiddle, Lead and Harmony Vocals); lead singer-mandolinist, Sarah - a two-time IBMA Momentum Award Nominee in Vocalist of the Year Category.
The band also appeared on Dugger Mountain Show on Heartland TV Network and Daytime nationally syndicated morning show.
The band released ninth studio album - gospel disc Jump Off The Ship in June.
Further info - http://www.trinityriverband.com/
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support as we celebrate the 29th series of Nu Country TV with Australian record companies and artists who teamed to ensure our survival.
Sony has given us the latest CD and DVD by Georgian star Jason Aldean on the eve of his debut Australian tour in March.
We also have Angels And Alcohol - 20th album by fellow Georgian superstar Alan Jackson and Adam Harvey's 12th album Harvey's Bar - The Backyard Sessions .
Also new CDS by major artists you can win by becoming a Nu Country TV member or renewing membership.
They include singing actors Willie Nelson, Tim McGraw and Toby Keith, Ashley Monroe, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Gary Allan, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Charley Pride and more.