DAVE'S DIARY - 11/1/2016 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 7 - SERIES 29
HANK WILLIAMS JR AND ERIC CHURCH HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV
Legendary hell raiser Hank Williams Jr and nouveau outlaw Eric Church headline Nu Country TV this Saturday January 16 on Channel 31/ Digital 44 at 9.30 pm.
Hank Jr and Church revive a Neil Young classic made famous by the late Waylon Jennings.
Church also debuts the title track of his fifth album on the show repeated Monday 2.30 pm, Wednesday 7.30 am and Thursday 3 am.
Michigan singer-songwriter Whitey Morgan And The 78s also honour Jennings on the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
West Virginia coalminer's song Billy Payne, former member of Waylon's band The Waylors , showcases a song originally a hit for Aaron Tippin.
Texan stone country singer Lee Ann Womack also returns the same week Oberon born Tamworth Star Maker winner Mickey Pye debuts.
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
HANK JR CONDUCTS CHURCH IN A BARN
 |
Hank Williams Jr and Eric Church resurrect a Neil Young epic 1972 Harvest song with a busy barn-burning band as our show entrée.
Are You Ready For The Country is on 66-year-old Hank's 37th studio album It's About Time.
It was a huge hit and title track of a 1976 album by late outlaw king Waylon Jennings
The video, directed by Peter Zavidil, was shot at The City View Apartments in Nashville.
It focused on live performance with the background alternating between the vibe of country and city.
Hank Jr, born in Shreveport , Louisiana , and Eric also performed the single to open the 49 th CMA Country Music Awards on November 4.
"You have no idea how excited I am about this single and my new album," said Hank Jr.
"This is my 37th album and the excitement never goes away. This is definitely my best album to date."
It's About Time was released on Nash Icon Records on January 15, 2016 - sequel to Old School New Rules in 2012 .
“We have made an album that is pure magic,” revealed four times wed Williams whose 53 albums include live discs and compilations.
“The songs - some I wrote and others I got from great songwriters - are typical Hank Jr songs I think will connect with anyone who hears them.”
Hank Jr shares his new label with Reba McEntire, Ronnie Dunn and Martina McBride.
“Country music singers have always been a real close family,” added Hank who appeared in movies diverse as A Time To Sing, Roadie, Country Strong and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada .
“I have done shows with Ronnie Dunn, recorded a hit record with Reba and absolutely love Martina McBride.”
CLICK HERE for a previous Hank CD review in the Diary on February 16, 2010.
ERIC CHURCH - MR MISUNDERSTOOD
 |
Nouveau North Carolina outlaw Eric Church also showcases his evocative video for fifth album title track Mr Misunderstood .
The video features Church, his band and a young teen with braces and glasses who feels like a misfit.
But, as the video progresses, Church and band take the boy under their wings, teach him about cars and guitars and show him he has value.
As the boy goes through aches and pains of growing up, Church sings, “Hey there, weird kid in your high-top shoes/ sitting in the back of the class/ I was just like you / always left out, never fit in / owning that path you're walking in.”
In the song, the star admits, “I understand.”
Toward the end of the video the boy replaces Church as lead singer with a cherubic smile.
Mr Misunderstood was officially unveiled at the CMA Awards in a surprise performance by Church.
Church's fan club, the Church Choir , began receiving a surprise in the mail before the CMAs: a 10-track album of unreleased music, dubbed Mr Misunderstood .
The album kicks off with Mr Misunderstood and ends with Three Year Old, inspired by Church's son Boone.
Church, now 38, had his sixth No. 1 hit with Keith Urban in May 2015 with Raise 'Em Up .
CLICK HERE for a previous Church feature in The Diary on March 1, 2014.
CLICK HERE for our Membership Page to win a previous Church album Chief.
BILLY PAYNE GENUINE LEATHER
 |
West Virginia coalminer's son Billy Payne made his name with the late Waylon Jennings band The Waylors. Billy returns to our outlaw segment in Behind Bars with a marital promise in his video for When I Promised You The World from his fifth album Genuine Leather. Aaron Tippin also had a hit with the song on his 1993 album Call of The Wild. Payne is not to be mistaken with the Little Feat keyboard player and one time producer of chart topping Shipwreck Coast band Goanna. He learned guitar at 12 and released several albums, utilising the production and musical skills of Waylon's band and producers. During 1991 he joined Country Tradition and Bandolero before forming his own band Sidewinder. |
He recorded debut disc No Limit On Love in Nashville in 2000 and second CD Back To The Simple Life in 2005, Country Till I Die and Spirit of An Outlaw .
Payne co-wrote all songs on the latter with producer-manager Jerry Bridges and recorded another project with The Waylors - Carter Robertson, Jeff Hale, Kevin Madill and Reggie Young
Further info - https://www.facebook.com/billypaynecountry
WHITEY MORGAN REVIVES WAYMORE'S BLUES
 |
Michigan singer Whitey Morgan honours Waylon at Sonic Ranch south of El Paso in Tornillo, Texas , with his revamp of Waymore's Blues.
It's on Whitey And the 78's third album Sonic Ranch - named after the recording studio.
The singer-guitarist says a dispute between him and old label, Bloodshot Records, who released Live From Flint had him "tied up in red tape" and delayed release of new material.
Morgan is proud of his traditional-country influences - particularly Waylon.
"I just always dug that sound," says Morgan of twang-heavy country.
"Especially Waylon, for me, it was easy to grab onto those half-time grooves, and the more hard-hitting stuff, because I'd come from playing more rock & roll-type things. Learning that and crafting my version of that seventies sound led me to graduating to Johnny Paycheck's style, and Merle Haggard's. Not style exactly but maybe just their level of musicianship."
Whitey believes there's hope for country music even if he can't stomach modern country radio.
"There's definitely a change that's happening," he says of roots country like fellow traditional performer Sturgill Simpson who tours Australia in March.
“Every once in a while on a pop-country station you'll hear a song that doesn't sound exactly like the 20 before it," says Morgan, bolstered by the increase in artists influenced, like him, by Jennings.
"I'm starting to hear more and more people who have that sound."
Whitey previously appeared with a prophetic song by late Texan Townes Van Zandt who tipped back whiskey and vodka chasers in shot glasses at Paul Madigan's Druids lodge in Brunswick on September 22 and 23, 1990.
He exhumed Townes classic Waiting Around To Die , armed with spade and gun, in that video.
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.
Whitey Morgan and the Waycross Georgia Farmboys released debuted 2005 EP before album Honky Tonks and Cheap Motels in 2008.
Whitey, born Eric Allen in Flint , Michigan , changed name to Whitey Morgan And The 78s for self-titled 2010 Bloodshot Records second album and Sonic Ranch in May, 2015.
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/
LEE ANN WOMACK CHANCES ARE
 |
Texan troubadour Lee Ann Womack reached deep for her video for her video for Chances Are from eighth album The Way I'm Living.
The Grammy nominated song was penned by fellow Texan Hayes Carll, 40, who returns to Australia this year to promote his Joe Henry produced fifth album.
“I wrote Chances Are at the request of a music supervisor that was working on Country Strong and put it out to songwriters in Nashville that he was looking for a song with this title,” Carll says.
“I got a hotel room, stayed up all night, and turned it in before the deadline, but they ended up using a different song called Chances Are so I decided to put it on my own record.”
Lee Ann, 49, played the 2015 Americana Festival with Nu Country guests Sam Outlaw, Whitey Morgan and Melbourne band Raised By Eagles.
The six time CMA winner scored her first CMA award 15 years ago for I Hope You Dance.
That same year George Strait and Alan Jackson's version of Larry Cordle-Larry Shell penned satiric Murder on Music Row , featuring her harmonies, won Song of the Year.
The Way I'm Living , produced by second husband Frank Liddell, is her first album in six years.
“That news hit me pretty hard in the heart,” Lee Ann says about the nomination.
“I am and always will be a country music singer. It's what I do. It's what I love and it's the thing that truly makes me feel alive. Having the CMA recognise that after the year I've had since The Way I'm Living came out really does my heart good.”
Womack, daughter of a small town Texan DJ, won a Grammy with Willie Nelson for their 2002 duet, Mendocino County Line.
In October 2010 during her solo recording hiatus she sang Liars Lie on Tim McGraw-Gwyneth Paltrow Country Strong movie soundtrack.
Lee Ann played a sheriff - Chief Deputy Claire Wades in a small East Texas town in another movie Noble Things .
Womack credits her writers for her success in CMA and Americana awards.
“When you get songwriters like Julie Miller, Hayes Carll, Adam Wright, Mando Saenz and Mindy Smith, Neil Young, Bruce Robeson, Brent Cobb, Brennan Leigh and Kenny Price, who wrote Tomorrow Night in Baltimore for Roger Miller, it's not letting those writers down,” Womack says.
“What they bring inspires me.”
Ironically, Lee Ann competed for the CMA award with fellow Texan Miranda Lambert who shares husband Frank as producer.
It's a far cry from Belmont University in Nashville where she met and wed singer-songwriter Jason Sellers in 1990.
They divorced in 1996 - five years after having a daughter Aubrie Lee.
Womack gave birth to second daughter, Annalise Liddell, in January 1999 after marrying Liddell.
CLICK HERE for a Lee Ann CD review in The Diary on March 28, 2005.
MICKEY PYE STAR MAKER UNLEASHED
 |
Reigning 36th Tamworth Star Maker winner Mickey Pye debuts with When She's Drinking from his debut album Unleashed that he launched at Gympie Muster in August.
It was penned by Joe Collins, Mark Irwin and Ryan Griffin - also writer of Dibs - a hit for US-star Kelsea Ballerini who plays CMC Rocks Queensland in March.
Pye wrote four songs on his album including two with Travis Collins and one with younger sister Clancy - now a physiotherapist in Orange .
The siblings performed in hometown Oberon and Bathurst as teenagers in the Party Pyes and later Stoked - she also wrote Can't Ever Get Enough for his album.
“We've played together our whole lives,” Clancy confessed.
“When we were younger we played at a lot of community gigs - I was about six at the time. My brother was that little bit older, so he's passed a lot of his knowledge on to me.”
Mickey, now 27, still calls Bathurst home.
He started Bathurst Academy of Music to support a long-term career in music.
It is the second time in three years a musician living in Bathurst has taken out the award.
Kaylee Bell won it in 2013.
CLICK HERE for a Mickey Pye CD review in The Diary.
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support as we celebrate the 29th series of Nu Country TV.
Australian record companies and artists joined forces to ensure our survival.
We're pleased to announce 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 - the 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 your membership.
They include singing actors Willie Nelson, Tim McGraw and Toby Keith, Voice judge Blake Shelton, Ashley Monroe, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Gary Allan, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Charley Pride and more.
We also have a Lady Antebellum DVD.