DAVE'S DIARY - 27 MAY 2016 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 1 - SERIES 30
GRAMMY WINNERS HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV SERIES #30 PREMIERE
Prolific Grammy winners and chart-toppers Chris Stapleton and Blake Shelton headline the Nu Country TV Series #30 premiere finale this Wednesday June 1 on Channel 31/ Digital 44 at 9.30 pm.
Kentucky coalminer's son Stapleton, 38, performs as a barman in a powerful video of his song Fire Away about dealing with depression.
And twice divorced Oklahoma star Blake Shelton also visits bars and beaches to deal with separation from former Texan singing spouse Miranda Lambert in his video for Came Here To Forget from his 12 th album If I'm Honest.
Lambert's latest flame Alabama born Anderson East also examines divorce - his parents - in his video for Learning from Dave Cobb's acclaimed Southern Family album.
But expat Texan Doug Bruce reverts to humour with little mate Kev Bloody Wilson in his song Tears in Behind Bars in the show repeated on Sunday at 4 am and filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Gippsland dairy farmer's son Michael Waugh revisits his Maffra roots and former Broome pearl boat deckhand Ruby Boots showcases her driving on dry land in her new video clip.
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
CHRIS STAPLETON FIRES AWAY DEPRESSION
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Chris Stapleton and singing spouse Morgane have combined with acclaimed producer Dave Cobb to blaze a new trail in hard core country.
Chris wrote a swag of hits for peers while playing guitar and singing with fellow Grammy winning bluegrass band The Steel Drivers.
But it wasn't until he and Justin Timberlake performed Linda Hargrove-Dean Dillon classic Tennessee Whiskey on the 2015 CMA Awards that he topped the all genre Billboard Top 200 charts with his debut solo album Traveller .
Their dynamic delivery of the song, previously a hit for former convict David Allan Coe and the late George Jones, kick-started album sales of more than 1.3 million.
Stapleton's three CMA Awards and two Grammys enabled the album to enjoy a marathon reign on the all genre and country charts.
Traveller also included Fire Away - his powerful comment on the scourge of suicide, depression and mental illness - is accompanied by the video in which Stapleton plays the barman.
Singing actor Tim McGraw also played a bartender in the video for Loving Lately - a song he wrote with Big & Rich for their firth album Gravity .
Tim bar tending role was in Dickson - one time home of Coe.
Novocastrian Catherine Britt and Stapleton co-wrote Lonely - a highlight of her 2010 self-titled album that featured three collaborations with Tennessean Ashley Monroe.
Stapleton's five No. 1 hits as a songwriter include Never Wanted Nothing More by Kenny Chesney, George Strait's Love's Gonna Make it Alright and Luke Bryan's Drink A Beer.
He has penned over 170 songs recorded by Adele, Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley and Dierks Bentley notable co-writers Vince Gill, Peter Frampton and Sheryl Crow.
As lead vocalist for the Steel Drivers , Stapleton earned three Grammy nominations for Best Bluegrass Album and International Bluegrass Music Association Emerging Artist.
CLICK HERE for a Chris Stapleton feature in The Diary on December 21.
BLAKE SHELTON FORGETS MIRANDA - FINDS GWEN
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Oklahoma country star Blake Shelton harvested hay from heartbreak after his divorce from Texan singing spouse and Pistol Annies co-founder Miranda Lambert, now 32.
They became engaged in May 2010 and wed on May 14, 2011 at the Don Strange Ranch in Boerne, Texas.
On July 20, 2015, the couple announced that they were divorcing after four years of marriage.
Blake, 40 on June 18, fell into the arms of Gwen Stefani - one of his protégés in his role as judge and mentor on The Voice .
Californian Stefani, 46, and Gavin Rossdale split a month after Shelton divorced Lambert.
Blake and Gwen performed a duet on Go Ahead And Break My Heart on The Voice and again at the Billboard Music Awards on May 22.
That was several months he shot the video for Came Here To Forget on his 12 th album If I'm Honest .
“At the time, when you go through what I went through with my divorce, you never know when it's the right time to step out and say I've started seeing someone,” Shelton revealed.
“But what I found out, because it wasn't someone from my hometown, it was Gwen Stefani that I was beginning to have this relationship with. There was no hiding it. If I glance her way, it's the cover of magazines. If I could have kept my personal life private, I would have. Since I can't, I might as well let people in on the truth.”
Shelton also recorded a new song and video titled Friends for the soundtrack of The Angry Birds Movie , released here in May.
Blake also voices the character of Earl, a pig.
CLICK HERE for our feature on Blake's new CD in the Diary.
CLICK HERE for a previous feature on Blake in The Diary on December 15, 2014.
ANDERSON EAST FINDS MIRANDA
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Anderson East is the first artist on Dave Cobb's Low Country Sound label.
Cobb produced East's third album Delilah in July, 2015, at the legendary Fame Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and scored airplay with his single Satisfy Me .
East joined his new belle Miranda Lambert, Chris Stapleton, Shooter Jennings, Brandy Clark, Jason Isbell, Zac Brown, Jamey Johnson, John Paul White, Holly Williams and others on Cobb's compilation Southern Family.
East was born Michael Cameron Anderson, on July 17, 1988, in Athens, Alabama, and taught himself piano and started writing music in high school.
His grandfather was a Baptist preacher, his father sang in the church choir and his mother played piano in church.
East studied music engineering at Middle Tennessee University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and two years later moved to Nashville.
In 2009 he self-released the Closing Credits for a Fire album under the name Mike Anderson.
As Anderson East he released an EP titled Fire Demos and second album, Flowers of the Broken Hearted , in 2012.
It comprised two records - the first was cut in Los Angeles with producer Chris Seefried and session players Charlie Gillingham, Don Heffington and Rob Wasserman.
The second was recorded in Nashville with Tim Brennan and Daniel Scobey.
CLICK HERE for a feature on Southern Family CD in The Diary on May 3.
DOUG BRUCE AND KEV BLOODY WILSON
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Expat Texan Doug Bruce recruited his little mate Kev Bloody Wilson to be his sidekick in his new video for Tears filmed with his band The Tailgaters in the famed Tin Shed at the Toolleen Hotel near Heathcote
Kev plays the lovelorn barfly who soaks up his tears despite the efforts of honky tonk angels to entice him to chance his heart on their charms in the humorous homily Doug's sixth album Unsung - a tribute to Doug's late uncle Buddy.
The clip climax, so to speak, is when a beefy belle carries the almost comatose country comic to her camper van.
Ironically Kev employed another expat American pedal guitarist Lucky Oceans, a Texan resident during his stint with prolific Grammy winning western swing band Asleep At The Wheel , on some of his albums and local tours.
Prolific Texan songwriter Buddy died of brain cancer in his early 60's after having his songs cut by Minnie Pearl, Red Sovine and the Willis Brothers during his stint with Starday Records.
Buddy almost had one of his long lamented compositions Keeping Up With The Jones cut by fellow Texan label mate George Jones but it was one of many that lay dormant in the fading tapings saved by his family.
“George wanted to cut Buddy's song but I think the story was that George wanted writers' royalties for some reason and didn't wanted to really change anything,” Doug revealed.
“Which is kind of par for the course the way it is in Nashville nowadays. But they had an argument and it didn't happen.”
Doug's dad Dale toured here with fellow Texan Red Steagall and the Coleman County Cowboys in the seventies
CLICK HERE for a new Doug Bruce feature in The Diary on April 4, 2016.
MICHAEL WAUGH REVISITS MAFEKING HILL IN MAFFRA
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Gippsland dairy farmer's son Michael Waugh recalls lazy Saturday afternoons as a teenager on the mean streets of Maffra in his video for Mafeking Hill.
The song is on his acclaimed debut solo album What Might Be , produced by Queensland born singer-songwriter Shane Nicholson.
Waugh recalled weekend bike riding as a child after the shops closed - a familiar tale for many country kids.
Luckily, in the current economic climate, Waugh chose teaching ahead of dairying and now lives in Melbourne.
Maybe the exploitation of the sons and daughters of the soil by corporate milk processors will fuel another song for Waugh's next album.
CLICK HERE for a Waugh feature in the Diary on February 1, 2016
RUBY BOOTS WRAPPED IN A FEVER ON HER LOST HIGHWAY
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Former Broome and Exmouth pearl-sheller Ruby Boots traded in her trawler for a car in her new video for Wrap Me In A Fever.
The singer was in the driver's seat when she burned memories of a former lover in the song from her debut solo album Solitude for U.S. label Lost Highway.
She wrote Wrap Me In A Fever closer to home - in a cheap motel room in Sydney inner western suburb Newtown.
"My songs are my vessels that keep me in check,” explained Ruby who was born Bex Chilcott and released two indie EPs before recording her album with Tony Buchen, Bill Chambers, and Anna Laverty.
Ruby is touring overseas this year and cut some previous videos in Nashville.
The west coast raised singer-songwriter vividly remembers her musical baptism.
“Up until I was 21, all my life was fairly tumultuous so I didn't have the opportunity to follow that,” Ruby revealed.
“I was sitting out on a pearl boat with a friend, I was working as a deckhand on a pearl boat at Montebello Island just off the coast of Exmouth, and she got me a couple of chords and the rest is history, really.
“I remember hearing The Waifs album Sink or Swim on a little island off the coast of Broome, WA where I spent most of my days chipping pearl shells, working as a deckhand in the burning sun.”
So it's fitting that her recent single Middle Of Nowhere was also inspired by a different journey to Waifs singer Vikki Thorn's latter day home in Utah.
The singer toured here with Americana duo Shovels & Ropes in February, 2015, and supported Louisiana swamp rock legend Tony Joe White in April before her national tour in May.
CLICK HERE for a Ruby feature in The Diary on April 27, 2015.
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support as we celebrate the 30th 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.