DAVE'S DIARY - 4 JUNE 2016 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 2 - SERIES 30
OCTOGENARIANS WILLIE AND LORETTA HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV
Octogenarians Willie Nelson and Kentucky coal-miner's daughter Loretta Lynn headline Nu Country TV this Wednesday June 8 at 9.30 pm on Channel 31/Digital 44.
Willie's fellow Texan Hayes Carll and his son Elijah also join the duo in Behind Bars on the show repeated on Sunday at 4 am.
Hunter Valley singer-songwriter Kirsty Lee Akers, who toured here with Carll in 2012, also returns to the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Twice divorced Oklahoma star Blake Shelton is joined by some feathered friends - not Miranda and Gwen - to promote his 12 th album If I'm Honest .
ABC radio Saturday Night Country host Felicity Urquhart makes her trio's bluegrass debut with Kevin Bennett and Lyn Bowtell.
And Californian Sam Outlaw, who played some of the same Australian venues as Carll on his tour returns with the title track of his debut CD Angeleno .
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/series/487
WILLIE AND LORETTA KEEP PURE COUNTRY FLAME BURNING
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Loretta Lynn, now 84, and her younger duet partner Willie Nelson, 83, prove true talent endures as they perform an intimate duet for Lay Me Down from her 50th album Full Circle.
In the video Loretta and Willie are each shown alone, singing Lay Me Down, in backstage halls and dressing rooms of Nashville Municipal Auditorium.
Lynn is dressed in one of her iconic gowns, and Nelson has his trusty guitar, Trigger.
Eventually, the two meet together onstage to sing in an empty auditorium, ending their performance with a sweet embrace in their reflection on life and musing on mortality.
Lynn and Nelson haven't appeared onstage together since the 1985 Farm Aid benefit concert.
“I am so proud to be able to sing a song with my friend, Willie. I love this song, Lay Me Down , so much,” Lynn revealed.
“It had been 30 years since we'd last seen each other. Willie and I got to meet and talk about old times when we shot the music video in Nashville. Willie is one of those people that, even if you haven't seen them for 30 years, you feel like it was just yesterday. We have a natural respect and love for each other.”
Loretta reached back to her embryonic career for classics for her 14 track disc Full Circle on the Sony Legacy label - her highest chart debut at #19 on the all genre Billboard Top 200 after its release on March 4.
Loretta's twin daughter Patsy Lynn Russell, named after the late Patsy Cline, and John Carter Cash - son of Johnny and June Carter Cash - produced the thematic disc at their Cash Cabin Studio at Nashville suburb Hendersonville.
It traces her life story from her entrée - a remake of Whispering Sea , first song she wrote, with her explanation of its roots.
The album also reaches back to Appalachian music - In the Pines, Blackjack David and I Never Will Marry - that she grew up hearing but never recorded.
CLICK HERE for a Loretta feature in The Diary on April 23.
CLICK HERE for a Willie feature in The Diary on April 23.
CLICK HERE to win a Willie CD on our membership page.
HAYES CARLL AND SON ELIJAH'S MAGIC TRICKS
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Hayes Carll, 40, and his son Elijah, now 12, prove the power of magic on the mean streets of Texas capital Austin in his new video.
Hayes became fascinated by his son's love of entertaining friends, family and strangers with his card tricks in the streets and parks of the country music oasis in the heart of the Lone Star state.
The singer wrote The Magic Kid for his fifth album Lovers And Leavers during a five year hiatus from recording.
Carll recorded the album after his divorce from Elijah's mother Jenna.
Fellow singer-songwriter Joe Henry produced it for Carll's indie label Highway 87 , distributed here by Cooking Vinyl.
Hayes, like Blake Shelton, found solace in the arms of another singer.
He is now dating duet partner Allison Moorer - sixth ex-wife of Steve Earle - who also wrote songs for his new album.
CLICK HERE for a Hayes Carll CD feature in The Diary.
BIRDS FLOCK TO BLAKE SHELTON
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Blake Shelton had good reason for being fascinated by a flock of birds who can dance but not fly.
His Texan singing spouse Miranda Lambert flew the coop last year but Blake boomeranged into the arms of fellow singer Gwen Stefani.
Shelton, who turns 40 on June 18, has a menagerie of feathered fans in his video for the fiddle fuelled Friends that is on the Angry Birds movie soundtrack and his 12th album If I'm Honest that topped Billboard charts on debut with sales of 170,000.
Blake proves in the animated movie that pigs and birds are perfect pals.
The singer plays and voices the character of Earl - one of those “little green piggies” - who is followed by birds in the video and movie that opened here in May.
Shelton filmed his video in a recording studio and is joined in the cast by feathered friends Red, Chuck, Stella, Bomb and the Mighty Eagle.
“I can write things about myself and my life,” Shelton reflects.
“But I don't have a whole lot of experience being shot out of a slingshot at pigs.”
CLICK HERE for Blake Shelton CD feature in the Diary.
CLICK HERE to win his new CD on our membership page.
MORE BEES THAN BIRDS FOR TRIO
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Kevin Bennett, Lynn Bowtell and Felicity Urquhart filmed their new video for I Hear Them All in a rustic setting.
They excel in their treatment of this bluegrass gem penned by Old Crow Medicine Show ace Ketch Secor and more recent tourist David Rawlings
I Hear Them All is a highlight of their new album Bennett, Bowtell and Urquhart produced by Felicity's husband Glenn Hannah.
Although Bennett, Bowtell and Felicity have performed concerts since 2015 as Country Heart And Soul they wrote their seven originals with supreme speed.
“We had exactly two days to write songs for the album and two days to record,” says Toowoomba raised latter day Hunter Valley singer-songwriter Bowtell.
“It was a pretty ridiculous schedule but we were amazed by how smoothly it went.”
The trio performed in May at the Norfolk Island festival and Gympie Muster in August with further dates south of the Murray Dixon line later in the year.
Dates will depend on Tamworth born Felicity's Saturday Night Country commitments on her popular national ABC radio show that airs here on 774-AM after the AFL match of the night.
CLICK HERE for their CD review in The Diary on May 16.
KIRSTY LEE AKERS BURNS
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Hunter Valley raised singer-songwriter Kirsty Lee Akers returns to the show with a live video of her fourth album title track album Burn, Baby Burn.
Burn, Baby Burn - a reality rooted cheating song written with Trey Bruce (son of the late Ed and Patsy Bruce) - is likely to ensure the album surpasses the success of her adventurous roots country third disc Naked .
Akers recreated the heartbreak of a family member burned by an adulterous partner.
“I couldn't help but feel her pain when someone she had loved for 10 years had been unfaithful. I put myself in her shoes and thought about how I would feel if it was me,” Akers says of the scorned woman's grief and anger.
“This song is all about wanting the one who did you wrong to feel the same pain you feel.”
During her five year hiatus between albums she mined family and friends for song inspiration.
Her parents' divorce inspired Take Me Back and husband Jesse Anderson was source of I Will .
“I never wrote a song about him before even though we've been together 11 years,” Akers, now 28, revealed of her tender love ballad.
“I thought it was about time.”
CLICK HERE for a review of the CD in our Diary.
SAM OUTLAW ANGELENO
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Californian Sam Outlaw returns with the video for the title track of his Ry Cooder produced debut CD Angeleno.
Cooder produced and played on Outlaw's album cut in North Hollywood for Six Shooter Records.
Sam Morgan adopted his mum's maiden name Outlaw after moving with his Christian family from Dakota to California at the age of 10.
On Sam's 2015 tour he played Meeniyan Town Hall, Northcote Social Club and Out On The Weekend festival at Williamstown.
Outlaw, now 33, had a successful advertising career until his 30th birthday when he experienced "an existential crisis moment" and realised that only music has ever made him feel anything.
He self-released an EP in 2014 and played Stagecoach Festival in California and Americana Festival in Nashville.
“The music I play, I call 'SoCal country,'” says Outlaw who has toured with Kentucky born singing actor Dwight Yoakam and Texan Clint Black.
“It's country music but with a Southern California spirit to it. What is it about Southern California that gives it that spirit, I don't exactly know. But there's an idea that I like that says - every song, even happy songs, are written from a place of sadness. If there's a special sadness to Southern California it's that there's an abiding shadow of loss of what used to be. But then, like with any place, you have a resilient optimism as well.”
His album's 12 tracks includes Ghost Town , also accompanied by a video, Who Do You Think You Are? I'm Not Jealous, Love Her For A While, Old Fashioned and Jesus Take The Wheel And Drive Me To A Bar.
Further info - http://www.samoutlaw.com
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support as we celebrate Nu Country TV's 30 th series with Australian record companies and artists teaming to ensure our survival.
Warner Brothers promo wizard Tony Midolo has given us Blake Shelton's CD If I'm Honest and Sony has donated the latest CD and DVD by Georgian star Jason Aldean.
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.