DAVE'S DIARY - 28/11/2016 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 11 - SERIES 31
AUTUMN TOURISTS DIXIE CHICKS HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV
Texan tourists The Dixie Chicks headline Nu Country TV on the eve of their third Australian tour on Channel 31/Digital 44 on Saturday December 3 at 9.30 p.m.
Singing actors Billy Ray Cyrus and Shelby Lynne also return to the show that is repeated on Monday at 2.30 a.m.
Georgian band Blackberry Smoke appear in Behind Bars in the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Sunshine Coast singer-songwriter Jen Mize debuts with a social comment tune about her Native American ancestors.
Expat South Londoner Mark Lucas appears with his Dead Setters band and Fanny Lumsden returns to her family farm west of Wagga Wagga to extol rural life.
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
DIXIE CHICKS JOY AFTER THE STORM
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The Dixie Chicks exuded joy after a 10 year hiatus when they performed live on the 50th CMA Awards with fellow Texan Beyonce.
They sold out their first Rod Laver Arena concert on April 1 in 15 minutes and return to the tennis court on April 2 after headlining CMC Rocks Queensland at Ipswich in March with Little Big Town, Kip Moore and major international and local artists.
They resurrect their video for There's Your Trouble - released on 1998 album Wide Open Spaces - first of seven huge selling albums that scored them 13 Grammys , six Billboard and many other music awards and honours.
Wide Open Spaces and Fly (1999) preceded five other studio albums, three live discs and diverse DVDS since 1990.
The band began as Bluegrass Express with Laura Lynch upright bass, guitarist Robin Lynn Macy, and Massachusetts born multi-instrumentalist sisters Martie and Emily Erwin in 1989.
They graduated from busking on Dallas street corners to county fairs and festivals with Martie Maguire, nee Erwin, on fiddle, mandolin, and viola and Emily Robison, nee Erwin, on five-stringed banjo and dobro.
Their band name was inspired by the song Dixie Chicken by Lowell George of Little Feat , originally playing bluegrass and country standards.
In 1990 they recorded debut studio disc, Thank Heavens for Dale Evans, celebrating pioneer, multi-talented performer Dale Evans.
They followed in 1992 with second indie album, Little Ol' Cowgirl .
Macy left the band and Lynch became lead singer on third album Shouldn't a Told You That in 1993 and was replaced by Natalie Maines in 1995.
The Dixie Chicks split in 2006 and Emily and Martie formed the Court Yard Hounds and recorded two albums.
CLICK HERE for an Emily Robison interview in the Diary on May 30, 2010.
CLICK HERE for a Dixie Chicks feature in The Diary on September 26, 2003.
CLICK HERE for Anne Sydenham's live review in our Concerts section on October 17, 2006.
BILLY RAY AND SHELBY LYNNE
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Kentucky born singing actor Billy Ray Cyrus and fellow multi-media performer Shelby Lynne visited the Cyrus Tennessee farm for their video for Thin Line - title track of Billy Ray's 14 th album.
Billy Ray, 56 and father of six, and Shelby, 46, soaked up career memories including inspiration by the late Johnny Cash in their path to success.
Shelby played Johnny's mother Carrie in the 2005 movie Walk The Line .
Cyrus, who toured here 25 years ago, also used a 1992 Cash letter of support in his 2013 autobiography Hillbilly Heart.
Billy Ray, grandson of a Kentucky senator, featured his children Miley and Braison, Shooter Jennings and Aerosmith star Joe Perry on Thin Line, released in September.
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His recent acting career included his Burnin Vernon role on CMT-TV show Still The King that begins its second series in 2017. He was the lead in PAX TV Doc before starring with daughter Miley in Disney Channel Hannah Montana , Mulholland Drive and playing Billy Flynn in the Broadway version of Chicago. Shelby is the elder sister of Allison Moorer, 44, who performed live here in 2005 and 2008 as the seventh wife of Steve Earle before they split in 2014. Allison's song A Soft Place to Fall appeared in the Robert Redford The Horse Whisperer movie in 1998. She also appeared in the movie and is now writing and recording with new partner - recent Texas tourist Hayes Carll. |
CLICK HERE for a Cyrus feature in The Diary on June 16, 2009.
CLICK HERE for a Shelby Lynne feature in The Diary on April 28, 2004.
BLACKBERRY SMOKE ENJOY SUNRISE IN TEXAS
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Georgian band Blackberry Smoke issue wry warnings in its video for Sunrise In Texas from big selling sixth album Like An Arrow on 3 Legged Records.
The video opens with shots of desert scenery and wildlife as the female actor encounters rattlesnakes, flying furniture and crockery before the band heads to the beach.
Like an Arrow debuted at No. 1 on Billboard country charts in October.
The Atlanta-based band self-produced the album at The Quarry Recording Studio in Kennesaw, Georgia, with guest Gregg Allman on the final track.
“This album is the self-produced culmination of 15 years of trying to plant our flag in the musical landscape. We couldn't be more proud of it,” said lead vocalist and guitarist Charlie Starr.
The band, discovered by fellow Georgian and two time Australian tourist Zac Brown, also has live concert DVD Leave A Scar - a 22-track recording of an April, 2012 gig at Winston-Salem haunt Ziggy's .
We previously featured their videos for Shaking Hands With The Holy Ghost, One Horse Town and Too High .
The band also milks a liquid marketing arm in its partnership with Ole Smoky Tennessee Moonshine - Tennessee's first legal moonshine.
Further info - http://www.blackberrysmoke.com/
JEN MIZE DEEP WATER PROTEST
Sunshine Coast import Jen Mize debuts with Deepwater - a protest song against the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline.
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Georgia born Jen wrote it in honour of her grandmother Ann Locklear - a member of the Lumbee Tribe - and one of her Native American ancestors. The song deals with themes of heritage, death and re-birth, and the feeling of eternity that hangs around the sacred places of the world. “After seeing what is transpiring in South Dakota with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe fighting against the Dakota Access Pipeline, I have decided to donate all proceeds from the sales of Deepwater to the cause, to help the people of the Standing Rock Sioux keep up the good fight,” Mize revealed. |
Mize hails from a family of Georgia cotton and North Carolina tobacco farmers and Appalachian moonshiners.
She was raised on a ranch on the outskirts of Las Vegas where both parents worked at the Sahara Casino.
“I moved to Australia to find myself - that age-old tale,” revealed Mize who met her Australian husband in 2004 when she was performing on a liner in New Zealand and moved here in 2006.
“And, for the first time, who I am as a person started to dictate who I am as an artist.”
Jen wrote 10 originals for debut album Fear, Pride & a Few Stubborn Angels and recorded Deepwater for second album Warnings And Wisdom , produced by Shane Nicholson.
Mize's colourful journey included singing in casinos and hypnotist's assistant at MGM, New York, Venetian, Luxor, and Mandalay Bay and enrolling in Las Vegas Academy - a performing arts high school.
While there, her choir sang at the White House and she performed as a soloist in a Christmas program for Hillary Clinton.
Later that year, Mize received a scholarship to Boston Conservatory's Musical Theatre.
“I was truly able to see the world. I visited and performed in more than fifty countries on every continent but Antarctica,” Jen revealed.
“I quad biked across ninety-foot sand dunes in Namibia, rode horses in Iceland, held a sloth in the Amazon, and even drove a dog sled team on a glacier in Alaska.”
Further info - http://www.jenmize.com/
FANNY LUMSDEN BACK ON THE FARM
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Fanny Lumsden returned to her ancestral farm west of Wagga-Wagga in southern NSW, for new video Bravest of Hearts from her debut album Small Town Big Shot.
Fanny proved how much she missed the working dogs, livestock and extended family near Tallimba (population 150) in the shadows of Mt Buffalo when she is on the road.
Fanny, now 29, and musician brother Tom head her Thrill Seekers band on their Country Halls tours to promote her album, produced by Matt Fell.
They are also helping to raise funds for community halls, fostering local talent and running workshops.
The album features famed pedal steel guitarist Dan Dugmore, expat Aussie fiddler Luke Moller, backing vocals by brother Tom and their band - Dan Stanley Freeman, Benjamin Corbett, Preston Peachey and Adrian Leighton.
“We completed our third country hall tour in the Riverina last year where we played in the small towns of Tooma, Rand, Jugiong, Weethalle and Grong Grong,” says Fanny who grew up on the family's sheep and cropping farm.
“The idea for country hall tours started three years ago when there were bad floods and many halls were damaged.
“We teamed up with BlazeAid - an organisation that helps rural communities during natural disasters - and did some shows in these towns to raise money to repair the halls.
“Aside from the farm there's a real passion for music in my family and everyone sings or plays a musical instrument, so I was constantly involved in music, whether it was in the lounge room or out camping.”
When Fanny moved to study rural science at the University of New England she got serious about song-writing.
“I think because my degree was science and factual focused it made me more creative in my writing.”
Further info - http://www.fannylumsden.net/
MARK LUCAS WALKING IN HER DREAMS
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Expat South Londoner busker Mark Lucas and his band The Dead Setters perform Walking In Her Dreams from his seventh album Continental Drift .
Mark records for Laughing Outlaw Records - operated by Van Diemen's Land refugee and author Stuart Coupe.
Lucas arrived on the mean streets of Sydney 25 years ago with just a Martin guitar and suitcase of clothes and songs.
He performed with the Parwills and was entertainment booker for Petersham Bowling Club music venue from 2008 where many artists got their break.
It was where he opened for fellow Englishman Albert Lee - guitarist in Emmylou Harris's famed Hot Band - who toured here in the eighties in a duo with Oklahoma born star Vince Gill.
And, of course, the legendary Danny O'Keefe - writer of Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues and many memorable songs covered by artists diverse as Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich, Willie Nelson, Mel Tormé, Dwight Yoakam, Jerry Lee Lewis, Cab Calloway, Leon Russell and Waylon Jennings.
Many of the songs by Lucas, who honed his craft as a teenage busker in London's underground subway after leaving school in 1974, are reality driven social comment tunes.
CLICK HERE for a Lucas interview in The Diary on August 14, 2016.
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support as we celebrate Nu Country TV's 31st series with Australian record companies and artists teaming to ensure our survival.
Warner Brothers promo wizard Tony Midolo has given us Blake Shelton's 12th 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.
Also 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.
CLICK HERE for our Membership Page for full details.