DAVE'S DIARY - 5/12/2016 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 12 - SERIES 31
TEXANS HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV
Texan troubadour Zane Williams provides satirical career advice when he headlines Nu Country TV on Channel 31/Digital 44 on Saturday December 10 at 9.30 p.m.
Fellow Texan Dixie Chicks also return to show hosted by Mid Pacific Bob Olson and repeated on Monday at 2.30 a.m.
Sydney musician Michael Carpenter and expat Englishman Allan Caswell, celebrating 50 years in Australia, and Ohio singer-songwriter Margo Price enjoy time travel in the program filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Former Victorian farm boy Tobias returns to Point Lonsdale to record his new album and Hunter Valley singer Travis Collins celebrates being a finalist for six Golden Guitars in Tamworth in January.
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
ZANE WILLIAMS SPOOFS OVERNIGHT SUCCESS
 |
Texan Zane Williams exploits self-effacing humour in his video for life in the fast lane when his band joins him in Overnight Success from his fifth album Snapshots.
Abilene born Zane, now 39, recently released his sixth album Bringin' Country Back - a rallying cry for a return to authenticity and substance in mainstream country music.
"I think of country music as poetry for the common man," Williams says.
"The stories that draw you in, the simple truth stated in a way you wish you could've said. There's an honesty to country music that totally grabbed me the first time I heard it."
The son of two Texan college professors moved as a child to Kentucky, West Virginia, and California as his parents pursued their academic careers.
Zane sang harmony in church and composed his own instrumentals on the family piano.
He received a diploma as a mathematics major at Abilene Christian University and moved to Nashville in 1999 to pursue music full time.
Williams also showcased his video for Jayton And Jill on Nu Country and cameo on in Kevin Fowler’s Sellout Song - another Zane original.
Further info - http://zanewilliamsmusic.com/
DIXIE CHICKS BETTER LOVE
 |
The reunited Dixie Chicks explain how to forget previous lovers in I Can Love You Better Than That - originally on their 1997 album Wide Open Spaces.
The Texan trio re-released it for their third tour here that includes Rod Laver Arena on April 1 and 2.
They performed live on the 50th CMA Awards with fellow Texan Beyonce and sold out their first Melbourne concert on April 1 in 15 minutes.
The trio also headlines CMC Rocks Queensland at Ipswich in March with Little Big Town, Kip Moore and major international and local artists.
Wide Open Spaces and Fly (1999) preceded five other studio albums, three live discs and diverse DVDS since 1990.
The band began as quartet 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.
They took their band name from 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.
MARGO PRICE WINDS BACK HANDS OF TIME
 |
Margo Price takes viewers on her long and winding road in her true story on the hurdles she jumped to attain success in her video for Hands Of Time from her album Midwest Farmer’s Daughter. Margo, now 33, played piano, sang in a church choir, studied dance and theatre in tiny Ohio town Aledo before moving to Nashville at 20. She started Buffalo Clover with guitarist husband Jeremy Ivey and released three albums and fronted Margo & The Price-Tags whose members included Sturgill Simpson and Kenny Vaughan. Midwest Farmer's Daughter graphically depicts her 12 years of living hard in Nashville. "I used to write story-songs, about a couple robbing a bank or whatever," says Price whose dad worked as a prison guard after having to sell the family farm when she was two. "But I decided I'm going to go ahead and lay it all out on the line here. And it felt really good, really therapeutic." |
Price, who spent a weekend in gaol on drink driving charges and hocked her car and wedding ring to pay for her Sun sessions, says the late Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings are her biggest heroes.
"A lot of times, people say, 'You're so much like Loretta or Tammy Wynette,'" says Price.
"But I feel kind of like one of the men. I'm like David Allan Coe. I've been to prison, man! I think that's what separated me from the Kacey Musgraves, stuff like that. There's not a lot of glitter or girly bows and stuff."
Price previously appeared on Nu Country with Hurting on the Bottle and a live version of It's ot Drink Driving If You Are Riding a Horse
Price was discovered by Jack White who also produced octogenarian Kentucky Coal-Miner's daughter Loretta Lynn's Grammy winning CD Van Lear Rose.
She cut the album at famed Sun Studios in Memphis where the late Johnny Cash, his Australian touring partner Cowboy Jack Clement, Jerry Lee Lewis and a young Elvis Presley made their recording debut.
Further info - http://margoprice.net/
ALLAN CASWELL AND MICHAEL CARPENTER
 |
Blue Mountains singer Allan Caswell and Sydney protégé Michael Carpenter take a wry look at life after 40 in their time travel.
They wrote Back When I Was Older three months ago as a result of their regular song-writing sessions.
“We came back from lunch after basically talking ourselves out of doing a project together and wrote Back When I was Older almost straight away as a clear duet,” Carpenter revealed.
“At that point it seemed like fate was telling us the time was right".
They started recording their lead vocal parts straight away with multi-instrumentalist Carpenter handling all musical content over the next few hours.
 |
“The song discusses the invigorating and confusing nature of getting a little older". Carpenter says.
“Allan and I both feel like we’re liberated by our experiences as 'men of a certain age'. Everything used to be so serious and had so much 'importance'. Now we both seem to be having a lot more fun with our careers in this crazy music world. It's made us feel young again!”
Carpenter released a guitar pop solo album The Big Radio early this year, followed by alt. country project The Cuban Heels and their new album Ain't Nothing Left To Say.
He's also part of new country combo The April Family who recently recorded their debut album after eleasing two singles.
Caswell, 64, recently released his 19th album - 50 Years In Oz.
The singer, born in Chester, arrived here at 14 and has since written more than 500 songs for a vast cast of peers.
CLICK HERE for a Caswell feature in The Diary on September 19.
TOBIAS JUST A BOY FROM THE BUSH
 |
Sunshine Coast singer Tobias, was known as Toby Johnson, when he was raised on a Victorian farm at New Gisborne near Mt Macedon until his family moved north when he was seven.
His video for new single Just a Boy from second album Alive was filmed at The Barn Hill House in Eerwah Vale in the hinterland.
It includes old footage of Tobias's mother Julie, who died of cancer when he was 14, and father Ken.
Tobias recalled fireside stories from Julie and Ken who is featured with his sons as adults.
The video details childhood, arrival of spring, fishing on the river in the sun with dad, sitting by the fire with his brothers and his mother's smile.
"I am always writing songs and that was just one among them; I almost didn't notice it at first, or thought it was a personal thing that I should keep to myself,” Tobias revealed.
“But then I started playing it at shows and I could see the effect that it had on people. I would play it atopen mic nights and people would always stop and listen. People would come up to me afterwards crying and give me a hug and tell me how it moved them. That's what you are always looking for with your songs, that you make that emotional connection.''
"Losing your mum has such a huge, long-lasting impact on you. Of course it's such an emotional song to sing and the video has been really powerful for the family, for my nieces and nephews to see our mum and to feel the connection there. But it's not just my story, everyone has these memories of their childhood and the song taps into those emotions we all have but maybe never talk about them.''
“Alive sums it up in a word, alive as a songwriter, alive to these experiences, feeling the grief and then finally feeling that things are going to work out. It can take courage to get up there and share so much of yourself in your stories and your songs but it's what I should be doing.'' Tobias returned to Victoria to study history and anthropology at Latrobe University.
He recorded Alive at A Pocket Full of Stones studio in a beachside shack at Point Lonsdale on Port Phillip Bay’s entrance.
Further info - http://tobiasmusic.com.au/
TRAVIS COLLINS NOT JUST ANOTHER OUTLAW
 |
Travis Collins returns with his lament about the lost love that slipped through his hands in Just Another Girl from fifth album Hard Light.
Travis, now 31, grew up south of Sydney at Macquarie Fields and busked on the streets of Campbelltown as a teenager before he won the 2004 Tamworth Starmaker Quest.
This enabled him to write songs in Nashville and tour the U.S. and Europe.
He has lived in Cessnock - hometown of wife Rebecca - for seven years and appeared on Nu Country as a member of Adam Brand’s Outlaws band.
CLICK HERE for a Travis Collins interview in The Diary on June 16, 2008.
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.