DAVE'S DIARY - 11/1/10 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 5 - SERIES 13
BILLY JOE SHAVER HEADLINES NU COUNTRY
Veteran Texan
outlaw Billy Joe Shaver headlines Nu Country TV this Saturday - January
16 - at 9.30 p m on C 31.
Shaver, 70, and fellow Texan Dale Watson perform classic country on the
show repeated Tuesday at 3 p m and also online on the C 31 web page.
Kentucky born singing actor Dwight Yoakam and North Carolina raised Jim
Lauderdale also return with vintage videos from rich catalogues showcased
on their Australian tours.
Newcastle singer Catherine Britt performs in a classic video on the eve
of her return to the Whittlesea Country Music Festival from February 12-14.
Sydney band The Yeehaa Boys, a popular fixture at Tamworth, also strut
their stuff.
DYLAN AND DALE HONOUR BILLY JOE
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Billy
Joe Shaver scored more than court dates when he shot a fellow drinker
outside Papa Joe's a honky tonk at Lorena south of his hometown Waco
in 2007. Dale Watson wrote the song Where Do You Want It - about a comment Shaver allegedly made before shooting Billy Bryant Coker who stirred Shaver's drink with a rusty knife. And the legendary country folk superstar Bob Dylan also name-checked Shaver on his recent album Together Through Life. That was many moons after singing St Kilda cartoonist Fred Negro also honoured Shaver in his song Billy, Willie & Waylon after opening for his heroes at Rod Laver Arena on their 1994 Australian tour. |
Now the Bad
Blake character Jeff Bridges plays in the Oscar nominated movie Crazy
Heart is reportedly a composite of Shaver, his late mentor Waylon
Jennings and Kris Kristofferson.
Also in the movie, that opened last month, is Tender Mercies star
Robert Duvall who cast Billy Joe in 1997 movies The Apostle and
Secondhand Lions in 2003.
Duvall's partner Luciana Pedraza directed Portrait Of Billy Joe
- a 2004 docco about the singer.
It premiered at the same Nashville film festival featuring Nick Brenner
directed ABC-TV docco Nu Country FM.
That also had exit cameos by Shaver and Australian tour partner - singing
Texan crime novelist Kinky Friedman.
Shaver has since appeared as Reverend Shackleton in the Wendell Baker
Story in 2005 and as Buddy in 2008 movie Bait Shop.
He had quadruple heart by-pass surgery after his third Australian tour
- with The Kinkster - in February 2002.
Billy Joe toured on one artery after suffering a heart attack on stage
at Gruene - the oldest dance hall in Texas - on Saturday August 20, 2001.
The singer, now headlining Bottom Dollar gigs when not touring with Willie
Nelson, also recorded a new album featuring his biographical song The
Get Go.
Shaver's band features Jamie Hartford - son of late John Hartford - and
Adam Carter, 15.
Carter is a protégée of Shaver's son Eddy who died of a
heroin overdose on New Year's Eve, 2000.
Shaver performs on Nu Country this week in the video for Live Forever
- a song he performed in the Wendell Baker Story movie.
CLICK HERE for a Shaver
feature from the Diary on April 11, 2007.
DALE WATSON - NO HOLLYWOOD HILLBILLY
Texan singer Dale Watson dabbled in movies and scored a docco Crazy Again about his colourful career that has included five Australian tours.
The thrice-wed
honky tonker, now 47, was cast to appear in Austin Angel with David
Carradine when director Zalman King opted for the docco.
 |
It
was a far cry from his 1993 debut in The Thing Called Love
- the Peter Bogdanovich directed film about the famed Bluebird Café
in Nashville. That was the last movie by the late River Phoenix whose brother Joaquin played Johnny Cash in Walk The Line. Sandra Bullock and Samantha Mathis were female leads in the movie that featured Kevin Welch, Trisha Yearwood, Pam Tillis. K T Oslin, Katy Moffatt, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Webb Wilder, Earl Poole Ball, Jo-El Sonnier and recent Australian tourist Rosie Flores.Texan singer Dale Watson dabbled in movies and scored a docco Crazy Again about his colourful career that has included five Australian tours. |
This week
Watson performs in the video for Hollywood Hillbilly from his 2007
album From The Cradle To The Grave - his 13th release.
Johnny Knoxville, who played Gram Parsons tour manager Phil Kaufman in
cult movie Grand Theft Parsons, directed Hollywood Hillbilly.
Kaufman, tour manager of Emmylou Harris, and Aussie mate Michael Martin
stole Gram's body from Van Nuys airport and burned it in the desert at
Joshua Tree.
Parsons died at 26 from a booze and dope overdose on June 19, 1973.
The creative cut-rate cremation was sequel to a death pact made two months
earlier by Parsons and Kaufman at the funeral of Byrds guitarist Clarence
White, killed by a drunk driver.
Kaufman, author of the book Road Mangler Deluxe, returns here in
March as tour manager for Texan Nanci Griffith.
Ironically, Grand Theft Parsons featured at the Nashville film
festival on the same bill as Nick Brenner's Nu Country FM docco.
Knoxville owns the cabin, retreat for Watson's mentor - the late Johnny
Cash - where Billy Joe Shaver cut his gospel album Everybody's Brother.
The Cash Cabin Studio - on 40 acres of woods near Hendersonville - was
also locale for Carlene Carter's recording demos for 10th album Stronger.
CLICK HERE for a Watson
feature from the Diary on February 21, 2007.
JIM LAUDERDALE & JESUS
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Dual
Grammy Award winning North Carolina born singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale
returns to Nu Country with his video for I Met Jesus In A Bar. The prolific son of a Presbyterian minister wrote it with Leslie Satcher, born in Paris, Texas, after the death of his dad - in 2004. It was from Country Super Hits Vol 1 - one of two albums he released in 2006. Texans George Strait, Lee Ann Womack, Kelly Willis, Dixie Chicks, Jon Randall, Mark Chesnut and Bruce Robison have all cut his songs. So have artists diverse as Kentuckian Patty Loveless, Joy Lynn White, Gary Allan, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Australians Melinda Schneider and Felicity. The singer released 18th album Honey Songs in 2008 and landed two songs, including the title track on Strait's huge selling 38th album Twang. |
He has also
written with such disparate talents as the late Harlan Howard, Robert
Hunter, Frank Dycus and Melba Montgomery.
Jim wrote King of Broken Hearts about the impact of George Jones
and Gram Parsons in 1991.
"King of Broken Hearts just popped up for me," Lauderdale
said.
"I was reading a Gram Parsons biography by Syd Griffin. In the book,
Pamela Des Barres was talking about how Gram had a party and he put on
George Jones for people who hadn't heard of him. When I read it, I got
goose bumps and this melody came. I was living in California and went
out to Cap Rock, where Gram used to hang out and was cremated. And the
song came to me. A lot of times, a melody will come at the spur of the
moment. I'll think of a phrase and the melody will come right then."
Lauderdale performed at the inaugural CMC Rocks The Snowy festival at
Thredbo in 2008.
He made his Australian debut tour in 2002 with Kim Richey, Canadians Fred
Eaglesmith and Jason McCoy and expat Tasmanian Audrey Auld Mezera.
Richey, who toured here last year with Nu Country TV host Felicity, is
back again in March for the 34th Port Fairy Folk Festival.
CLICK HERE for an
interview in the Diary on December 14, 2006, with Lauderdale about how
he wrote I Met Jesus In A Bar.
CLICK HERE for a previous
interview in the Diary on January 19, 2002.
DWIGHT YOAKAM CLOSES UP HONKY TONKS
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Kentucky
born singing actor Dwight Yoakam has also recorded Jim's songs. But this week he performs a video for Red Simpson classic Close Up The Honky Tonks, made famous as the title track of a Flying Burrito Brothers compilation album. Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst directed the video for the song - off his 19th album Dwight Sings Buck - his 2007 tribute disc to the late Buck Owens. The late multi-millionaire businessman-singer bailed out Yoakam when funds dried up during his directorial debut on ill-fated 2000 movie West of Heaven, South Of Hell. |
Owens became
executive producer of the film, now out on DVD, after injecting cash to
ensure its survival.
Dwight, now 53, has been a prolific actor for more than two decades.
He scored roles in Billy Bob Thornton movie Slingblade, Red Rock West,
Panic Room, Hollywood Homicide, Bandidas, Four Christmases, Three Way
Split, The Minus Man, When Trumpets Fade, 2.13 and The Newton Boys.
He had a cameo in The Wedding Crashers, with Owen Wilson and Vince
Vaughan, and appeared opposite Penelope Cruz in Bandidas and Salma
Hayek in Tommy Lee Jones-written/directed The Three Burials of Melquiades
Estrada.
Dwight plays Doc Miles in new movie, Crank: High Voltage and is
also in The Last Rites of Ransom Pride - co-written by Texan outlaw
singer Ray Wylie Hubbard.
Texan Jack Ingram performed in the pilot for the movie.
Yoakam and Kristofferson also appear in southern drama Provinces Of
The Night.
Unlike Billy Bob he is keen to talk about his films while promoting his
music career.
CLICK HERE for a Yoakam
feature from The Diary on July 26, 2005.
YEEHAA BOYS KNOCKING BOOTS
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Sydney
band Yeehaa Boys return to the show with a video clip filmed on Sydney
Harbour. The lads performed Knocking Boots from their debut Blue Pie Records CD. Mick Buckley and refugees from Ted Mulry Gang, The Radiators & Noiseworks are the nucleus of the band. The band is in Tamworth promoting the album, produced by embryonic Keith Urban session supremo. It cut another video for Red Wagon and has since recorded a new album at Studio 310 in Sydney. |
Further info - www.theyeehaaboys.com
CATHERINE BRITT - TOO FAR GONE
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Catherine
Britt reprises the video for the title track of her second album
Too Far Gone this week on Nu Country. Chambers and leading Nashville songwriter Keith Steagall produced Too Far Gone. |
It was released
in Australia after the Nashville label failed to launch it in the U.S.
That was despite her singles The Upside Of Being Down and When
We Say Goodbye (a duet with Elton John, not released in Australia),
reached Top 40.
Swingin Door, a late addition to Too Far Gone, was released
as a single but did not impact in the U.S.
Britt, now 24, returned here to live after third album Little Wildflower
was released in Australia.
The album, produced by Brett Beavers, failed to score a U.S. release but
included Lucky Girl - also recorded by Nashville star Kellie Pickler.
Catherine landed another evocative song Sweet Emmylou on the Joey
& Rory CD The Life Of A Song.
She wrote it with Rory Lee Feek - singing spouse of his recording partner
Joey Martin.
Catherine is one of the headliners at the 2010 Whittlesea festival - sequel
to the event cancelled this year because of the Black Saturday bushfires.
Other major artists include dual ARIA Award winner Troy Cassar-Daley,
Felicity, The McClymonts, The Flood, Jetty Road, The Distance, James Reyne,
Amber Lawrence and Travis Collins.
CLICK HERE for
a Britt feature from the Diary on February 20, 2008.
WIN ROSANNE CASH CD
We also have
Rosanne Cash's acclaimed new EMI CD The List - new versions of
classics from a list given to her by late father Johnny when she was 18
in 1973.
Guests on the Cash collection include Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello,
Jeff Tweedy and Rufus Wainwright.
Cash's second husband John Leventhal produced the CD for Manhattan Records.
It features songs dating back to the Carter Family, the Hanks - Williams,
Snow and Cochran - Harlan Howard, Merle Haggard and Bob Dylan.
We'll reward your new membership or membership renewal with a copy of
the CD - please send us a cheque or money order for $20.
Please email us first at music@nucountry.com.au
as stocks are limited.
WIN
DIERKS BENTLEY CD
EMI Records has provided Nu Country TV with Arizona born Dierks Bentley's
fifth chart topping CD Feel The Fire.
Bentley won an enthusiastic following on his debut Australian tour in
May with superstars Brooks & Dunn.
Dierks, 33, has scored seven #1 hits since leaving Phoenix for Nashville
as a teenager.
The singer has broadened his music by including bluegrass - featuring
the famed McCoury family - on albums dating back to his indie debut
Danglin' Rope.
He has also recorded duets with prolific Grammy winner Alison Krauss and
Texan chanteuse Patty Griffin.
Win Feel The Fire by becoming a member of Nu Country or renewing
membership.
It only costs $20 including postage.
Please email us first at music@nucountry.com.au
We will then send you the CD on receipt of your cheque or money order
made out to Nu Country Music.
WIN SLIM DUSTY CLASSIC BOX SET
We have more
good news for viewers - EMI Records has given us an invaluable collectors'
item - a brace of the 4 Box sets by late Australian country legend Slim
Dusty.
Sittin' On 80 features a lost, classic track discovered by Slim's
widow Joy McKean.
Joy found Give Me Room from a 1997 recording at their home studio Columbia
Lane.
It was written by one of Slim's favourite writers John Dohling - outback
station hand and good mate who passed away in November last year.
Sadly he never heard the final version of Slim's recording of his classic
trucking song.
It has now been released as a single and included on Sittin' On 80.
Slim's legendary Travelling Country Band played on the song that has been
digitally re-mastered by Australia's mastering guru Don Bartley.
All you have to do to win Slim's 4 CD Box set is become a member of Nu
Country TV or renew your membership.
It only costs $20 and includes postage.
Please email us first at music@nucountry.com.au
We will then send you the CD on receipt of your cheque or money order
made out to Nu Country Music.
TAYLOR SWIFT FEARLESS CD OFFER
Universal
Music has donated copies of teen sensation Taylor Swift's huge selling
second album Fearless to Nu Country TV.
Viewers who become members or renew their membership for just $20 can
win the Fearless CD.
Swift, 19, played capacity audiences on her Australian tour in March and
returns here in February.
Please email us at music@nucountry.com.au
with your pledge.
Important note - please email us first.
Don't send membership cheque until you have been confirmed as the winner.
WIN FELICITY CD
Multiple
Golden Guitarist winner Felicity Urquhart returned to Nu Country TV as
hosts during Series #12, beginning in June.
You can win autographed copies of Felicity's sixth album Landing Lights,
available here in shops on Shock.
All you have to do is become a member of Nu Country TV or renew membership.
It only costs $20 including postage.
Please email us first at music@nucountry.com.au
and let us know which CD you would like.
We will then send you the CD on receipt of your cheque or money order
made out to Nu Country Music.
WIN
CATHERINE BRITT CDS
MIKE BRADY TOO
We have Catherine
Britt's third CD Little Wildflower for viewers who wish to become
members or renew membership.
Catherine, Adam Brand and Mike Brady were among artists who donated their
talent to the Whittlesea Bushfire benefit on Saturday April 4.
Brady donated autographed copies of his Country To Country CD to
viewers who become members or current members who renew their membership.
Mike was also a VIP guest host of Nu Country TV during our eighth series.
So for your $20 membership you can win Mike's CD Country To Country
or Catherine Britt's Little Wildflower CD.
WIN JASMINE RAE & STEVE FORDE CDS
We also have
the following CDS for viewers who email our web page and pledge $20 membership
at music@nucountry.com.au
Telstra Road To Tamworth winner Jasmine Rae's debut CD Look It Up.
We also have Steve Forde's fifth album Guns & Guitars.