DAVE'S DIARY - 28/2/11 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 13 - SERIES 15
TOURISTS HEADLINE NU COUNTRY TV
Georgian
trio Lady Antebellum headlines Nu Country TV this Saturday -March 5 -
at 9. 30
pm - on the eve of its debut Australian tour in April with expat superstar
Keith Urban.
The huge selling stars picked an opportune time to tour - it upstaged
rock and pop artists by winning five Grammys in February.
Shane Nicholson also returns to Nu Country on the eve of his appearance
at the 35th Port Fairy folk festival.
And Melbourne band The Wildes also appear as a prelude to a major role
at Apollo Bay Music Festival.
Hunter Valley singer Melissa Barjic and Queensland duet partner Lindsay
Waddington honour the genre's rich past.
We also feature Mt Waverley documentary maker and singer-songwriter Twyce
Daily in a triple role.
The Welsh born multi-media maestro showcases one of his video clips -
inspired by the late Slim Dusty - and is also featured in interview on
an episode he filmed.
LADY ANTEBELLUM
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It was suffice
to melt down every twitterer, rapper, mobile-phone freak and dance dude
north of the Mason Dixon line and way down south.
Lady Antebellum won five Grammy awards during the prestigious music ceremony
on February 13 in Los Angeles.
Its huge selling second album Need You Now produced all-genre record
and songs of year and best country album and song.
Lady Antebellum also won best country performance by a duo or group for
the same song illustrated by a video on this week's show.
The band hails from the city of Augusta, took its name from Pre-Civil
architecture and has re-shaped the music landscape with Need You Now.
Not only did sales dwarf rockers and poppies it stole away the accolades.
Lady Antebellum accepted the Grammies after a medley of classic If
You Don't Know Me by Now - tribute to the late Teddy Pendergrass -
blended with American Honey and Need You Now.
These wins bring its career Grammy total to six after winning last year
for best country performance by a duo or group for I Run to You.
It also surpassed platinum sales in Australia after it's Grammy flood.
The band, formed in 2006, shares its home state with fellow Georgian Grammy
winners Alan Jackson and Zac Brown Band and tours here a month after Jackson
and yet another Grammy winner - Texan Miranda Lambert.
Lady Antebellum also upstaged local touring partner Keith Urban whose
Grammy for best male vocal took his tally to four.
The trio's album topped the Billboard Top 200 all genre on debut and has
sold more than three million units and four million downloads.
Ironically, the title track was written as an after thought.
Charles Kelley was at Big Yellow Dog Music Publishing at the end of a
long session - his wife's birthday.
Bandmates Hillary Scott and Dave Haywood had written an up-tempo song
for their next album.
Kelley eyed the office door but kept fiddling with the acoustic guitar
he was learning to play.
He knew only about six chords but began strumming a simple, moody progression:
an F chord to a C6.
Kelley had a lyrical line that went with it, too: "Picture-perfect
memories, scattered all around the floor."
Haywood picked up on that and Nashville songsmith Josh Kear, who was writing
with the trio that day, altered the chords a bit.
Then the quartet all chimed in with lines about a desperate, early morning
phone call.
Ninety minutes later, they were finished - and gave it little extra thought.
The rest is history for the trio, formed in 2006, and touring here in
April with expat superstar Keith Urban.
It cracked Top 5 in 13 countries and invaded decidedly non-traditional
country music formats including The Sims 3 video game and Brazilian
soap opera Ti Ti Ti.
The smash hit was also a surprise for co-writer Kear.
"I was on vacation, in Vermont," says Kear who won a best country
song Grammy in 2008 for co-writing Carrie Underwood's Before He Cheats.
"I didn't even know Need You Now was in their pile of songs."
Click Here
for a Lady Antebellum review in the Diary on June 21, 2010.
SHANE NICHOLSON - BAD MACHINES
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Queensland
born Shane Nicholson returns to the show with the video for the animated
title track of his fourth solo album Bad Machines.
Nicholson previewed Rattlin Bones - his duet CD with singing spouse
Kasey Chambers - at the 2008 Port Fairy Folk festival.
This time he returns for the 35th festival with his own band to showcase
Bad Machines.
The latter day NSW Central Coast resident also does a gig in the big smoke
at the Moomba festival en route to the Shipwreck Coast.
Nicholson joins fellow Nu Country guests Shane and Damian Howard, and
Justin Townes Earle on the Port Fairy bill that also features Rosie Flores,
Tim O'Brien and Crooked Still.
Nicholson also plays East Brunswick Club and Williamstown Substation on
March 24 and 25 before an east coast tour with singing spouse Kasey Chambers.
Click Here for a Nicholson
interview in the Diary on July 19, 2008.
THE WILDES APOLLO BAY BOUND
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Melbourne
band, The Wildes, return to Nu Country on the eve of its appearance at
the Apollo Bay music festival from April 8-10.
The Wildes join California rockabilly filly Rosie Flores, making her third
Australian tour,
bluegrass veteran Pete Rowan, Shane Howard, Scared Weird Little Guys,
James Blundell, Pete Denahy, Van Walker, Sarah Carroll, Chris Wilson and
many more at the gateway to the Shipwreck Coast festival.
The band reprises the video for the title track of debut CD Ballad
Of A Young Married Man.
We will have the video for new single Nothing in our next series
in June.
Click Here for
The Wildes CD review in the Diary on July 12, 2010.
TWYCE DAILY - MAN OF MANY TALENTS
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Welsh born
singer-songwriter is a man with a CV as broad and deep as a Shipwreck
Coast mariner's tale.
The videographer sailed into South Australia as a teenager before trying
his hand at carpentry and other timber trades before an injury prompted
a career change.
Like Texan outlaw Billy Joe Shaver he found the loss of fingertips was
not a barrier to singing, writing and filming.
Or, even, hitting the outback road as a documentary and filmmaker.
It was there he captured some of the images that adorn his creative video
clips.
This week we feature his video for Gypsy Heart that was inspired
by a docco on the legend Slim Dusty who made a movie in Alice Springs
in the eighties.
That was an era when the Todd River bed was a dry as a Willie Nelson movie
gag.
Twyce is also keen to film peers in local venues for our live segment
in our winter series.
Tune in this week to see how you can score exposure on Nu Country.
We'll have many more details on our web page soon so you too can do it
Twyce Daily.
SILVER WINGS FLY AGAIN
Hunter Valley singer Melissa Bajric and Lindsay Waddington have kept the traditional country flame burning their colourful careers.
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Melissa,
26 and raised in a vineyard village, returns to Nu Country with debutante
Waddington in their revamp of Merle Haggard classic Silver Wings. Waddington produced the song for a new album - the latest in a career that started in 2001 with her Drover Music debut disc Believe In Me. Prolific video clip director Ross Wood filmed it at Camden airport south of Sydney where sheep roamed the plains in days of yore. |
Some was
also filmed at Mascot aerodrome where big silver birds replace the joy
flight siblings.
The light planes in the video are all still operational and a vivid portrayal
of the aircraft that inspired the song by Haggard, 74, who also exhibits
his love of trains.
Melissa shares geographical roots with 2007 Starmaker winner and 2008
best new talent Golden Guitars winner Kristy Lee Akers, now 20.
Both singers earned their stripes in talent quest in towns in the former
coalfields and way beyond.
In 2003, with Bob Easter and Graham Rodger, she released duets album
Drovin' All Over.
All Melissa's albums have been produced by multi award winning music producer
Lindsay Butler.
Further info - www.melissabajric.com
This is the first video for the six-time Queensland country musician of
the year Waddington who established Kross Kut Records on the Gold Coast
in 2003.
Waddington released third album True Blue in 2010 and has produced
40 albums for other artists.
He also used a string section in Silver Wings
Further info - www.lindsaywaddington.com
JACKSON AND LAMBERT PRIZES FOR TOURS
There's great
news for fans of Georgian born superstar Alan Jackson and quadruple CMA
Award winning Texan star Miranda Lambert.
We have the March tourists latest CDS as prizes for viewers who renew
Nu Country TV memberships or become members.
Sony-BMG promotions chief Emma Smith has also given us Miranda's new DVD
- Revolution: Live By Candlelight.
Alan's 34 Number Ones features his biggest hits including his duet
with Zac Brown Band - As She's Walking Away.
The bonus tracks also include his version of the late June Carter Cash-Merle
Kilgore written Johnny Cash hit Ring Of Fire and the rare track
Look At Me.
Emma also donated Miranda's huge selling 4th CD Revolution.
And as a bonus there is Miranda's brand new DVD featuring rare acoustic
performances of six songs White Liar, The House That Built Me, Love
Song, Heart Like Mine, Love Is Looking At You and Rolling Stones country
classic Dead Flowers.
Jackson and Lambert perform their hits at Rod Laver Arena on Friday March
4 before headlining CMC Rocks The Hunter on March 5 and 6.
WIN KEITH URBAN CDS ALSO
Expatriate
Australasian superstar Keith Urban returns for a triumphant tour with
chart-topping mates Lady Antebellum in April.
And Keith's long time record company EMI-Capitol has great news for Nu
Country TV viewers.
Promotions ace Bianca O'Neill has donated autographed copies of his huge
selling ninth album Get Closer to You.
All you have to do to win the Jackson, Lambert and Urban CDS of the Lambert
DVD is become a member of Nu Country TV or renew your membership.
It costs just $20.
Please send a cheque or money order made out to Nu Country Music to us
at P O Box 625 - Northcote - 3070.
We also now have electronic banking for membership payment and renewal.
But email us first at music@nucountry.com.au
as stocks are limited.
Other prizes
on offer include -
Taylor Swift - 2ND CD Fearless.
Tim McGraw Southern Voice Tour CD with 11-bonus video clips.
Dierks Bentley - Feel The Fire.
Felicity - Landing Lights
Slim Dusty Sittin' On 80 Boxed Set
The Very Best Of Slim Dusty
Steve Forde - Guns & Guitars
Catherine Britt - Little Wildflowers.
Mike Brady - Country To Country.
CMAA Winners 2011 and other compilation CDS.