DAVE'S DIARY - 4/1/2011 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 5 - SERIES 15
EXPATS SUMMER OF LOVE RETURN TOURS
Expatriate
Aussie stars Jedd Hughes and O'Shea join Georgian born superstar Alan
Jackson and Texan Miranda Lambert on the climax of their down under debut
tour in March.
They also appear with Lambert on Nu Country TV, hosted by Mid Pacific
Bob Olson, on Elvis's birthday - Saturday January 8 at 9.30 p m on C 31.
Broadway star Laura Bell Bundy and Sara Evans also return with popular
video clips.
And Gippsland singer Darcy Fox debuts with a little help from friends
in a collage of Melbourne icons adorning her summer song.
The show is repeated Monday - 3.30 a.m., Tuesday 4.30 pm, Wednesday -
midnight and is accessed online at the C 31 web page.
BUXTON HUGHES REBORN
 Jedd Hughes & Sarah Buxton |
Quorn
born Jedd Hughes has soared through the songwriting and session stratosphere
since leaving his homeland to nurture his talent in Texas and Tennessee. It's a far cry from that tiny town north of Adelaide and local country HQ Tamworth where he completed his secondary education. Hughes played guitar with other Kentucky Coalminer's Daughter Patty Loveless and wrote and performed with Texan tourists Rodney Crowell, Jack Ingram and Terry McBride. Hughes wrote 80 songs with McBride from April 2002-March 2003 after the Texan discovered him at the South Plains College at Levelland in the Lone Star state panhandle. The young gun also had a rare privilege of writing with Texan troubadour Guy Clark who has also toured here twice. Now Hughes, who also wrote songs for fellow expats Greencards and ABC national radio host Felicity, joins Sarah Buxton in the duo Buxton Hughes. |
Buxton wrote
smash hit Stupid Girl for expat Australasian superstar Keith Urban
and Sweet And Wild for Dierks Bentley who toured here in 2009 as
support for Brooks & Dunn.
Hughes and Buxton have collaborated on more than six score songs to be
culled to a baker's dozen for their debut duo CD.
"We wrote a lot together," Buxton revealed recently.
"About two months before Christmas, 2009, we wrote about 60 songs,
I think. We really hammered down and got into it. I love writing with
him. He's really fun to write with and a great guitar player."
Buxton hails from Lawrence, Kansas, - same town as BR5-49 founder Chuck
Mead, and was once in a Dixie Rock band called Stoik Oak.
Buxton released her Almost My Record EP for Lyric Street in 2007
but parent company Disney closed the label shortly after releasing her
self-titled album in 2010.
She released singles Innocence, That Kind Of Day, Space and Outside
My Window - the latter reached Top 20 aided by video.
Buxton Hughes performed Country Throwdown tour with Ingram, Jamey Johnson,
Eric Church, Montgomery Gentry, Little Big Town, Eli Young, Heidi Newfield,
Ryan Bingham and Lost Trailers.
The duo will perform its new songs on its Australian tour that includes
CMC Rocks The Hunter at Hope Estate at Pokolbin on March 5 and 6.
Hughes revives his video this week for embryonic hit High Lonesome
from his debut U.S. album Transcontinental on major label Mercury.
CLICK HERE for a Jedd
Hughes feature in the Diary on January 20, 2005
O'SHEA - OLD SCHOOL
 |
Fellow
expatriate Australians Mark and Jay O'Shea return with their video
for Old School. The duo performs at CMC Rocks The Hunter as O'Shea after finalist roles on American reality TV show Can Your Duet? They should not be mistaken for Sydney singer Luke O'Shea or Darwin diva Karen O'Shea. Mark, youngest of nine children, hails from flood ravaged rural Dalby in Queensland, and wife Jay is from Adelaide. His debut album landed him two Golden Guitars for Best New Talent and Video. Jay made her TV debut at 12. Shortly after becoming engaged the duo's careers took them to different parts of the world. |
Jay's Aussie
Open Singing Championships $75,000 prize enabled her to move to London
for a publishing deal with Warner Chappell.
She penned a #1 pop song in Europe and toured as a backing vocalist for
Australian rock legends, INXS.
Mark joined a rock band that signed with LA based label, Trauma, (No Doubt,
Bush).
But it wasn't until marrying and moving to Nashville in 2007 they made
music together.
They recorded EP Live At The Blue Bar Version 2.0, and toured with
acts diverse as Phil Vassar, Jimmy Wayne, Sara Evans, Oak Ridge Boys and
Gretchen Wilson.
Jay and Mark write songs individually and as a duo with hit-makers such
as Dave Berg, Tim Nichols, Warren Brothers and Shawn Colvin.
They recently scored cuts by Emma Mae Jacob and Dan Evans.
Further info - http://www.facebook.com/therealoshea
MIRANDA LAMBERT - ONLY PRETTIER
 Miranda Lambert & Blake Shelton |
Miranda
Lambert and Alan Jackson open their Australian tour with Jasmine Rae
at Rod Laver Arena on Friday March 4. They also headline CMC Rocks The Hunter on March 5 and 6. Lambert, 27 and Oklahoma born fiancé Blake Shelton recently won six gongs at the CMA Awards in Nashville. It's not clear if Shelton will guest with Lambert on her Australian tour. But this week Miranda, Kellie Pickler, Hilary Scott of Lady Antebellum and Laura Bell Bundy perform a retro video for recent hit Only Prettier. They made the video at a sock hop in Joelton, Tennessee. Pickler, 23 and engaged to fellow songwriter Kyle Jacobs, recorded the Catherine Britt penned tune Lucky Girl. They live in a $1.4 million Nashville home they share with a marmoset monkey, a Chihuahua named Moo Moo, cat Pickles and the python she adopted last year. |
Huge selling
trio Lady Antebellum won't be bringing pets when they tour here in April
with Keith Urban.
But Jackson gave predicted 2011 tourist Zac Brown a 1966 Cadillac at a
concert in Nashville on December 29.
The Georgian born superstar gave his fellow Georgian the Caddie as a reward
for their duet on their #1 hit As She's Walking Away.
Jackson earlier passed on recording Chicken Fried a few moons ago
and gave Brown his first #1 hit.
Zac says he noticed the Caddie before the gig and thought, "That's
Alan's car. It's gotta be. That's bad-ass. Then Alan said, 'That's your
car.' Man, that's unbelievable - it's unreal."
Zac adds, "I will pay it forward. What an amazing night, amazing
friend, amazing car and if I want to pull a Hank Sr, I now have the ride
to do it in."
Luckily the 58th anniversary of Hank's death at 29 in the back of his
Caddie has passed and Zac hasn't.
CLICK HERE
for a Lambert CD Review in the Diary - January 11, 2010.
CLICK HERE for a Lambert
feature in the Diary on May 5, 2007.
BUNDY BACK IN BLACK
 |
Kentucky-born
Broadway star Laura Bell Bundy scores a double shot on Nu Country this
week.
She returns with her vibrant video for her debut hit Giddy On Up.
She whips up summary justice to a cheater with unisex friends.
Giddy On Up is off her debut album Aching & Shaking.
The Tony nominated actress trod the boards in Broadway shows Legally
Blonde, Hairspray and Wicked.
Bundy, 29, is now producing a country music show for the stage.
She also landed a role in popular TV show How I Met Your Mother.
Fellow star Carrie Underwood guest-starred on the show last year as a
pharmaceutical rep and Kenny Rogers appeared as himself singing an emotional
tribute to a deceased dog.
The singing actress's numerous TV credits include a two-year stint on
Guiding Light.
CLICK HERE
for a Bundy CD review in the Diary on August 16, 2010.
SARA EVANS - A LITTLE BIT STRONGER
 Sara Evans with Senator Fred Thompson |
Boonville
born belle Sara Evans returns to Nu Country with a song she performs in
new Tim McGraw-Gwyneth Paltrow movie Country Strong. The Missouri
minstrel performs the video for A Little Bit Stronger - one of
the writers was Lady Antebellum singer Hilary Scott.
It could be about the stormy life of Evans, now 40 and mother of three,
who boomeranged from a bitter divorce battle with Republican power broker
Craig Schelske whom she wed on September 25, 1993.
Evans, whose 2007 divorce followed her appearance on Dancing With The
Stars, has been happily betrothed to Birmingham sports broadcaster
and former University of Alabama quarterback Jay Barker since 2008.
Evans endorsed former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson - a 6 ft 6 in lawyer
who played D A Arthur Branch in five series of Law & Order and
was romantically linked to the six times wed fellow country star Lorrie
Morgan between divorces - for Republican Party leadership in the 2008
election.
President Barack Obama won that election after guesting on stage with
fellow L.A. college mates in Austin, Texas, with their iconic western
swing band Asleep At The Wheel.
Morgan's sixth husband is NFL Hall of Famer Randy White - a defensive
lineman for the Dallas Cowboys from 1975-88.
But I digress a little.
Multi-platinum seller Sara's 1997 roots country debut disc Three Chords
& The Truth was produced by ex Dwight Yoakam studio and stage
ace Pete Anderson.
"I loved it instantly," Evans said of her new hit - also on
her sixth album Stronger set for release on March 8.
"Everybody's gone through some sort of heartbreak, whether it's losing
someone to death or just breaking up with somebody that you were in love
with. The very first line says, 'Woke up late today, and I still feel
the sting of the pain.' We've all been there, where we wake up and, for
just a second, we forgot. Then, all of a sudden we remember, and it just
comes flooding back. The song talks about getting stronger, and that's
the attitude that you have to have."
Evans released debut novel The Sweet By and By, written with Rachel
Hauck, in January 2010 - a sequel Softly And Tenderly is due this
month.
The book is about Jade Fitzgerald, a young woman who finds redemption
in Christ as she confronts the un-salved wounds of a stormy childhood
with a wild, unpredictable mother, even as she inches closer to her own
wedding. Some characters and parts of the setting are taken from Evans'
experience.
CLICK HERE for an Evans
feature in the Diary on July 18, 2007.
DARCY FOX - ON THE RUN
 |
Sultry seventeen
year-old Soprano Darcy Fox is the latest Gippsland reared singer to expose
her talents on video.
The third generation Moe minstrel follows in the slipstream of female
peers Tracy Lee Killeen, Victoria Baillie and The Bowman sisters from
Jetty Road.
Another Gippsland export - award-winning fiddler Hamish Davidson - also
guests on Fox's video for I'm Here.
Check out the famed Melbourne and suburban landmarks in the collage already
igniting thousands of hits on her MySpace page.
Further info - www.darcyfox.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. CD
Felicity - Landing Lights
Slim Dusty Sittin' On 80 Boxed Set
Twin CD-DVD pack - The Best Of The Country Music Channel 2010.
Steve Forde - Guns & Guitars
Catherine Britt - Little Wildflowers.
Mike Brady - Country To Country.
A variety of compilation CDS.