DAVE'S DIARY - 16 JUNE 2014 - PREVIEW OF EPISODE 3 - SERIES 23
GEORGE JONES BACK IN THE SADDLE ON NU COUNTRY TV
We resurrect Texan legend George Jones to headline Nu Country TV this Thursday June 19 at 10. 30 pm on Channel 31 with help from his not so little mates Jamey Johnson and Georgian band Blackberry Smoke .
The trio sup on Yesterday's Wine in a video clip now available on a new Blackberry Smoke DVD-CD.
Former Mississippi boxing champion and CMC Rocks The Hunter star Paul Thorn and bluegrass queen Rhonda Vincent return to Behind Bars in a show repeated Monday at 5.30 am and 2.30 pm and Thursday at 2.30 am.
The Casey Donahew Band take time out from touring home state Texas to return to a show filmed and edited by Laith Graham.
Expatriate Kiwi chanteuse Kaylee Bell and NSW Central Coast Adam Eckersley Band debut on Nu Country on the eve of their performance at Gympie Muster in August.
Nu Country TV has been added to the C 31 streaming list on Digital 44.
Just follow this link on your computer or mobile phone - http://www.c31.org.au/program/view/program/nu-country-tv
THE POSSUM RESURRECTED IN BLACKBERRY SMOKE
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Texan legend George Jones hooked up with young protégées Blackberry Smoke and Alabama roots country icon Jamey Johnson shortly before he died at 81 on April 26, 2013.
The inter-generational live celebration of Jones hit Yesterday's Wine - a 1971 album title track penned by Shotgun Willie Nelson - is also on the new Blackberry Smoke DVD-CD Leave a Scar, Live In North Carolina .
Jones and young former convict country star Merle Haggard, now 77, also had a #1 hit with Yesterday's Wine in 1982.
Haggard was honoured in the David Cantwell 2013 book The Running Kind.
Fellow Georgian superstar Zac Brown launched Atlanta quintet Blackberry Smoke on his record label Southern Ground .
They reprised Yesterday's Wine on their live concert CD-DVD release on July 8 on new label 3 Legged.
The release includes a previously unrecorded, brand new song Payback's A Bitch plus footage of the band at home and making of Yesterday's Wine.
"We've wanted to make a live album for as long as I can remember," said lead singer Charlie Starr.
"I think we really captured the essence of our show and the accompanying DVD gives fans a little more insight into life behind the scenes."
Drummer Brit Turner added “the audience adds an extra rush of energy at shows that is not present on studio recordings. We are so excited to have captured this especially remarkable show in Carolina.”
The band launched its DVD during CMA Fest week on June 6 at Swingin' Doors Saloon in Nashville.
Blackberry Smoke's Fire in the Hole tour includes festival dates at Bonnaroo, Hangout Festival, Summer Fest and The Peach Festival.
CLICK HERE for a Jamey Johnson feature in the Diary on December 13, 2011.
CLICK HERE for a George Jones feature in the Diary on February 25, 2006.
RHONDA VINCENT BENEATH STILL WATERS
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Multi-award winning Missouri minstrel and bluegrass queen Rhonda Vincent returns to Behind Bars with her live version of the Dallas Frazier classic Beneath Still Waters . At 51 Rhonda is a young veteran with 16 albums - most with her band The Rage - in her catalogue. We featured her younger brother Darrin this month in his Dailey Vincent band. She won Entertainer of The Year at the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America awards on February 2 and was inducted into the prestigious SPBGMA Hall of Greats. It was also a big night for The Rage - they won Instrumental Group of the Year. |
She released her two-disc set Only Me which combines her love of bluegrass and country music and spends much of the year on the road performing those songs.
The singer-songwriter admits that, even after almost 25 years in the music business, she finds her new set of tunes particularly challenging to sing every night.
"All of these songs, I found myself singing in a different way, and probably the songs on this album were more difficult than anything I've ever sang before," she said.
"And as I got on stage and started singing them, there's not just one song - I mean, it's almost exhausting when you start singing these songs with all of the turns and the twists and holding the notes out."
Shotgun Willie Nelson, 80, and Georgian singer Daryle Singletary, 41 and a seven album veteran, also appear on Only Me .
Rhonda enlisted vocal and video support of Dolly Parton in her video for Heartbreaker's Alibi - one of many highlights of her 12th album All American Bluegrass Girl.
CLICK HERE for a Rhonda review in the Diary on September 25, 2006.
PAUL THORN BOXES ON
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Former Mississippi boxing champion Paul Thorn also returns to Behind Bars with What The Hell Is Going On - title track of his 6th album on his Perpetual Obscurity label.
Thorn, 48 and father of two, promoted it on his second tour here in March when he played the seventh CMC Rocks The Hunter festival.
The Pentecostal preacher's son has made a career of rolling with the punches but has a major regret about an historic boxing bout.
He scored his biggest hits when he lasted six rounds with the world middleweight champion boxer Roberto Duran in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in April 1988.
At 24 and ranked 29th the sparring singer had nowhere to hide - the fight was televised throughout America.
Thorn harvested hay from Duran's haymakers - he wrote his 1997 album title track Hammer And Nail about the bout.
But he regretted in our interview he never asked Duran for his autograph.
The singer also earned royalties from country covers by recent Oklahoma superstar tourist Toby Keith, Sawyer Brown Billy Ray Cyrus, Tanya Tucker, Ronnie Milsap, Jerry Jeff Walker, 4 Runner and many more.
His 33 song 2005 CD/DVD So Far, So Good: The Best of the Paul Thorn Band Live is accompanied by documentary Fellow American - a film by John Kane that chronicles Thorn boxing career.
Thorn scored 60 facial stitches in his four year 89 bout career but had his audience in stitches on his return here to promote Pimps & Preachers and What The Hell Is Going On.
CLICK HERE for a Paul Thorn feature in The Diary on June 10, 2013
CLICK HERE for the Thorn Northcote concert review in The Diary on June 23, 2013
CLICK HERE for the Thorn Hallam concert review.
CASEY DONAHEW BAND DOUBLE WIDE DREAM
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Cowtown colt Casey Donahew and his band aimed at a young audience - on and off stage - in their video for Going Nowhere Fast from his fourth album Double Wide Dream . Casey, 37, hails from Burleson - a suburb of Fort Worth - and started playing local bars in 2002 while working as a rodeo rider. His band worked the Texas bar circuit and broke in 2009 when one of their self-released albums hit Billboard's Top 30 chart. |
They made their name at famed Cowtown club Billy Bob's and released the album Lost Days in 2005.
With guitarist Brent Wall, bassist Steve Stone, and drummer Taz, came 2006 album titled The Casey Donahew Band .
In 2008 they followed with live album, Live-Raw-Real in the Ville , and cracked Billboard with fourth album Moving On .
Donahew continues to work Texas bars including Billy Bob's .
Shotgun Willie Nelson, 81, hosts his 41st July 4 picnic near Billy Bob's - the largest cowboy bar in the western world with its own bull riding ring.
Willie has a new martial arts degree and album Band Of Brothers featuring nine originals and two penned by famed Texan honky tonk hero Billy Joe Shaver who now hangs his hat due south in Waco.
Sadly Prime Minister Abbott missed a photo opportunity to join Willie on stage at Radio City Music Hall in New York City last Tuesday to join him, fellow Texan Kacey Musgraves and Alison Krauss in their all-star encore of Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die .
It seems he was dancing in the gym with Hugh Jackman.
Further info - www.caseydonahewband.com
KAYLEE BELL RINGS A SMALL TOWN
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Expatriate Kiwi chanteuse debuts with her video for Little Bit Small Town from her second album Heart First . The 2013 Tamworth Star Maker winner, now 25, was the 34th winner and first expat Kiwi since Keith Urban in 1990. She hails from tiny town Waimate on the South Island and completed a Bachelor in Performing Arts, majoring in musical theatre, in Christchurch in 2011 before decamping to chase her musical dreams here. The latter day Bathurst belle returned to her homeland for festivals this year and struts her stuff at Gympie Muster in August. |
Kaylee and ARIA award winning singer songwriter Mike Carr were among 14 finalists in the 2013 International Song-writing Competition with Little Bit Small Town .
She has performed at major festivals in Australia and was a guest of Aristo Media at the Global Artist Showcase in Nashville during the annual CMA Festival.
Further info - www.kayleebellmusic.com
ADAM ECHOES FROM GRAFTON TO GYMPIE
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Grafton born Adam Eckersley and his quintet also play Gympie Muster and perform their video for Give Her The World - third single on the latter day NSW Central Coast based band's The First Album .
Adam, now 30, is married to Brooke McClymont of The McClymonts and toured the U.S. with them in 2011.
His own band performed here with The Mavericks who also played Gympie last year and return here with Californian surfing cowboy Gary Allan and Blackjack Billy for CMC Rocks North Queensland in Townsville on September 26.
Adam's band is on a national tour with The McClymonts - they return to the Saraton Theatre in Grafton on July 6 before a Victorian sojourn that includes Bendigo, Warragul and Palms At Crown Casino .
He is the former vocalist and lead guitarist of now defunct blues band Bluezone.
Adam released several EPS and solo discs with that band and under his name after graduating from CMAA Australian College Of Country Music in 1998.
Further info - www.adameckersleyband.com
HOW TO KEEP NU COUNTRY ON AIR
We need your support as we celebrate our 23rd series of Nu Country TV .
Australian record companies and artists have joined forces to ensure our survival.
We have new CDS by major artists you can win by becoming a Nu Country TV member or renewing your membership.
They include singing actors Willie Nelson and Tim McGraw, Voice judge Blake Shelton, Ashley Monroe, Brad Paisley, Gary Allan, Toby Keith, Dierks Bentley, Eric Church, Carrie Underwood, Chris Young, Charley Pride, Slim Dusty, Eli Young Band, Rosanne Cash and more.
We also have the latest John Denver all-star tribute album and DVDS by Lady Antebellum.